Hollywood Park handle down slightly from record 07
Hollywood Park broke the $20-million mark in handle on its five major days for the first time during its Spring/Summer Meet, but was unable to buck a national trend as overall handle at the 60-day session was down 1.8 percent.
Handle averaged a record $11.9 million at the 63-day Spring/Summer Meet in 2007, compared to $11.7 million in 2008.
"The tracks across the country have struggled to maintain their 2007 averages," Hollywood Park President Jack Liebau said. "We were up against record figures and I think we did as well as we could have hoped in these tough economic times."
A record $29,773,657 was wagered on Kentucky Derby Day, the highest handle of the meet and the largest single-day handle in California this year. Preakness Stakes Day handle was $21,049,983 and Belmont Stakes Day handle was a record $25,721,762.
On July 5, which featured five graded stakes races, including the American Oaks Invitational (G1) and CashCall Mile Invitational (G2), Hollywood Park generated a record handle of $25,137,676, the highest in track history excluding Breeders' Cup and Triple Crown days. It is the sixth highest overall handle in the 70-year history of the track.
While the on-track average of $1.5 million was down 9.7 percent and the off-track average in Southern California of $2.7 million was down 10.4 percent, advance deposit wagering continued to grow with a daily average of $2.1 million -- up 14.6 percent from 2007.
"Account wagering on races at Hollywood Park no doubt benefited from the standoff between TrackNet and the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Group because other signals were not available to account wagering providers," Liebau said.
Purses averaged $447,329, while fields averaged 8.3 horses per race -- 8.5 on Cushion Track and 7.7 on the Lakeside Turf Course.
Jockey Rafael Bejarano, who shifted his tack to Southern California during the 2007 Autumn Meet, rode 56 winners to garner his first Hollywood Park riding title. Joel Rosario came next in the riders' standings with 45.
Sadler sent out the winners of 30 races, seven more than runner-up Doug O'Neill, to claim his second Hollywood crown, following his Autumn Meet championship in 2007.
Bejarano and Sadler also led in stakes wins with 10 and seven, respectively.
Everest Stables Inc. topped the owners' standings with 14 wins, while the undefeated filly ZENYATTA (Street Cry [Ire]) was voted Horse of the Meet in the annual Media Poll.
(c) The Handicapper's Edge
HORSE RACING: Hollywood winners heading for Del Mar
If Saturday's action at Hollywood Park was any indication, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club should be in for a big meet when it opens July 16.
All five winners of Saturday's stakes smorgasbord in Inglewood plan to make their next starts at the seaside oval.
Heading the list is the undefeated filly Zenyatta ($2.60), who stretched her winning streak to six with a workmanlike effort in the Grade I Vanity Handicap under Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith.
The daughter of Street Cry gained the lead from pacesetter Silver Z in mid-stretch and hung on in the final sixteenth to hold off Tough Tiz's Sis by a half-length in the Grade I event.
"A horse can't have it easy all the time ---- somebody will challenge them ---- so it's important they get challenged somewhere early on before the big races like the Breeders' Cup or something," said trainer John Shirreffs, who was unhappy with Del Mar's Polytrack surface last year and scratched several horses from running on it. "That's where she's going ---- she's shipping to Del Mar. (Whether she runs) depends upon the track at Del Mar and what they've done with their track."
Del Mar management has told trainers it will water the Polytrack in the afternoon in an effort to get it tighter and closer to morning training hours.
Trainer Bob Holthus, 74, won his first race in California when favored Pure Clan ($7) won the $750,000 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies over Satan's Circus.
Holthus enjoyed his trip so much that he plans on returning for the Grade I Del Mar Oaks.
"She's unbeaten on the turf, and we plan coming back to Del Mar," Holthus said. "Our goal (is) a Grade I."
In probably the most exciting race of the day, third choice Diamond Diva ($6.60) re-rallied in the final strides under jockey David Flores to beat second choice Ventura by a nose. Favorite Lady of Venice ---- the defending champion ---- finished another two lengths back in third.
Diamond Diva covered 1 mile on the Lakeside Turf Course in 1:34.07 to give trainer Jim Cassidy the win in the Grade II $750,000 CashCall Mile.
