iRACEHORSE Vol. 1 Issue 5

iRACEHORSE BREEDERS’CUP EDITION Volume 1 Number 5 Volume 1 Number 5

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BREEDERS’CUP EDITION

GREETINGS

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G

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R L POWER

PEDIGREE ANALYSIS by Jessica Tugwell

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WICKED NUMBERS From Wikipedia

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THE LAST BREEDERS’ CUP ON LASIX

by Sean Kerr

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JILL GREENBERG GROOMS HORSES

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on the cover: She Khan out of Brave Betty on her first day of life.

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iRacehorse Dear Friends – We hope you enjoy this bit of Breeder’s Cup trivia, analysis and observations with a dash of art to tie it all together.

You will notice some shameless gushing over such notions as ‘Girl Power’ – and some sobering thoughts on the coming changes to race day policies in future Breeder’s Cup races.

Yours, Angelika Hala Sean Kerr

Angelika and Sean show off their fabulous Tote Bags recycled from racehorse feed bags by Betsy Sews at http://betsysews.weebly.com

www.togatout.co

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G RL POWER

by Angelika Hala

A

merican horseracing reaches its yearly apex on the first Saturday in May when 20 young horses, mostly boys, compete in the Kentucky Derby. This is the time of the year when the sports media pays enough attention to horse racing to devote air time and print space telling the stories behind the equine athletes, their owners, their trainers, their jockeys and so forth, and even the most casual racing fan will be able to recognize the horses on the big day.

By the time the Preakness is run two weeks later, however, only one outcome will keep the journalists’ attention on the sport of kings: The winner of the Kentucky Derby also wins the Preakness. In anticipation of a possible Triple Crown winner horseracing will make it to the front pages, and morning talk shows on television will feature trainers (cowboy hats help), jockeys (crying after winning a race helps), or any other of the four-legged sport star’s connections (usually not a problem to find some story here).

Unfortunately, since Big Brown sizzled out at Belmont Park in 2008, there has not been a Triple Crown candidate, and many of us have already forgotten the names of last May’s Kentucky Derby contenders.

But mention the names Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta and faces will light up – even a year after both were actively racing, and racing fans (and the media) realized that there is horseracing beyond the Triple Crown! The fact that both are by now retired to the breeding shed has not diminished their allure: Their Facebook pages still draw new “likes” and their first babies next spring will have celebrity status before they stand on their wobbly foal legs.

Their devoted fans appear to have enormous hearts with plenty of space to take in an entire new generation of girls: Goldikova and Havre de Grace are the most prominent ladies whose celebrity 4

status equals the one of Uncle Mo and of Ruler On Ice on the upcoming Breeders’ Cup weekend. With luck we will see them run on the “big” BC day, Saturday – and not on Friday before where the girls are allowed to compete against each other – an afterthought to extend the one-day event to two to accommodate races for female horses. These two ladies have shown the rest of the field their lovely butts before and might again kick some dirt in the faces of the boys in highly coveted races.

would need to invent bigger and more desirable races for older horses, which could lead to longer racing careers and better care for thoroughbreds. Girls like to dream…

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!

MEEZNAH

SARAFINA

Goldikova and Havre the Grace are not the only girls to root for on Saturday: The first females competing against male horses are Meeznah in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon Grade II (Race 3). Holiday for Kitten and Rapport in the BC Turf Sprint Grade II (Race 6), Sarafina is joined by Midday in the BC Turf G1 (Race 8), and then at last we can see Goldikova run in the BC Mile trying to make racing history with her fourth consecutive win of that race, and Havre de Grace taking on her male competitors in one of the great classic distance races, the BC Classic Grade 1.

HOLIDAY FOR KITTEN

MIDDAY

These two ladies might again kick some dirt in the boys’ faces

GOLDIKOVA

HAVRE DE GRACE

Maybe one day we will see even the most prolific stallions compete for a date with a great mare charging their owners hundreds of thousands for the honor to breed to her. And because doing it this way round would immediately reduce the number of foals and the racing gods

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PEDIGREE ANALYSIS by Jessica Tugwell When the Breeders' Cup weekend approaches, most of the public's attention is on the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic with its star power of bringing back the current year’s triple crown stars. And even though the 2011 field is wide open, many racing fans look forward to rooting for Uncle Mo. And the exquisite Goldikova will attempt to further cement herself into horse racing history as one of the greatest Breeders’ Cup individual performers by winning a 4th consecutive Breeders' Cup Mile.

