Big Brown owner moves on from heartbreaking
Big Brown owner moves on from heartbreaking Triple Crown miss
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Michael Iavarone was standing in the winner's circle, having just posed with a crystal decanter after one of his horses won at Calder Race Course to clinch a spot in this fall's Breeders' Cup.
A bolt of lightning crackled not far off, just as the conversation turned to trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.
Perfect symmetry? Perhaps.
Iavarone is the co-president of IEAH Stables, the owner of Big Brown. Dutrow, a lightning rod of a trainer if there ever was one, guided the horse to wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. The connections were certain a Triple Crown was good as theirs. But Big Brown was eased up in the Belmont Stakes, and it seems as if everything involving Dutrow has been tinged in controversy since.
Dutrow wasn't at Calder on Saturday to see Benny the Bull rally to win the Smile Sprint Handicap; he remained in New York with other horses. Benny the Bull did just fine anyway.
"I think he might enjoy not being around Rick," Iavarone said. "I think a lot of us are enjoying that right now."
He was kidding.
Well, maybe only half-kidding.
The Dutrow-related fallout since Big Brown's disappointment in the Belmont - from how the once-troubled trainer gave the colt steroids (which were legal) to his penchant for disparaging the colt's rivals - clearly took some of the shine off the Derby and Preakness victories for IEAH, straining the work relationship.
So a spring that brought so much buzz to horse racing - even after the death of Eight Belles following her runner-up finish at the Derby - now almost seems like an afterthought to Iavarone.
"I think a lot of things took away the bliss of the Triple Crown," Iavarone said. "I think Eight Belles, I think Rick Dutrow, I think there's a million things. I think Rick would be the first one to tell you that he would change some things if he could leading up to the Belmont. It's unfortunate."
Dutrow's only communication with reporters after the Smile Sprint came in the form of quotes distributed by the Calder staff following his telephone interview with the track. He said three weeks ago he was growing tired of the "negativity" surrounding him and the Triple Crown quest and wants it all to just go away.
Iavarone has the same wish.
"Look, I don't mind being the one to pay the price. It's Big Brown that paid the ultimate price," Iavarone said. "There were people that rooted against Big Brown due to the connections. That was the unfortunate side. But look, at the end of the day, they can't take away the experience we had. The memories will last forever. It ended up disappointing, but for me to say I walk away disappointed winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, I'd be out of my mind."
Now, Iavarone is looking ahead.
Big Brown has recovered from the cracked hoof during his Triple Crown season and is slated to run in the $1 million Haskell on Aug. 3 at Monmouth Park. According to the Iavarone's plan, that would allow the colt to race once more before the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 25.
That would mean Big Brown would miss the Travers at Saratoga. The Travers is 1 1/4 miles, one furlong longer than the Haskell.
"The Haskell is a race and a racetrack that I think is more suitable to him, a distance that I right now feel comfortable with and it also allows us, more importantly, to get another race in between the Breeders' Cup," Iavarone said. "I think the spacing from the Haskell to another race to the Breeders' Cup is ideal. If you go to the Travers, I think the spacing becomes a little tight."
Iavarone says his goal for the Haskell is simple. He wants "redemption" for Big Brown.
"He's got to run his race in the Haskell," Iavarone said. "If he doesn't run his race in the Haskell, then we missed something."
One thing Iavarone wants to miss: His trainer making headline-worthy proclamations in the days leading to the Haskell, and any other race.
"I'm going to be quiet as a mouse and I expect Rick to be quiet as a mouse," Iavarone said. "We'll let the horse do the talking."
(c) 2008 The Canadian Press
Beshear reorganizes horse racing authority
Gov. Steve Beshear on Thursday reorganized the state panel that regulates horse racing in Kentucky, adding several new members that are major Democratic party backers.
Beshear said he was making the move because racing is "in crisis and immediate, aggressive action is necessary to preserve its integrity."
The move comes as Ellis Park, a Thoroughbred racetrack in Henderson, abruptly closed on the eve of its 44-day summer meet.
