Racing returns at new-look Santa Anita

Associated PressMay 23, 2020, 2:41 PM EDT

AP Photo

ARCADIA, Calif. — Horses are thundering down the stretch again at Santa Anita. There are no fans or owners cheering them on. No photos in the winner’s circle. No bets placed at the track’s windows.

Still, it’s a win for the sport to be back racing against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains after being idled for 1 1/2 months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We were going to be willing to do whatever it took to get it open,” said Bob Baffert, the two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer.

From March 12-27, the track northeast of Los Angeles raced without spectators. Then the Los Angeles County Public Health Department shut it down, saying it wasn’t an essential business.

“It was sort of disappointing that we didn’t get any acknowledgement that we’re so safe here,” said Baffert, who at 67 is among an age group considered vulnerable to COVID-19.

Baffert compared Santa Anita’s stable area to a hospital with a similar level of disinfecting that goes on.

“If anybody was prepared for something like this, it’s the backside,” he said. “We always keep a very clean environment back there because we don’t want viruses to come in and get the horses sick. Our grooms wore masks and gloves before this started.”

Santa Anita received approval to resume racing May 15 with new protocols in place.

Without fans eating, drinking and gambling, track owner The Stronach Group has let go half of Santa Anita’s workforce, mostly on the hospitality side, according to Aidan Butler, TSG’s executive director for California racing.

“It’s brutal,” he said.

Face coverings and daily temperature checks are mandatory, and everyone who passes inspection slips on green wristbands. Social distancing is required, too, although with 320 acres to spare, there’s little chance of overcrowding in the Art Deco grandstand or stable area that houses about 1,700 horses and 750 workers who live onsite.

“I think it’s a little overkill,” said Baffert, who lowered his bandana during an interview while keeping his distance. “It’s the same people working with the same horses everyday. We’re all educated enough now to figure out what we need to do.”

Fellow Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella and Baffert agree that local government officials didn’t give Santa Anita due respect.

“I don’t see anybody not wearing a mask back there, I don’t see anybody congregating. That’s not so everywhere else,” Mandella said from behind a white mask. “We’re leading a pretty good example. I just think racing should get some credit.”

Saddling and prerace routines have changed to increase physical distancing.

Jockeys aren’t allowed in the stable area, so they don’t interact with trainers, who used to give them a leg up on their mounts in the paddock. Now the horses are led by grooms from their stables to the receiving barn. Then they join up with a pony to accompany them through the paddock and onto the track.

“So far, everything I’ve seen has gone very well,” Mandella said.

Bugler Jay Cohen blows “Call to the Post” to the empty grandstand, a tradition maintained for those watching via simulcast.

“We miss the fans so much,” Mandella said. “To come over here and to have empty stands and nobody here is a sad feeling.”

One of the benefits to being the only game in town is an increase in wagering via simulcast and online. The total handle for nine races on May 15 was $11,207,076. That’s a huge boost from the same day in 2019 when the handle was $6,974,738 for eight races. Bettors typically focused on the NBA and NHL playoffs and major league baseball this time of year have no action to wager on, so they’re turning to horse racing. Many casinos have yet to reopen, too.

“You got to take the positives out of the negative,” Butler said.

In an effort to comply with public health officials, Santa Anita created a so-called restricted zone, housing 24 jockeys, valets and other personnel who must test negative for COVID-19 to gain access. Butler leaves a house overlooking the track where he lives with his wife to stay in the compound on racing days.

They reside in plush trailers – the same ones used for actors on television and movie sets – located in a parking lot next to the regular jockeys’ room. They’re divided by a wall, allowing two riders to share the same trailer but with separate entrances, living areas and bathrooms. Veteran rider Aaron Gryder shares a trailer with Triple Crown-winning jockey Mike Smith.

They’re required to live at the track on racing days, which meant Smith bid farewell to his wife of 16 months on Friday. The couple won’t reunite until after Monday’s races. Gryder joked about overhearing Smith, including his mushy phone calls.

