Safer racetracks - We look at the measures taken by The Fair Grounds and Santa Anita took action to make their main tracks safer
/!["It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…" so wrote Charles Dickens. For horse racing in 2020, it just wasn't where you would expect the best and worst, at least in a modern-day "Tale of Two Racetracks."To wit: Santa Anita began 2020 in the wake of a nightmare: 20 racing fatalities in 2019. The Fair Grounds in New Orleans, on the other hand, was on the cusp of two straight Januarys without a racetrack fatality. If you don't know the rest, you can probably guess what happened, 2020 being 2020: Santa Anita embarked on a record year in 2020 with zero fatalities on the dirt track and one less fatality in turf races than in 2019 [see sidebar]. Meanwhile, at the Fair Grounds—long known as having one of the best surfaces in America—six racetrack fatalities occurred in January, a number more than double the average for this month. Instantly, media attention focused on the Fair Grounds, interest made more acute, perhaps, by the highly publicized spate of fatalities at Santa Anita.Overlooked by a large portion of the media (perhaps conveniently, some would say) is the anomaly that January 2020 represented, not just for the Fair Grounds but also for Thoroughbred racing in America. In terms of catastrophic injury rate, the sport enjoyed the smallest rate of fatalities per 1,000 starts—1.53—in 2019. The Jockey Club created an Equine Injury Database (EID) in 2009, recording statistics and specifically compiling data from 14 leading tracks (including Santa Anita). In that first year, fatalities were 2.0 per 1,000 starts—the highest in the span of the 11-year-old EID. So what happened at the Fair Grounds? Dr. Michael "Mick" Peterson, executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, led a team of track management and, perhaps more critical, trainers with horses at the Fair Grounds to examine and analyze the track surface, particularly maintenance practices. Fatalities are multifactorial, and the intent was to address potential issues with the track surface. According to Peterson, unexpected and unpredicted rainfall during training hours occurred in January. Making matters worse, the rain—while amounting to maybe a half to three-quarters of an inch—fell for 45 minutes to an hour. Harrowed before training, the track surface was "open," as Peterson termed it, enabling water to penetrate the surface rather than run off. The result was a surface possibly over-saturated and potentially ripe for injuries and fatalities during races in the afternoon. Closing the door to this possibility meant closing the track if rain was expected or did fall during training and sealing or "floating it," which produces a flat surface for water to run off into the infield. If that sounds simple, it isn't. There are dozens of trainers with stalls full of horses each needing track time, either for leg-stretching gallops or, more importantly, workouts timed out a certain number of days before an upcoming race. Racehorses are athletes who absolutely have to get out of their stalls, and there are no days off. Weather can’t be a deterrent; they run in the rain, and they train in the rain. Stopping training to float and seal a racetrack—something commonly done between afternoon races—is uncommon during training hours and disruptive to trainers’ schedules. Simply put, trainers lose a hunk of training time if the track superintendent floats the surface during workout hours in the morning. Here is where, according to Peterson, the Fair Grounds achieved real success. A group of trainers met with Fair Grounds track manager Jason Boulet, track superintendent Pedro Zavala, and Peterson and basically said, "We're going to have to do that then," referring to track closure during training for surface sealing.For Peterson, Boulet and especially Zavala, this response from trainers with entries, races slated, and owners to whom they are accountable was as jaw-dropping as Santa Anita's zero dirt-track fatality statistic in 2020."It really was one of those perfect moments in interaction between track management and superintendent and trainers," said Peterson, who added, "It's hard to get up in the morning and not know which horses you can train. I was thoroughly impressed with the willingness of trainers to do that." Their only request was as much of a heads-up as possible to trainers if weather radar indicated rain looked likely. Track closure during training for floating was an option left on the table. It was part of “give and take,” as Peterson termed it, to enable trainers to send out horses needing a workout for an upcoming race ahead of a wet track. "If I'm a trainer, I know that I might lose the second half of training because they're going to shut it down and run the floats. Then I can train whatever horses I know I need to get out there in the first set."This is where the industry needs to go—the communication, being reasonable, recognizing the need for give and take at times."The cooperation of trainers at the Fair Grounds should not have been a surprise, given the history at the track. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 provides an anecdote that is very telling about the input of trainers into track conditions and management at this third oldest American racetrack.Katrina flooded the Fair Grounds and washed away the track surface. What replaced it was not nearly as good as pre-Katrina, according to regular Fair Grounds trainers. A group of them, principal among them Al Stall, provided a simple observation: "It was better with the darker sand," said Stall at the time, referring to reddish sand in the pre-Katrina surface.Peterson remembered Boulet calling him to report that trainers were convinced darker spillway sand from the nearby Mississippi River would bring the track back to what it was. "Jason said, 'I think they're crazy. I don't think the color matters,'" recalled Peterson with a laugh. "I said, ‘Jason what they are actually identifying is the little bit of iron oxide in the sand. It's hydrophilic and not hydrophobic, and you know what? I bet they're exactly right.’"In lay terms, hydrophilic means moisture-absorbing and not moisture-resistant (hydrophobic). Stall not only knew what the post-Katrina surface needed but where to find it. The New Orleans native drove Peterson and Boulet to different sand pits in the area, collecting samples of red sand. Peterson took it from there with something called X-ray diffraction testing to identify which source would be best.Sand, however, is far from the only reason for a Fair Grounds surface that was, arguably, the best and safest in America before last January. It is one part of many measures, initiatives and improvements implemented since the "Al Stall tour." And in what may be a shock to many in the media and public, those same measures are in place at other major U.S. racetracks. All account for the continuing decline in racetrack fatalities as recorded by The Jockey Club.The origin of the efforts was a safety initiative launched by Churchill Downs Incorporated in the wake of the breakdowns of Barbaro (2006) and then Eight Belles (2008) in Triple Crown races, according to Peterson. The initiative led to protocols for testing surface samples. At the Fair Grounds each year, testing takes place six weeks before the racing meet starts on Thanksgiving Day—the traditional opening day. "If the composition isn't right, by then we already have the material on-site to match target standards. Then what happens a few weeks before the race meet is we come in with ground-penetrating radar—the biomechanical surface tester—and go through every piece of equipment and test," said Peterson, who doubles as a professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Kentucky. If the depth, literally and figuratively, of surface preparation and management is a surprise, a bigger one might be that 13 other leading tracks in America—again, including Santa Anita--perform the same testing to certify optimum track-surface composition. Separate from composition testing before a race meet is daily implementation of a Maintenance Quality System (MQS) with a breadth that is mind boggling. The Fair Grounds’ Zavala, as well as superintendents at the 13 other tracks, chart training times of all horses by workout length, make daily surface-depth or "cushion" measurements at as many as 16 different places on the racetrack and take moisture readings at 18 different spots. Data required in the MQS even calls for logging the speed of the tractors pulling harrows over the track and the direction they travel. The latest addition to the MQS arsenal for Peterson and racing is a new type of weather station that debuted at Keeneland during the fall meet and Breeders' Cup. It supplements daily reports summarizing data from the previous 24 hours of weather with improved real-time data. The objective is to counteract the effects of rapidly changing weather conditions like that experienced at the Fair Grounds last January. The benefits go beyond morning training with updates at, "say, the third race of a race day to enable adjustment for the fifth race by surface crews," said Peterson.The coronavirus, Peterson said, was a barrier to the expansion of MQS to new tracks but not expansion within racetracks already on board with the system. The new weather station is but one example. There is also a new integrated track tester that measures everything from all-important moisture content to something called dielectric constant. It provides improved real-time data to track superintendents on conditions at their specific track through a GPS.Can racing, through track surface improvements, continue to reduce catastrophic racetrack injuries beyond the 16% reduction over the last decade? Peterson is hopeful. "The endpoint I see on this is having in place a process for what they call in manufacturing continuous improvement where we don't just quit when we get a little better."The latest recorded racing fatality rate, again, represents the "best of times." With lessons learned at the Fair Grounds, protocols in the MQS and technology improvements in testing, there is potential that the best can become even better.[SIDEBAR"]A December 16, 2020, story in the Los Angeles Times attributed a reduction in the fatality statistics at Santa Anita Park in 2020 to a "combination of enhanced safety protocols and less racing because of shutdowns caused by the coronavirus.” The story added that "nearby fires could be considered factors [and track closures as a result] in cutting the death count by more than half."Here are the facts: 20 racing fatalities occurred at Santa Anita in 2019—13 on the dirt track and seven on the turf tracks--in 6,650 starts. In 2020, which saw 5,050 starters go to the post at Santa Anita, there were no fatalities on the dirt track and six on the turf surfaces. Averaging race fatalities for the number of starts per 1,000 starters, Santa Anita averaged .12 racing fatalities in 2020 and 3.01 in 2019. Averaging removes track closures due to COVID-19 and fires as criteria for the decrease. Also, the "death count" was reduced not by "more than half" but by almost two-thirds in racing fatalities in 2020 as compared to 2019. The numbers are conclusive: Safety protocols—and safety protocols alone—account for the reduction.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1614168160216-ZKX0BETIBU8P7PBBVWUG/Grandstand_morning.jpg)
By Ken Snyder
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…" so wrote Charles Dickens. For horse racing in 2020, it just wasn't where you would expect the best and worst, at least in a modern-day "Tale of Two Racetracks."