"Any state like ours who claims to be the 'Horse Capital of the World' and has a signature industry like the horse industry needs to address these issues very quickly - the medication issues, the safety issues, all of the kinds of things that are creating the crisis that we have right now," Beshear said. "We need to move on it quickly and I believe the group that I have put together will do just that."
It is unclear how the re-organization will affect the Equine Drug Research Council, which was considering medication rules on steroids and blood-doping agents. The council has been headed by Connie Whitfield, who was not reappointed to the new Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
The commission will have to be approved next year by the state General Assembly.
State Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, a member of the drug council, said on Thursday that the move comes at "a very inopportune time."
"With the steroid issue and the Ellis Park situation, it seems to be very odd timing to make a massive change like this," Thayer said. "I don't understand any compelling reason to make a wholesale change in the racing authority like this except for political reasons."
Several of the ousted members of the authority, such as Whitfield, who is the wife of Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield of Hopkinsville, had Republican connections.
The holdover appointments from the administration of Gov. Ernie Fletcher were Tom Ludt, Vinery stallions co-manager and a former insurance executive, and Dr. Jerry Yon, Lexington gastroenterologist. Another, Thoroughbred consignor Thomas Gaines, also had been previously appointed by Fletcher.
The new appointees include Tracy Farmer, who was state Democratic Party chairman as well as head of an independent fund-raising committee that backed Beshear and was heavily supported by tracks and horse connections seeking casino gambling.
Another, former University of Louisville and Tennessee basketball coach Wade Houston, co-chaired Beshear's inaugural committee with Farmer. The basketball connections also include Michael Pitino, son of UofL coach Rick Pitino.
The father of Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway - attorney Thomas Conway - is also among the appointees.
Former commission vice chairman Frank L. Jones, who owns a Louisville pool business, gave to both Jack Conway and Beshear in the last election cycle.
Thoroughbred owner and Fort Mitchell attorney Travis Burr II in the last year gave $3,500 to the state Democratic party and another $3,500 to the Kentucky Victory 2007 fund, which backed Beshear.
Some of the new panel were appointed by Beshear to the old one in April, including chairman Robert M. Beck, who is the Lexington equine attorney who represented Calumet Farm in its bankruptcy. Beck also put together the world-record $60 million syndication of Fusaichi Pegasus and the syndication of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones.
(c) Heraldleader
Iavarone: Photo shows what finished Big Brown
Michael Iavarone believes he's finally found hard evidence, an exposed nail and a dislodged shoe, to explain why Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown ran so poorly June 7 in the Belmont Stakes.
A photograph by free-lancer Bob Mayberger posted early yesterday afternoon on bloodhorse.com shows a nail sticking straight up on Big Brown's right hind hoof. Iavarone, the co-president of IEAH Stables, said the shoe was hit by another horse's hoof "two or three" strides into the race. He said the Kentucky Derby/Preakness winner ran 1 1/4 miles before being eased with "a dislodged shoe and the nail sticking out."
According to The Daily Racing Form chart, "Big Brown steadied and broke outward at the start." At that point, another shot by Mayberger, taken from behind, reveals Guadalcanal's left hind hoof stepping on Big Brown's right hind as the favorite comes out into him. Big Brown's head jerks sharply left at the moment of contact as Kent Desormeaux rises in the irons and shifts his weight to the left.
"The shoe is still on and the nail is still on it," said Iavarone, who saw the photos a few hours before they appeared on the Web site. "He stepped back down on the nail and bent it, so it stayed lodged in the shoe but wouldn't have gone back into the same hole. It happened early in the race, so now it's a horse trying to run almost an entire mile and a half like that. What I can tell you for sure is that gives you no shot."
Iavarone theorized that the shoe reset itself when Big Brown stepped on pavement while being led back to the barn after the race.