“I got to tell Mike to keep his singing down,” Gryder cracked. “He’s not real good.”

Their quarters include couches, desks, flat screen TVs, microwaves and small refrigerators. Gryder keeps his stocked with hard-boiled eggs, peeled apples, sushi, yogurt, kombucha tea and water.

“I’m sure other sports are looking at the success we’ve had over the last week and they’ll want to model what we’ve done,” Gryder said.

After the races, the track hosts the riders for dinner catered by local restaurants and movies in the 100-to-1 Club perched three floors above the first turn. It’s spacious enough for them to keep their distance from each other while still swapping stories or playing video games.

“I feel like I’m on vacation,” said Victor Espinoza, who rode American Pharoah to the Triple Crown in 2015.

Last weekend, Smith, Espinoza and Gryder counseled their younger counterparts about saving their earnings and investing.

“It’s been kind of neat to be all together after the races are over,” Smith said. “It’s brought us all closer together. I’ve gotten to know a lot more about these boys and I’ve known them for several years.”

While enjoying the track’s five-star trailer park, Smith and the others know that racing without cheering fans, grumbling bettors clutching losing tickets and owners who pay the bills isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time.

Los Angeles County has been the hardest hit by coronavirus among California’s 58 counties. As a result, many businesses have been slow to reopen, restaurants remain mostly drive-through or takeout, and other professional sports have yet to resume.

Mandella hopes that once fans are free to return, track attendance swells and pent-up excitement bubbles over.

“There’s nothing like taking something away from somebody to make them want it more,” he said. “I’m hoping that’s the good that’s going to come out of this fiasco we’re going through.”

Road to the Kentucky Derby: Forte seems dominant ahead of Florida Derby prep race

By Al BernsteinMar 28, 2023, 2:54 PM EDT

The numbers speak for themselves. Horses trained by Todd Pletcher have earned more purse money (over $455 million) than those trained by any other person in the history of thoroughbred racing. He has won with an impressive 23% of his starters, and 52% have finished first, second or third.

When it comes to the Kentucky Derby, however, Pletcher becomes a mere mortal. From 62 career starters, he has won the race twice, with two seconds, and four horses who finished 3^rd. Many of Pletcher’s Derby horses were longshots who were in the race primarily so their owners could have a horse in America’s biggest race. His two Derby winners, while they were reasonably backed at the windows, were far from odds-on favorites. When Super Saver won in 2010, he paid $18.00 for a $2 win ticket. Always Dreaming, his 2017 winner, was a very lukewarm favorite who returned $11.40 to win. Many racing fans are used to seeing Pletcher’s horses win at short odds, primarily in New York and Florida. They might be shocked to find out that when Always Dreaming won the 2017 Derby, he was the shortest-odds horse that Pletcher had ever saddled in the Kentucky Derby, despite having odds just under 5-1.

This Saturday, he will saddle Forte in the Florida Derby. Forte will enter the race on a four-race win streak, with those wins coming in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes. He is a 4/5 morning line favorite, and if he wins the race, he should move forward to Louisville as a very strong favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Clearly, he would be the shortest-priced horse Pletcher has ever had in the race, but that almost wasn’t the case.

In 2010, we know that Pletcher scored a mild upset in the Kentucky Derby with Super Saver. He was definitely not the best three-year-old in Pletcher’s barn. That year, he had a horse named Eskendereya, who seemed as unbeatable as Forte does now. He was set to enter the Derby off a three-race win streak. That streak included an 8 ½ length victory in the Fountain of Youth Stakes and a 9 ¾ length win in the Wood Memorial. The Pletcher barn was devastated when Eskendereya suffered a career-ending leg injury in training one week before the Kentucky Derby. So, instead of saddling the big favorite in the race, he took his shot with four other horses. As the chart tells us, Super Saver benefitted from a rail-skimming ride by Calvin Borel and gave Pletcher his first Derby winner.