To wit: Santa Anita began 2020 in the wake of a nightmare: 20 racing fatalities in 2019. The Fair Grounds in New Orleans, on the other hand, was on the cusp of two straight Januarys without a racetrack fatality. If you don't know the rest, you can probably guess what happened, 2020 being 2020: Santa Anita embarked on a record year in 2020 with zero fatalities on the dirt track and one less fatality in turf races than in 2019 [see sidebar]. Meanwhile, at the Fair Grounds—long known as having one of the best surfaces in America—six racetrack fatalities occurred in January, a number more than double the average for this month.
Instantly, media attention focused on the Fair Grounds, interest made more acute, perhaps, by the highly publicized spate of fatalities at Santa Anita.
Overlooked by a large portion of the media (perhaps conveniently, some would say) is the anomaly that January 2020 represented, not just for the Fair Grounds but also for Thoroughbred racing in America. In terms of catastrophic injury rate, the sport enjoyed the smallest rate of fatalities per 1,000 starts—1.53—in 2019.
Sealing or floating a track produces a flat surface for water to run off.
The Jockey Club created an Equine Injury Database (EID) in 2009, recording statistics and specifically compiling data from 14 leading tracks (including Santa Anita). In that first year, fatalities were 2.0 per 1,000 starts—the highest in the span of the 11-year-old EID.
So what happened at the Fair Grounds?
A harrowed track surface enables water to penetrate the surface rather than run off, causing over-saturation and potentially ripe for injuries and fatalities.
Dr. Michael "Mick" Peterson, executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory, led a team of track management and, perhaps more critical, trainers with horses at the Fair Grounds to examine and analyze the track surface, particularly maintenance practices. Fatalities are multifactorial, and the intent was to address potential issues with the track surface. According to Peterson, unexpected and unpredicted rainfall during training hours occurred in January. Making matters worse, the rain—while amounting to maybe a half to three-quarters of an inch—fell for 45 minutes to an hour.
Harrowed before training, the track surface was "open," as Peterson termed it, enabling water to penetrate the surface rather than run off.
The result was a surface possibly over-saturated and potentially ripe for injuries and fatalities during races in the afternoon. Closing the door to this possibility meant closing the track if rain was expected or did fall during training and sealing or "floating it," which produces a flat surface for water to run off into the infield.
If that sounds simple, it isn't. There are dozens of trainers with stalls full of horses each needing track time, either for leg-stretching gallops or, more importantly, workouts timed out a certain number of days before an upcoming race. Racehorses are athletes who absolutely have to get out of their stalls, and there are no days off. Weather can’t be a deterrent; they run in the rain, and they train in the rain. Stopping training to float and seal a racetrack—something commonly done between afternoon races—is uncommon during training hours and disruptive to trainers’ schedules. Simply put, trainers lose a hunk of training time if the track superintendent floats the surface during workout hours in the morning.
Fair Grounds track superintendent Pedro Zavala uses a soil moisture meter to measure moisture content at different areas of the track surface.
Here is where, according to Peterson, the Fair Grounds achieved real success. A group of trainers met with Fair Grounds track manager Jason Boulet, track superintendent Pedro Zavala, and Peterson and basically said, "We're going to have to do that then," referring to track closure during training for surface sealing.
For Peterson, Boulet and especially Zavala, this response from trainers with entries, races slated, and owners to whom they are accountable was as jaw-dropping as Santa Anita's zero dirt-track fatality statistic in 2020.
"It really was one of those perfect moments in interaction between track management and superintendent and trainers," said Peterson, who added, "It's hard to get up in the morning and not know which horses you can train. I was thoroughly impressed with the willingness of trainers to do that."
Their only request was as much of a heads-up as possible to trainers if weather radar indicated rain looked likely. Track closure during training for floating was an option left on the table. It was part of “give and take,” as Peterson termed it, to enable trainers to send out horses needing a workout for an upcoming race ahead of a wet track.
"If I'm a trainer, I know that I might lose the second half of training because they're going to shut it down and run the floats. Then I can train whatever horses I know I need to get out there in the first set.
"This is where the industry needs to go—the communication, being reasonable, recognizing the need for give and take at times."
The cooperation of trainers at the Fair Grounds should not have been a surprise, given the history at the track. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 provides an anecdote that is very telling about the input of trainers into track conditions and management at this third oldest American racetrack.
Katrina flooded the Fair Grounds and washed away the track surface. What replaced it was not nearly as good as pre-Katrina, according to regular Fair Grounds trainers. A group of them, principal among them Al Stall, provided a simple observation: "It was better with the darker sand," said Stall at the time, referring to reddish sand in the pre-Katrina surface.
Peterson remembered Boulet calling him to report that trainers were convinced darker spillway sand from the nearby Mississippi River would bring the track back to what it was. "Jason said, 'I think they're crazy. I don't think the color matters,'" recalled Peterson with a laugh. "I said, ‘Jason what they are actually identifying is the little bit of iron oxide in the sand. It's hydrophilic and not hydrophobic, and you know what? I bet they're exactly right.’" …
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![Is the Casino Band-Aid Falling Off?By Bill HellerThe danger signs are everywhere.Casinos at racetracks were always seen as a band-aid—a temporary fix to horse racing’s massive problem of not doing enough business to survive, let alone prosper.What happens when the band-aid falls off?In Illinois, where horsemen battled for nearly 10 years to finally get casinos approved at its racetracks, Churchill Downs’ decision not to pursue a casino at Arlington Park has left the future of this international-caliber, iconic Chicago racetrack in dire doubt.In Florida, another Churchill Downs’ racetrack—Calder Raceway—which has operated as Gulfstream Park West on a lease agreement with Gulfstream Park, sought and received legislative approval to keep its casino open with jai alai replacing horse racing. This year’s Gulfstream Park West meeting is its last, with horsemen having to remove their horses by April 15. In the interim, horsemen are hopeful that an appeal and two lawsuits will change that reality.The governor in Pennsylvania in February called for revenue from casinos legislatively targeted to racetracks be used instead to offer free college education. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic made every state in America revenue strapped. Pennsylvania horsemen are hoping they’ll be protected under existing legislation.The sky is falling.“Frankly, not everyone is going to survive,” trainer John Servis, a board member of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, said. “We all knew this was going to come. We need to be able to stand on our own two feet. We have to stop relying on the casinos.”Can they?The plight of Illinois horsemen is downright depressing. “The thing that strikes me is that Illinois never had the band-aid of the racino,” said Dave McCaffrey, a long-time harness racing trainer who was president of the Illinois Harness Horsemen for eight years and is now the executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “At least Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania had this nice run of 10 or 15 or 20 years of dramatically increased purses and increased racing dates because of casino revenue.”A native of Iowa who went to college in Minnesota and fell in love with Quad City Downs—a harness track in Illinois—chronicled the decade-long battle to get slots approved at racetracks. It began while McCaffrey was the head of harness horsemen. It began with a typical, historic cooperation between the state’s Thoroughbred and harness horsemen. “The harness and Thoroughbred horsemen, typically in the country, do not agree on much,” McCaffrey said.McCaffrey and Thoroughbred trainer Mike Campbell, who was president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, had met at the University of Arizona Racing Symposium in 2009. The following year, they decided to work together. “Both breeds were in such dire straits we figured we were stronger together,” McCaffrey said. “What’s good for us is good for you. We hooked up in a great alliance, and in three months we crafted a bill that I think is the best racino deal in the country. It would have produced 15 percent of adjusted gross revenue to purses. In other states, the casino revenue goes from the racetrack to the state to the purses. In Illinois, it would go straight from the track to purses—a huge difference. When other states are strapped, they don’t want to pay that money for purses. In Illinois, they never get their hands on it.”Neither have Illinois horsemen because there are still no racinos at Illinois racetracks a decade later. What went wrong? McCaffrey provided the two-word answer: “Illinois politics.”In various stages, the racino bill was a victim of the city of Chicago wanting its own casino; the governor vetoing the bill; one house passing the bill but the other house declining to do so; a governor who couldn’t get anything through because both houses were of the other party. “They fought like cats and dogs for four years,” McCaffrey said. “The bill didn’t even get to the floor.”Right before the election of a new governor, Jay “J.B.” Pritzker, who supported the gaming bill, in 2018, Churchill Downs, bought a 60 percent interest in the Rivers casino, 13 miles from Arlington. “I remember