"I haven't had time to talk to David, so I don't know if she didn't see her (Ventura) coming on the outside or if she was concentrating more on the horses on the inside," Cassidy said. "I'm thinking when she realized that other horse was coming on the outside, she probably switched leads and shot forward."
Cassidy said he will probably point for Del Mar's John C. Mabee Handicap.
Flores completed a riding double, as he guided odds-on favorite Street Boss ($3.40) to a half-length victory over Eastern shipper Elite Squadron in the Grade I $300,000 Triple Bend Handicap.
Street Boss, also a son of Street Cry, moved five-wide on the turn for home while covering seven furlongs in 1:22.42 to record his fourth straight win and his fifth in six 2008 starts. It was his first Grade I victory.
"Being six-wide, it was scary because it's hard to win losing that much ground," trainer Bruce Headley said. "I was very pleased with the race.
""Del Mar is next ---- the Bing Crosby (at six furlongs) ---- and after Del Mar maybe the Ancient Title. You better be dead fit to run in the Breeders' Cup (Sprint)."
In the only non-graded stakes on the program, the $106,000 Hollywood Juvenile Championship, even-money favorite Azul Leon ($4.20) moved into contention while five-wide on the turn for home and went on to an easy four-length victory.
Trainer Doug O'Neill said the 2-year-old would be pointed for Del Mar's Best Pal Stakes and the Del Mar Futurity.
The other big news was the Pick Six. Responding to a three-day carryover of $1,197,009.42, players bet an additional $3,778,778 for a total pool of $4,975,787. There were 257 perfect tickets, each worth $12,827.80.
Et cetera
BELMONT PARK: Indian Blessing ($3.30), the 2007 champion 2-year-old filly trained by Bob Baffert, ended a two-race losing streak with a dominant victory in the $250,000 Prioress Stakes at New York's Belmont Park. John Velazquez was aboard for the first time as Indian Blessing powered to a 5 1/4-length win in the mud over By the Light.
CHURCHILL DOWNS: Screen Your Friend ($38) beat Lyin' Heart by 1 1/4 lengths in the $150,000 Bashford Manor Stakes for 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Trained by Bernie Flint and ridden by Calvin Borel, Screen Your Friend gave Borel his second victory in the Bashford Manor. Borel also won in 2000 aboard Duality.
MONMOUTH PARK: Presious Passion ($29.60) led wire-to-wire in the $750,000 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., holding off Strike A Deal by a neck. The win in the Grade I race was the eighth in 29 career starts for Presious Passion and earned him a spot in the $3 million turf event at the Breeders' Cup championships, which will be run in October at Santa Anita in California. In the co-feature, Notional ($17.80) won a spirited stretch battle with the favored Gotcha Gold en route to a 2 1/4-length win in the $300,000 Salvator Mile Stakes.
(c) North County Times
Trainer Dutrow faces ban for horse's positive test
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Rick Dutrow is in trouble again. The outspoken trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown is facing a 15-day suspension by Kentucky racing officials after another horse he trains exceeded the allowable limit for a drug that enables horses to breathe easier while exercising.
Two separate drug tests on 8-year-old gelding Salute the Count revealed the horse had twice the allowable limit of Clenbuterol in his system after finishing second in the Aegon Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on May 2, said John Veitch, chief state steward of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority.
Clenbuterol, considered a Class B drug by the KHRA, is often used by humans who suffer from asthma. The drug, which Veitch said contains some steroidal properties but is not considered a steroid, is sometimes used by trainers because of it's ability to increase a horse's lung capacity.
"It's a respiratory enhancer," Veitch said. "It's become quite popular in racing medication because it's used to train on."
The drug is not permitted in racing, but is regulated by the states through the use of a threshold concentration said Scot Waterman, executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. Trainers are recommended to avoid giving a dosage to a horse 72-96 hours before heading to the starting gate, though the threshold level varies from state to state.
Dutrow waived his right to a hearing but plans to file a written appeal, which he must do within the next 10 days. There is no timetable on when Dutrow could meet with KHRA executive director Lisa Underwood, Veitch said.
"He will get a stay on his suspension until the appeal is heard," Veitch said.
