Horse racing

Racing has a future in Texas

At least Texas racing has a future.

For two years, Lone Star Park languished in bankruptcy-bureaucratic limbo. Simple survival became the objective. Prospering, improving, progressing – Lone Star couldn’t afford such objectives and goals. But it can now.

Lone Star is suddenly in the hands of people who are actually interested in seeing both the sport and the racetrack prosper. The sale of Lone Star Park – by bankrupt Magna to Global Gaming Solutions of Oklahoma for $47.8 million -- was the best thing to happen to Texas horse racing since the Breeder’s Cup came here in 2004, perhaps since the racetrack opened for racing in 1997.

And, amazing as it seems, some opposed the sale. Or for those who understand Texas politics perhaps it wasn’t so amazing. But Allan Polunsky, the ex-officio member of the Texas Racing Commission representing the Public Safety Commission, actually voted against it – and, by the way, voting against the sale was tantamount to voting to close Lone Star and to kill Texas horse racing. The representative of the Comptroller’s office abstained from voting, clearly not supporting the sale. Nevertheless, at last week’s meeting in Austin, despite its ex-officio members, the Texas Racing Commission finally approved the sale of Lone Star Park, meaning the transfer of the lease and the license, and Monday the transaction was finalized. And so at least Texas racing has a future now, despite the bureaucrats.

Only the fanciful would suggest it’s a bright, gleaming future. Only the fanciful would imagine that politicians in Austin will one day ask themselves what’s best for the state. But at least Texas racing has a future.

And that future should be, almost certainly will be, better than the present. Texas racing, you’ve probably noticed, has become irrelevant. As purses have fallen, especially in comparison to those in neighboring states, and as horses and horsemen have fled the state, Texas racing has lost its heft, its significance, and the quality has evaporated, like the morning’s dew. Except for a few days, the quality has all but disappeared. Just look at Thursday’s program at Lone Star: Of the nine races, five are for maidens. And they’re not even good maidens. The only people interested in such racing are the participants – and perhaps masochistic handicappers.

“We want to take a good hard look at the racing product and see what we can do to improve it,” said John Elliott, the CEO of Global Gaming Solutions. “And we want to look at possible synergies with Remington Park.”

Global Gaming purchased Remington Park in late 2009 and began operating the Oklahoma City racetrack Jan. 1, 2010. Since then, Global has invested $15 million in the facility and basically turned everything around, with dramatic increases in handle, attendance and purses.

Global Gaming also owns and operates WinStar, one of the world’s largest casinos, where many top entertainers have performed in recent years. And so in terms of synergies and of bringing world-class entertainment to the area, Global Gaming, Elliott said, has many resources and considerable purchasing power.

Elliott said that almost immediately Global Gaming will start “looking at improvements” that can be made at Lone Star. “We don’t believe the simulcast facility (The Pavilion) there is up to speed,” Elliott said. “It’s not up to the standards expected for the Dallas market. It needs an overhaul.”

Lone Star’s stable area desperately needs attention. Many of the televisions in the grandstand and most off the betting machines are tired and need to be replaced. The new owners, Elliott said, “are going to move as quickly” as they can to make improvements.

At least Texas racing has a future that will almost certainly be a vast improvement on its recent past. And, frankly, the Dallas-Fort Worth market is so strong and the people here are so involved and interested in racing that a person doesn’t have to be fanciful but merely optimistic to think that racing at Lone Star could be relevant again.

 

Lone Star sold -- finally

The Texas Racing Commission today approved the transfer of ownership of Lone Star Park from Magna Entertainment to Global Gaming Solutions, which is owned by the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, and Racing Partners of Texas, with Ricky Knox as the principal partner. The sale, for $47.8 million, had been approved by a Delaware bankruptcy court in October of 2009 and had been waiting for the racing commission's imprimatur ever since.

Today, the transfer was approved by a 7-1 vote, with one abstention. Representatives of the new and former owners are to meet Monday to finalize closing documents.

 

Impossible to cheer for Animal Kingdom

For me and, I suspect, for many, if not most, people in horse racing, Barry Irwin has made it impossible to cheer for Animal Kingdom or to find much joy in the horse's Kentucky Derby victory.

Yes, Animal Kingdom gave an outstanding performance, and as a lightly raced colt who's physically impressive he could go on to achieve much. He's exciting. And, yes, his trainer, Graham Motion, is universally respected and regarded as one of the game's good guys. But then there's Barry Irwin.

