The weekly TRC industry digest - a round-up of the international racing news from the past week.
Bid to overturn new Integrity and Safety Act
North America: The National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association has filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping implementation of the new Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. The organisation has always held that the act was unconstitutional as it gave the power to regulate racing to a private group.
“The bill was passed without proper vetting and gives to a private authority broad government powers over our industry with little or no oversight,” said Peter Ecabert, general counsel for the National HBPA. “This legislation was ramrodded through without anyone knowing the costs of creating and maintaining this additional bureaucracy and who would pay for it.”
The act sets up the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to implement an ‘anti-doping and medication control program and a racetrack safety program’. USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) is expected to be asked to act as the authority’s enforcement agency.
The Jockey Club said, “We are not at all surprised by the lawsuit filed against HISA by a number of affiliates of the National HPBA. We are confident that the law is constitutionally sound and legal, as it is patterned precisely after other long standing law.”
Now who thinks women jockeys aren’t as good as the men?
Europe: Ireland’s Rachael Blackmore has this week produced one of the most significant breakthroughs for female jockeys in the history of horseracing. The 31-year-old blew stereotypical ideas of what women are capable of out of the water by winning the top jockey title at the Cheltenham Festival.
She rode six of the 28 winners at the four-day meeting, regarded as the Olympic Games of jump racing, in perhaps the toughest branch of the sport there is, leaving all the best riders in Britain and Ireland in her wake.
Her mesmerising tally included five Grade 1s and a Grade 2. Highlight was winning the Champion Hurdle on the opening day aboard the mare Honeysuckle. Blackmore is the first female to ride the winner of jump racing’s premier hurdle race.
She was just a length and a quarter away on the final day today (Friday) from winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the blue riband of steeplechasing, when her mount, A Plus Tard, ran second to stablemate Minella Indo. That was perhaps Blackmore’s only mistake of the week - choosing the wrong one.
Minella Indo was ridden by Jack Kennedy, who finished second in the jockeys’ race with four winners. The 1-2 are trained by Ireland’s Henry De Bromhead, who shared the week’s honours with Blackmore as he was responsible not only for a Gold Cup 1-2 but also for the winners of the other two great races of the Festival, the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday via Honeysuckle and the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday with Put The Kettle On. De Bromhead is the first trainer ever to achieve that treble.
De Bromhead saddled six winners himself through the week, but lost out on countback for the trainers’ title to Irish rival Willie Mullins.
The traditional competition between Britain and Ireland for the Pertemps Prestbury Cup turned into a rout for the Irish - by 23 wins to five.
The other notable star of the meeting was the dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll, who roared back to his best, winning Wednesday’s Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase for the third time, meaning the 11-year-old has become only the third horse ever to win five races or more at the festival.
Sheema clash set to take centre stage on World Cup card
Middle East: Mystic Guide, impressive winner of the G3 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park last month, heads the line-up for the $12 million Dubai World Cup announced this week, along with the fields for all races on the showpiece card next Saturday (March 27).
The Michael Stridham-trained 4-year-old is one of three Godolphin-owned runners in the field, along with the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Gifts Of Gold and Magny Cours, the charge of French maestro Andre Fabre.
But the race looks set to be upstaged by a mouth-watering edition of the $5 million mile-and-a-half Dubai Sheema Classic on turf.
Mystic Guide, who also won the G2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga last year, is ranked a relatively lowly #127 in the TRC Global Horse Rankings, whereas the Sheema Classic principals are #7 Chrono Genesis, winner of the Arima Kinen last December among three G1s, Saudi Cup hero Mishriff (world #11), who was widely expected to go for the Dubai World Cup instead, Hong Kong Vase and Grand Prix de Paris winner Mogul (#53), and the top U.S. turf runner, four-time G1 winner Channel Maker (#110).
Click here to see the current invited fields
Almond Eye is in foal
Far East: Nine-time G1 winner Almond Eye, who is still #1 in the TRC Global Horse Rankings, has been scanned in foal to fellow Japan Cup winner Epiphaneia, who stands at the Shadai Stallion Station. The mare was retired after winning the Japan Cup for a second time last November.
Almond Eye, who won the Japanese Fillies’ Triple Crown in 2018, is a daughter of Lord Kanaloa, who descends from Mr Prospector. Epiphaneia, a son of Symboli Kris S, a descendent of Hail To Reason, is related to Sunday Silence and Northern Dancer on his dam’s side.
Injury ends Russian Camelot’s track career
Oceania: Dual G1 winner Russian Camelot, one of the highest ranked horses in Australia (world #33 in the TRC standings), has been retired because of a leg injury.
The setback came after the 4-year-old finished second in to Mugatoo in the All-Star Mile at Moonee Valley last Saturday over a trip short of his best.
The Irish-bred son of Camelot last year became the first horse bred in the Northern Hemisphere to win a Derby in Australia when he took the South Australian version at Morphettville.
Trainer Danny O’Brien said, “It’s a shame his career ends prematurely as I felt his best racing was ahead of him up in Sydney this autumn and to next spring and beyond. However, I have no doubt he will have a significant impact on our industry for years to come through his stud career.”
Stud plans are expected to be announced shortly.
Golden Slipper hero Farnan is retired too
Oceania: Another high-profile Australian runner to be retired this week is last year’s Golden Slipper winner Farnan. The colt had been an intended runner in Saturday’s G1 Galaxy on the same Rosehill card as this year’s Slipper.
“Niggling problems have interrupted our progress towards his big autumn targets, which were the Group 1 Galaxy and TJ Smith, with a possible tilt at a Royal Ascot campaign,” said Adrian Bott, who trains the son of Not A Single Doubt along with Gai Waterhouse. “Unfortunately, we have now run out of time.”
Farnan will take up stallion duties at Kia Ora Stud in New South Wales, which part-owns him.
It’s Addeybb vs Verry Elleegant 3
Oceania: Another of the big G1s on Saturday’s Golden Slipper card, the Ranvet Stakes, features a rematch between seven-time G1 winner Verry Elleegant, currently TRC’s highest-ranked horse in the Southern Hemisphere, and the British raider Addeybb, who landed two of the world’s top ten-furlong turf prizes last year, including the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October.
The William Haggas-trained 7-year-old’s other two G1 victories were both in Sydney last year, including the Ranvet and the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick - and each time Verry Elleegant was runner-up.
The Chris Waller-trained mare went on to win the G1 Caulfield Cup in October and the G1 Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick last month and now stands one place ahead of soft-ground-loving Addeyyb in the rankings, but recent heavy rain is a boost for the gelding’s prospects.
Elsewhere in racing …
Oceania: Dual Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Corey Brown, 44, a former Sydney premiership champion, has been forced to retire from the saddle because of spinal damage caused by a fall two years ago. More here
North America: DeShawn Parker, 50, who in 2010 became the first African American rider since 1895 to lead all American jockeys in races won, has been selected by a vote of jockeys across the U.S. as the winner of the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. More here
North America: A top U.S. steeplechase has had a name change. The New York Writers Cup at Saratoga will be known from now on as the Jonathan Sheppard Cup after the legendary 80-year-old U.S. trainer. More here
Oceania: Godolphin are planning to send star Australian sprinter Bivouac to contest the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. More here