With so much star power on Saturday the young athletes of the Juvenile Fillies Turf event are easily overlooked. Inaugurated only in 2008, the G2 event with a $1 million purse for two-year-old fillies over one mile on the turf the race is a fairly young addition to the Breeders' Cup card.

Since two-year-olds are more lightly raced than older horses competing on Breeders' Cup weekend, handicappers have less past racing performance data available to make their betting choices. Examining the pedigrees of these young horses is a helpful handicapping tool to determine how the fillies may handle the day’s race conditions and their competition. In this year's edition of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, 22 fillies have been pre-entered. Only 14 will be able to make the gates on November 4th.

The likely favorite is Elusive Kate, a French shipper who has won the last four of her five lifetime starts, including G1 Total Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp Racecourse in France on October 2nd. Elusive Kate is a daughter of Elusive Quality who has certainly proven himself as an influential sire, fathering the likes of Smarty Jones, Raven's Pass, and Quality Road. Elusive Quality is a useful sire on all racing surfaces, perhaps with a slight slant towards turf. Both of his lifetime stakes wins came on turf, and of the 25

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graded stakes winners he has sired 12 won graded stakes races on turf.

Despite the resume of her prolific sire, Elusive Kate's pedigree may be more impressive on the bottom side - her female family. Her dam, Gout de Terroir by Lemon Drop Kid, is a half-sister to Breeders' Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup winner Pleasantly Perfect.

Their dam, the grand dam of Elusive Kate, was a G1 winner on turf in France.

Considering what Elusive Kate has already accomplished in her short racing career and combining it with the potential of her pedigree as a turf favorite, make the Elusive Quality daughter tough to beat in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Shipping with Elusive Kate from France is the equally well-bred filly Dear Lavinia, a Grand Slam daughter. Dear Lavinia has never finished worse than third in five lifetime starts, all on turf, but she was defeated by Elusive Kate in a stakes race on July 30th this year.

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Dear Lavinia is an exception to Grand Slam’s offspring who tend to be more accomplished on the dirt, but he does claim Grand Adventure, a G2 winner on turf in Canada, amongst his successful foals. It is more important to note that Dear Lavinia traces tail-female, which means mother-to-daughter-to-daughter, etc. - to the great mare Cosmah. Cosmah won a pair of stakes races in her 30-race career but her biggest accomplishments came in the breeding shed. Cosmah was destined to be a great broodmare: She gave birth to 3-time turf champion Tosmah as well as to G1 turf winner (and champion sire) Halo. And Cosmah’s half-sister Natalma was the dam of legendary sire Northern Dancer.

Dear Lavinia's third dam (her great grandmother) Nazoo is a full-sister to the dam of twotime champion turf female Flawlessly. Both dam, Baroness Richter, and grand dam Principium of Dear Lavinia are unraced; the filly is the first foal Baroness Richter.

Another one of the probable favorites in the Juvenile Fillies Turf is Somali Lemonade.

She has won both of her starts, including the G3 Jessamine Stakes, in last-to-first fashion. A daughter of Lemon Drop Kid, she is out of a mare named Chic Corine, by Nureyev. Chic Corine is out of a full sister to champion older female Queena. Once she retired from racing, Queena gave birth to Brahms, by Danzig, who won three stakes races at 1 mile to 1 1/8 miles on the turf, including the Hollywood Derby (G1).

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Queena's full sister, the 2nd dam of Somali Lemonade, was Chic Shirine, who won the Ashland Stakes(G1), and, in addition to Chic Corine, is the dam of Tara Roma, who won the Ladies Handicap(G2) at 1 1/4 miles, and Waldoboro, who won the True North Stakes(G2) at 6 furlongs.

Finally, Questing is a European shipper who has first preference in the Juvenile Fillies but boasts a regal female family. She is a daughter of freshman sire Hard Spun, and while she's only won one of her three races, she was a close 3rd and 2nd in two G3 races. Her dam, Chercheuse, by Seeking the Gold, hails from one of the most important broodmares of modern times, Vagrancy.