As far as I am concerned, any discussion of Forte and the Florida Derby should begin with the concept of professionalism in a racehorse. In one respect you can call him more professional than (dare I say?) Secretariat. Big Red was brilliant, and he showed the ability to win on the engine and from off the pace. Forte’s three career races around two turns, however, are a virtual carbon copy of each other.

As a two-year-old, in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity, he was in fifth place after six furlongs, sitting 2 ½ lengths off the lead, and he went on to win by a neck. That race set him up for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. In the Juvenile, he was again in fifth after six furlongs, sitting four lengths off the lead before he went on to win by 1 ½ lengths. It’s been said that race horses mature the most between ages two and three, and Forte’s only race this year showed that maturity. In the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream, he was in fourth after six furlongs, sitting about two lengths off the lead, and then he blew by the field, going on to win by 4 ½ lengths.

This concept of professionalism in a racehorse is based in part on how well the game plan of the trainer is executed by the horse. Forte is a horse that has clearly used his fast cruising speed and his ability to relax off the pace to his advantage. Looking at those three wins he posted around two turns, they show that Forte’s natural ability allows him to idle like a Cadillac behind front-runners, and he has a growing ability to pass his competition on the far turn and power through the stretch on his way to victory. The Pletcher game plan, nurtured through the experience of 62 starts in America’s most important race, has been very convincing thus far.

Working in Forte’s favor even more is the fact that there are several horses in the race who tend to run on the front end, which should set up jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. to make Forte’s signature move to the lead as the front-runners start to tire. Skeptics might point to Forte’s journey from the #11 post as a reason to think he might have a problem here, but the fact that he relaxes in races and has a high cruising speed should allow Ortiz to get a mid-pack position to pounce from.

As for the rest of the field, the two most likely to finish underneath Forte in exotic wagers are Fort Bragg and Cyclone Mischief. Fort Bragg is a horse who sold for $700,000 as a yearling. He was formerly trained by Bob Baffert and has been transferred to the care of Tim Yakteen. He should be near the front end early and is likely to have the class to last longer that some of the other forwardly-placed runners. Another who has a good chance to hit the board is the Dale Romans-trained Cyclone Mischief. He has raced against some of the top horses of his age group and was third to Forte in the Fountain of Youth, beaten by nearly 6 lengths. Although he was on the lead in that race, I expect him to sit a couple of lengths off the pace here. There are two longer-priced entries here that could hit the board to fill out some tickets. They are the lightly-raced Mage (fourth in the Fountain of Youth with a troubled trip) and West Coast Cowboy, who has tried hard in all three career races and is 20-1 on the morning line.

For those who think they might be able to beat Forte, consider Todd Pletcher’s record in the Florida Derby. He is the leading trainer in the history of the race with six wins, and five of those have been in the last nine years.

If there is a theme to the Derby prep season thus far, it is Pletcher, Pletcher, Pletcher. In addition to Forte, he trains Kingsbarns, the front-running winner of the Louisiana Derby, and Tampa Bay Derby winner Tapit Trice. Tapit Trice, who will run in the Blue Grass Stakes on NBC a week from Saturday, is an intriguing horse who won the Tampa Bay Derby with come-from-behind style. As talented as Forte is, we don’t know how talented Tapit Trice can be, as he seems to mature more with each start. At Tampa Bay, he was eighth in the middle of the stretch and got home to win by an easy two lengths. He is an 8-1 second choice in the most recent Derby futures pool, with Forte favored at 3-1.

It is always fascinating when the early Derby favorite has his final prep race. We’ll have to sit back and watch on Saturday to determine whether Forte will continue his dominance or if he will hit a bump in the road. His talent and his ability to duplicate his running style from race to race lead me to think that his growth and maturity will continue to be on display in the Florida Derby, and he’ll advance to Kentucky a huge favorite for America’s biggest race.

How to Watch the Florida Derby

Date: Saturday, April 1st
Time: 6pm ET
TV Network: CNBC
Streaming: Peacock

When is the 2023 Kentucky Derby?

The 149th Kentucky Derby is set for Saturday, May 6th, and will air across the networks of NBC and Peacock.

