Casey’s Racing Blog

I have just read an article on The Bloodhorse.com about the death of Wanderin Boy yesterday after the Cigar Mile (GII) at Aqueduct and it has made me have some questions about the industry.

Wanderin Boy was a very fragile horse, and the article tells of his recurrent leg injuries. As a month old foal, Wanderin Boy fractured his sesamoid for the first time. As a two-year-old, he fractured his cannon bone and required screws. He then bucked his shins as a three-year-old and had to have them pin-fired. Wanderin Boy actually got a chance to race for the first time on recovery, only to fracture his other cannon bone, have screws put in again, race again, and develop an abscess in his hoof which had to grow out. Later in his career, he developed a severe stomach ulcer that required a stay at the New Bolton Center. In the midst of all these injuries, he won nine of twenty-four races over the course of five years. Which brings us to his sesamoid fracture yesterday and his euthanasia soon after the finish of the race.

Rather than see him happily leave racing before he really got started as a young horse, when the trainers first saw problems arising, they trained a weak-legged horse and asked him to compete with horses that did not have his particular physical handicaps. Never racing him would mean never winning a thing, and his owners needed results, I guess. And to me it seems like they wanted to make back any money they might have put into him. Due to his injuries as a foal, selling him was out of the picture, so what is an owner to do?

In my opinion, Wanderin Boy should never have been tried at the track after his first cannon bone fracture. When a horse is galloping at top speed, the slightest problems will work their way out pretty quickly. His owners knew that Wanderin Boy had problems from soon after birth! Maybe his pedigree, heart, and speed said yes, yes, yes to racing, but his conformation was clearly saying NO!

I might as well call this blog the Curlin Files since I write about my favourite fellow so much on here! But again, our champ Curlin is in the news. It has been announced that Curlin will stand at William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm for the 2009 breeding season for $75,000. We had previously heard that Curlin would indeed be standing at stud in the New Year, but his fee and location had yet to be determined.

Whether or not he will indeed run one more race this season, has yet to be seen. I’m sure it is the dream of everyone involved with this fabulous horse, to see him end his career on a win. One major race he was in contention for, and the last graded race with a high purse for older horses this year, is the Clark Handicap scheduled for November 28^th at Churchill Downs. Trainer Steve Asmussen said of the possibility of Curlin running in the Clark; “It’s not happening. With the pot dropping (from $500,000 to $400,000) and the weather being bad, it’s not going to happen.” Obviously the risk to Curlin is not worth the reward of one last go. But there still might be an option or two for Curlin to race again. A stakes race with a high purse could be created for Curlin, possibly at a warm weather track. Or he could make the trip to Hong Kong for the Cathay Pacific International Races on December 14^th. We’ll have to wait and see.

Other news involving Curlin relate to his ownership. Curlin has been majority owned by Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson Winery since after he broke his maiden as a three-year-old. Initially he bought 31% of him, with 29% bought by Satish Sanan, and 20% bought by George Bolton. The other 20% was retained by sellers Midnight Cry Stables. Gradually, Jackson first bought out Sanan with Bolton as a partner, and then bought out Bolton as well to have an 80% share in the horse.

Midnight Cry Stables is owned by Shirley Cunningham and William Gallion, two lawyers who sided for over 400 people in a class action lawsuit against the makers of diet drug ‘fen-phen’. They won a $200 million settlement for their clients, but were stripped of their law licenses in August 2006 for alleged misappropriation of the funds. During the ensuing suit against Cunningham and Gallion by their original clients, a $42 million (plus $20.1 million in interest) judgment was made against them and one other lawyer. A motion granted the 20% interest in Curlin’s ownership to the 418 clients.

All of this occurred since Curlin has become a superstar. This 20% interest was put up for private auction by way of a sealed bid. No acceptable offers were received. Jess Jackson has since made an offer of $4million. This has raised many questions surrounding Curlin’s value. By extrapolation, is Curlin worth $20million? Or is he worth more? A yearling named The Green Monkey was bought in 2006 by Coolmore for a record $16million, and he ended up being a dud, only winning $10,240 in three starts and never racing again. So the deliberations will continue, but for now, all we know is that Curlin will be in the breeding shed come January.

Again this week, we have been given proof that off the track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) are valuable horses after their done their traditional racing careers. The flat racehorse-turned-steeplechaser Good Night Shirt has just capped off a perfect 5 for 5 season on Sunday by winning the $150,000 Colonial Cup for a second time. He also won the Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase the last two years.