it being Halloween when that deal was announced,” McCaffrey said. “There was all this optimism that the damn gaming bill might finally be passed in 2019.”Prtizker took office in January 2019. The gaming bill passed both houses and was indeed signed into law on June 27, 2019, authorizing Illinois’ three remaining racetracks: Arlington Park, Fairmount Park and Hawthorne to build racinos. But Churchill Downs didn’t even apply for a racino license. “Churchill Downs decided this gaming bill doesn’t work for them and were not going to apply for the racino license at Arlington despite the fact that they were screaming for the bill to get passed for 10 years,” McCaffrey said.It got worse. The coronavirus pandemic struck this spring, and Arlington’s already reduced meeting of 70 days were slashed to 30 minus Arlington’s signature races including the Arlington Million.On July 31, according to a story in Chicago’s Daily Herald, Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen, on a quarterly earnings call with investors, said, “The long-term solution is not Arlington Park. That land will have a higher and better purpose for something else at some point. But we want to work constructively with all of the constituencies in the market to see if there’s an opportunity to move the license or otherwise change the circumstances so that racing can continue to Illinois. For us, we’ve been patient and thoughtful and constructive with the parties up in that jurisdiction, but long term, that land gets sold.”Mike Campbell is buying none of that. “I’ve repeatedly said I’ve had conversations with several gaming companies to buy Arlington Park—three gaming companies and a very wealthy horse owner all made inquiries to Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs said, `Not interested.’ They’re just not interested. Carstanjen said, `a higher use than a racetrack. Who the hell is he to say it’s suited for a better purpose? There are thousands of jobs involved. I think that what’s going to happen at Arlington is that in the middle of the night they’re going to come in and excavate that track in a manner that it can’t be fixed. Just do it and don’t ask questions.”“It’s exasperating,” Campbell said. “I’ve been president of the horsemen for 10 years. I’m all in for my horsemen. I told my board I’ll do everything I can to step in front of the train to slow it down. But money always wins. I’m the first to recognize it.”Phone calls to Churchill Downs, Inc. requesting a comment were not returned.Campbell, who trains a dozen horses, spent the past year on the road. “We traveled a lot,” he said. “I was in Tampa for seven months, then at Colonial. I plan on going to Keeneland, then back to Florida. I don’t want to do that. We’re being driven from our homes. This is very personal to me. I’ve lived 12 miles north of Arlington Park for 25 years. I raised my family there. My two sons are jockeys. They’re driving us from our own homes. We’re going to move. We’re going to sell our house. There are dozens like me. They’re not taking a gaming license? It’s absurd people are letting them get away with it.”According to McCaffrey, Hawthorne will begin building its racino in September. “It will take 12 to 14 months,” he said.Arlington Park could be shuttered by then.In Florida, Calder Raceway, a.k.a. Gulfstream Park West, will become history. “Our lease was up at the end of the year anyway,” said Billy Badgett, Gulfstream Park’s executive director and former trainer of Filly Champion Go for Wand. “They had everything put in motion to get jai alai approved. I don’t know how it got approved.”He certainly understands Churchill Downs’ motivation: “They can run jai alai at a very minimal cost. They don’t have to have horse racing or dog racing. Eventually, everybody is going to do that or try to do that. This is the edge everyone wants to take.”The impact on South Florida horsemen is real. “We’re going to lose 430 stalls,” Badgett said. “We’re building more barns in Palm Meadows (Gulfstream Park’s training center, 20 miles north) so they’ll have a place to go. They let us extend an agreement to keep the barns open until April 15.”Badgett said Gulfstream Park will also “lose some substantial purse money,” but is working to mitigate that loss. “We’re working on some legislative action, including night racing.”Badgett is convinced that racing must address its own future. “I’m a firm believer that racing should be able to stand on its own two feet,” he said. “If you have to rely on your casinos for purse money, it’s not good.”He is not losing faith in horse racing’s appeal. “We’ve been lucky that people still love horse racing,” he said. “As you can see during the pandemic, the handle numbers have been huge. Even on Travers Day at Saratoga, they were up 38 percent (???) with no people there.”In the meantime, the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (FLHBPA) has two lawsuits pending before an appellate court arguing that Churchill Downs built a jai alai fronton with no connection to its casino as the statute of Florida law stipulates. “Churchill Downs was allowed to tear down the grandstand at Calder and [was] told if they apply for a summer jai alai permit, they would no longer have to put horse racing on to maintain their casino license,” Kevin Scheen, the executive director of the FLHBPA said. “This is how they side-stepped their obligations to the horsemen and the horse industry. Their only consideration is to their shareholders—the bottom line. We’re losing 40 days of racing. We’re hopeful we’ll prevail on the appeal. If we don’t, we’ll be examining our options.”He mentioned Palm Meadows and Ocala as possibilities. “We’re lucky we have a great relationship with Gulfstream Park.”In Pennsylvania, Servis—who did a masterful job with 2004 Kentucky Downs and Preakness Stakes winner Smarty Jones—and Sal DeBunda (president of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2010) continue to battle for horsemen’s future. “We’ve been battling every year,” Servis said. “Every year they want to take money from us. The governor can say take the money for education or highways or senior citizens, for whatever. Does the money ever get there? Politics is politics.”He continued, “There’s a bill where they want to put slot machines in the bars and restaurants. It may not be this year. It may be next year. But it’s coming. If that happens, we’re going to have to fight to get a piece of that. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. We have to be aggressive. We have to take care of ourselves.”DeBunda believes they already have through Article 71, which gives a percentage of slots to the Pennsylvania Horse Development Fund. “They’ve been taking money out of the Fund since year two after slots were passed 11 years ago,” he said. “If they take more than $31 million, they have to return all the money they’ve taken the last 10 years. That was a way to not let them take more. The governor was told this by his staff before his statement about education. If we were going to allow slots in the same facility where we have horse racing, we were going to take a piece. That’s been forgotten. They put in table games and on-line gaming, and we get none of that. When he first got slots, we looked at each other and said this is terrific. We didn’t realize every year we have to educate people. The biggest factor is educating our legislature.”With slots, DeBunda said, average daily purses at Pennsylvania tracks have increased from $130,000 to $250,000. Without them? “I’m an optimist,” Servis said. “I don’t want to paint a negative picture, but we’re battling every single year.”Will New Jersey and Kentucky tracks have to battle, too?In late August, the governor of New Jersey submitted a proposed state budget which did not include the $20 million subsidy that has been split evenly between the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industry.Meanwhile, a court ruling in Kentucky on September 24, has endangered the wildly-popular Historical Horse Racing (HHR) slot-like machine game, a completely different version of the Instant Racing game which literally saved Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, and allowed Kentucky tracks to boost their purses dramatically. On September 24, a Kentucky Supreme Court reversed a 2018 court decision allowing the game at Kentucky tracks. The ruling said that one part of the game using exactas violated the state law on legal parimutuel wagering. That decision could be devastating. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which ended in June, $2.2 billion was wagered on HHR at Kentucky tracks, generating $15.6 million for the Thoroughbred Development Fund, $11.8 million for the Standardbred Development Farm, $650,000 for the Equine Industry Program and $320,000 to Equine Drug Research.Churchill Downs Inc., which saw its share price drop by 9.74 percent on the day of the court ruling, released a statement that Churchill Downs tracks does not use the exacta in any of its HHR facilities.Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said that HHR contributes $21 million to the state budget and that his office is working to find “a path forward.”Sooner than later, many racetracks are going to need a path forward, one dependent on its quality of racing and the marketing of its races rather than slot machines.*************************Oaklawn SidebarBy Bill HellerCenturies after Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” Eric Jackson, the senior vice president at Oaklawn Park in his 40th year at the Cella family’s beautiful track in Hot Springs, Ark., was desperate. “We had been imperiled in the 1990s,” he said. “We had casinos popping up outside us in Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Louisiana. We had lost 50 to 60 percent of our business. We nearly went out of business. We knew we had to have an electronic product.“In Arkansas, we were allowed parimutuel betting. I had an idea to develop a slot-like wagering device based on horse racing. It took a while to germinate—three or four years.”That idea (Instant Racing) not only saved Oaklawn, it ultimately led to the state of Arkansas approving four casinos—one of them at the track the Cella family has owned for 117 years. Oaklawn is predicting purses for its next 57-day meet will top $700,000 daily.With the addition of the casino, Oaklawn Park dropped Instant Racing in November 2018, and it has done nothing to slow Oaklawn’s continuing purse growth, one which will accelerate when Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis abandons greyhound racing by December 31, 2022. That decision has already been made and announced. Southland Casino received 40 percent of targeted casino revenue for purses and Oaklawn 60. “When they close, we’ll get 100 percent,” Jackson said.