A Mighty Day for Woodbine Fans Cont
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THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021 A MIGHTY DAY FOR JOCKEY CLUB TO COURT: BAFFERT ALONE BEARS RESPONSIBILITY FOR BANISHMENTS WOODBINE FANS by T.D. Thornton The Jockey Club (TJC) on Wednesday told the judge in Bob Baffert=s federal lawsuit against the New York Racing Association (NYRA) that in deciding whether or not to lift the trainer=s banishment from Saratoga, Belmont Park and Aqueduct, it is imperative to consider the larger issue that tracks should be entitled to bar anyone Acredibly responsible for the administration of medication resulting in a substance violation@ in order to Aprotect the health and safety of the sport=s participants.@ Cont. p6 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Mighty Heart narrowly prevails in Churchill's Blame S. | Coady IRISH YEARLING SALES MOVE TO NEWMARKET Pandemic concerns in Ireland have forced the Goffs Orby by Chris McGrath Sale and Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale to What a singular coincidence, and literally so, that two of the relocate to Park Paddocks in Newmarket. best horses recently bred in Canada--and that has never been a Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. negligible distinction--should both have only one eye. True, the origins of Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun) and Mighty Heart (Dramedy) could scarcely be more diverse. The 2019 GI La Brea S. winner, who was retired a few weeks ago, graduated from one of the most admired breeding programs in North America, which routinely sends yearlings to Keeneland as coveted as any making a shorter trip from the storied Bluegrass farms. Much like the pioneering E.P. Taylor, indeed, Anderson Farms rebukes any condescending misapprehensions about raising top-class Thoroughbreds in "ice and tundra." The way Mighty Heart has defied their shared adversity, in contrast, confounds the odds in a fashion--out of the only mare then in his breeder's ownership, by a sire since exported from Oklahoma to Saudi Arabia, and named for the eyedropper-fed runt of a Sphynx cat litter--that nourishes hope for smaller operations everywhere, from Ontario to Ocala. After a promising spring south of the border, Canada's Horse of the Year returns home Thursday in the most auspicious of contexts. He not only lines up for the GIII Dominion Day S., but does so on a Canada Day when fans are finally restored to the Woodbine stands after a second lockdown trauma that brought the local racing community to its knees. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Senior Contributing Editor Thursday, July 1, 2021 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Project Manager Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist June 15, 1895. The field for the Suburban Handicap passes the crowd at Sheepshead Justina Severni Bay Race Track in Brooklyn, NY. Eric Stable's William Donohue-trained Lazzarone won Associate Producer the 1895 renewal with Anthony Hamilton up. | Keeneland Library, John C. Hemment Collection Katie Ritz Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes [email protected] BETMAKERS' DALLAS BAKER JOINS WRITERS' ROOM 8 BetMakers' Head of International Operations Dallas Baker Marketing Manager joined the TDN Writers' Room Wednesday to talk about his Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen company's upcoming fixed-odds wagering venture at Monmouth. Chief Financial Officer Ray Villa [email protected] [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES ET Race Click for TV WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 11:50a Prix de la Porte Maillot-G3, LCH -------------- TVG International Editor 4:24p Dominion Day S.-GIII, Woodbine TJCIS PPs TVG 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 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 12 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JULY 1, 2021 A Mighty Day for Woodbine Fans cont. from p1 Mighty Heart's return to the scene of his runaway success in the Queen's Plate last September, then, serves as the perfect tonic. Even before the pandemic, after all, the Ontario industry had been through years of crisis following the abrupt loss of slots. For all those who have been striving to rally investment, and all those who have resisted fresh despair during the past year, the big heart of this one-eyed wonder has become an inspiration. "I find it so funny that he got the name he did, before all this," says his trainer Josie Carroll. "Because it just sums up this horse. Like in his last race, at the head of the lane, I thought, 'Okay, he's going to run a good race.' But he just dug in. He's just a scrappy little horse." That was in the Blame S. at Churchill last month, where Mighty Heart refused to be denied in a three-way photo finish. Having previously made a promising return at Keeneland, he has laid a solid foundation for his second campaign after exploding onto the scene last year, winning the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. Carroll had always planned to get him rolling again in the U.S., but his peregrinations from Florida to Kentucky obtained a melancholy background as the news from the home front became ever more frustrating. Woodbine finally reopened for business on June 12, albeit behind closed doors, with a jackpot carryover that had been gathering dust ever since Nov. 22. That was when the meet came to a premature end, despite an exemplary record of functioning within COVID protocols in 2020, while a resumption scheduled for Apr. 17 had then been thwarted by government orders that permitted training but not racing. The ensuing limbo became an excruciating new test for the demoralised backside community and its patrons. Cont. p4 Josie Carroll with Mighty Heart | Michael Burns TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 12 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JULY 1, 2021 "You know, I have such a great appreciation for our owners," Fortunately, times of trial will draw the best out in people, too, says Carroll. "They stuck it out. They had the opportunity to race and fortify a sense of community. elsewhere, every other major track was open, but they left their "I tell you, everybody in this industry has been great," Carroll horses here to race. We're all very appreciative, and it makes says. "I think we were all shocked when we got shut down at the me so happy to see them coming back to the races, and back to end of November. Everybody had done such a great job, I think the backside. Some of them we had two cases out of the haven't even seen their horses thousands of people back here. for a year and a half, yet they've The same people that were been hanging in there." working with these horses in the As Carroll acknowledges, that mornings were also handling can represent the entire span of them in the afternoons, so it a horse's evolution into a didn't really make a lot of sense. measurable talent. There will It just felt like we got grouped certainly have been many a with a whole lot of other sports Woodbine project that has run and activities, without being its course in the meantime. And looked at individually. the excitement for many "Since then, everybody has owners, as such, will often be worked so hard together. To get the journey sooner than the everyone on the backside destination. vaccinated, for instance, so that "For the majority of owners, Mighty Heart's Queen's Plate | Michael Burns when we presented to the half the fun is in the government we could show participation," Carroll confirms. "That's what makes the them that the majority of people had had their shots. Woodbine relationship between the people and the horses." did pop-up clinics, for people who live here and don't have a lot But it's a parallel relationship that has been under no less of access to transport, so that when Ontario began to open it painful strain: the one connecting the morning toil of would have been very hard to deny us, when we could show backstretch workers with the fulfilment available in the such a rate of coverage." afternoons. For trainers, of course, the uncertainty created a particular "It's been very hard for them, to keep their spirits up," Carroll challenge: how do you train up to a target, if the target keeps says. "Because the fun part, when you have put all that work moving? After all, judging that fever pitch for race day is into your horse, is going over there and seeing them run a big perhaps the key to their whole profession. But Carroll showed race. That's when you see the excitement on all your people's just why she was inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame in faces. So just to sit for months and months, without getting the 2019 when priming Boardroom (Commissioner) to win the first opportunity to run, was very tough on them. And we all know graded stakes of the Woodbine calendar, the GIII Whimsical S., that your basic pay rate, for backside help, is not that strong.