Horse with shot at Triple Crown has local lawyers
Big Brown could soon become the first horse in 30 years to win racing's Triple Crown.
Mike Doctrow could soon become the first lawyer in at least 30 years to represent a Triple Crown winner.
"I am rooting for Big Brown in a big way," said the Harrisburg attorney, who is handling licensing and branding issues for the horse.
Big Brown won the May 3 Kentucky Derby and the May 17 Preakness Stakes, leaving just the June 7 Belmont Stakes between the horse and his crown.
Doctrow's firm, McNees Wallace & Nurick, began to represent horses by chance. Roy Chapman, a Philadelphia auto dealer whose business the firm represented, also happened to be the owner of Smarty Jones, a 2004 Triple Crown hopeful. Smarty Jones won the Derby and the Preakness but lost the Belmont.
Now, Doctrow and his team are experts in horse merchandise - T-shirts, hats, books, glassware, bobblehead dolls, stuffed animals and the like. The lawyers help pick the manufacturers that will make all that stuff, all in about three weeks. They also must fight frauds. This year, the work includes co-branding agreements with UPS Inc., the Atlanta shipping firm the horse is named after.
As with any sport, the event is only part of the story that matters to people, Doctrow said.
"The personalities behind it are what help to sell merchandise," he said. And behind those personalities, their lawyers.
(c) 2008 Journal Publications Inc.
Canadian Hall of Fame nominees announced
Smart Strike, the sire of 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin whose progeny earned a North American record $14,475,153 last year, is one of six Thoroughbreds nominated for induction into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farms, Smart Strike became the first stallion to sire three Grade 1 winners at the same track on the same day when Curlin, English Channel, and Fabulous Strike all posted wins at Belmont Park on September 30, 2007.
Curlin, the 2007 champion three-year-old male, won last year's Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) at Belmont. On the same card, '07 champion turf male English Channel won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes (G1) and Fabulous Strike captured the Vosburgh Stakes (G1).
Grade 1 winner Smart Strike stands for $150,000 at Lane's End in Versailles, Kentucky.
Lane's End also stands Canadian Hall of Fame nominee Wando for $5,000. The 2003 Canadian Horse of the Year, champion three-year-old male, and Canadian Triple Crown winner, Wando was owned by Gustav Schickedanz, who also bred the Langfuhr horse in Ontario.
Peteski, the 1993 Canadian Horse of the Year, champion three-year-old male, and Canadian Triple Crown winner, also was nominated. Barry Schwartz bred Peteski in Ontario.
Alywow, the 1994 Canadian Horse of the Year, champion three-year-old filly, and champion grass horse, is one of three nominees in the female category. Kinghaven Farms owned Alywow, and bred the Alysheba mare in Ontario along with Kinghaven Management.
Other nominees in the female category are 1992 Canadian champion older mare Wilderness Song and dual Canadian champion Rainbow Connection.
Three-time Sovereign Award winner Robert Tiller is one of three trainers nominated. The others nominees are veteran western Canadians David Forster and R.A. "Red" McKenzie, who has also served as a blacksmith, jockey, and breeder.
Schickedanz is nominated in the veteran's committee along with Louis Cauz, a Sovereign Award winning writer who is managing director and curator of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Bruce Walker, a three-time Sovereign Award winner for outstanding feature story who spent 30 years as publicity director for the Ontario Jockey Club, was also nominated.
A 20-person election committee will determine the latest class of Hall of Fame inductees, which will be announced on May 20. The induction ceremony will take place on August 28 at the Mississauga Convention Centre.
(c) Copyright 2008, Thoroughbred Times.
Pletcher, Asmussen back at Derby following '07 classic triumphs
Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher is not about to let the fact that he is winless with 19 previous Kentucky Derby (G1) starters temper his enthusiasm for this year's race.
Neither is trainer Steve Asmussen, who has brought seven horses to the Derby since 2001 and also has yet to saddle a winner.
Each is back with a pair of entries this year --Pletcher with Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) first- and second-place finishers Monba and Cowboy Cal, Asmussen with Grade 2 winner Pyro and Grade 3 winner Z Fortune-- and convinced that, if things go right, this could be his year.
Pletcher knows he is going to be asked over and over this week about his record in the first leg of the Triple Crown and believes it is only a matter of time until he finds himself in the Churchill Downs winner's circle.
"I don't know that 'bothers me' would be the right way to describe it," Pletcher said when asked if he gets aggravated when people bring up his lack of success in the Derby. "I would love to win the Kentucky Derby. But as I've said many, many times before, I don't base our stable success, you know, just on the Kentucky Derby.