Originally, extreme heat and Belmont Park's deep track were suspected of contributing to the previously undefeated horse's shocking last-place finish. Iavarone said that after seeing Mayberger's photos, trainer Rick Dutrow and equine hoof lameness specialist Ian McKinlay agreed the dislodged shoe most likely was the answer. In the two weeks leading up to the race, McKinlay treated a quarter crack in Big Brown's left front hoof.
"Rick and Ian are on board with this," Iavarone said. Dutrow had been skeptical about the shoe explanation, but yesterday The Blood-Horse's Steve Haskin quoted the trainer as saying, " ... Now that I've seen the pictures, I have to keep an open mind to it. The pictures don't lie."
Mayberger's photographs jolted but also relieved Iavarone. "What we wanted all along was a reason, just for our own state of mind going into the next race," he said. "This is much more digestible for me than any of the other reasons."
Big Brown resumed training a few days after the Belmont and has been jogging at Aqueduct, where Iavarone said he is scheduled to gallop today. He is being pointed for the Grade I Haskell Aug. 3 at Monmouth Park.
(c) 2008, Newsday Inc.
House Members Put the Whip To Horse Racing
Horse racing's difficult spring continued yesterday as congressional leaders launched a broadside on the sport's breeding practices and drug rules during a special hearing in Washington.
Several members of the House subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection suggested using the Interstate Horseracing Act, which enables bettors to wager on races across the country, to force the creation of a national governing body for horse racing. The sport has no commissioner and is overseen by state racing associations.
Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican from Kentucky, the center of the U.S. thoroughbred industry, repeatedly criticized the sport's leadership, citing its failure to ban the use of steroids and inability to implement rule changes and safety measures.
"Greed has trumped the health of the horse, the safety of the jockey and the integrity of the sport," said Mr. Whitfield, whose wife, Connie, is the chairwoman of the Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council.
The hearings were announced in the wake of the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby and amid growing public criticism about the use of performance-enhancing drugs to train top-flight racehorses.
Wednesday's proceedings featured testimony from two panels of witnesses that included Richard Shapiro, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board; Jack Van Berg, a Hall of Fame trainer; and Jess Jackson, the founder of Kendall Jackson winery and the owner of Curlin, the world's most successful active racehorse. (Rick Dutrow, the trainer for Big Brown, this year's Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, also was scheduled to testify but canceled on Wednesday night because of illness.)
Messrs. Shapiro, Van Berg and Jackson -- as well as Arthur Hancock, a prominent breeder and horse owner -- advocated an immediate ban on all drugs and pressed for the creation of a new, national entity to govern horse racing.
Mr. Hancock, who has bred three Kentucky Derby winners, said the sport's fractured infrastructure -- which includes 38 state racing associations and numerous associations for owners, breeders and jockeys -- makes it tough to implement change. "There are some good people trying to pull the wagon, but everybody is pulling in a different direction. The army has no general."
(c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Prado seeks his own triple at Belmont
BELMONT, N.Y. - As Big Brown points toward making history Saturday, the biggest road block he might face is jockey Edgar Prado, a mild-mannered man who is now recognized as racing's Triple Crown spoiler.
Prado just happens to be riding Casino Drive, the horse most handicappers believe has the best chance of ending Big Brown's Triple Crown chances in the Belmont Stakes. And Prado, who dominated the Maryland circuit in the 1990s and won his first Kentucky Derby in 2006 aboard the ill-fated Barbaro, has already ended the Triple Crown drives of two other thoroughbreds in the last six years.
"I got lucky the last two times," said Prado.
Lucky hardly covers it.
Prado rode Savara, the longest shot in Belmont Stakes history at 70-1, to victory, ending War Emblem's chance at Triple Crown greatness in 2002. And in 2004, he directed 36-1 long-shot Birdstone past the until-then undefeated Smarty Jones.
A victory Saturday would give him his own triple play.
Casino Drive has raced just twice and will be bucking history -- a lot of history, given just two horses, Algerine in 1876 and Prince Eugene in 1913, have won with so little experience in the 1 1/2--mile race. The Japanese-owned and trained Casino Drive was made the 7-2 second choice at today's draw and will break from the No. 5 post. Big Brown, of course, is the prohibitive favorite at 2-5 odds and drew the No. 1 post.