After the Derby, as has been reported in many places, when asked why he turned over all the horses in the Team Valor partnership to Motion, Irwin told NBC that he was "tired of other trainers lying" to him. How many trainers? "Plenty," Irwin said.

That's nice. In effect, he told a national audience that "plenty" of trainers are contemptible liars who can't be trusted. And, of course, if trainers can't be trusted, then how can the sport expect the trust of its fans and bettors?

Irwin's response is also telling because it reveals an uncommon level of self-absorption. When asking the question, Bob Neumeier no doubt expected, as did everyone listening, Irwin to launch into an encomium on the talents and horsemanship of Motion. But, no, Irwin made the question about him.

When learning of this, I couldn't help but wonder how Beverly and Bob Lewis might have responded. They won two Derbies, of course, with Silver Charm and Charismatic. Bob Lewis, who usually did most of the talking for the pair, was one of the most gracious owners ever to raise a trophy. And they were equally gracious in defeat.

Bob Lewis would have gone on praising Motion, as well as every trainer who ever had a horse for them, until Neumeier was forced to grab the microphone away from him. And Lewis would have continued with that theme, bringing in the jockey for his share of credit, too, in the post-Derby press conference. But Irwin, whose partnership had just won $1.4 million, used the post-Derby press conference to take an implicit poke at Churchill Downs.

If horse racing has gone from Beverly and Bob Lewis to Barry Irwin, then the game is indeed in trouble. 

Post-Derby impressions

LOUISVILLE -- Fog-encrusted, this morning at Churchill Downs felt strange: strange anyway for a day after a Kentucky Derby. Something was missing, or at least scarce.

The morning felt peculiar because of a paucity of excuses. The Louisville air is generally thick with them after a Kentucky Derby. Excuses come up with the sunrise; they're served with breakfast, part of a coffee slurry; everybody has one or a even a few, it seems, except the winner, who, of course, doesn't need one.

But that wasn't the case with the 137th Derby. Archarcharch and Comma To The Top were injured. Archarcharch was to have surgery today. And Pants On Fire bled internally. But of the usual excuses -- wide trip, bumping, unmanageable traffic -- there were few. Dialed In didn't break well, but he never does. Nehro had to race wide, but not significantly wider than the winner. Nobody could say that with a better trip he might have been there to pose for a picture with Animal Kingdom at the wire. And so the morning felt strange, but in a good way, like silk.

Animal Kingdom was best Saturday. Although the pace was moderate, he blew by horses in the stretch. He left no doubt about his superiority Saturday. And although the Derby horses as a group have been maligned, and justifiably, the race was strong. Or at least stronger than many might have expected. Because Animal Kingdom is so lightly raced -- the Derby was only his fifth start -- and because there are many outstanding 3-year-olds who yet could become prominent players in the division over the next few months, this could still become an exciting season.

Still, the promising 3-year-olds I have in mind, such as Bind and Dominus, probably won't arrive at their best until late summer or early fall. Until then, what will be Animal Kingdom's competition?

We celebrate the Triple Crown winners, and rightly so, for it's the sport's ultimate challenge to sweep the three jewels, but an important factor in the achievement always has been the quality of the horses defeated. Would Omaha have swept the Triple Crown in 1935 if he had to meet an Easy Goer in the Belmont? Probably not. Would Easy Goer have swept the Triple Crown if not for that black streak of a racehorse from California, Sunday Silence? Probably.

Anyway, it's on to the Preakness, and although some of these 3-year-olds might catch up with him down the road, Animal Kingdom, at least for the moment, appears best of the group. This morning, Animal Kingdom was doing well, according to his trainer, Graham Motion, who said that unless something completely unexpected arises, the Derby winner will make his next start at Pimlico. Tuesday, he's to leave for the Fair Hill Training Center, which is very near PImlico.

As for Nehro, the Derby runner-up, he would seem unlikely for the Preakness. His owner, Ahmed Zayat, said, "If you looked at him right now, you'd think you'd be out of your mind to run in Baltimore. It's more probable we'd aim for the Belmont, but I guess we are still possible for the Preakness."

Nehro, of course, has run three times in six weeks, finishing second in the Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky Derbies. And he's not a big or robust horse. His trainer, Steve Asmussen, said he was especially pleased with Nehro's performance because the colt ran exceptionally well even though the Derby didn't set up for him. In other words, Nehro showed his class.