"And like I said before, I think we've done a pretty good job of preparing our horses. We've done a very good job of getting a lot of horses to the Derby. And now, you know, I feel confident, if we show up with the right horse, we can get the job done. But, you know, if it happens, great; but if it doesn't, then we'll continue to try."
Pletcher is tied with Racing Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito in third with 19 career starters, well short of mentor D. Wayne Lukas's record 42 starters since 1981. Pletcher recorded his best finish in 2006, when Bluegrass Cat finished second to Barbaro, and also had a third- and fourth-place finish with Impeachment and More Than Ready, respectively, in 2000 and another fourth with Limehouse in '04.
Pletcher did, however, score his first classic victory last season when Rags to Riches became the first filly in 102 years to win the Belmont Stakes (G1) following a dramatic stretch drive with Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Curlin, who is trained by Asmussen.
"It was our first classic win and, in some ways, got that monkey off our back," Pletcher said. "To do it with a filly, you know, in the dramatic fashion that it was done and to beat a horse of the quality of Curlin, it couldn't have been any more exciting. So, you know, I thought it was a huge win.
"But the way our business works is that was on a Saturday. The next day you've got to try to win something else. So, you know, we're not resting on those laurels. We're hoping to add some more to it."
Curlin went on to capture the Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (G1) and this year's $6-million Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1), giving Asmussen a 12-month run most trainers only dream about.
Curlin finished third in last year's Derby --Asmussen's best career finish in the race-- but solidified Asmussen's belief that his horse was something truly special.
He is hoping to see the same positives in Pyro and Z Fortune but knows this will be their only shot at Derby glory.
"You're only three once," he said. "Curlin getting beat in this race goes to show you how tough it is. Here we are a year later with new horses, and [Curlin] won't get that chance again. There's only one chance to win the Derby. That's it."
Asmussen said he has not changed anything in the wake of last year's success with Curlin and plans to continue making the trip to Churchill Downs each May until he ends up with a winner.
"You can't care what anyone else thinks," he said. "You guys have your opinions, and that's great. Go tell everyone what you think. I'm just trying to get my horses ready to run in a race, just like I would any race.
"Pyro and Z Fortune are very good horses, but they're going to have to step up on the biggest stage on the biggest day of their lives and run the race of their lives. If they don't, they won't win. It's pretty simple."
Much more simple than actually winding up in the winner's circle on the first Saturday in May.
(c) Copyright 2008, Thoroughbred Times.
Just Like Yesterday
There are moments along the Triple Crown trail that remain forever etched in our minds. For this writer, one of those was April 27, 1978.
Prior to the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland, then run just nine days before the Run for the Roses, Jorge Velasquez slowly walked local favorite Alydar from the post parade and toward the outside rail. There, the jockey stood the dark chestnut before his elderly, frail owners, Adm. and Mrs. Gene Markey.
The Markeys, who owned historic Calumet Farm near Keeneland, beamed as their latest star stood glistening under the farm's easily recognizable red and blue silks and blinkers.
Though it happened 30 years ago, one can still see the station wagon pulling onto the grass beside the clubhouse, and Mrs. Markey walking to the rail with the aid of a Keeneland usher.
For a racing crazy University of Kentucky student in the last year of his teens, Alydar winning that day by 13 meant only one thing-he would be Calumet's ninth Kentucky Derby winner.
Of course, it was not to be. Alydar's nemesis, Affirmed, won all three Triple Crown races, and Alydar became the only horse to run second throughout the classic series. In fact, the Derby (gr. I) was by far the least exciting of the three races, Affirmed scoring by 1 1/2 lengths. The two were separated by only a neck in the Preakness (gr. I), and put on a show in the Belmont (gr. I) that will be recorded as one of the greatest races of all time. For the final six-plus furlongs, they ran together, Affirmed a determined head in front at the wire.
The evening of April 20, 2008, this writer watched the 1978 Triple Crown races for the first time in 30 years. And as Alydar put his head briefly in front at the three-sixteenths pole in the Belmont, emotions rushed back of knowing Alydar would get his revenge in the Test of the Champion.
We all know what happened. Affirmed was that good.
As a 2-year-old, Affirmed made nine starts and won seven. He finished second twice… to Alydar.
As a 2-year-old, Alydar made 10 starts and won five. He finished second four times. His connections thought so much of him they ran him first time out in the Youthful Stakes at Belmont, which Affirmed won by five lengths, with Alydar finishing fifth. Affirmed would beat him three more times that year, and Alydar also finished second in the Remsen Stakes (gr. II) to Believe It.