“We believe we have the best racing gaming model in America, and the model is based on a single concept,” he continued. “And the concept is ‘racing comes first.’ We have been a track for 117 years. The Cella family loves racing.The irony is epic. A slot-like machine based on horse racing allowed Oaklawn Park to prosper, then was abandoned when the track added a full casino. But that wouldn’t have happened had Oaklawn not used Instant Racing to literally continue to operate. “It exceeded our expectations,” Jackson said.His boss, Louis Cella said, “We buck the trend. You don’t see feel-good stories today. I think the answer is we focus on Oaklawn. We don’t have a higher agenda. We believe in it, and we’re going to lead by example. We have an unbelievable relationship with our horsemen and with the state racing commission. It’s the opposite of typical. Other companies focus on the bottom line. We don’t. We don’t have shareholders. A lot of our success is because we don’t have shareholders. We want you to have fun. We couldn’t care less if you make a wager. That’s not our focus. We prefer people come with a family, go in the infield with hot dogs, and enjoy the sport. We’re lucky. We don’t have professional sports in Arkansas. We are in the game to sell the sport. If you can’t, shut the doors.”His track nearly did.Oaklawn invited several technology experts to visit Oaklawn Park and meet with racetrack officials and officials from Amtote in 1998. Eventually, they devised Instant Racing, which allows betters to do a bit of handicapping, satisfying Arkansas’ state law description of parimutuel racing.Instant Racing was introduced in January, 2000, and then expanded in 2009. Purses grew exponentially. “In 2018, there was an effort from the Quapaw Native Indian tribe. They came up with a novel idea,” Jackson said. “They would get one of four casinos in Arkansas, and they were willing to put casino revenue into purses. The voters approved it.”Oaklawn Park has flourished ever since. “First off, we’re really lucky,” said Cella, a lawyer and real estate dealer in St. Louis who took over the track’s operation three years ago after his dad died. “We don’t have professional sports in Arkansas. We’re really hard to get to. Once you get there it’s very hard to leave it. It’s the natural beauty surrounding us. We’re part of a park (Hot Springs National Park). It’s beautiful. Because of that, we have a very close relationship with our community. Hot Springs’ population is around 35,000 to 40,000. We’ll have 70,000 people on Arkansas Derby Day. We don’t have professional sports in Arkansas. People sneak in and go and have fun.”Of course, Oaklawn has a decided edge. Just like Saratoga, Oaklawn has a limited single meet every year. People miss racing. “Our nickname was Saratoga South,” Cella said. “That was our mantra. Follow them.”Oaklawn Park has done that with decisive, innovative ideas. “We took over our catering 25 years ago because we had to keep prices reasonable,” Cella said. “When you have an outside company, they have to make a profit. When we had our 100th anniversary celebration on opening day in 2004, we said, `What happens if we roll back prices to what they were 100 years ago?’’ We had 10-cent sodas and 50-cent corned beef sandwiches. We basically give away six tons of corned beef. We do that every year on opening day. That’s how we kick off the season. You see folks with sandwiches piled high. Businesses send people running in to get a stack of sandwiches. Because we don’t have shareholders, we get to choose. What’s best for our industry? We ask ourselves every single day, `How do we improve our sport in Arkansas?’”Jackson and Cella came up with an original idea. “When we started to grow, we had to hire gaming folks from outside Hot Springs or outside Arkansas,” Cella said. “We said most of our managers have no idea what horse racing is. Eric created an agenda for Oaklawn University. Eric does everything for it. The purpose is to give these new members a smidgen of information about horse racing, our family and our community. It ends with a tour of a horse farm. It has nothing to do with casinos. It’s about horse racing and our history. That’s the message.”Cella enrolled himself. “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been through.” He said. “I had no idea. I loved it. It’s a great program.”The six-week curriculum, Jackson said, “explains how we got here, why certain things are important to us. When you connect all the dots, it says racing comes first. We want people to never forget that.”Jockey Ron Moquet and Jeanette Milligan—office manager of the Arkansas Horsemen Benevolent and Protective Association, whose husband Alan is a trainer—are Oaklawn University graduates.Oaklawn’s successful business model with Instant Racing led to tracks all over the country to invite him to speak. One discussion, maybe 15 years ago, sticks in his memory. “I was at Derby Lane Dog Track in Tampa, Fla.,” he said. “I was with representatives of the dog industry and horse racing. They wanted to know about Instant Racing. I told them if one party gets greedy, it’s not going to work. You have to agree to have lower margins because the people will show up. People started yelling at each other, dogs vs. horses. I banged my glass and stood up. I said, `Gentlemen, you’re wasting my time.’ And I walked out.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1603704568534-DM1VCL3TR93JB62ZUL68/HYR46T%2B%25281%2529.jpg)
![From the Ashes?Article by Annie LambertTurf Paradise, in Phoenix, Ariz., normally runs one of the longest race meets in the country—late October through early May. The COVID-19 pandemic, among other suspected culprits, has closed the track. Sadly, there is a chance the Phoenix icon may never mythically rise from the ashes.Turf Paradise horsemen were notably shell-shocked by the abrupt shutdown of the year-around training and racing facility. Owned by Jerry Simms for the past 20 years, Turf Paradise has been in operation since 1956 and was the first organized professional sport franchise in the state. Trainers, track workers, jockeys and even horse owners and breeders have established residences in the area, with children in schools and year-around businesses associated with the racing life.Skeptics immediately challenged the notion that COVID-19 was the only, or even the main, reason for shutting down Turf Paradise and turning so many lives toward an uncertain future. Some horsemen have called the track home for decades, and pandemic restrictions along with no clear answers coming from track management have their lives in limbo.Joyce Long, 82, trained a small stable at Turf Paradise for 30 years, relishing the people and the lifestyle there. Track management shutting down the track, she implied, was devastating for everyone.“Turf Paradise was such a wonderful place,” Long explained, speaking in the past tense. “There were so many people that depended on it; they would come in here from all over. Sure, the purses weren’t as big as some places, but you could make a living here.”But wait, the Arizona desert sands are shifting between racing and no racing nearly daily as Turf Paradise, Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, Arizona Downs and other racing entities wrangle to reach sophisticated agreements that ensure live racing in 2021 and hopefully beyond.Pack Up, Get OutOn March 15,2020, Turf Paradise management suddenly canceled the remainder of their 2020-2021 race meet. There was no approval to do so by Arizona’s racing regulators, nor were horsemen consulted regarding the issue.Horses were not allowed to train as of March 16, with the stable area completely shut down on March 28. Trainers were told to remove all their belongings including corrals and hot walkers. The abrupt closure by Turf Paradise’s ownership and management left horsemen with no place to go. Due to pandemic regulations, trainers had no options to move their stables to other tracks. And, the track’s large Canadian contingency, which is about 30 percent of the horses, could not return to Canada due to border closures.The Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, led by President Robert Hutton, opposed the shutdown. Without trivializing the seriousness of COVID-19, the AHBPA pointed out how major tracks across the country were able to safely allow horses to train and run meets, albeit without spectators.Turf Paradise might have been strictly adhering to CDC guidelines when stopping racing and training, yet management opted to keep OTBs open for simulcasting. This did not sit well with horsemen who quietly suspected Simms was planning to sell the property to developers.Negotiations & ArbitrationsThere is a whole lot more to the Arizona racing story than a bad flu bug pandemic, however. The ongoing “discussion” between Turf Paradise management and the AHBPA is no doubt front and center. Control of purse money generated by OTBs and live racing mixed with signal disputes has everyone shaking heads, or wringing their hands. It seems a confusing mess.When the AHBPA’s contract with Turf Paradise was ending in 2019, Hutton called around the country to different jurisdictions looking for options to negotiate a better deal with Simms. Horsemen were contributing half of the $800,000 annual advertising expenses. In renegotiations the horsemen’s costs were lowered to $150,000.“I wanted to see invoices [regarding the expenses] because there was an obvious discrepancy as to how the track was being maintained and promoted; I had issues with that and so did my board members,” Hutton pointed out. “The other big issue was at the OTBs where [the track] was getting 60 percent and horsemen 40 percent. We felt that was not fair and equitable, especially when at the racetrack it was 50/50. It seemed people were being driven away from the racetrack to go to the OTBs—60/40 at OTB compared to 50/50 at the track; the math is pretty easy to do. It was not to our advantage.”