Dutrow said he sometimes uses the drug in other horses and was previously reprimanded by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board for a similar infraction several years ago.
"I really haven't had any problems with it," Dutrow said in a phone interview.
The first positive test was conducted by a lab at Iowa State University. Dutrow requested a second test, which was conducted by a lab at Louisiana State University. That test also came back positive.
Dutrow raced four horses during Churchill Downs' spring meet, the last on May 17. He does not currently have any horses at the track.
As part of the penalty, Salute the Count owners Michael Dubb and Robert Joscelyn must return $24,521 in purse money. On June 15, the horse finished second to First Defence in the Jaipur Stakes at Belmont Park. Drug test results from that race are not yet available said Dan Toomey with the New York State Racing & Wagering Board.
The penalty is the first for Dutrow in Kentucky, though hardly the first time he's run into trouble. He spoke openly about his checkered past during Big Brown's run at the Triple Crown. He's been cited dozens of times over the years for everything from repeated medication violations to his own drug use.
The news of the possible suspension comes just days after IEAH Stables, co-owners of Big Brown, stepped forward and said it would take all of its horses off steroids entirely and shy away from trainers who continue to use the drugs to maintain their horses.
"If they don't want to play by the rules, then they don't get to train with us," Michael Iavarone, co-president of IEAH, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.
Iavarone did not return a phone call or an e-mail on Wednesday seeking comment.
IEAH's decision is part of a groundswell of support to rid the sport of steroids. The New York State Legislature passed a measure Tuesday that will give the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association an additional 1 percent of purse money next year. The NYTHA plans to use a portion of the money to purchase state of the art drug testing equipment.
Dutrow is currently competing at Aqueduct while keeping an eye on Big Brown, who has been resting since a shocking last-place finish in the Belmont Stakes on June 7.
Several pictures have surfaced in recent days indicating Big Brown ran almost the entire 1 1/2-mile race with the shoe on his right rear foot dislodged after he collided with Guadacanal shortly after leaving the starting gate.
Iavarone said he believes the shoe problem may have contributed to Big Brown's poor showing in the Belmont, though Dutrow isn't so sure. Big Brown also ran with an acrylic patch on his left front hoof to protect a quarter crack, an injury that kept him off the track for several days leading up to the race.
"I don't know, it's kind of a puzzle to me," Dutrow said. "I just don't get the whole thing. It looks like when you look at the pictures, it could have bothered him, but I should have seen it and the rider (Kent Desormeaux) didn't feel it."
Desormeaux managed to put Big Brown in perfect stalking position on the backstretch, only to ease him as they made the turn because the jockey felt the big bay colt wasn't right. An extensive post-race examination turned up nothing out of the ordinary.
"The pictures don't lie, but neither does the horse," he said.
Big Brown's next scheduled race is the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 3.
(c) 2008 The Associated Press
Congress Is Considering a National Authority to Monitor Horse Racing
WASHINGTON - Members of a Congressional subcommittee scolded the horse racing industry Thursday for endangering thoroughbreds with lax drug policies and faulty breeding, and said the sport emphasized greed over transparency. The panel is considering endorsing a central governing body for the sport and warned that it could reopen the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978 to make that happen.
"Unlike every other professional and amateur sport, horse racing lacks any national regulatory authority that can promulgate uniform rules and regulations," said Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois. She led the hearing, which was entitled "Breeding, Drugs, and Breakdowns: The State of Thoroughbred Horseracing and the Welfare of the Thoroughbred Racehorse."
"One of the central questions the subcommittee wants to explore is, does horse racing need a central governing authority? Is the racing industry truly capable of making reforms on its own within the current regulatory framework?"
Arthur Hancock, whose Stone Farm produced three Kentucky Derby winners, testified that the industry was too fractured and perhaps too dysfunctional to organize itself and needed federal oversight to rid the sport of drugs and stop fatalities. In 1960, he noted, horses made 11.3 starts a year and in 2007 they made 6.31.
"This is a dramatic drop of 44 percent and is a startling statistic, which shows that the breed is becoming softer and weaker," he told the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.
