Casey’s Racing Blog

Canadian businessman Frank Stronach’s Magna Entertainment (MEC) is in trouble. MEC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 5, 2009. Although many were not surprised by this, since MEC has had growing debt over the last year, it still comes as a blow to the horseracing industry.

Magna Entertainment Corporation (MEC) consists of racetracks, racehorse training centers, an off-the-track wagering business called Xpressbet, a 50% interest in the satellite channel HorseRacingTV, horse bedding company StreuFex, and property developments in North America and Europe. MEC is majority owned by Magna International Developments (MID), a shareholder spinoff from Magna International, Stronach’s auto parts company.

The depth of Stronach’s involvement in horseracing is astonishing. He privately owns Adena Springs, a large breeding and racing operation with facilities in Aurora, Ontario, Kentucky and Florida.

MEC’s racetrack holdings include some major players: Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in California, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course (home of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown) in Maryland, Gulfstream Park in Florida, Lone Star Park in Texas, as well as Remington Park, Thistledown Racecourse, and Portland Meadows in Oklahoma, Ohio, and Oregon respectively. That’s a lot of racetracks in trouble.

MEC’s assets will be auctioning off. Santa Anita Park, host of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup will be one of the racetracks on the auction block, as well as Pimlico Race Course. MID has made a “stalking horse bid”, an advanced bid to buy some of MEC’s assets including Gulfstream Park, Golden Gate Fields, the Palm Meadows Training Center, Lone Star Park, and XpressBet from debtors. In these economic times, the fate of the racetracks not in MID’s bid is up in the air. Who out there could possibly have the money or determination to buy assets that drove MEC to bankruptcy in the first place? Could there be closures? And with so many racing operations at stake, can racing handle to take such a hit?

MEC’s debt is estimated to be well over $500 million. According to the Blood-Horse.com, their 2008 net loss was estimated to be $294 million. Their working capital deficit was $501 million with an additional $453 million in debt. One of MEC’s major creditors is the Bank of Montreal, so the financial implication of the bankruptcy run deep for Canadians as well.

Is the future of horseracing as we know it at risk? Being a young person trying to get into the industry, I sure hope not! But times are looking bleaker at the moment. I look forward to some good news about this mess – like who these racetrack’s financial saviours might be…

Rags to Riches beating Curlin in the 2007 Belmont Stakes

Rags to Riches has a foal at foot. Born March 9, the filly looks just like her champion mum with a big white face. It is very exciting when a mare of Rags’ status has her first foal. The anticipation and expectation are still high as memories of the mare’s career still linger in everyone’s minds and her ability to pass on her great qualities is still unknown.

Rags to Riches found her place in racing history by winning the mile and a half Belmont Stakes in 2007. She beat two-time horse of the year Curlin and was the first filly to win the grueling race in more than 100 years. She also won the Las Virgenes, Kentucky Oaks, and Santa Anita Oaks that year.

Rags’ dam is the record price setting Better Than Honour, who was bought back for $14 million by Hill’N’Dale earlier last year when they dissolved their partnership with Southern Equine. Will Rags be the next Blue Hen mare in the family?

Dancethruthedawn '09

At Sam-Son Farm, we’ve also had an exciting new arrival. The mare Dancethruthedawn, a Queen’s Plate winner, had a colt by the stallion Stormy Atlantic. Maybe ‘baby Rags’ and ‘baby Dawn’ will face off in future? Maybe in the 2012 Triple Crown, who knows? But the hope is always there at these early stages.

I love the anticipation and optimism that arrives with each new foal. Just the idea possible great matings is exciting, and the potential that they hold. Although they don’t always pan out to be successful racehorses, they can still be loved for their bloodlines and looks alone!

To see a gallery of baby Rags and mum from the Blood-Horse.com go to:

http://gallery.bloodhorse.com/SlideShow/default.aspx?gallery=RagstoRiches1stfoal

Back to our theme of stallion selection…

Another factor in selecting stallions is the “X-factor” or heart size. Having a large heart is a good thing for athletes – human or horse. A larger heart means better capacity to oxygenate blood and circulate it to the muscles that need it to work harder. The X factor is the possession of an overly large heart, as seen in some of the most successful racehorses of all time, such as Secretariat who had a heart that was found to weigh around 22lbs.

Heart size is a co-dominant X-linked trait, meaning that a mare, with her XX genotype, has the possibility of carrying the gene on both her alleles. A male has the XY genotype and only has the option of carrying the gene on the X allele and meaning that he must get the trait from his mother. The large heart gene has been traced back through the Thoroughbred pedigree to the stallion Eclipse and through the broodmare Pocahontas.