“We negotiated to 52/48, and it was acknowledged in arbitration that the HBPA has a right to have their own bank account with the purse money and we get to control it,” he added. “Both parties agreed.”In February of this year, Hutton and three of his board members met with the Thoroughbred Owners of California to discuss fairness in simulcast signals, a confusing subject at best. Legislatively, California doesn’t pay more than three percent for an out-of-state signal coming into their state, according to Hutton. Contrarily, Turf Paradise’s takeout was 23 percent. Horsemen in California were splitting up 20 percent, and horsemen in Arizona were splitting up three percent.“I told Jerry [Simms], ‘This isn’t right,’” Hutton said. “‘We’re going to cut off the signal from Turf Paradise going outward to any of the Monarch/Stronich tracks.’ “Two or three days later, Mr. Simms announced the closing of the meet by March 14th and that the horsemen had two weeks to get out with no exercising of horses.”With empathy for equine health and safety, the HBPA negotiated a settlement agreement that horsemen would pay for half the training as far as maintenance of the track and other expenses pertinent to operating the track for training only. The agreement lasted through May 10 when, fortunately, Canterbury Park and a few other tracks began accepting horses again. Many horsemen were still left without a destination.Hutton was trying to decide what to do with a barn area full of horses, limited training and a track owner flip-flopping on training and racing dates.“I told the [HBPA] members that I didn’t think Simms was ever going to run again,” Hutton said. “After a meeting he said he’d open September 1st for training and November 1st to race. I think he kept changing the dates because in the settlement agreement he had, his network of OTBs would only get the signals from out-of-state tracks through January 1.”Hutton wrote Simms a letter asking 17 questions, one of the most pertinent being: “What guarantee will there be that you will not evict horsemen off the track?” Simms offered no guarantees. At an August 8 commission meeting, track management declared they were not interested in any race days. They then proceeded to sell the air conditioner and all furniture out of the clubhouse and took all the pictures off the walls, according to Hutton and others.“I mean, the place is an absolute ghost town,” Hutton opined. “It looks like something you’d find in a documentary on Afghanistan. There is no intention of ever running a race at Turf Paradise again.”Hold Your HorsesWonders never cease, however. On September 24, via the Turf Paradise Facebook page, General Manager Vincent Francia announced the track had submitted live racing dates for an 84-day winter meet (January 2 through May 1, 2021) to the Racing Commission for consideration of approval during their October 8 meeting.Francia did stipulate: “First, the $2.1 million that the AHBPA transferred out of the Turf Paradise Horsemen’s account into an AHBPA account must be returned to the horsemen’s purse account at Turf.”The AHBPA leadership, the notice reminded, is on public record as saying whoever is running live gets the money. “Keep in mind,” they added, “that $2.1 million does not belong to the AHBPA or to Turf Paradise.” “That money belongs to the horsemen who would run live at Turf Paradise.”According to Francia, when the $2.1 million is back in the horsemen’s account and the projected $1 million generated in current OTB accumulation between now and December 31, added to the purse monies generated during the proposed live race meet; Turf Paradise will be able to offer the horsemen a 25-percent purse increase for the proposed race meet—an amount of $80,000 to $100,000 daily.The second condition: the AHBPA approves simulcasting for both export (Turf Paradise’s signal being sent to other race tracks for wagering); and import (bringing in other race track signals for wagering) must be approved through May 31, 2021.Turf Paradise advised in their September 24 announcement: “Those approvals are essential in order to continue generating money into the purse account, and we simply cannot conduct a live race meet with AHBPA constantly threatening to withdraw those approvals.”The track stated their two conditions were reasonable as was “offering the Arizona horsemen a live race meet.” Track management also pointed out the challenges they will face, having to take certain action and following protocols dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.Since the Turf Paradise proposed racing dates were announced, ADOR Racing Director Rudy Casillas has advised the track that AHBPA is “willing to make only weekly payments.”“Turf horsemen conduct business daily with the Horsemen’s Bookkeeper,” management stated. “As an example, if a horseman wanted to withdraw money from his/her account under Mr. Hutton’s plan, they would have to wait a week until the funds are deposited.”Details & DelaysWhile Turf Paradise management laid out stringent requirements for an agreement with AHBPA, Hutton also stayed steady. Representing the AHBPA, Hutton responded via letter to Francia. Hutton agreed to Francia’s request for a winter meet.Hutton did not agree to a new AHBPA board of directors, but rather that he left the horsemen’s choices of leadership to their discretion. He also requested that Simms honor the agreement, giving control of the horsemen’s purse account to the AHBPA.It was also demanded that the track and all facilities be brought up to standard for safe conditions for humans and horses.“Right now, the main track, the turf track and the training track are not fit to run on,” Hutton wrote. “The backside is full of trenches, power boxes with wires exposed, and the roads and bridle path are in terrible condition. The barns are, as always, dilapidated.”When the Arizona Racing Commission met October 8, the agenda included the possible approval of the Turf Paradise 2021 winter meet dates. Stipulations were discussed regarding those dates. There was concern that safety protocols were in place, providing for a safe environment for horses and people. It was believed that maintenance equipment had been sold off.Francia guaranteed that essential equipment such as tractors, water trucks and ambulances were on site.Turf Paradise representatives requested a reduction in the minimum number of live racing dates as required by law to operate their OTBs due to the current state and federal emergency declarations of the COVID-19 pandemic.Also important for the commissioner’s consideration were simulcast agreements between The Stronach Group’s Monarch Content Management and Arizona Downs, located in Prescott Valley, as well as Monarch’s agreement with Turf Paradise.Monarch negotiates simulcast contracts on behalf of Stronach tracks Pimlico, Laurel Park, Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. They are charged with the same duties for Monmouth Park, Tampa Bay Downs and Del Mar.Arizona Downs has had an ongoing feud with Monarch since their reopening in May 2019. Formerly operated as Yavapai Downs, the track feels it is subjected to different rules than Turf Paradise. The commission unanimously voted for a special hearing to settle all of the Monarch contract issues.Will all the parties involved find common ground? After months of hardball negotiations, it is hard to say.“I’m an eternal optimist,” Francia offered. “It would be a tremendous help to the Arizona horse owners—the people who both race in state and those who come from out of state—to have this meet and get some revenue into their operations.”Horsemen are hoping for the Turf Paradise they remember from her grand past to rise from the ashes, but only time will tell.Side Bar 1 of 1Upgrades, Repairs, Safety?Image 1: The stable area electrical grid remains in ill repair, with poor lighting creating safety violations for early morning workers.Image 2 & Image 3: A water main rupture in the stable area flooded out several barns. The rupture caused horsemen to hand water horses from a single water source for an extended time when repairs were not made in a timely manner.(Photos provided anonymously.)Turf Paradise is regulated by the Arizona Racing Commission as set out in Section A of R19-2-104 under Permittee Responsibilities: “A permittee shall maintain the grounds in a neat, clean and safe condition. If a steward determines that a permittee is not in compliance with this Section, the steward shall require that the permittee immediately bring the grounds into compliance.”According to long-time racetrack employees and horsemen making a living at the Phoenix track, the backside has been in disrepair and in need of repairs and/or upgrading for many years. Why stewards have not required track owner Jerry Simms to make these repairs has never been answered.Horsemen working on the backside of Turf Paradise repeat the same story of a once pristine stable area that has fallen into disarray over it’s 70-year history. Current owner Jerry Simms has made no recent improvements to the track he has owned for 20 years. Horsemen willing to speak asked to do so “off the record,” seeming to fear repercussions from management.There is a “failure to regulate,” the horsemen agreed. Regulators have ignored the deterioration of the barns, including water and electrical infrastructures. Both human and equines have been subjected to “deplorable conditions,” according to one backside worker.During an October 8, 2020, Arizona Racing Commission meeting, Turf Paradise requested an 84-day racing meet from January 2 to May 1, 2021. Approval for the proposed winter meet was pushed until involved parties reached an agreement.Will management improve conditions on both the backside and front side of Turf Paradise in their new racing agreement? One of the main stipulations is that the track would be safe for people and horses before the start of the proposed meet. CAPTIONS: (All photos by Shawn Coady Photography)#Scenics 011120 01> The starting gate at Turf Paradise has been collecting dust since the track closed to live racing last March.# Scenics 011120 12> During its heyday, Turf Paradise was known for its beautiful infield, complete with live flamingos cooling in an oasis of ponds.# Scenics 011120 07> The desert track, which opened in 1956 as the first organized professional sports franchise in Arizona, has since added a turf course.# Scenics 011120 13> Despite smaller purses than larger tracks, horsemen training and racing at the facility can make a living and have settled into the local community.# Scenics 011120 03> Snowbirds spending the mild desert winters near Phoenix enjoy live racing as they help increase track handle.# Scenics 011120 11> After being closed since 2010, Arizona Downs reopened last year only to be shut down a few months later due to an unforeseen pandemic and politics.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1603532126004-F9W3TQNIEOYJ6OP88OC3/KEYSON+-+Arizona+Breeder%27s+Futurity-+Colts+%26+Geldings+-+12-08-18+-+R06+-+TUP+-+Starting+Gate.jpg)