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In addition to being a 2-time U.S. champion, Vagrancy was the dam of Natasha, by Nasrullah, who is the dam of Natashka. Natashka is the 4th dam of Questing, and her offspring include Gregorian, a G1 winner in Ireland; Truly Bound, a G2 winner at two and three; Blood Royal, who was undefeated in four starts including two G3 races in Europe; and Ivory Wand, a G3 winner who is also the grand dam of Elusive Quality.

The Juvenile Fillies Turf has a number of talented, well-bred fillies scheduled to compete, and it should prove to be an interesting race to watch.

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WICKED NUMBERS From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The all-time leaders in Breeders' Cup wins are: 





Jockey: Jerry D. Bailey – 15

Trainer: o D. Wayne Lukas - 18 o Claude R. McGaughey III - 9 Leading money winning owner: o Allen E. Paulson - $8,730,000

The following horses have won the same Breeders' Cup race at least twice:      

Classic: Tiznow (2000, 2001) Filly & Mare Turf: Ouija Board (2004, 2006) Ladies' Classic: Bayakoa (1989, 1990) Mile: Miesque (1987, 1988), Lure (1992, 1993), Da Hoss (1996, 1998), Goldikova (2008, 2009, 2010) Sprint: Midnight Lute (2007, 2008) Turf: High Chaparral (2002, 2003), Conduit (2008, 2009)

The only horse to win two different Breeders' Cup races is Zenyatta, winner of the Ladies' Classic in 2008 and Classic in 2009.

The only horse to win three Breeders' Cup races is Goldikova, who won the Breeders' Cup Mile three years in a row (2008, 2009, and 2010).

Churchill Downs has hosted the race card six times, more than any other track. It hosted the card most recently in 2010, and will do so again in 2011.[8]

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The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3 year olds and older run at a distance of 1¼ miles (2012 m) on dirt.

Automatic berths Beginning in 2007, the Breeders' Cup developed "The Breeders' Cup Challenge," a series of races in each division that alloted automatic qualifying bids to winners of defined races. Each of the fourteen divisions has between three and six of these "Win and You're In" qualifiers. In the Breeders' Cup Classic Division there are four automatic berths. In 2009, the Win and You're In races are: the Whitney Handicap, a Grade I race at Saratoga Race Course; the Washington Park Handicap, a Grade III race at Arlington Park; the Pacific Classic Stakes, a Grade I race at Del Mar; and the Goodwood Stakes, a Grade I race at Santa Anita Park.

Records Stakes record: 

1:59.02 - Ghostzapper (2004)

Most wins: 

2 - Tiznow (2000, 2001)

Most wins by a jockey:  

5 - Chris McCarron (1988, 1989, 1996, 2000, 2001) 5 - Jerry Bailey (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2005)

Most wins by a trainer:  

2 - Charlie Whittingham (1987, 1989) 2 - Jay M. Robbins (2000, 2001)

Most wins by an owner: 

2 - Stronach Stables (1998, 2004)

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Winners of the Breeders' Cup Classic 2010 Blame

1996 Alphabet Soup

2009 Zenyatta†

1995 Cigar

2008 Raven's Pass

1994 Concern

2007 Curlin

1993 Arcangues

2006 Invasor

1992 A.P. Indy

2005 Saint Liam

1991 Black Tie Affair

2004 Ghostzapper

1990 Unbridled

2003 Pleasantly Perfect

1989 Sunday Silence

2002 Volponi

1988 Alysheba

2001 Tiznow

1987 Ferdinand

2000 Tiznow

1986 Skywalker

1999 Cat Thief

1985 Proud Truth

1998 Awesome Again

1984 Wild Again

1997 Skip Away

† Indicates filly/mare

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ECO-FRIENDLY RECYCLED FEED BAGS

by Betsy Sews at www.betsysews.weebly.com

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career. Of the American horses that race their entire career using raceday medications – some of those racing on the Breeder’s Cup cards will race once or twice abroad without the benefit of race-day medications.