A few weeks ago, The Blood-Horse arranged to reunite the jockeys of Affirmed (Steve Cauthen) and Alydar (Velasquez). Features editor Lenny Shulman asked questions, replayed the Triple Crown races, and sat back and listened for two hours. As he notes in his introduction, the tape of the races was really not needed-each day, each workout, each step of the races remembered as if it were yesterday.
Besides the remembrance in this issue, four lengthy video pieces with the jockeys will air in the coming weeks.
It was a great rivalry, perhaps the greatest.
"Alydar and Affirmed were six or seven lengths better than the rest of their generation. Simple as that. Alydar would run away from his fields, but Affirmed would only do it when Alydar was there to make him do it," Cauthen said.
"These two horses were like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. They always brought the best out in each other," Velasquez said.
"The longest three weeks of my life was the time between the Preakness and the Belmont," Cauthen said, later adding, "There wasn't a lot between those two horses. One small mistake, one little thing, can switch it either way."
It is the stuff movies are made of.
Here's hoping some movie producer thinks so.
bloodhorse.com
Quartet of Millionaires for Jenny Wiley
A long wait for the spring thaw and the return of top-level turf racing to Kentucky helped produce an extraordinarily tough group of 10 older fillies and mares for the $200,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes (gr. IIT) at Keeneland April 12. Grade I winners Precious Kitten, Rutherienne, and Bit of Whimsy and the last two Canadian Horse of the Year winners, Arravale and Sealy Hill, account for half of the field.
The others aren't too shabby, either, led by multiple graded winner Lady of Venice and grade III victor Roshani in the 1 1/16-mile grass assignment. There are four millionaires ready to line up.
Bit of Whimsy kicks off her 2008 campaign for trainer Barclay Tagg as the 123-pound co-high weight in the Jenny Wiley. The 4-year-old Distorted Humor filly, owned by Joyce B. Young and Gerald McManis, raised eyebrows with her smashing 2 1/4-length come-from-behind win over Dreaming of Anna in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (gr. IT) over the Keeneland course Oct. 13. The chestnut filly wrapped up her season with a half-length triumph in Churchill Downs' Mrs. Revere (gr. IIT), also in strong closing stye, one month later.
Raced seven times as a sophomore, Bit of Whimsy won four and ran second twice while earning $551,533. She has been training at Gulfstream Park in forward fashion for her return, and will have regular pilot Javier Castellano aboard while breaking from post position 5.
Ken and Sarah Ramsey's millionaire Precious Kitten is another returning to the turf wars after a nice rest. The 5-year-old homebred Catienus mare tortured the Southern California turf distaff ranks for trainer Bobby Frankel during the second half of 2007. In front-running style, she won the John C. Mabee (gr. IT) and Palomar (gr. IIT) handicaps at Del Mar during the summer, then wrapping up the year with a 1 1/4-length victory over Wait a While in Hollywood Park's Matriarch (gr. IT) Nov. 25. She won more than $1 million in 2007 while first or second in eight of nine starts.
Precious Kitten, also assigned 123 for the Wiley, has her regular rider in Rafael Bejarano. She boasts a lifetime mark of 7-8-1 in 19 tries with earnings of $1,419,688 and placed second behind Vacare in Keeneland's one-mile First Lady (gr. IIT) in her only effort over the course last fall.
Virginia Kraft Payson's 4-year-old filly Rutherienne also makes her 2008 bow for trainer Christophe Clement after winning six of eight starts -- five of them consecutively in stakes -- as a sophomore. Her season was topped by a two-length win in the Del Mar Oaks (gr. IT) in August. The dark bay daughter of Pulpit comes off a victory in the 7 1/2-furlong Frances A. Genter (gr. IIIT) on the Calder lawn Dec. 29.
Rutherienne, to be ridden by Garrett Gomez, who has experience with her, has won eight of 10 starts lifetime -- all on grass -- while banking $620,975.
The millionaire Arravale is a fourth grade I winner here, having captured the 2006 E.P. Taylor Stakes (Can-I) at Woodbine en route to Canadian Horse of the Year honors. Trained by MacDonald Benson for owner Robert J. Costigan, the 5-year-old Arch mare never approached that form in 2007. She was winless in five tries culminating in a seventh-place finish in the Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) on Monmouth Park's soft course Oct. 27. The Kentucky-bred Arravale, who has won five of 13 and earned $1,111,580 in her career, will once again have Jose Valdivia Jr. aboard.