![Buying and selling high-end bloodstock at public auction takes preparation, serious due diligence, lots of passion and a dose of luck.Article by Annie LambertBloodstock agents all have a formula, a routine, pedigree preferences and conformation predilections, which must be weighed against current market conditions and trends as they approach every sale.Whether you are purchasing horses for resale, to race or breeding stock, buying (or selling) Thoroughbreds is an intense business. Choosing the right weanling or yearling to pinhook is every bit as precarious as picking the right 2-year-old to run.Adrian Gonzalez, founder of Checkmate Thoroughbreds, is no exception. The 41-year-old horseman was not born into a family with deep equine ties or historic roots. He does, however, have a family story that reads something like a cold war novel.Gonzalez’s grandfather, Roberto, was a Cuban orphan raised in the government system and became an Olympic-caliber gymnast. Roberto was a member of the Cuban National Olympic Gymnastics Team during the Pan American Games in Guatemala City, Guatemala. During the competition he met his future wife (a student at the university where the games were held), defected from Cuba and started a family. When Gonzalez’s father Erick was 12, the family immigrated to the United States.Adrian grew up around backyard horses in a small northern California town. While obtaining a degree in animal science at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, he paid his bills by breaking yearlings at Cardiff Stud. Team roping and cowboying on a 23,000-acre cattle ranch may not have prepared the young Gonzalez for his first foyer into Thoroughbred racing.“The first morning I walked into the tack room and there are only flat saddle—English tack,” he recalled with a chuckle, shaking his head. “I honestly didn’t even know how to tack them up, but the guys showed me.”Cardiff was sold to game show host Alex Trebek, who changed the name to Creston Farms and focused solely on breeding. Gonzalez hung up his tack and became a stallion groom and later stallion manager. His wealth of experience in the industry continued to grow.“When the breeding season ended I switched gears and focused on the development and growth of weanlings and yearlings,” Gonzalez explained. “I became enchanted by the Thoroughbred business and put all my focus into figuring out how I could do this for a living.”Pedigrees Are PersonalGonzalez did figure out how to build the Thoroughbred industry into a career. When Creston Farms was sold again and became the short-lived Windfall Farms, he seized on the demise of Windfall, leased a portion of that farm and started his own bloodstock business. Checkmate Thoroughbreds came to light in 2005. In 2013, Checkmate moved to its current 66-acres in nearby Parkfield.During those early years Gonzalez dove into operating a training facility, breaking yearlings, foaling mares and offering sales consignments. When he and his wife Erin (who has an agricultural business degree) analyzed their large cash flow, they found the actual profit margin boiled down to a couple well-sold sale horses.“It happened that we were profiting on one or two horses that we came up with ourselves,” said Gonzalez with a laugh. “We could have had just those few horses instead of the hundreds of others. Slowly we phased down on the breaking and training to focus on the sales—the pinhooking side of it.”Personal preferences in bloodlines as well as following industry trends are not unique. Prior to readily available online statistics, Gonzalez researched and put together spreadsheets to assist his pinhooking selections. Choosing horses for resale is easier these days, but it is easier for everyone.“When the catalog comes out, I do a lot of research,” Gonzalez explained. “Blood-Horse puts out a valuable tool called The Auction Edge. It shows the history for every horse in the family, what they sold for, which are not on the regular auction page. This past November we bought an inexpensive weanling by Overanalyze for $2,500.“There wasn’t much black type on the catalog page, but with a little research in Auction Edge you could see that there was an Uncle Mo 2-year-old half-sibling that had just sold at [Ocala Breeder’s Sale] March for $525,000. Knowing that there was the potential for a big pedigree update will help increase the value of your horse without you having to actually do anything to the horse.“Coincidentally, a few months after we bought that baby the Uncle Mo filly won her first two starts in Japan by a combined 20-length margin. After that the phone was ringing off the hook, and we sold it privately for a whole lot of money.”Gonzalez pointed out that is one reason he spends more time digging through the sales results of the families than looking at the black type on the catalog pages. The pre-sale diligence can also expose a negative. For example, you may find a half-sibling to a bunch of horses by top sires that all sold “terribly cheap.” That tells you the mare produces terrible sales horses.“Since I’m not doing this to find a race horse,” the agent reminded, “those sales numbers are super important for me to have.”The Conformation CoupOnce at the sale, Gonzalez follows his prospect list to search for bargains. He doesn’t want to pay retail for a pinhook.“I want to find something with all the parts, but not necessarily put together yet,” he said. “I want to see good length of bone, meaning the horse is going to grow to have substantial size. I’m not too concerned with how heavily muscled a weanling is at this point; I’ve made the mistake of buying heavy muscled weanlings and get them home to realize they were slowing down in their growth height, and that’s why they were filling in.”Because Gonzalez shoes and trims his own horses, he usually begins appraising an individual’s conformation at their feet, especially on a weanling. (Shoeing photo)“If a weanling doesn’t have a very good walk, it’s not carrying itself well, or is stiff behind, generally that’s starting at the feet,” he pointed out. “I try to evaluate the growth stage they’re in. I’m not trying to find the perfect horse; I’m trying to find something I can improve.”For example, Gonzalez prefers a weanling that toes out some over one that stands perfectly correct, citing that as those colts mature and their chests widen, they will be inclined to toe in.“If you were to see the front end of some weanlings the day I buy them, you’d probably deem those horses a little too crooked,” he said. “If they grow the way we hope they do, they will be just right when we go to sell them as yearlings. We’ll help that along with how we trim those feet and how we feed the horse.”Gonzalez puts an emphasis on the gaskin when scrutinizing the hind leg, calling it the “speed and power muscle.” He doesn’t agree that speed comes from the hip and jokes about there being a “lot of big hips out there, but not a lot of talent.”“If you have a big hip and just kind of a scrawny leg coming down below that, it’s just fool’s gold,” he opined. “You’re going to get a heavy muscled horse with no speed and no power. So the gaskin and the forearm are muscle types that develop really early, and I can identify that the horse is going to have some speed.”The shoulder should be at a 45-degree angle, which should have a matching angle at the pastern. Gonzalez may attribute a “funky” pastern angle to feet that are not properly trimmed or the stage of growth.“Looking at a long, sloping 45-degree shoulder angle, I’m hoping I can tell how this horse is going to move just by seeing it stand there,” said Gonzalez. “If all the parts are balanced and at the correct angle we’re looking for, then when they walk off, they should have that stride we’re looking for. Generally you can see it there in a picture before you need to see it in motion, which is our reassurance.”“I don’t have the budget to buy the perfect horse—the show stopper—at the sale.” “I want to resell the perfect horse,” Gonzalez concluded.Walk the WalkWeanlings and yearlings get walked and viewed at sales because it is the only test that may predict their athleticism down the road. The walk is probably the single most critiqued evaluation a horse goes through at a sale.“That’s because we can’t just turn them loose and watch them run. The best we can do is have them walk up and back 50 feet and attempt to determine how this horse can run at a mile and a quarter,” quipped Gonzalez.In addition to overall athleticism, buyers are looking for a walk to show stride efficiency and stride length. In theory, a longer stride length at a walk should equal a longer stride at full speed.Gonzalez noted that he sold his Eurociser when he observed his horses shortened their stride to back off the gates. They also kept their heads elevated, which hollowed out their backs and disengaged their hindquarters, also shortening the stride.“Pretty much we hand walk our horses,” Gonzalez explained. “It is incredibly labor intensive because we are walking each horse two miles a day. But they are learning so much about manners—learning to respect a handler, and they go on to show so much better at the sale.”Horses that engage their hindquarters, lengthening their stride, exhibit their drive power behind with a larger overstride. The overstride being the hind foot reaching and planting beyond the hoof print left by the front foot.“With a short walking horse, the hind foot will step in the same spot its front foot just came out of or less,” said Gonzalez. “A big walking horse will overstride a foot or 18 inches. At the run, that translates into power from the back end.”An interesting perception by Gonzalez on watching 2-year-olds in training is that buyers seem to value the faster works over the longer walk.“These fast horses at the training sales...if they are fast and have a big stride, great,” he observed. “They should bring a lot of money, but there are so many that are fast at an eighth of a mile and still very short strided. I think people overlook the walk at the 2-year-old sales because they are focused on the flashy breeze times.”Buy, Sell, PassGonzalez likes to find a horse that has all the parts in all the right places but doesn’t have a great walk. Often, he feels, these individuals can be improved by the time he sells them.