"It is a vicious cycle," he said. "Chemical horses produce chemical babies. Performance-enhancing drugs must be banned if we are going to survive as an industry and if thoroughbreds are going to survive as a robust breed."
Jess Jackson, who owns the reigning Horse of the Year, Curlin, asked that the industry be allowed to try to organize itself first, but said that federal interest in horse racing was critical if the sport was to regain its trust with the public.
"We need Congress to take an active interest in assuring the integrity, safety and economic viability of this magnificent sport," Jackson said.
He also criticized the industry's "broken business model," which rewards breeding over racing. Horse owners, for example, invest $4.3 billion a year for a chance to compete for approximately $1.1 billion in purses.
Jackson, who is the owner of the Kendall-Jackson winery, bucked that trend when he chose to race Curlin as a 4-year-old. Curlin won his fifth victory in a row last Saturday at the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs and may try the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in October in France.
"There is every incentive to shorten horses' racing careers, racing them too young and retiring them too soon, in order to get them to stud sooner," he said.
Representative Ed Whitfield, Republican from Kentucky and the subcommittee's ranking minority member, warned that the sport was at a "crossroads."
"I believe greed has trumped the health of the horse, health of the jockey, strength of the breed and integrity of the sport," he said.
Subcommittee members as well as the panelists discussed the breakdown and on-track euthanization of the filly Eight Belles after she finished second in the Derby, and the acknowledgment by the trainer Rick Dutrow that he injected the Derby and the Preakness Stakes champion Big Brown with the anabolic steroid Winstrol.
Everyone agreed the sport had a drug problem.
"We have created the chemical horse," said Richard B. Shapiro, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board.
Before the Belmont Stakes, Dutrow said he had taken Big Brown off Winstrol, fueling speculation that the colt's previous unbeaten record was the result of the drug.
Schakowsky reprimanded Dutrow for not appearing before the committee. Dutrow said he had been ill since the Belmont, when Big Brown's bid to win the Triple Crown shattered when he finished last after being eased by jockey Kent Desormeaux in the final turn.
Dutrow said he notified members of the subcommittee Wednesday that he would not attend, but Schakowsky said that was not the case. "He never notified anybody on this committee staff," she said. "I hope in the future he will join us and be part of the solution."
Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican from Florida, said Congress had jurisdiction to step in because of the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978, which allowed simulcast wagering and provided the legal basis for Internet horse betting by permitting it to take place across state lines. Last year, such wagering accounted for 90 percent of the $15 billion wagered on the sport.
"This is a wake-up call for you," Stearns said. "There's abuse in your industry. You know that better than I."
In the written testimony that Dutrow submitted, he owned up to numerous rules violations involving drugs and medications. He also said he began giving his horses steroids a few years ago at the recommendation of one of his veterinarians.
"People have asked me why I do it," he wrote. "My observation is that it helps the horses eat better. Their coats are brighter. They're more alert. It helps them train."
Dutrow also wrote that his horses had won hundreds of races while not on steroids. He said that they won two $1 million races last winter in Dubai, where steroids are prohibited.
"If steroids are banned in the United States, we'll stop using them," Dutrow wrote.
(c) The New York Times Company
Team Big Brown eyes merchandising blitz heading into Belmont Stakes.
NEW YORK - Get ready for Big Brown-themed Beanie Babies, lapel pins, ball caps and maybe even booze.
As Saturday's Belmont Stakes draw closer, the prized colt is the favourite to capture the first Triple Crown in 30 years. His handlers are already eyeing ways to cash in on the feat, if he wins, and that means merchandising - a lot of it.
"We're definitely going to mass market in a way that's never been done in our industry," said Kelly Wietsma, president of Equisponse, a horse racing marketing agency that represents Big Brown's owner, IEAH Stables. "I want every kid in America to be able to walk into a Wal-Mart and buy a Big Brown shirt or a Big Brown Beanie Babie."
To make that happen, IEAH has partnered with sports marketing firm 16W Marketing, which handles licensing and sponsorship deals for current and former players from the National Football League.
Big Brown's team is betting that big TV exposure for the Belmont coupled with the rarity of a Triple Crown shot will translate into major licensing and endorsements deals. There's even talk of Big Brown making that most-coveted pilgrimage usually reserved for the country's most celebrate athletes.
