The weekly TRC industry digest - a round-up of the international racing news from the past week.
Legal move planned over Medina Spirit positive
North America: World #3 trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Racing have instructed their attorneys to file a lawsuit against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) seeking more testing of Medina Spirit’s post-race Kentucky Derby urine sample.
Baffert’s legal team believes an additional sample might provide evidence that the positive test for the corticosteroid betamethasone is linked to an ointment - Otomax, an approved topical cream used to clear up a sizable patch of skin irritation - as opposed to an illegal injection.
The documents also claim that the KHRC has violated its clients’ due process rights by refusing to allow a complete chemical analysis of the colt’s urine and argue that the question of how betamethasone traces were found is “critical” from “both a regulatory and public relations standpoint”.
Several demands and specifications of the testing of that split sample have additionally been requested.
Landmark successes for Frankel
Europe: Frankel’s already excellent stallion career reached two significant milestones this week: A first Epsom Derby winner and his 300th winner on the flat.
Adayar’s 4½-length victory in the Cazoo Derby for Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby was the world #9 sire’s third English Classic, following 2016 wins for Anapurna in the Oaks and Logician in the St.Leger.
“He’s a great big, scopey horse by Frankel and time will benefit him still. To win the way he has done, he’s stamped his authority there among the 3-year-old middle-distance horses,” said world #6 trainer Appleby.
A few days later, Kevin Ryan’s 2-year-old Sadmah, who is out of Golden Slipper heroine Mossfun, completed Frankel’s third century of flat winners at Haydock Park, where she won a novice stakes.
Some relief for Linda Rice
Embattled U.S. trainer Linda Rice has been granted a temporary restraining order, just two days after the New York State Gaming Commission officially issued the order to revoke her training license for three years, reports the Daily Racing Form.
Rice, who is said to have “received regular, continual and improper access to the confidential names and other information concerning the other horses entered in races at the New York Racing Association before the races closed”, will now be allowed to continue to train horses in the state for the time being at least.
Rice’s attorney, Andrew Turro, said, “Rice’s training business, the result of a very successful 34-year career, [would have been] irreversibly destroyed before the court can hear this case and determine Ms Rice’s application for a stay/preliminary injunction.”
Racing returns to Woodbine
North America: Racing will return to Woodbine on Saturday with an 11-race program featuring 123 horses, which is a week earlier than the scheduled reopening plan of June 18.
That said, the original plan had been for the Ontario venue to welcome racing in April before remaining closed due to various Covid issues. The 2021 meet is now set to run through December 12.
Its two Canadian Triple Crown races have been pushed back from their traditional mid-summer slots. The Queen’s Plate and the Breeders’ Stakes will now take place on August 22 and October 3 respectively.
Star California sire dies at 26
North America: Leading California stallion Old Topper was euthanized due to issues associated with old age, according to Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, where the multiple Graded stakes winner stood for his entire stud career.
The son of Gilded Time, 26, was pensioned in 2019. He perennially topped the leading sires’ list in California, with 27 stakes winners and lifetime progeny earnings of more than $22 million.
On the track, he was the most accomplished runner produced by Shy Trick, a G3-placed winning daughter of Phone Trick.
Elsewhere in racing …
Middle East: New Zealand-born Professor William ‘Twink’ Allen, the leader in the field of equine fertility, has died in Sharjah, UAE, aged 80 after a short illness. He was the father-in-law of Frankie Dettori. More here
North America: Jockey Xavier Perez celebrated the 1,000th win of his career on Monday at Delaware Park. More here
Oceania: Former champion trainer Peter Moody has come out in support of retaining the Brisbane Cup after jockey Glen Boss questioned its validity as a 3,200-metre race. More here
North America: Nominations have opened for the July 12 Fasig-Tipton Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale in Lexington. More here
Europe: Coolmore’s Caravaggio gained his first black-type win with Dizzy Bizu, who won the Prix la Fleche at Chantilly on June 6. More here