Trainer Kathy Ritvo said she expects to run Mucho Macho Man in the Preakness. A late foal, he could improve significantly over the next weeks and months. And trainer Nick Zito suggested he'll look at the Preakness for Dialed In, who finished eighth as the Derby favorite. Shackleford, too, is aimed at Baltimore.     

 

No Mo

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Uncle Mo won't run in Saturday's 137th Kentucky Derby here at Churchill Downs. The announcement was made just moments ago.

"He will not run in the Kentucky Derby," said Mike Repole, who owns the juvenile champion of 2010, explaining that trainer Todd Pletcher had scratched the horse who was the 9-2 second choice in the morning line for the Derby.

Repole said Pletcher told him, "Mike, I don't want to run this horse."

Repole explained that the "last two or three days" Uncle Mo had not progressed. Uncle Mo lost for the first time in his career when he finished third in the Wood Memorial. After the loss, he was found to have a grastrointestinal infection. Repole said it was an "easy decision" to scratch Uncle Mo from the Derby.

"To not make it here is a big letdown. I take it as a personal failure," Pletcher said, explaining that they simply "ran out of time."

"For me, it's about the horse's health," Pletcher said. He explained that the horse's loss of weight and dull coat indicated a problem. But the exact source of that problem remains unclear. "I don't know what  it is; nobody else knows what it is."

Pletcher said he's hopeful that Uncle Mo will be able to race again. 

Mo than enough of Repole

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Racehorses, especially these racehorses preparing for the Kentucky Derby, are so bold and courageous that it's impossible to watch them and be around them without feeling challenged to match their magnificance, without feeling compelled to try to rise to their majestic level. They invite extravagant pretensions.

And that could explain much. It could explain why some owners have their horses in the 137th Derby, why Watch Me Go and Derby Kitten, for example, are in the field. Their owners must say to themselves, I want to run in the Derby; therefore I am.

Extravagant pretensions also could explain Mike Repole. Presenting himself as an advocate for fans and a champion of the game, Repole sometimes has made an extravagant pretense of being horse racing's bodhisattva, a person who has achieved enlightenment but who postpones Nirvana so that he might assist others in their efforts to become equally enlightened.

Of course, it's easy to appear enlightened when you're winning a Breeders' Cup race, less so when you're unsure about running in the Kentucky Derby and when you leave other owners, not to mention fans, in the dark. Is Repole more Pecksniffian than enlightened? Or, as it turns out, is he, too, in search of enlightenment.

After Wednesday's drawing of post positions, Repole still declined to commit Uncle Mo to running in the Derby. Uncle Mo, of course, lost for the first time when third in the Wood Memorial and was subsequently found to have a gastrointestinal infection. Here at Churchill, he hasn't trained aggressively, and he has looked thin.

"If he's not what I feel is 100 percent," Repole said, "he won't be in the starting gate." 

Racing fans probably would feel better about that if Repole said that to be in the starting gate Mo needed to be what his trainer, Todd Pletcher, deemed to be 100 percent. But, of course, horse racing invites extravagant pretensions, such as the suggestion that only Repole himself has the insight to determine Mo's readiness.

He has boasted that he'll bet enough on Uncle Mo to make the colt the Derby favorite. But he also has urged media types to write negative stories about the horse so that the odds might rise.

Today, Repole explained that Uncle Mo is being examined by three veterinarians. Once the results of tests are in and all the opinions are weighed, Repole and Pletcher will decide whether to run the champion in the Derby. They'll announce the decision Friday. To his credit, Repole said Pletcher would make the final call.

Repole might be surprised to learn that similar examinations are not going on all around the racetrack. After the draw, Repole explained that Mo's chances of running in the Derby were 50 percent. And at this point, the owner said, with the Derby only days away, all 20 horses entered (actually 22 were entered) were still 50-50.

That's nonsense, of course. By Repole's reckoning of the probabilities, the Derby field could be down to 10 starters by post time. Maybe it'll be down to 19, but certainly not 10.

Repole obviously loves racing, perhaps as much as he loves drama and attention. He has a passion for racing. And perhaps he can be a great asset for the game -- but only if a genuine bodhisattva takes him by the hand and leads him towards enlightenment.

       

Falling by the wayside

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- And so at the penultimate moment, a day before leaving Maryland for Kentucky and two days before entering the race, Toby's Corner appears lame. That's how close he got. He completed all the hard work. He won the Whirlaway, and then he beat Uncle Mo to win the Wood, not only earning his way into the Kentucky Derby but proving his worthiness. Toby was in the game, he looked like a contender, and there was nothing more to do but take care of perfunctory business, a little maintenance workout and some travel.