Horse racing’s national anti-doping program starts

Associated PressMar 26, 2023, 5:43 PM EDT

NBC Sports

Horse racing’s efforts to clean up the sport and level the playing field take another step forward with the launch of a new anti-doping program.

It’s an attempt to centralize the drug testing of racehorses and manage the results, as well as dole out uniform penalties to horses and trainers instead of the current patchwork rules that vary from state to state.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) was created by the federal government nearly three years ago. It has two programs: racetrack safety, which went into effect in July, and anti-doping and medication control.

“It’s one standard. You can be in Kentucky, you can be in Ohio, you can be in California and you’re going to be judged by the same standard,” HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus said.

HISA’s Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit – its independent enforcement agency – has reached agreements with all of the state racing commissions and/or racetracks that will have live racing as of Monday.

Seven of the biggest racing states – Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Will Rogers Downs in Oklahoma – will continue to use their current staff to collect samples.

In Arizona, Illinois and Ohio, there is no signed voluntary agreement with HISA, so it contracted directly with either current staff or hired its own personnel to collect samples. Post-race testing only in New York will be handled this way.

States that have live racing after mid-April are in discussion with the enforcement agency, HISA said.

The agency will work with accredited labs in Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, California, Pennsylvania and Kentucky to analyze samples.

“For the first time, racing’s labs will be harmonized and held to the same performance standards nationwide,” said Ben Mosier, executive director of the enforcement agency. “Thoroughbred racehorses will be tested for the same substances at the same levels, regardless of where they are located or compete.”

Unlike the central offices that govern the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, the 38 U.S. racing states have long operated under rules that vary from track to track. Horses, owners, trainers and jockeys move frequently between states to compete. Locales would honor punishments meted out elsewhere, but inconsistencies created confusion and made it possible to game the system.

Lazarus said that in talking with horsemen they want three things from HISA: Catch the cheaters, be realistic about medication, and be aware of environmental contaminants that trainers cannot control but can trigger positive tests.

“That’s exactly what our program does,” she said recently.

HISA has been met with resistance in its short existence.

Last year, a federal appeals court ruled it unconstitutional, saying Congress gave too much authority to the group it established to oversee the racing industry. Congress tweaked the wording of the original legislation to fix that. It also gave the Federal Trade Commission the authority to oversee HISA.

Legal challenges in Texas and Louisiana to HISA resulted in the federal appeals court preventing it from operating, so state regulations will continue to govern the sport. Racetracks in Texas and Nebraska have chosen not to broadcast their simulcast signals out of state, so HISA currently has no authority to regulate them, Lazarus said.

As a result of the ongoing legal issues surrounding HISA, the anti-doping program won’t begin in every state on Monday as Lazarus had hoped.

“It’s not perfect,” she said. “We have to change some things, we have to see how some things go.”

There’s also been vocal opposition among some in the industry over the prospect of sweeping change – as well as its cost to racetracks, horse owners and trainers, and the impact it will have on business.

“They’ve been taking away certain medications, therapy machines, things that are truly beneficial,” said trainer Bret Calhoun, whose stable operates in Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas. “They’re having the opposite effect of what they’re saying … safety of the horse and rider. They’re doing absolutely the opposite.”

Calhoun spoke earlier this month at the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association national convention in Louisiana.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry was even more blunt.

“At the core of HISA is this: a handful of wealthy players wish to control the sport through a one-size-fits-all, pay-to-play scheme that will decimate the inclusive culture of horse racing,” he said at the convention.

Lazarus counters the criticism, saying, “We’re there to make racing better.”

She has said she’s aiming for transparent investigations and speedier resolutions of disputes. And Lazarus has spent much of her first year on the job trying to “overcommunicate and overeducate.”

“I’m really hopeful that the message is getting through,” she said.

There will be no trial period for infractions under the new rules. Veterinarians who administer medications to horses have had to get up to speed on the regulations as well as trainers who are ultimately responsible for what goes into their horses.

“Change I think is always hard,” Lazarus said, “and this is like seismic change.”