“You can find horses that don’t have a good walk, but you can help develop their muscles and develop their behavior to have a good walk. That’s part of our pinhooking strategy.”There are some conformation issues, however, that he cannot gamble on. Clubfeet are most likely a pass. Small horses don’t get much attention from Gonzalez either. The smaller horses can be purchased for a discount but are usually discounted when resold as well.Those that are too upright, too straight in the pasterns and even through the knees, and those over in the knees are also avoided by Gonzalez. Some of his best pinhooks were individuals that were “beat up” price wise for being too long and too low in the pasterns.“That type of horse can have a really, really big walk on them,” he noted. “I’ve seen horses whose pasterns are deemed low that eventually grow up into them and appear normal. The ones that are really upright and straight just get worse. I’ve been stung before thinking they’ll improve, but they’ve always gotten worse.”Like every other agent, Gonzalez has his personal preferences on pedigrees and conformation, but he always works on keeping an open mind toward expanding his knowledge.“I don’t try to convince myself that I can’t afford a certain family,” he explained. “I’ll still look at something by the top sire; I also don’t want to rule out something that would be by what some consider a cold sire.”Gonzalez is also open-minded about the vetting process. He is not looking for horses that will not pass the veterinary exam, but he does look for those that might suffer a significant discount on their sale price due to issues in their vet reports.“The vetting is hard,” he conceded. “I guess if I like the horse, I buy it. I don’t let the vets talk me out of a horse anymore. I used to have my Top-10 list of horses, I’d vet them and none would pass. Then I’d go back through my list and I’d buy what would be my eleventh favorite horse, or the one who passed the vet exam.“Looking back, the majority of those 10 I liked went on to be successful, and I ended up with a perfectly clean horse with no talent. I would have done better buying something with a little vet issue that was just a better horse. That’s what has worked for us.”According to Gonzalez, it isn’t just finding the right horse to pinhook; it is also having the foresight to know where the best resale market is to maximize the profit. “We have to evaluate the market in advance,” he said. “I’ll sometimes like a horse, but it just doesn’t fit any sale I could take it to. It’s going to cost a little too much for X sale, and it’s not quite enough horse for Y sale. It wasn’t that we didn’t like the horse; it just didn’t fit our markets.”Checkmate Thoroughbreds has had many well-sold horses. For example, the first year they decided to pinhook weanlings, the three they flipped were wise choices worth the effort.“We bought three at Keeneland November,” Gonzalez confirmed. “We spent $26,500 and sold them for $145,000 and got a sale topper out of it. Those were the very first weanlings we did, so it was very reassuring that we could do this.”The best horse sold by Checkmate to date was not the best pinhooking story for Gonzalez. Spiced Perfection (2015 B M, Smiling Tiger x Perfect Feat, by Pleasantly Perfect) was purchased as a $6,500 yearling at the Barrett’s October sale. She did not reach her reserve of $50,000 at the Del Mar training sale the following summer. She was sold privately the night of the sale. Spiced Perfection did become a multiple-graded stakes winner of $1,224,705 and was twice crowned California Horse of the Year.“We have to sell runners, and people need to hear the story that they can get a Gr1 winner for $50,000,” concluded the agent. “Agents have different formulas. We all like a little bit different horse, and that’s why we can all play this game.”“We all get lucky now and then,” he added with a grin. Side Bar 1 of 1The COVID EffectPhoto #Image0,(HELMET/MASK) (Annie Lambert)The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how the world operates; the business of equine auctions is one of many industries enduring those changes to survive.Adrian Gonzalez, proprietor of Checkmate Thoroughbreds in Central California, foresees results from the upcoming 2020-2021 sales as undetermined—“a moving target.” Gonzalez, 41, frequents many auctions across the United States and deems his challenges slightly different for his roles as a buyer or seller.“As a buyer, I need to see the horses with my own eyes,” Gonzalez stated. “If the sales have restrictions where you can’t go see these horses, or they make it limited as to how you can inspect the horses, it’s going to be really hard for me to participate. So much of what I do is visual; I have to see it, and even the photos or videos don’t cut it.”The sales companies have not yet provided consignors or purchasers with a defined protocol as to how city, county and state regulations could/will dictate their restrictions. If other buyers need Gonzalez’s eyes on examinations of horses, it may cut into gross sales amounts through limited participation.At the other end of the spectrum, Gonzalez feels the sales companies have done a tremendous job of opening up the channels for buyers to purchase through online bidding. As a seller, he imagines, there could be increased action from buyers who are not able to physically attend the sale.“I’m hopeful now—as a seller—that people not having to be there in person to bid could provide more [bidding] action,” opined Gonzalez. “You don’t know how many times someone will come by my sale barn and ask to see a horse that had already sold. They had missed the sale because they were eating lunch or something. Now, if they could sit at the lunch table with their phone on the sale feed and just push ‘bid,’ it could help us bring in more money.”“I’m just not sure on the buying end,” he reiterated, “if people can’t travel to the sale, we don’t know how much that’s going to hurt.” CAPTIONS:#3001 (GONZALEZ FAMILY) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>Adrian Gonzalez and his wife, Erin, operate their 66-acre Checkmate Thoroughbreds in Parkfield, Calif.#6285 (SPICED PERFECTION) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>Spiced Perfection was smaller “in a plain brown wrapper” when she did not reach her reserve as a 2-year-old; the multiple-graded stakes winner ultimately earned $1,224,705.#3726 (ADRIAN SHOEING) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>Gonzalez has honed his farrier skills to help pinhook prospects grow correctly and become improved individuals before reselling.#3072 (TOES OUT) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds > Foals that toe out will often self-correct through the legs as the narrow chests widen; proper trimming also helps Mother Nature.#8723 (GOOD CONFORMATION) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>This filly possesses overall good conformation, according to Gonzalez’s experienced eye.#4271 (PRE SALE WALKING) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>Checkmate sale preparations include two miles of hand walking daily, according to Gonzalez. Horses show better at the sale with the extra handling prior.#3003 (VET EXAM FAIL) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>This short yearling failed a veterinary exam causing Gonzalez to pass on her. She was a good one that got away. “I don’t let vets talk me out of a horse anymore,” he reflected.#4622 (MALIBU MOON YEARLING) L & BARRETT’S HIP 51 R(MALIBU MOON 2YO GALLOP) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>This pretty Malibu Moon filly was an $85,000 yearling purchased at Fasig-Tipton July and parlayed into a $240,000 resale at the Del Mar Select training sale.#OVERSTRIDE> WE WERE NOT ABLE TO GET AN IMAGE OR DRAWING OF AN OVERSTRIDE…POSSIBLY ART DEPARTMENT COULD DO???A strong sales walk lends insight into a prospect’s future prowess as a racehorse and is the single most critiqued evaluation of sale horses.#2561 & 2459 L to R (SMILING TIGER FILLY) Courtesy Checkmate Thoroughbreds>This well-balanced Smiling Tiger filly was well flipped by Checkmate, which purchased her at the CTBA January 2019 sale for $10,000. She resold for $72,000 during Fasig-Tipton September just eight months later. POSSIBLE PULL QUOTES:“I became enchanted by the Thoroughbred business and put all my focus into figuring out how I could do this for a living.”“If you have a big hip and just kind of a scrawny leg coming down below that, it’s just fool’s gold.”“So the gaskin and the forearm are muscle types that develop really early, and I can identify that the horse is going to have some speed.”“I don’t try to convince myself that I can’t afford a certain family.”“We all like a little bit different horse, and that’s why we can all play this game.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1596711311821-D9WXF9G3H47326PEE0OD/IMG_6285.JPG)