Surely his connections already had been having roseate dreams, scarlet dreams, with musical accompaniment, and their friends already had been saying how exciting this all must be and asking if a victory were possible and, oh, by the way, do you have any extra tickets. That's how close Toby's Corner and his connections all got to the Derby and the roses, close enough to prick a finger. But they got much closer than most.

How tough is this game? Well, Toby's Corner became the 69th possible Derby horse to leave the trail because of some illness or physical setback, according to Derby Contenders (http://twitter.com/#!/derbycontenders). That doesn't include the hundreds who had problems that precluded their ever suggesting they might join the parade, nor the thousands who simply didn't have the talent to travel the trail. That's 69 promising young horses whose immediate careers were to some degree compromised.  And so Toby's Corner was just the latest -- and I hope final -- reminder of how incredibly difficult and improbable just getting into the Kentucky Derby can be.

"It's like a kick in the stomach," said Graham Motion, the trainer of Toby's Corner, said about realizing that the Wood winner wasn't going to the Derby. "Everyone for weeks has been saying, 'Are you excited? You'll be excited. You've got to enjoy it. But it's hard to enjoy it because you just know that things like this around the corner."

An examination revealed no serious injury. And Toby's Corner will, it's hoped, be 100 percent soon. But the Derby is a unique window that opens for just one day in the lives of these horses and, in many cases, for their connections. And then it slams shut. One elusive chance that quickly disappears.

Sherriff Cogburn looked like a potential Derby horse last year when he won his first two races by more than 16 total lengths. He was on his way to the Arlington-Washington Futurity, the Breeders' Cup, thje Derby; yes, he was on his way. But some minor problem compromised his campaign, and so his trainer, Don Von Hemel, choosing the cautious approach, immediately shut the colt down and said they were off the Derby trail before they ever really jumped onto it. He was one of the first.

How tough is this game? Unbeaten in three races with two stakes victories, Kantharos had his career end abruptly with a fracture during a routine gallop-out. Boys at Tosconova, To Honor And Serve, Tiz Blessed, Tapizar, Gourmet Dinner, Rogue Romance, Crossbow, Premier Pegasus, Jaycito and The Factor -- the list goes on an on -- all looked like Derby horses. But they're not in Saturday's 137th Derby. In some cases, such as The Factor's, the problem is minor and surmountable. But that's all it takes, something that can be minor and surmountable but that arrives at the worst time.

And so the window is shut. Entries have been taken. Twenty-two are entered in Saturday's Kentucky Derby. Post positions will be drawn in a few minutes.      

The most interesting man in the sport

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- He once had a vacation, just to see what it was like. But from 5:45 until 8 o'clock this morning, with the rain fluctuating between annoying and torrential and the cold wind vacillating between gusty and blow-your-house-down, he was on and off his pony, mostly on, accompanying horses to the racetrack. And despite the miserable weather the last few days, he's already looking forward to next year's Kentucky Derby, which, by the way, he plans on winning.

In the last 16 years, D. Wayne Lukas has missed only four days of doing this, only four days away from a racetrack, where he arrives by 4:30 each morning to supervise the first feeding of the many horses consigned to his care and tutelage. In 1981, he saddled his first starter in the Kentucky Derby, Partez, who finished third; but if Codex had been nominated, Lukas might have begun a year earlier, and with a victory. As it turned out, he won his first Kentucky Derby in 1988, with the great filly Winning Colors.

And somehow, after 44 Derby starters, with four winners in this most famous of races, with 13 total victories in the Triple Crown series, and with a truckload of Eclipse Awards and Breeders' Cup victories, the sport's all-time leading trainer remains eager to rush out to the track at 4:30 in the morning. That's only one reason he's the most interesting man in this most interesting of sports.

"We have a great group of 2-year-olds," he said this morning, shaking raindrops off his duster, hanging it neatly and then easing himself into a chair at his desk. With a handkerchief, he wiped his face dry. His saddle horse stood just outside; the horse, too, was taking a break, but for only 30 minutes, while the maintenance crew tried to squeeze some rainwater out of the racetrack. They both would soon get back to work.

Lukas' office is a converted tack room in his barn in the Churchill Downs stable area, a landscaped, neat-as-a-chifforobe barn that he has occupied for more than two decades. "And we're deep," he continued about the 2-year-olds, using, as he often will, the "we" that's suggestive of cooperation and team effort. "We have several nice ones. We're going to be in a good position for next year."