Of Prado's two upset victories, the one on Birdstone twisted his emotions the most.
War Emblem had pretty much beaten himself when he stumbled from the starting gate in 2002, but Smarty Jones appeared headed for victory down the stretch. A crowd of 120,000 was on its feet screaming for an historic finish, when Prado, the only rider with a chance to end the dream, surged five-wide and passed Smarty for a one-length victory in the final 70 yards.
"My heart was with Smarty," said Prado. "I was the last horse going by him and my heart was with Smarty Jones. But I'm there to do my job the best way possible and achieve my goal of winning."
It will be the same Saturday.
"You definitely want to go into the race with the idea you can win," said Prado, who thinks he has a chance, given his horse is fresh and the 1 1/2-mile course is a first for all the contenders, including Big Brown. "But definitely a Triple Crown would be great for the sport."
It's an intriguing matchup, this expected duel between two competitive horses and two equally competitive jockeys -- Prado, who will celebrate his 41st birthday June 12, and Kent Desormeaux, 38.
Both horses have had precocious careers so far -- Big Brown winning the Kentucky Derby off just three starts and from the 20th post position and then the Preakness, and Casino Drive winning his first two races, including an impressive victory in the Peter Pan at Belmont, his only U.S. race.
To get to this point, both horses have trained completely differently. While Big Brown has jogged, galloped and had a final beautiful breeze yesterday, allaying fears about his cracked hoof, Casino Drive has seemed to barely train at all.
He can be seen every morning touring the horse paths of the Belmont barn area between his two stable mates, Spark Candle and Champaign Squaw, his head down his legs pumping for an hour. Then he goes to the track for a leisurely jog before another 45- to 60-minute power walk. His final work is scheduled for tomorrow.
Casino's Drive work was so slow last week the Belmont clockers didn't even give it an official reading. Still, Nobutaka Tada, racing manager for Casino Drive's owner, said he is happy with the way Casino Drive is training. Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow also was happy with his horse going five furlongs in a minute flat Tuesday.
The differences between the jockeys are much less noticeable. Both men learned to win while riding at Pimlico and Laurel Park. Desormeaux dominated the Maryland tracks from 1987 through 1989, winning two of his three Eclipse Awards there. When Desormeaux left, Prado emerged, dominating the scene from 1990 through 1999.
Prado, who will be inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame this summer, was the nation's leading rider in victories from 1997 through 1999, but didn't win his first Eclipse until 2006, after he and Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby.
But Prado downplays the idea of a rivalry with Desormeaux.
"When you're a competitive rider, you get satisfaction from winning," he said. "My goal is winning. When I win the satisfaction is there no matter who is on the other horses."
Desormeaux, meanwhile, admits there is a long-standing rivalry between the two.
"It's goes back to Maryland," said Desormeaux. "He was always my chief challenger, but at the end of the day, we have a shared deep respect for each other."
(c) 2008, The Baltimore Sun
A Specialist's Sole Focus Is Trying to Repair Hooves
OCEANPORT, N.J. - There was more good news from the Big Brown camp Tuesday morning. His foot problem on the mend, Big Brown returned to training, jogging a mile and a half at Belmont Park. All signs indicate that he is on track to make the Belmont Stakes, which can only mean that Ian McKinlay has done his job well.
McKinlay, 50, is racing's foremost foot specialist, the person to call when a horse develops a hoof problem. In Big Brown's case, after winning the Preakness Stakes, he developed a crack about five-eighths of an inch long in his left front hoof. That kind of injury can be painful and keep a horse from exerting itself in a race.
Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, has had various foot problems throughout his career, which has made McKinlay a vital part of his team.
"The Big Brown people are in good hands," said the trainer David Hofmans, who called on McKinlay after Touch Gold sustained a wound to a front foot when stumbling at the start of the 1997 Preakness. With McKinlay's help, Touch Gold was patched up and won the Belmont.