"We did get a phone call about him going to Disneyland," Wietsma said, adding that no decision has been made on the trip.
Frank Vuono, president of 16W Marketing, said other offers have been pouring in from companies eager to attach their products to Big Brown. While declining to name them or the financial terms of any deals, he said plans are in the works for apparel, memorabilia, collectibles, blankets and "probably an alcoholic beverage," among other products.
"It runs the gamut in licensing," Vuono said. "We've actually got the possibility to do postage stamps."
Big Brown, who is sponsored by UPS Inc., the shipping giant he was named after, is also being courted as a pitch horse for other brands and to make other appearances, Vuono said.
"I don't think you'll see him on David Letterman ... but you may see him in a milk moustache commercial or on a Wheaties box," he said.
But the splashy marketing blitz carries risks. For starters, Big Brown has to actually win Saturday's race for any licensing deals to go through. The undefeated three-year-old colt has a cracked left hoof but is still the odds-on favourite to win.
"All the licensing agreements are contingent on Big Brown winning the Triple Crown," Vuono said. "If he doesn't win, there won't be as much interest."
Besides losing, a soft economy could also foil purveyors of Big Brown schwag. Soaring costs for gas, food and other necessities have cut into Americans' wallets, seemingly making them less likely to rush out for Big Brown bobbleheads and tote bags.
But history may be on Big Brown's side: Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner, is still selling T-shirts, books, photographs and DVDs more than 20 years after his death.
And even Triple Crown losers have made out fine. Funny Cide, who won the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, got his own brand of beer, wine and ice cream after finishing third at the Belmont.
Leonard Lusky, president of Secretariat, which started in 2002 to sell licensed merchandise in the horse's name, said sales on the website usually jump by 30 to 40 per cent during the Triple Crown.
"I would say this year it's probably even a little bit more because of Big Brown," said Lusky. "When there's a Triple Crown on the line, it filters down. We all feel it."
Ben Erps, president of All Pro Championships Inc. in Louisville, the official Big Brown merchandise vendor at Saturday's Belmont, predicted people will hit souvenir stands with open wallets if Big Brown wins Saturday.
"The Big Brown effect will at least double our Belmont business and, if he wins, maybe triple it," said Erps, whose company will be selling T-shirts, caps, posters and bumper stickers. "Then we'll see what kind of legs he has, how well he continues to capture the public's imagination."
Some say Big Brown has already fallen short on that front. Unlike past champions Funny Cide, Barbaro and Smary Jones, Big Brown's face hasn't been plastered on the cover of national magazines and doesn't appear to have won over droves of casual fans.
Michael lavarone, Big Brown's co-owner, has rejected the idea that revelations that he was fined and suspended for securities violations in his 20s should detract from Big Brown's achievements.
"Everybody makes bad decisions," Iavarone said. "I think people see what we're about."
Looking ahead, he and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. insist Big Brown will race beyond Saturday if all goes well, though they've already signed a stud agreement with Three Chimneys Farm as part of a US$50-million deal - potentially removing him from the spotlight.
Lusky, the steward of Secretariat's image, said retiring Big Brown too quickly could weaken his allure among fans.
"If he's hustled off to stud and the public can't get an affection for him, he will not endure as strongly or as long," said Lusky. "You've got to promote your horse and keep the legacy alive."
(c) 2008 The Canadian Press
Land of rising horses
Casino Drive's victory in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 10 would have been a groundbreaking triumph for Japan's Thoroughbred industry had it occurred 15 years ago, when horsemen in the island nation were just beginning to test the international racing waters.
Today, the Kentucky-bred son of Mineshaft is one of numerous Japanese-trained horses to challenge for some of the biggest prizes throughout the racing world. Casino Drive, who won his only start in Japan before shipping to the United States this spring, will be the solid second choice in the betting when he tries to end Big Brown's Triple Crown bid in the June 7 Belmont Stakes. A victory would give his broodmare, Better Than Honour, an inconceivable three straight Belmont wins. She also produced 2006 winner Jazil and last year's winning filly, Rags to Riches.