Lukas might glance backwards once in a while to recall special horses, moments and people, but for the most part, he peers relentlessly and keenly straight ahead, looking forward to the next race, the next meeting, the next group of horses. With at least one and as many as five, he has participated in 25 of the last 30 Kentucky Derbies. And although he won't saddle a horse in Saturday's renewal, he's already looking forward to the 138th because, well, he expects to win it. And he just might.

For Lukas, winning has always been an act of faith, an infrangible faith in the irresistable power of volition. And he forever keeps the faith. He has faith in the people who work with him, in his horses' ability and, of course, his own. Yes, he believes he can win next year's Derby, but more than that, he expects to win next it, and not only because he has a "great group" of 2-year-olds in his stable.

"I'm a much better trainer now, twenty times better than I was when I first came here," he said, without pointing out that at age 75 he recently topped the trainers' standings at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. "I'm better because I've learned from my mistakes, and I made many of them. Some of those horses won in spite of me. I made a lot of mistakes over the years that I wouldn't make today."

One of the problems facing the industry, Lukas said, is that there's little transfer of knowledge, little education in horsemanship. And even less in winning the Derby. As he said, there's no how-to book on winning the Kentucky Derby. Because trainers are so competitive, not just for victories but for horses, they rarely share experiences or advice, he said. And so genuine horsemanship has become endangered.

That's why, he said, he has made an effort over the years to teach the young people who work for him, from the hot walker to the assistant. Fifteen former Lukas assistants train their own stables these days, and two of those,Todd Pletcher and Kiaran McLaughlin, have horses in the Kentucky Derby.

And while he's always looking forward, Lukas doesn't like everything he sees. The Kentucky Derby, of course, has changed in many ways in the last 30 years, and not all of the changes, Lukas said, have been positive or desirable.

"I don't think the Kentucky Derby has quite the romance it once had," the Hall of Fame trainer said. "Maybe 'romance' isn't the right word, but now the romance of the race has to compete with this corporate attitude." But maybe 'romance' is the perfect word.

Horses that never would have been considered for the Derby 30 years ago, Lukas said, get pushed into the race more often these days. And some people, it seems, want to run in the Derby because it's a party, not because they have a burning passion to win the greatest horse race in the country. 

"I hear it all the time," Lukas said: "trainers saying they just want to get to the Derby. Hell, Charlie (Whittingham), Woody (Stephens) and I never said we just wanted to get to the Derby. We wanted to win the Derby."

And Lukas still wants to win the Derby, which ranks highly among the many reasons he's the most interesting man in the sport. Perhaps it also explains, at least in part, why the Kentucky Derby remains the most interesting race.

The renovation break concluded, horses viewed through the screen door walked in the direction of the racetrack, their hooves rattling on the pavement. Lukas rose from his chair, grabbed his duster and quickly slid into it before sliding out the door.

 

Toby's Corner out of the Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Because of a problem with his left hind leg, Toby's Corner will not be entered in Saturday's 137th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Entries are to be taken Wednesday.

The winner of the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, Toby's Corner was generally regarded as a contender. He was scheduled to arrive here at Churchill today from the Fair Hills Training Center in Elkton, Md. He had his final preparatory workout Sunday, but Monday, according to reports, he appeared to be lame. He was promptly sent to the nearby New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania for a bone scan, which discovered nothing.

His trainer, Graham Motion, explained that there was nothing obviously wrong with the horse, who nevertheless was still lame in his left hind this morning. And so Toby's Corner was not put on the van transporting a group of horses here from Maryland.

The Kentucky Derby field is limited to 20 based on earnings in graded stakes races, and the defection of Toby's Corner allows Derby Kitten, the winner of the recent Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, into the field.

Field for the Kentucky Oaks

Friday's Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs

Purse: $1 million. Distance: 1 1/8 miles

PP. Horse, odds

1. Joyful Victory, 5-2

2. Lilacs And Lace, 12-1

3. Summer Soiree, 5-1

4. Kathmanblu, 4-1

5. Suave Voir Faire, 50-1

6. Zazu, 4-1

7. Her Smile, 20-1

8. Bouquet Booth, 20-1

9. Daisy Devine, 20-1

10. Street Storm, 50-1

11. Holy Heavens, 50-1

12. Plum Pretty, 5-1

13. St. John's River, 30-1