'Life's Work' Oral History Project, No. 1: Seth Hancock
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 KEENELAND ‘LIFE’S WORK’ FROM OUT OF NOWHERE, NODA GETTING IT DONE ON NYRA CIRCUIT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, by Brian DiDonato SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--With a small stable of runners all NO. 1: SETH HANCOCK owned by himself and his brother, 30-year-old trainer Orlando Noda has enjoyed a very strong start to his career on the super- competitive NYRA circuit. He made his first start as a listed conditioner at Aqueduct in March, and has now won five times from 24 tries (21%) while hitting the board with half of his starters. Among those victories have been three at the Saratoga meet, where he’s batting 33% with two thirds of those nine runners cracking the trifecta. A Miami native, Noda inherited his make-it-on-your-own style from his father Jose Noda-Fernandez, an owner/trainer himself who ran third in the 2017 GIII Smile Sprint S. with a 134-1 shot. Cont. p5 Click the photo above to play the video with Seth Hancock IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Editor’s Note: TDN is proud to partner with the Keeneland Library and the Nunn Center for Oral History at the University YEARLING SEASON KICKS OFF AT GOFFS UK of Kentucky Libraries in a very special new collaboration: the Emma Berry offers an advance look as the 2019 yearling sale’s season kicks off with Goffs’ two-day UK Premier Sale. Keeneland 'Life's Work' Oral History Project, a series of filmed Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. interviews with significant figures in the Thoroughbred industry (See details in our story on page 3). The first of these, with Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm, appears today. by Chris McGrath "You ever see me around the sales wearing short pants, you better run for cover--because the world's getting ready to come to an end." Seth Hancock is remembering Swale. Bittersweet animal! He slaked Claiborne's ancestral thirst for a Kentucky Derby, trained by the great Woody Stephens. A week after Swale added the Belmont, Hancock was back in New York to see one of the farm's fillies run in the Mother Goose. "I went over to the barn, it was a nice, late spring day, and Swale was standing there, head out over the webbing," he recalls. "Breeze blowing foretop, looked like the happiest horse on the face of the earth. Came home that night and Woody called next morning and said, 'You sitting down?' I said, 'Well, yeah. What's going on?' He said, 'Swale dropped dead this morning, Seth.'" Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Tuesday, August 27, 2019 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist The sun rises over the misty Oklahoma training track on a cool Monday morning at Justina Severni Saratoga. | Sarah Andrew Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes [email protected] Marketing Manager TDN, KEENELAND, UK START ‘LIFE’S WORK’ PROJECT 3 Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Learn about how our joint project with the Keeneland Library and University of Kentucky’s Nunn Center for Oral History came Director of Information Technology to be, and what to expect from it in the coming months. Ray Villa [email protected] Bookkeeper Terry May [email protected] F-T MIDLANTIC FALL YEARLING CATALOGUE ONLINE 6 Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 410 entries for its Midlantic Fall WORLDWIDE INFORMATION Yearlings Sale, to be held at Timonium in Maryland Sept. 30-Oct 1. International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 7 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 27, 2019 Princequillo; never become the next link in the chain forged by his father, and his grandfather before him. "And you're like, 'Damn,'" Hancock says now, looking back across another 35 years. "'What am I doing in this thing here? The whole saga comes flooding back. How his late father, the This might be a little rough… But what the hell, I ain't the first force of nature that was "Bull" Hancock, had raged when one of that was dealt a bitter pill, and I won't be the last for sure.' And I the best Claiborne mares not only delivered another damned haven't been. LeRoy Jolley said it best: 'This game wasn't meant filly--and so prolonged the wait for a Derby colt--but a filly with to be played by people wearing short pants.'" one eye. How Tuerta, Spanish for "one-eyed girl," was retained Click here to read the whole story, or see the entire 30-minute only because she had become the last stakes winner in his video here. father's name. And how her yearling colt by Seattle Slew had gone missing from a paddock one misty morning. They figured he must have jumped the fence, they called and hollered. And eventually found him asleep, overlooked in a TDN, KEENELAND LIBRARY, UK, KICK OFF swale. That was the kind of horse he was: all the hoopla of Derby day was never going to bother him. ORAL HISTORY PROJECT The joy Hancock felt, when Swale exorcised the farm's Derby by Sue Finley curse, was not so much on his own account. At 35, he hoped he About once a quarter I sit down with Christa Marrillia, might yet get another shot someday. But he exulted for his Keeneland's VP of Marketing, to kick around ideas for the paper, mother, after all those years of Derby frustration and talk about our kids, and, of course, pitch the latest advertising disappointment shared with Bull; and also for his wonderful opportunities for Keeneland in the TDN. It was during our latest partners in the horse. chat over coffee at Keeneland's January Sale that Price Bell Now, out of a clear blue sky, Swale was gone forever. He stopped by our table to join our brainstorm session. would never become another Bold Ruler, or Nasrullah, or Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 7 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 27, 2019 Never short on ideas, Price came up with his best ever. "It's too bad that Keeneland isn't still recording the life histories of the prominent people in racing," he said, "so that we'll have them for posterity." For decades, Keeneland had collected video and audio interviews of icons in the industry and preserved them in the Keeneland Library. While Keeneland still occasionally records these testimonials, lack of bandwidth, interviewers and resources had drastically slowed down progress on the project. Arthur and Seth Hancock at Claiborne as children Keeneland Library photo After one cup of coffee turned to three, Christa and I had quickly drafted the beginnings of what would become the Life's Work Oral History Project. When considering who to conduct the interviews, there was no better candidate than Chris McGrath, who loves nothing more than a good profile piece of an industry figure. Over the next few months, we all threw out names, switched from just audio to video, made a long list, then a longer list, stole Chris from his family in England for three weeks, set him up at the cottage at Keeneland and let him run with it. Every day, he and the Keeneland broadcast crew sat down and spent hours with one of the sport's iconic figures--Seth and Arthur Hancock, Gus Koch, John Phillips, Dr. John Chandler, and more: in fact, more than a dozen have been recorded and are in the process of being turned into a multitude of written, oral, video and searchable media products. The project is a joint collaboration between TDN, Keeneland, the Keeneland Library, and the University of Kentucky's Nunn Center for Oral History. At the TDN, we will release them once a month in our TDN Look Series, where they will be comprised of a written story, video interview, and podcast. The podcasts will also soon be available through iTunes and Spotify. Cont. p5 2019 September Meet Stakes 2019 Fall Meet Stakes Schedule Schedule SEPTEMBER 13 - SEPTEMBER 29 OCTOBER 27 - DECEMBER 1 POCAHONTAS (GII) *RAGS TO RICHES OVERNIGHT STAKES *STREET SENSE OVERNIGHT STAKES 2019 “Win and You’re In Juvenile Fillies Division” Runs Sun., Oct. 27 Closes Oct. 19 Runs Sun., Oct. 27 Closes Oct. 19 2020 Kentucky Oaks Points Race $120,000 (no nomination fee) $120,000 (no nomination fee) Fillies, Two Years 1 Mile Two Year Olds 1 Mile Runs Sat., Sept. 14 Closes Aug. 31 Old $200,000 ($200 nomination fee) Fillies, Two Years Old 1 1/16 Miles *DREAM SUPREME OVERNIGHT STAKES IROQUOIS (GIII) 2019 “Win and You’re In Juvenile Division” Runs Fri., Nov. 1 Closes Oct. 26 $120,000 (no nomination fee) 2020 Kentucky Derby Points Race Fillies & Mares, Three Years Old & Up 6 Furlongs Runs Sat., Sept.