The trend of Japanese horses winning major international races is similar to what has happened in Major League Baseball, where Hideo Nomo broke new ground for Japanese ballplayers when he left the Kintetsu Buffaloes and joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 (though San Francisco Giants reliever Masanori Murakami was actually the first Japanese-born player in the Major Leagues in 1964). Thirty-six Japanese players have followed Nomo to America since 1995.
Trainer Hideyuki Mori was the boldest internationalist among Japanese horse trainers, sending Ski Captain from Japan to the 1995 Kentucky Derby in the first attempt by a Japanese-based runner to win an American Triple Crown race. The Kentucky-bred colt by Storm Bird arrived at Churchill Downs amid great fanfare (and a huge group of Japanese photographers), but he was short on conditioning after having just one prep race earlier in the year in Japan. Ski Captain never threatened in the Derby, finishing 14th behind Thunder Gulch.
Later that year, Mori was at it again, sending Fujiyama Kenzan to Hong Kong for the international races in December. Mori succeeded this time, saddling the 7-year-old turf veteran for a win in the Group 2 Hong Kong Cup, making Fujiyama Kenzan the first horse in the history of Japanese racing to win a graded or group race abroad.
It was a proud moment for Japanese racing fans and for the owners, breeders, and trainers who had made a concerted effort over a period of years to improve the quality of bloodstock and horsemanship in Japan.
Mori wasn't finished with his international conquests. He hit another milestone in 1998 when the Seeking the Gold filly Seeking the Pearl became the first Japan-based runner to capture a Group 1 race in Europe by winning the Prix Maurice de Gheest in France. Two years later, Mori returned to Europe to win the Group 1 July Cup and Prix de l'Abbaye with Agnes World.
Casino Drive's trainer, Kazuo Fujisawa, got his first taste of international racing in the 1970s when he left his native Japan for England and worked in the Gavin Pritchard-Gordon stable in Newmarket. He returned to Japan, laboring as an assistant trainer for 10 years and working with horses such as Symboli Rudolph, the 1984 Japan Triple Crown winner. Symboli Rudolph was sent to the United States in 1986, where he competed in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita Park but suffered a career-ending tendon injury.
Fujisawa took out his trainer's license in 1987, and within six years was Japan's leading trainer by number of wins. Since 1993, he has won the training title 11 times and has guided three individual runners through Horse of the Year seasons (Taiki Shuttle, 1998; Symboli Kris S., 2002-03; and Zenno Rob Roy, 2004). The 56-year-old horseman is to Japanese racing what Woody Stephens or Charlie Whittingham were to American racing.
California racing fans saw the result of Fujisawa's training skills when Dance in the Mood scored an impressive victory in the 2006 CashCall Invitational Stakes at Hollywood Park, two years after she finished a troubled second in the American Oaks over the same turf course. A decade earlier, Fujisawa sent Taiki Blizzard to the United States for two unsuccessful tries in the Breeders' Cup Classic, finishing 13th in 1996 and sixth in 1997. His first major international victory came in 1998 when Taiki Shuttle won the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois in France.
Japanese fans will be watching closely when Edgar Prado takes Casino Drive to the post in the Belmont Stakes. The race will be televised live in Japan early Sunday morning on the JRA's Green Channel (a national racing network), and every major newspaper in Japan will be sending correspondents to New York to cover the race.
A victory by Casino Drive will be big news indeed, and not just because it would keep Big Brown from making history as racing's 12th Triple Crown winner. A win would lay further claim to the outstanding progress made in recent years by Japanese horses and horsemen.
(c) 2008 ESPN Internet Ventures
After finishing 2nd, Eight Belles breaks down
By MIKE JENSEN
Published: May 4th, 2008 07:02 PM
Last Modified: May 4th, 2008 07:02 PM
The jockey of Eight Belles said he felt his horse start to "gallop funny" Saturday after getting past the wire in the Kentucky Derby.
"I tried to pull her up, but she went down," Gabriel Saez, a 20-year-old from Panama, said just outside the jockeys' room at Churchill Downs.
A filly based at Delaware Park, Eight Belles had just finished second, 4 lengths behind the favorite, Big Brown, in this country's biggest horse race. Galloping out a good quarter-mile after it was over - part of the normal throttling-down after every horse race - Eight Belles went down because she had suffered fractures in both front legs. A bone had broken through the skin on her left leg.