Steeplechase horses are often OTTBs since certain types of horses thrive better under different conditions. Steeplechase (or National Hunt) races are longer, with jumps or hurdles, and the pack is often more spread out. There also aren’t starting gates in steeplechasing, a plus for some of the more fearful Thoroughbreds out there. Steeplechasing is just one of the many disciples that ex-racehorses can have successful second careers in.

Racehorses are not pets to owners, and when their track careers are over, not every horse can retire to a comfortable pasture to produce foals for the rest of their life. It just would not be economically feasible for owners. For unsuccessful stallions and geldings especially, times would be tough if you didn’t have someone looking out for you. Luckily, trainers, owners, and breeders love horses and wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they didn’t. Everyone wants to see the best outcome, even if the horse was not a superstar on the track. So most owners actively find suitable second homes for their racehorses. Common second careers that usually are a perfect fit for these high strung athletes are as three-day event horses, field hunters, polo ponies, show jumpers and hunters, amateur dressage horses, and steeplechasers. And of course, a number of the unsound horse end up as wonderful backyard pets and trail horses.

There are a number of advantages to buying an OTTB. First and foremost, they are already broken to ride and are easy to handle since they have been worked with so frequently at a young age, a plus for the average amateur owner who probably doesn’t have the time or knowledge to break a horse to saddle, or retrain basic ground manners. These horses are fast when compared to Warmbloods or other pleasure horse breeds, even if they didn’t win on the track. This makes them very suitable for disciplines like eventing where speed and endurance is everything, and for polo where horses with agility and quick bursts of energy make the best mounts.

There are plenty of options for a retired Thoroughbred, and making them available to every horse should be an important part of every trainer and owner’s job description.

Better Than Honour

Although the amazing broodmare Better Than Honour sold for a record $14million at Fasig Tipton’s November sale, the Thoroughbred market continues to be stifled by the US financial troubles. Since the start of the Keeneland November mixed sale, the first six days have seen a cumulative gross down 46.3% from last year. 1,157 horses sold for a combined $154,902,200, down from $288,484,700 at last years’ sale. The sale’s average price dropped 36.3% from $210,266 to only $133,883 this year and the median has gone from $100,000 in 2007 to $70,000, a 30% decline.

But many breeders are still confident in their horses’ value, and are retaining any that they are not seeing adequate prices. They do this by having “reserves” on the animals so that they are bought back by the seller if they do not reach the reserve price. If a breeder is confident in their horse’s ability they will hang on to them until the market rebounds. In broodmares, this may mean keeping them for another season or two and selling the foals either with the mare, as weanlings, or as yearlings. Those not seeing good prices for weanlings have the easy option of delaying their sale until next year’s yearling sales.

But good horses are still bringing good prices. At Fasig Tipton November, a sale dedicated to very select horses and the very top end of the market, the gross, average and median all rose from last year. The bulk of this was due to the dispersal of Southern Equine and Hill ‘N’ Dale’s jointly owned horses of which Better Than Honour was one of them. The next highest price went to Stardom Bound, winner of this year’s Breeder’s Cup Juvenile, for $5.7million.

Good horses have value far into the future, even if the economy is not the greatest. A broodmare bought today could produce stakes winning foals for the next ten years of her life, and for that, her value as a “blue-hen mare” can never really be affected by the markets.

With racing season for many coming to a close after the Breeders’ Cup and breeding season ominously waiting in the wings, there have been a plethora of stud announcements in the last few weeks.

New Approach, First Defence, Big Brown, Lewis Michael, Henrythenavigator, Midnight Lute, Street Boss, and Student Council, and the list goes on! An impressive collection of winners to say the least!

For me, the most exciting announcement was probably that of the addition of First Defence to the stallion roster at Juddmonte Farms. I worked at Juddmonte for the summer and First Defence shows the classic Juddmonte lines and a similar nick to current Juddmonte stallions and Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker, in that both have a Toussaud (El Gran Senor) / Unbridled matchup. First Defence’s comes in the form of Honest Lady, Toussaud’s second foal and first filly crossed with Unbridled’s Song, a son of Unbridled. Honest Lady herself was a multiple grade 1 winner, clearing almost $900,000 in earnings. Honest Lady’s dam Toussaud, has produced five graded stakes winners from five different sires, a truly amazing feat, and was awarded Broodmare of the Year in 2003!

Big Browns’ retirement to stud has long been in the works, as Three Chimneys Farm paid a rumored $75 million for his breeding rights well before his retirement and even before the running of the last leg of the Triple Crown, this year’s Belmont Stakes. New Approach and Street Boss will stand at Darley, Henrythenavigator at Coolmore America, and Midnight Lute to Hill ‘N’ Dale. With so many great colts retiring to stud, it will definitely be a competitive year for first crop yearlings in 2011!