The Last Breeder’s Cup Juveniles on Lasix

by Sean Kerr This is the last year that the Breeder’s Cup will allow the use of the medication furosemide on juvenile Thoroughbred racehorses on race day. Starting next year, two year olds will no longer be allowed to race after being injected with this socalled ‘permissive medication’. In 2013, no horses of any age will be allowed to race on furosemide in the Breeder’s Cup. The Graded Stakes Committee has followed suit and intends to ban the medication for race-day use in graded stakes races. This could be a major inflection point for American horse racing and it brings the racing industry to closer conformity with the rest of the world’s racing jurisdictions that do not allow the use of race-day medications.

The Breeder’s Cup is a true international event in that a significant number of horses in each race come from abroad. These are horses that race without race-day medications outside of America.

Unfortunately the only time these horses will ever use a race-day medication is the one or two times that they race here during their entire

It is understandable that some offshore trainers coming to America to race will give in to the myth that their horses would be at a disadvantage if they raced here without furosemide or bute, but it is outright bizarre what occurs with the American trainers who send the occasional horse to Dubai or Japan or Europe: there is a 99.9% chance that the American trainer loudly bemoans how cruel and unthinkable it is to withhold Lasix from any horse – except when they are sent offshore to run for a fat purse.

A Graded Stakes ban makes total sense: many American horses fly to Dubai, Japan, Hong Kong and Europe to compete in graded stake races for lucrative purses and they forgo the use of furosemide because it is not legal. They return to these shores and re-commence using a drug that was clearly unnecessary abroad.

The silence is deafening from the Americans trainers temporarily abroad.

Instead of spending time here describing how we got to the current issues with race-day medications, there is an excellent primer available about the controversy over the use of race-day medications written by Bill Heller called “Run, Baby, Run”.

This is an excellent depiction of the 15

history of American horse racing from the late 1960’s up to about 2001. It is an eye-opening read.

The history of furosemide use in American horse racing is a bizarre tangle of contradictions and wives’ tales that created a curious disconnect from reality by almost the entire racing community. And that is no small feat in this age of technology, instant communication and information overload. Further to that the use of furosemide is symbolic of what many are starting to call American thoroughbred stock: the Chemical Horse.

Andrew Beyer who created the ‘Beyer’ number which is specified on the past performances in the Daily Racing Form was witness to an emerging phenomenon in Maryland in the 1970’s: horses were suddenly experiencing dramatic and unusual reverses of form which basically means that horse’s performances were improving beyond what was considered normal. Overnight certain

barns suddenly entered horses improving by as much as 20 lengths.

Rumors emerged about a drug being used by trainers called Lasix. None of this was public information – only the handicappers kept a close eye on which trainers were performing these miracles, and they bet accordingly. It wasn’t until 1990 that the Daily Racing Form began to publish which horses were using race-day furosemide.

Furosemide created for sportsperformance horse use is marketed under the name Salix. For reasons unknown, the Daily Racing Form has and continues to this day to designate a capital letter ‘L’ for ‘Lasix’ beside each horse and its subsequent past performances to indicate that the horse is or was racing on this medication. The word Lasix is a play on “Lasts Six hours” – Lasix was the drug designated for human use. The equine equivalent came later. So ironically the common name Lasix comes from the days when this form of human medication was used to cheat.

At the ‘International Race Day Medication Summit’ last June at Belmont Park racetrack Alex Waldrop, CEO and President of the NTRA made an extraordinary comment in his welcome speech. He stated that the use of Lasix was legalized because it was too hard to police and it was better to simply level the playing field by allowing everyone to use it.

And so everyone did. More often than not, every single horse racing on any given day’s race card in

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America is racing on furosemide.

Occasionally there are only 95% of the horses racing on medicine.

Furosemide is injected subcutaneously into horses and lasts for roughly four hours. Furosemide is a diuretic originally engineered to alleviate high blood-pressure in humans and that is the most common malady for which humans are prescribed.