A Heart Score is used to gain an idea of a horses heart size and can be measured simply by using an electrocardiogram since the height of the QRT wave directly correlates to heart size. A large heart, able to pump much more oxygenated blood than an average size heart, is obviously an advantage to a racehorse who needs maximal cardiac output during a race. A Heart Score over 120 is considered a large heart. Mares pass this X linked trait to their offspring, but mares are rarely double carriers, so results are hard to predict with certainty and the Thoroughbred heart is not full grown until age three, so using Heart Score as a prediction measure for horses of pre-racing age is hit and miss. It is useful to try to select for double X factor broodmares to ensure large hearted colts and fillies as offspring.

The lovely Stardom Bound

Again, there were some big Derby prep races this past weekend and some results that changed a few horse’s paths. The Gotham Stakes (GIII) at Aquaduct shot down the Whirlaway winner Haynesfield. His eighth place finish will do nothing for his reputation after winning three straight stakes races. Unless he gets another good performance under his belt, he could be off the Derby trail.

I Want Revenge came up the winner in the Gotham, and blew away his competition, winning by 8 ½ lengths. From his previous finish of third in the Robert B. Lewis, he really looked sharp and swept to a powerful win after sitting close behind the leader Mr. Fantasy the entire race. It was a really great win and I can’t wait to see him run again.

Imperial Council, an Empire Maker colt, finished second and Mr. Fantasy third.

The fabulous filly Stardom Bound, owned by IEAH Stables also raced on the weekend. She won the Santa Anita Oaks against the fillies, but just by a nose, and with some serious effort to do it. After so many decisive victories in the past, this tight win has raised some questions about whether or not her connections will decide to stick with racing against the girls and go for the Kentucky Oaks or if she will run against the boys in the Kentucky Derby come the first weekend in May. Hopefully we’ll see her back in her top form again in her next race.

Acronym, a filly that was one of my charges working at Juddmonte this past summer was scheduled to race against Stardom Bound, but unfortunately was scratched from the race. She won her first race in January and has yet to return. Hopefully we’ll get to see her out on the track again soon!

Now that a good number of foals of the ’09 season have been born, the breeding sheds are once again coming to life for the 2010 crop. Since the gestation of a mare is 11 months, mares are re-bred as soon as they start cycling again. But who to breed them to?

Picking the right stallion for your mare can truly be a game of luck, but there is strategy behind the method. Breeders usually use their own mix of selection parameters when deciding the perfect pairing of stallion and mare. Some of the best advice that one might hear is from a bloodstock agent, a specialist in deciding on matings and bloodline purchases. One method that bloodstock agents might use is the Dosage system.

Using the Dosage system, certain stallions from the general population are classified as “chef-de-race” stallions because of their ability to produce stakes winning offspring. These stallions are then categorized based on the quality or qualities that they pass on to their offspring. The possible qualities are Brilliant, Intermediate, Classic, Solid, and Professional. The system works as a scale with horses with high speed as their main quality being classified as Brilliant, and at the opposite end of the scale, horses having superior stamina are classified Professional with the range in between. To date there are 209 possible stallions listed as chef-de-race.

To use this in order to help our breeding decisions, the number (or dose) of Brilliant, Intermediate, Classic, Solid, and Professional chef-de-race ancestors that the horse has in its pedigree is calculated four generations back. This is called the horse’s Dosage Profile. This Dosage Profile shows the mix of speed and stamina that the horse has from its’ pedigree alone. A chef-de-race in the first generation of a pedigree is weighted eight times higher than a chef-de-race in the fourth generation to realistically assess each stallion’s impact on the horse in question.

An easier number to work with from the Dosage Profile is an interpretation called the Dosage Index, which is calculated by Brilliant+Intermediate+½Classic divided by ½Classic+Solid+Professional; that is to say, the ratio between the amount of speed versus the amount of stamina in the horses’ pedigree. A Dosage Index from 2-2.5 is ideal and has historically shown to be the most successful ratio for Grade 1 “Classic distance” winners. Classic races have the biggest purses and often the most public appeal for owners – for example the Kentucky Derby is North America’s premier Classic race. If breeding for a stayer, or longer distance racehorse, a number closer to one is to be desired while for sprinters a higher number is better.

This information can be used as a part of a breeding decision, by calculating the Dosage Profile or Index for the hypothetical foal using your mare and different potential stallions. If you want your next foal to win the Derby, then avoid too many chef-de-race stallions in the pedigree that are classed as Brilliant, unless they are equally balanced by stallions classed as Professional.

The Dosage system has its pros and cons as many selection methods do, but why not use all the tools available to you to help you make your decision? When used in conjunction with other selection methods, such as conformational suitability, “nicks” or sireline affinities, and simply breeding the best to the best, you will probably find some success.

To learn more about the Dosage System, see Dr. S.A. Roman’s “Dosage: Pedigree & Performance”