Arravale's Canadian-based counterpart, Sealy Hill, makes her first start since giving way in the final strides to Mrs. Lindsay in the 2007 E.P. Taylor Oct. 21. Victories in the Canadian triple crown for fillies earlier in the year catapulted Eugene Melnyk's Ontario-bred daughter of Point Given to her Horse of the Year award for trainer Mark Casse. The dark bay has earned $1,087,794 while winning six of 11 lifetime starts.
Lady of Venice, a 5-year-old French-bred mare owned by Martin Schwartz, won three of six starts and more than $835,000 in 2007 for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, including the rich CashCall Mile (gr. IIT) at Hollywood Park in July. The chestnut ran third, 2 1/2 lengths behind Precious Kitten, in the Matriarch, her last start. Lady of Venice is yet another millionaire in the field, having amassed earnings of $1,118,771 while winning seven of 13 lifetime.
The Todd Pletcher trainee Roshani tuned up for the Wiley with a 1 1/2-length allowance victory at one mile on the Santa Anita turf March 9, her first start since being placed second in the Violet Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Meadowlands last September. She won Monmouth's Matchmaker (gr. IIIT) last August.
Swingit won her only start over the Keeneland course as a 2-year-old in the fall of 2006, taking the Jessamine County Stakes, and comes off a runner-up finish in the Bayou Handicap at Fair Grounds Feb. 23 for trainer Hal Wiggins.
Candy Ball won back-to-back stakes at Fair Grounds in her last two starts for trainer Andrew Leggio Jr.
Stormy West claimed a one-mile allowance race on the Gulfstream turf by nearly two lengths last time out for Bill Mott.
$200,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes (gr. IIT, Race 6 April 12, 3:40 p.m.), Fillies & Mares 4 & Up, 1 1/16 Miles (Turf)
PP. Horse, Weight, Jockey
1. Candy Ball (KY), 117, Jamie Theriot
2. Roshani (KY), 119, John R. Velazquez
3. Sealy Hill (ON), 117, Patrick Husbands
4. Rutherienne (KY), 119, Garrett K. Gomez
5. Bit of Whimsy (KY), 123, Javier Castellano
6. Stormy West (KY), 117, Kent J. Desormeaux
7. Swingit (KY), 117, James Graham
8. Precious Kitten (KY), 123, Rafael Bejarano
9. Lady of Venice (FR), 119, Edgar S. Prado
10. Arravale (KY), 117, Jose Valdivia, Jr.
Copyright (c) 1905-2008 The Blood-Horse, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Pincay recalls Affirmed ride
Laffit Pincay Jr. can't believe it's been 30 years since he rode Affirmed to an easy victory in the San Anita Derby.
"It seems like it was a couple of years ago," he said.
It was April 1978, and Pincay, subbing for the suspended Steve Cauthen, guided Affirmed to an eight-length victory over Balzac on the colt's way to becoming the last Triple Crown winner.
This year's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby will be run Saturday and be televised by NBC.
Pincay, who had surrendered a chance to ride Affirmed in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga when he was 2 because he didn't want to give up some live mounts at Del Mar, had to win a coin flip with fellow Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. to ride the Laz Barrera-trained colt in the Santa Anita Derby.
"My agent tossed the coin and called face (heads), and the face came up so I got to ride him," Pincay recalled. "I still have the coin someplace. I was trying to look for it the other day and I couldn't find it. But I'll find it some day."
By this time, the front-running Affirmed already had started a fierce rivalry with the stretch-running Alydar, the top colt in the East trained by John Veitch. They raced against each other six times as juveniles and Affirmed held a 4-2 edge.
The day before Affirmed romped in the Santa Anita Derby, Alydar scored a similar victory in the Florida Derby, and the hype was on in anticipation of their clash in the Kentucky Derby.
"I liked my chances (in the Santa Anita Derby), and he ran like he was supposed to," Pincay said. "I knew he'd be really tough in the Kentucky Derby." Showing that Pincay was as good a prognosticator as he was a jockey, Cauthen led Affirmed to a 1 1/2-length victory over Alydar in the Derby, beat him again by a neck in the Preakness and then prevailed by a neck in the Belmont after the two raced as a team virtually the final mile of the 1 1/2- mile marathon.
Cauthen considers the Triple Crown run one of the greatest times of his life and vividly recalls the Belmont stretch duel.
"I would say he (Alydar) got level," Cauthen said. "He might have gotten fractionally in front, but very fractionally, for a stride or two.
"There was a lot of doubt (about winning), but once I hit him left-handed and he responded, then yeah, I was pretty confident we were going to get home. But it was nip and tuck all the way."