"Ian kept Touch Gold going," Hofmans said. "He allowed me to train the horse the way I needed to get to the Belmont. He was most important in allowing me to win the Belmont. I could not have won the race without him."
McKinlay grew up in Canada, where his father, Jim, was a farmer who trained standardbreds on the side, racing them at Windsor Raceway in Ontario. The elder McKinlay was dissatisfied with the hoof care his horses were receiving from local blacksmiths and figured he could do a better job than the experts. Along with a friend, a dentist named Harold Feagin, he began to study hoof care, and the two devised many of the methods of treatment still in use. That includes using wire sutures that function much like stitches and draw the crack together. That has been the primary course of action with Big Brown.
"My father was the pioneer," McKinlay said after working on horses Tuesday here at Monmouth Park.
McKinlay learned from his father, who died in 1990, and, by his sophomore year in high school, was tending to horses' feet himself. In 1977, he began his career and eventually settled in New Jersey, specializing in standardbreds that raced at the Meadowlands. He has since branched out, treating thoroughbreds, standardbreds and the occasional show horse.
McKinlay said there were a handful of blacksmiths and veterinarians who regularly worked on foot problems, but he said he believed he was the only person in racing to do that type of work exclusively.
Always tinkering with ways to hone his craft, he is most proud of a type of horseshoe he invented, called a Yasha shoe. Glued on to the hoof instead of nailed into it, the Yasha shoe has special padding that cuts down on the concussion to the hoof when it hits the racetrack. Big Brown will wear the Yasha shoe in the Belmont.
"It's like wearing a sneaker compared to hard-heeled shoes," McKinlay said.
A resident of South Amboy, N.J., he divides his time among the New York and New Jersey racetracks and can even be found working out of rest-stop parking lots on the New Jersey Turnpike. He said they were a convenient place to meet up with horses that have to come to him from tracks in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
McKinlay has treated thousands of horses, and most of them race in obscurity. But there is always a thrill when one of his patients wins a major race.
"That's what it's all about, watching one of them win a big race," he said. "That's the beauty of what I do. Every horse is different, and when they're pushing for a big race, you have to have your head in the game. You know you can't make a mistake."
He has been invited by Michael Iavarone, who heads the syndicate that owns Big Brown, to join him as part of the Big Brown camp at the Belmont on June 7. McKinlay politely declined, saying he has work to do that morning and has so many people who want to watch the race with him that he does not want to be an imposition to the owners.
Instead, he has rented space at a country club near his home, where he will watch the race with friends and family and, he hopes, celebrate a Triple Crown victory by Big Brown.
Big Brown could always lose, but McKinlay said it would not be because his foot was bothering him.
(c) 2008 The New York Times Company
Kristufek: This Derby is a three-horse race
By Joe Kristufek | Daily Herald HandicapperContact writer
Published: 5/2/2008 11:55 AM | Updated: 5/2/2008 9:19 PM
Five weeks ago, following Big Brown's monstrous win in the Florida Derby, I stated in my Horseplayer PRO blog that he would not hit the board in the Kentucky Derby.
The vultures quickly descended.
How could I be against racing's potential messiah?
I wasn't against him. I just thought there were too many other variables: inexperience, bad feet, never having been looked in the eye …
Well, his feet have held up quite nicely, the reports out of Churchill are sparkling, and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., whom I have the utmost respect for, says he can't lose.
But he still hasn't been looked in the eye.
Big Brown has run three times and has won three times, distancing himself from the competition as if they were in slow motion and he was in fast forward.
The Kentucky Derby is different. The crowd is raucous, the competition is stiff, and he has post position No. 20, which is rough. To win, he will need to put forth an effort for the ages.
He just might do it.
I've been wrong before, but I don't believe there is a Giacomo in this year's field. To me, it's a three-horse race, and I believe either the California flash Colonel John or Curlin's adopted brother Pyro will be covered in roses today at about 5:10 p.m.
