No Racing at Santa Anita Through Weekend
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2020 NO RACING AT SANTA ANITA CASTELLANO: >TOUGHEST CHALLENGE I=VE FACED IN MY LIFE= by Bill Finley THROUGH WEEKEND; For Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, the hard part of having the coronavirus has not been the physical effects. DERBY POSTPONED Relatively young at 42 years old and in peak physical condition, Castellano said he feels Agreat@ and considers himself to be Avery lucky and very fortunate.@ But that doesn=t mean the coronavirus didn=t beat him up, just in other ways. Castellano said Tuesday that the mental toll COVID-19 took on him was substantial and the hardest part of his ordeal. AThis has been one of toughest challenges I have faced in my life,@ he said. AThat=s because I didn=t know what to do, what to say. They said I would not have any symptoms for the first couple of days but later on it was going to catch up to me. That=s the worst. When you go to sleep, you worry about whether you=ll be able to breathe, whether you need to go to the hospital. Then if you go to the hospital you have to be isolated and nobody could have seen me. I didn=t know what to think. The problem has been much more mental than physical. I felt fine all along, but I knew that could change.@ Cont. p3 Santa Anita | Horsephotos IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Santa Anita Park will remain closed for live racing through at TATE BACKS RESUMPTION AT NEWMARKET least the weekend, the track announced Tuesday, prompting the Trainer James Tate believes Newmarket is the ideal location postponement of the GI Santa Anita Derby and GII Santa Anita for racing to take place behind closed doors. Click or tap here Oaks, which where scheduled for this Saturday, Apr. 4, to an to go straight to TDN Europe. undetermined date later in the meet. Racing was halted at Santa Anita last Friday on orders of the Los Angeles County Health Department, which has closed all businesses deemed non- essential in response to t he COVID-19 pandemic. There have been no known cases of COVID-19 at Santa Anita at this time. AAt Santa Anita Park, the health, safety and welfare of every person and every horse in our community remains our top priority,@ read a release from the track. AWe are continuing to have constructive dialogue with the LA County Health Department and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and her staff. In cooperation with our industry stake holders, a proposal was submitted earlier this week which we believe was fully responsive to their requests. We have yet to receive a satisfactory response to that proposal.@ ANumerous racetracks around the country are continuing to operate. They are running for exactly the same reasons that Santa Anita is trying to communicate to LA County officials-- because the consequences of closing down the economic engine that fuels the community makes the risks and potential issues significantly worse when racing is closed and only training allowed.@ 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 Managing Editor Wednesday, April 1, 2020 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 Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew He's one of Britain's most popular horses, known for his astonishing winning streak at [email protected] Brighton. Emma and John Berry report in on 10-year-old fan favorite Roy Rocket Social Media Strategist (center), pictured with half-brother White Valiant (left) and 17-year-old retiree Justina Severni Pantomime Prince (right). Click the photo above to watch. | Emma Berry Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes [email protected] GREEN ON NEW TAX CODES 5 Marketing Manager The Green Group’s Len Green breaks down the CARES Act. Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen “We reviewed the updates and are pleased to report that (for the most part) the changes will benefit those in the Director of IT/Accounting Thoroughbred industry,” he writes. Ray Villa [email protected] [email protected] TWO FRESH HORSES RIDING THE CANDY CAROUSEL 7 WORLDWIDE INFORMATION Chris McGrath discusses top sire Candy Ride (Arg) and a pair International Editor of his sons that made a strong impression last week at Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] Gulfstream Park. 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 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • APRIL 1, 2020 Santa Anita=s statement continued: Castellano cont. from p1 AThere are over 1,700 horses stabled at Santa Anita who It was that feeling of uncertainty, he said, that was the hardest require daily care provided by more than 750 backstretch team part. members. Most of these team members live on-site and have AEverything went through my mind,@ he said. AThey tell you been operating under stringent new measures for protection you have the virus and you think you might die. If they tell you aligned with the best guidance from local and international have cancer you know what to expect, what kind of medicine health and government authorities on COVID-19. The track has you must be on and what you need to do to get better. In the been closed to the general public and closed to all but essential case of this virus, there=s so much we don=t know. You don=t personnel since Mar. 12, 2020. know how to handle it.@ AWe will continue to work with county health authorities to familiarize them with the protocols already in place and our plans to protect the health and safety of the community who works with the horses and calls Santa Anita home.@ "I feel for so many right now," wrote trainer Doug O'Neill in a text. "Grateful that [Santa Anita] and [San Luis Rey Downs] are still open for training. Hoping numbers of virus go down and we can return to racing soon." O'Neill added that he's "grateful" TSG's San Francisco Bay Area-situated Golden Gate Fields remains open for "safe, non-spectator, social distancing aware racing." Live racing there runs this Thursday through Sunday, and O'Neill wrote that he hopes to run "daily up there until [Santa Anita] is back racing." Additional reporting by Dan Ross Javier Castellano | Zoe Metz TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • APRIL 1, 2020 Castellano cont. Castellano last rode at Gulfstream Mar. 15. Afterward, he went to New York, where his wife and children have been living, to spend time with his family. He stayed there when racing resumed at Gulfstream because there was so much uncertainty about whether or not racing would continue in South Florida. AThere was just too much going on,@ he said. AEveryone was freaking out about whether racing would continue and a couple of jockeys, like Irad Ortiz Jr., said they weren=t going to ride anymore. I decided to wait.@ But Castellano wanted to be back by Mar. 28 so that he could ride on the GI Curlin Florida Derby Day card. Gulfstream required any jockey that had left Florida to take a physical and be cleared before they could ride again. Castellano took the physical and it was announced last Thursday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He said he felt fine at the time. AI was in shock,@ he said. AI said to them are you sure that is me? I just ran hree miles 24 hours earlier. I=m feeling great. I don=t have any symptoms. I don=t have a fever. I repeated my name, my date of birth. I gave them my address. They said, >Yes, sir, it is you, you are positive.=@ Javier Castellano with his family | Coglianese Five days after the diagnosis was announced, he said he has felt fine the whole time, saying the worst of it has been a mild sore throat, But he never lost sight of the severity of the situation. AEverybody needs to be safe, everybody has to stay home and flatten the curve,@ he said. AThe virus is aggressive. You watch the news and they say we haven=t reached the peak yet. I don=t think people should be out there and jeopardizing other people. My case is the best example. I didn=t have any symptoms. If I didn=t take the test I would have thought I was fine. Think of the damage I could have done to other people if I was out there spreading the virus. Then maybe the guy who catches it from me is not going to handle it like I did. 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