She was euthanized immediately on the track, before her trainer even knew she had been injured.
His voice cracking, trainer Larry Jones later described how a shook-up Saez had told him afterward, "Larry, they put her down." Jones said he didn't comprehend what the jockey was saying, thinking Saez had misunderstood the situation.
"I said, 'How do you put a horse like this down?' Jones said. "Man, usually, they try to save them."
But Jones said he quickly got to his horse in the equine ambulance and saw the severity of the injuries.
"I checked her for myself," Jones said. "There was no decision to be made. She did not need to suffer - and she didn't suffer."
Jones said owner Rick Porter was "taking it pretty rough." Jones added, "We've taken criticism. We're going to be criticized and second-guessed. There is going to be somebody who will come up with 'That filly shouldn't have been in there.' I said that it wasn't the race. It wasn't the fact that 19 boys were in there. She never got bumped. She never did anything. She could have done this racing against Shetland ponies. It wasn't in the race where it happened."
Porter had said Jones originally was against running her in this race against 19 colts, but the trainer said during the week he was "at ease" with it. Afterward, Jones said that if Eight Belles had been showing stress getting to the line, he would have questioned himself severely for running against colts, but that wasn't the case.
No filly had run in the Kentucky Derby since 1999. Eight Belles was the 39th filly to race in the 134 runnings of the Derby and just the ninth since 1959. Three fillies have won it. The last was Winning Colors in 1988.
"In my years of racing, I have never seen this happen at the end of the race or during the race," said Larry Bramlage, the veterinarian answering questions at Churchill Downs, referring to injuries this severe after a race. "She didn't have a leg to stand on."
This was the latest tragic day for thoroughbred horse racing, a sport in which horses suffer lethal breakdowns an average of 1.5 times in every 1,000 starts, according to studies. But in the biggest races, that number has been higher lately. Most famously, Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, went down in the Preakness Stakes and was euthanized eight months later when his injuries led to laminitis.
In last year's Breeders' Cup Classic, the sport's big season-ending race, a colt named George Washington broke down and was euthanized on the track at Monmouth Park.
On Friday, a 4-year-old colt named Chelokee, trained by Barbaro's trainer, Michael Matz, broke down during a race. As it turned out, Chelokee hadn't suffered a fracture in his right front leg as originally suspected, although the dislocation in the leg still makes his survival a 50-50 proposition, said Bramlage, who is in charge of Chelokee's care at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky.
"It's a really bad dislocation, five centimeters," Bramlage said Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.
Later on, Bramlage said it was "plausible and maybe even likely" that the fractures suffered by Eight Belles began as microfractures during the race, although there was no visible indication of that when she passed the wire. Jones, watching his horse closely, said he was "very pleased that she hit the wire running" and that he saw her ears up as she galloped around after Big Brown.
Asked about a move she made toward the rail late in the race, which caused Saez to switch his whip from his right hand to his left, Jones said Eight Belles had done the same thing in her last race, that she had picked up the habit of veering toward the rail.
"Many injuries to horses don't show up until they are cooling out," Bramlage said. "They get little cracks during the race, and we don't know it until they go to the wash rack and walk off and they are lame in one leg or the other."
Eight Belles was the first horse to be euthanized at a Triple Crown race since Prairie Bayou in the 1993 Belmont.
Bramlage was asked whether this incident suggests that it's perhaps dangerous for a filly to race against colts in a race as demanding as the Derby.
"I would say no," Bramlage said. "One injury is not an epidemic. As bad as it seems right now, it's one incident. Fillies race against colts on an intermittent basis, and it's not like we see this as a routine. In fact, I've never seen it before."
Jones hadn't gotten a chance to talk further to Saez, who was hurrying to catch a plane after the race.
"I was just saying, I did get to see my son yesterday and my daughter today, and I got to see Eight Belles every day - she was family, she was with us for the last year," Jones said. "Losing animals like this isn't fun. It's not supposed to happen. I don't know what to say - we're heartbroken."
(c)Copyright 2008, The Anchorage Daily News, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company
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