![By Charlie McCarthyIf Chuck Simon has a trait that equals or surpasses his concern for horses and horsemen, it’s his penchant for storytelling.A conversation with the former longtime trainer uncovers the time, while employed as an assistant racing secretary, he used a dead Standardbred to fill a race field.The time he got his trainer’s license without taking the required test.The time he passed through Canadian customs minus a passport.The time he trained a horse for a German spy.Those are just some of the anecdotes and stories from a 20-year training career that ended in July 2019, when Simon decided to spearhead the Gulfstream Horsemen’s Purchasing Association (GHPA), a subsidiary of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.The GHPA focused on supplying shavings, hay and feed at more affordable rates for horsemen at both Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla.The hope was for revenue to support horsemen’s programs, including much-needed lobbying. But the business struggled, and then was hurt greatly by the COVID-19 pandemic.“It was a new venture, and we weren’t sure it was going to take off,” said the 52-year-old Simon, who fulfilled a one-year contract. “We were in uncharted waters.“I’m happy that I did it. I experienced something new. It was a start-up company, with bumps along the way.”This past summer, Simon began hosting a podcast named Around in Circles. While other horse racing podcasts mainly stress the game’s betting aspect, Simon and guests discuss news and issues affecting the industry.Never hesitant to express himself, Simon has many opinions on the current state and future of a sport he was introduced to as a boy in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.“When I was about seven or eight years old, my dad started bringing me to the Thoroughbred and harness tracks,” he said. “It was kind of the adult world, and I had access to it.“When you’re growing up in Saratoga, you don’t realize that everyone does not have what you have. Not every place has a racetrack right in the backyard. Not every kid has access to Affirmed and Alydar.”After graduating from high school, Simon played basketball for two years at a junior college in the Albany, N.Y. area. Then, Chuck’s father showed him a brochure for a racetrack industry program at the University of Arizona.“It showed sunny pictures, girls and horses,” Simon recalled, “I said, ‘Damn, I’m going there!”Simon arrived in Arizona, holding an advantage over many of his fellow students because he had the experience of having worked at both Saratoga-area tracks. In fact, he had dreamed of becoming a groom before his parents demanded he get a college education.“A lot of the classes at Arizona were easy because I already knew everything,” said Simon, whose classmates included Todd Pletcher. “But going there helped get me connected to people outside of my New York bubble.”While at Arizona, Simon heard from a friend, who offered a summer internship at Yonkers Raceway in N.Y. He not only took it, but within two weeks became assistant racing secretary at the age of 20.Simon went to work full-time at Yonkers upon graduation. His duties included getting horses to fill cards for six and seven days of racing.On one occasion, Simon was desperate to fill the field for a certain race. He even asked superiors if they could run a short field or if the card could be reduced. Neither option was granted.“So, I find a horse that qualified three weeks earlier at Monticello and that fit the class but didn’t race again,” said Simon, who found the trainer’s phone number and called. “The guy says, ‘You sure you’re looking for me?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you had a horse that qualified three weeks ago. Have you raced that horse back? I have a race here that fits.’”Seconds of silence followed before the man on the end said, “The filly, yeah, she passed away. She got colic.”“Well, who knows she’s dead?” Simon quickly asked.Although nobody outside the trainer’s immediate family and friends was aware the filly had died, Simon promised the man VIP treatment at Yonkers and convinced the guy to let him enter the horse at Yonkers.At the draw, the judge overseeing the process was informed the filly was scratched. “Reason?” the judge asked.“The horse is deceased,” Simon said.Tired of office work, Simon wanted to return to the backside. During a visit to Belmont, he saw Pletcher working for D. Wayne Lukas. The former classmates chatted, and within a short time Simon had joined Team Lukas.“I learned about the power of organization,” Simon said of his six months with Wayne and Jeff Lukas. “If things are organized, you can cover up a lot of the weaknesses or holes in the structure.”Simon left Lukas to work for Pete Ferriola, who was among New York’s leading trainers.“I learned a lot from Pete,” Simon said. “I learned you don’t have to train horses hard to still do well.”After that, Simon assisted Tom Skiffington.“Kind of like Christophe Clement—mostly turf, mostly Europeans,” Simon said. “I learned a lot from Tom Skiffington on being a horseman. He was an excellent horseman. He was as good a horseman as I ever saw.“What I was trying to do was get as many unique, different angles of how to do it. Lukas was a very regimented three-year-old picture. Ferriola was all claimers, all the time. Skiffington was all turf.”Although given a lot of responsibility by Skiffington, Simon moved on to work for Nick Zito for about three months.“I would have stayed with Zito,” Simon says, “but a job opened up with Jerkens, and jobs never opened up with Jerkens.”No. 4 on Zito’s staff, Simon would become the No. 2 man for Allen Jerkens behind Allen’s son Jimmy.“Nick told me, ‘Hey, it’s the chief. You gotta do what you gotta do,’” Simon said.Simon went to see Jerkens, who asked, “You work for all those fancy guys. Why do you want to work for me for?”“I said, ‘I don’t want to be a movie star; I want to be a horse trainer,’” Simon said. “He liked that.”Simon spent nearly six years working for Hall of Famer Jerkens.“He was totally different than anybody I’d ever worked for,” Simon said. “He would do things you’d never even considered, and it would make you feel stupid sometimes.“It’s funny because you look at his barn, and he never really cared about making it fancy. But people didn’t understand how much of a perfectionist he was with the horses. He had a way of looking at horses from an angle you just never considered or thought about.”Jerkens encouraged Simon to accept an opportunity to train for owner Ken Ramsey, who at the time was seeking to grow his stable.“My dad respected Chuck a lot. He’s a student of the game,” Jimmy Jerkens said. “Chuck is a handicapper at heart, and he made Dad see the importance in numbers. And he was very loyal to my dad.”Upon accepting the job as private trainer for Ramsey, Simon was told he would be needed to begin immediately. There was one problem: He didn’t have a license to train.“You were supposed to take a trainer’s test out of Kentucky, but they only gave it once a month and they had just done it,” said Simon, who explained his predicament to Dave Hicks, then steward of the New York Racing Association.Hicks asked Simon how long he had worked for Jerkens. When Simon said six years, Hicks replied, “Son, that’s test enough for me. Bring me workers’ compensation, and if three trainers sign for you, I’ll give you a license.”The three trainers: Allen Jerkens, Bill Mott and Shug McGaughey.“I was thinking, if those guys aren’t good enough...” Simon said with a laugh.Simon’s three years working for Ramsey got increasingly frustrating as some of the owners’ best horses went elsewhere.“We did really well for him, but he kind of got starstruck and wanted to send horses to this guy and that guy,” Simon said. “It kind of put us in a bit of a jam because we were getting all the bad horses.”It was while with Ramsey, Simon flew to Canada to watch one of his horses run at Woodbine.“I was in a rush to leave, and I forgot my passport,” Simon said. “The guy interviewing me at Customs asked me what I did, and I said I trained horses. The guy’s eyes lit up. ‘Standardbred or Thoroughbred?’ Turns out, he was a racing fan. He let me go through.”After a falling out with Ramsey over a horse named Nothing to Lose—Ramsey wanted the colt aimed toward the Kentucky Derby, but Simon believed he was a better turf horse—Simon went out on his own.He compiled a 359-360-332 mark in 2,679 career starts that earned more than $11 million.Simon’s most successful horse was Battle Won, a gelded son of Honour and Glory out of Call Her (Caller I.D.). The dark bay won the 2005 Churchill Downs Handicap (Gr2).“I thought Chuck was an excellent trainer,” Battle Won owner Jay Manoogian said. “As an owner, I felt he kept us well-informed of everything going on with the horse. I couldn’t ask for anything better. Sometimes you get trainers who aren’t very informative. He was very informative.”Simon said the most talented horse was Kentucky-bred Strength and Honor, a bay son of Carson City. The gelding went 9-1-4 in 22 career starts but won three straight races on two separate occasions.“He ran a 115 Beyer at Keeneland one day,” Simon recalled. “He couldn’t breathe a little bit. He had a bad hock, two knee surgeries. I could get three or four races a year out of him because he had so many issues.“If not for all the issues, he could have been a Breeders’ Cup winner—he was that talented.”Simon’s stable once included a filly prone to bleeding that had been racing in Europe and was owned by a German government official. The connections wanted the trainer to prep the filly for an upcoming sale.“The guy called me once, and he was on an encrypted phone; everything was on delay,” Simon said.The owner was not licensed in the U.S., so Simon attempted to submit the needed paperwork on the German’s behalf.“They said they needed his fingerprints, so he should go to the local police station,” Simon said. “I said, ‘He’s in Beijing, China! He’s a German diplomat! There’s no police involved!”A New York official told Simon the filly couldn’t run. The trainer went off.“The Queen of England ran a horse the other day for Christophe Clement, and you’re saying this horse can’t run? Well this guy is a German James bleepin’ Bond! We can’t get his fingerprints!”Simon ended up getting a temporary license for the owner to race the filly in New Jersey.During his years as a trainer, Simon helped tutor people who aspired to have their own stables.“Chuck saw that desire I had, wanting to be a trainer someday, and yet he made me start at the very bottom and work my way up the right way; and that I really respected,” said trainer Phil D'Amato, who worked for Simon for four years.“Looking back, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. From a hot walker, to a groom, to a foreman, assistant—I went up the ladder with Chuck. He’s an excellent horseman and excellent teacher as well.”Simon’s last assistant, Sue Ditter, went on her own upon his retirement. She still leans on him for insight.“My favorite response of Chuck’s is, ‘I’m not the trainer anymore—that’s your job,’” Ditter said. “Which basically means that whatever idea I threw at him was pretty much OK.”Simon also takes pride in having had an eye for horses, such as Divine Park, sire of multiple-graded stakes winner Lady Eli.“I bought him for myself and a client for $20,000,” Simon said. “He went on to win the [Gr1] Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont.”Following a year with the GHPA, Simon was considering his career options. He hadn’t ruled out one day returning to training.“I miss the horses—seeing one doing well, figuring out what they want, what they need. Seeing them start to thrive,” he said. “But I was kind of burnt out. When you have slow horses, it’s deflating when there’s really not much you can do and you know that.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1596718375676-C0Q51BJUFF98MKKNPRAZ/ChuckSimon3.jpg)