Although Cauthen knows what a terrific feat it is to win a Triple Crown, he was surprised that colts like Spectacular Bid and Alysheba fell short in their bids.
"There have been a lot of other horses that it didn't surprise me that they didn't do it, even though they won the first two," he said.
"It will happen when it's time. Above all, I think it takes a little bit of divine intervention along with a great horse and a lot of luck."
Pincay still ponders what might have been if he'd flown east in August 1977 to ride Affirmed in the Hopeful. It could have been him aboard the son of Exclusive Native in the Triple Crown series rather than Cauthen, who was fired by Barrera early in Affirmed's 4-year-old campaign after he lost the Malibu and San Fernando at Santa Anita.
"It's just really sad that I lost a great horse, but I guess it happens," Pincay said.
But Pincay regained the mount in time to win seven stakes in 1979, including the Strub Stakes, Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup, Woodward Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Overall, Pincay won eight times in nine tries aboard Affirmed. The only loss came via disqualification in the 1978 Travers Stakes while subbing for an injured Cauthen.
"There's no question about it that he's the best horse I ever rode," Pincay said. "He was a fighter, and he's also the smartest horse I ever rode."
The final tally in the Affirmed-Alydar rivalry: Affirmed 7, Alydar 3.
"It was one of the greatest (rivalries) ever," Cauthen said.
Affirmed, named Horse of the Year in 1978 and '79, was euthanized in 2001 because of laminitis, a circulatory hoof disease that also claimed the lives of Secretariat and Barbaro.
He won 22 of 29 lifetime with earnings of nearly $2.4 million.
"I had some of the greatest times of my life on that horse," Cauthen said.
Copyright (c)2008
Los Angeles Newspaper group
The Day at the Races
Pimlico will be Special again: Few races with histories as rich as the Pimlico Special have had such tortured existences. The race was on ice for nearly four decades between 1959 and 1987, and last year was the second time this decade that financial woes have prevented the Maryland Jockey Club from putting up the purse necessary to stage the race. On Tuesday, they announced the return of the Pimlico Special for 2008, which will be run on Friday, May 16 as the feature race on the day before Preakness card. Because the race was off the calendar only one year, it will retain its Grade I status.
First run in 1937, the Pimlico Special was won by that year's Triple Crown winner, War Admiral. The next year, War Admiral was defeated by Seabiscuit in their famous match race. In the '40s, Triple Crown winners Whirlaway and Citation both won it in walkovers, and fellow Triple Crown winner Assault also won the Special. Since the Special's return in 1988, the honor roll includes classic winners Bet Twice, Strike the Gold, and Real Quiet plus five horses - Criminal Type, Cigar, Skip Away, Mineshaft and Invasor - who went on to be voted Horse of the Year.
PICK SIX: Longshot Credit at Tiffany's ($53) was not enough to foil the pick six on a day when nearly $1 million was bet into a carryover pool of nearly a quarter of a million. The winning payout was $30,910 to 25 winners with $166 for 1,076 consolation tickets.
YESTERDAY'S CARD:
2ND: Apprentice Sebastian Morales got a face full of mud but was otherwise none the worse for wear after Cat Radio stumbled leaving the gate and dropped the rider. The loose horse proved a nuisance, bumping with and pinning Giant's Sister along the rail early, bothering Jeannine Joy on the clubhouse turn and later evading the grasp of the first outrider on the scene to corral him. The winner, Blue Hill Bay, was in front at every pole.
3RD: Executive Fleet took over from Bishop Court Hill at the three-sixteenths pole and rolled on from there. Hurrah appeared to be pulled up by Alan Garcia on the backstretch. But after falling far behind the field he continued to run and completed the six furlongs while always far back.
4TH: The only anxious moments for Explosive Count were when the 10-year-old took a series of bad steps inside the 16th pole. Morales, who had fallen earlier in the day, hustled him to the front early and even though he was tiring late, so were his closest rivals. He recovered well from the bobbles and galloped out with authority.
5TH: The longest shot of the day prevailed in a wild finish in which she held on for dear life while buried nearest the rail in a three-horse blanket finish. With the naked eye it appeared Chanced had overcome a tardy start to just get up, but the photos proved otherwise.
8TH: Sweet Vendetta gave Channing Hill a riding double but bled in the process.
9TH: If you had Queen of Fashion in the pick four or pick six, you missed out on cashing in by $1,201. That's how narrow the margin was between favorite Sweet Slam and winner Count This Senora. Late scratches in the pick four and pick six revert to the post time favorite.
(c) Copyright 2008
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