Big Brown is my third choice in the race, and I'll surely use him in gimmicks. Let's take a look at my two top contenders and other horses I'm going to consider in the Trifecta, Superfecta and High Five.
Contenders
Take the Y out of Pyro's name and what do you get?
Pro.
He was the consummate professional throughout his 2-year-old campaign, and that polished persona carried over to this spring. He scored a rousing win in the Grade III Risen Star, and followed up with an equally impressive effort in the Louisiana Derby, a race in which he was hopelessly boxed in before exploding down the lane.
Hailed as the Kentucky Derby favorite following those Louisiana runs, he entered the starting gate as the even-money favorite for the Blue Grass. He didn't run a jump that day, crossing the line in 10th place.
Here's the dilemma: Do you excuse the race and evaluate him based on his dirt form, or do you believe that even if he didn't like Polytrack he should have run a lot better? If you haven't jumped off the Pyro bandwagon, you should be thrilled with your price today.
Not only has Colonel John not missed a beat his entire career, he actually appears to be getting better with the smell of roses. From six starts, he has collect 4 wins and a pair of seconds, and his recent Grade I Santa Anita Derby score was almost too good to believe.
Shuffled back and hopelessly beaten on the turn for home, he shook free and uncoiled a venomous stretch rally, getting up in the final jump to catch Bob Black Jack. He galloped out seemingly miles in front of the rest of the field.
The question with this horse is his ability to handle dirt surfaces. All of his runs have come over synthetics, but he calmed some fears with a big 5-furlong drill over the Kentucky Derby strip last week.
The others
Is Denis of Cork good or not? One of the great mysteries in this year's Run for the Roses, this son of Harlan's Holiday hopes to return to the form he displayed earlier in the season. He rattled off 3 consecutive victories to begin his career, including a visually impressive score in the Grade III Southwest at Oaklawn.
His connections decided to skip the Grade II Rebel and instead point for the Grade II Illinois Derby at Hawthorne.
Bad move. The colt ran in place the entire way over a track that appeared to favor inside speed types. He almost didn't get into the Kentucky Derby, but a late defection by Behindatthebar allowed him to sneak into the top 20.
He has flourished at Churchill Downs this week, and his fans are willing to toss out the Illinois Derby debacle. Do you think jockey Calvin Borel will try to get him to the rail?
Trainer Todd Pletcher had five live wires in the Kentucky Derby starting gate last year, but one month ago it didn't look as if he had any horses to hang his hat on this spring. That changed in the Grade I Blue Grass when Monba and Cowboy Cal ran 1-2.
Monba, Pletcher's best sophomore when the spring began, is the son of Maria's Mon and finished 12th (and last) as the Grade II Fountain of Youth favorite. He got beat up that day and subsequently was given six weeks off. He fired fresh in the Blue Grass, and since then he hasn't been used too hard. He may be ready to step up big time today.
Sure, his big win came over Polytrack, but closer examination of past performances reveals a first-level allowance win over Churchill Down's main track.
The next tier
Sure, Gayego won the Arkansas Derby, but Z Fortune probably ran the best race. He was caught wide on both turns and missed by less than a length. I'm not sure what happened in his Rebel clunker the race before, but he's back on track and may be ready to run the race of his life.
You can't help but recall War Emblem when you think of Recapturetheglory. He wired the field and looked good doing it in what was a breakout performance, and there's no way he will get the respect he deserves today.
Not to mention the fact that trainer Louie Roussel last went to the Kentucky Derby 20 years ago with eventual Preakness and Belmont winner Risen Star and named this horse hoping to recapture that glory.
The rail may have been the place to be on Illinois Derby Day over a beachy Hawthorne strip, but Recapturetheglory ran a monster race nonetheless.
I haven't been a big fan of Court Vision, but I do see improvement in his future. He has been consistent, and he finishes with energy. The blinkers addition could help the cause, and there's no better rider going than Garrett "Go Go" Gomez.
Copyright (c) 2008 Daily Herald Inc. All rights reserved.
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