The alleged original justification for the use of furosemide was visible bleeding out of the nostrils of a horse after a race or after training; eventually tracheobronchoscopy (an endoscopic examination) came into use to search for blood in the interior of the trachea which originated in the lungs. Furosemide was claimed to eliminate this bleeding but there was virtually no field tests of significant size or discipline to support the claim. The only control blind study ever attempted wasn’t done until 2009. So this medication was used for over 30 years before a definitive study on the efficacy of furosemide to alleviate EIPH was done.

The back-stretch understanding of furosemide was that it helped horses lose weight before a race. Jockey’s had been using furosemide to keep their weight down. The great French trainer André Fabre who as of this writing has trained seven winners of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was a former jockey who used Lasix to keep his weight down. In Bill Heller’s book “Run, Baby, Run”, Fabre is quoted as saying that the drug made him urinate for 2 hours but it would

also drain his strength often making him useless as a jockey.

I had a conversation earlier this year with former jockey Andrew Lakeman who was paralyzed by a racing accident several years ago, and he made similar comments Fabre’s. He quit using the drug because it made his joints, especially his hands stiff; he had also been using the drug to keep his weight down.

André Fabre has had horses win races in the Breeder’s Cup series as well as other horses hitting the board in these races. He does not use furosemide on his horses and he did not during his Breeder’s Cup runs.

His says that the reason he doesn’t use it is because his horses don’t bleed. His final comment is an indictment on American horse racing:”If a horse bleeds it is the result of poor training.”

After receiving an injection of fursomide, horses urinate so much that they lose from 20 to over 40 pounds which can average about 4% of body weight just before a race. In the days before every horse entered in a race began to use furosemide, some trainers thought an edge could be gained when a horse carried less weight during a race – especially when using a capable bug rider who also had a weight allowance.

For all the purported benefits that claimers claim justifies repetitive use of furosemide, there are studies that demonstrate that it also leads to the depletion of potassium, electrolytes and other vital minerals.

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The reasons given for using (actually over-using) furosemide are inconsistent at best and dangerous at worse. There are a lot of assumptions being made about the use of furosemide based on nothing more than myth. Here is something to think about going forward: is it possible that the overuse of this drug has actually led to numerous careerending if not catastrophic injuries?

Who knows? There seems to be little interest in investigating this issue.

American horse racing continues to lose fans by the day. It is incredible that given how news becomes global within seconds, that the American racing community cannot see the damage that race-day medications are doing to the sport’s reputation.

Fortunately, after all of the years of controversy a small group of American leaders has finally stood up to this insanity and declared a clear and firm “no more”. This is great for the sport and great for the horses. It will be interesting to see and exciting to contemplate that the Breeder’s Cup may become a truly international sport in step with the spirit and sportsmanship maintained by the global racing community at large. It would be fantastic to see the Breeder’s Cup host a truly representative mix of foreign horses from all over the globe as is seen in Dubai.

We applaud the decision of the Breeder’s Cup executives and look forward to a positive outcome.

www.cherylannquigley.com 18

JILL GREENBERG GROOMS HORSES Monkeys, crying babies, bears, a highly controversial portrait of John McCain for The Atlantic, feminist subjects - for Jill Greenberg, photography and art means conveying her desire for perfection and beauty as much as challenging the viewers of her work.

Foundation Gallery and will move to the O’born Contemporary Gallery in Toronto in April 2012.

Jill Greenberg’s coffee table sized monograph “HORSES” with studio studies of horses and still life images of bits will be released in late 2012

by Rizzoli.

“The Manipulator”, a title she chose, uses her photo camera and studio lights like clay and a palette of paint to transform the subjects before her lens into altered realities of themselves.

Jill Greenberg is foremost an artist and craftsman rather than a portrait photographer, even though many of her art series are presented in a formal photography studio style.

For her recent series of animal portraits Jill Greenberg went back to her childhood when little Jill was enthralled with horses and, fascinated by their beauty and power Jill drew and painted pictures of equines. An exhibit of her mature equine art is presently being shown in Atlanta at the Hagedorn 19

iRacehorse Upcoming issues

www.artsports.com Painting by Debbie Sampson, All Rights Reserved

iRacehorse is published by Angelika Hala and Sean Kerr in cooperation with fellow racing fans and 5R Stable members.

5R: Rescue-Rehabilitate-Race-Retrain-Retire For the Welfare of the Racehorse

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