At Santa Anita, the Wounds Are Healing and the Track
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FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2019 AT SANTA ANITA, THE THURSDAY=S PREAKNESS TRACKSIDE REPORT: FULL FIELD, FULL MORNING WOUNDS ARE HEALING by Joe Bianca BALTIMORE, MD--After a fairly quiet Wednesday morning over AND THE TRACK HAS Pimlico=s main track, activity spiked dramatically Thursday morning, as 10 of the 13 horses entered in Saturday=s BECOME AMONG THE GI Preakness S. made appearances in front of a steadily growing crowd of onlookers. SAFEST IN AMERICA First on the track at around 6:10 a.m. was Bourbon Lane Stable and Lake Star Stable=s Bourbon War (Tapit), who vanned in from Belmont Park for trainer Mark Hennig Wednesday morning after training hours. The runner-up in the GII Xpressbet Fountain of Youth S., who was last seen running fourth in the GI Xpressbet Florida Derby Mar. 30 at Gulfstream, had a strong gallop once around the oval as a light, but persistent, rain fell. Cont. p7 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY TELECASTER TOO HOT IN THE DANTE Telecaster (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) upsets Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Dante. Racing at Santa Anita | Santa Anita photo Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. By Bill Finley Dr. Dionne Benson, the Chief Veterinary Officer for The Stronach Group, is running through a laundry list of reforms her new employer has made at Santa Anita and the reasons why she believes they have gone a long toward way fixing the problems that led to 23 fatalities over a three-month period. Then she pauses, and there is a loud knock. On wood. Benson has had many roles within the equine veterinary community and is among the most well respected individuals in her field. So she knows that racing is a fickle sport. A track can go months without a fatality and then be overrun with them. But as each day passes and Santa Anita further distances itself from a situation that was so perilous many felt the end result would be the banning of racing in California, Benson can at least sleep easier at night. There were many bad days since Santa Anita opened Dec. 26, but none worse than Mar, 31 when a horse named Arms Runner (Overdriven) broke down in the GIII San Simeon S. and had to be put down. It was the 23rd fatality since the meet opened. 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 Friday, May 17, 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] Maximum SePURRrity. Thomas the barn cat stands guard while Maximum Security Social Media Strategist (New Year's Day) walks the shedrow with Rich Monpanino after a morning gallop on Justina Severni Thursday at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, NJ. | Bill Denver/Equi-Photo Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes TDN TOP PREAKNESS CONTENDERS 9 [email protected] T.D. Thornton goes through the GI Preakness S. field Marketing Manager horse by horse. Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of Information Technology BEVY OF TENS AT FINAL MIDLANTIC PREVIEW 15 Ray Villa Four juveniles tied the :10 flat fastest furlong mark an [email protected] an additional two earned the co-bullet quarter at Bookkeeper the final Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2yo sale under-tack preview. Terry May [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES WORLDWIDE INFORMATION EST Race Click for TV International Editor 3:13p Adena Springs Miss Preakness S., PIM TJCIS PPs TVG/NCBSN Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN 4:14p Pimilco Special S.-GIII, PIM TJCIS PPs TVG/NCBSN [email protected] European Editor 4:48p Black-Eyed Susan S.-GII, PIM TJCIS PPs TVG/NCBSN Emma Berry 5:57p Allaire Dupont Distaff S.-GIII, PIM TJCIS PPs TVG [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 18 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MAY 17, 2019 Santa Anita cont. from p1 wrong with the racing surface. This time, it resumed racing on And while Santa Anita had already been under fire from animal the next scheduled card after the Arms Runner incident. rights activists, politicians and the media, Arms Runner’s death According to sources, management feared that if it shut down appeared to be a tipping point. again its critics and enemies Senator Dianne Feinstein would find a way to keep it called for the suspension of closed forever. But the TSG Thoroughbred horse racing at team also knew it could not Santa Anita until an investigation afford another breakdown, at had determined the cause of the least not any time soon. 23 equine fatalities. There was Racing resumed April 4. legitimate concern that PETA According to statistics proved by would lead a drive to get an Santa Anita, from the day Arms initiative on the ballot to ban Runner broke down through racing in the state, not a tall May 12, there have been 1,428 order when only 620,000 starters in races, 6,973 workouts signatures are needed in a state and 84,960 horses that have that has 39.6 million residents, galloped in the mornings. many of them animal lovers. And the number of fatalities? Santa Anita management was Zero. Dionne Benson | RMTC photo at a crossroads, and if it took a “Everyone is doing a really wrong turn it was quite possible that racing was done in good job at putting the horse first,” Benson said. “Every day, we California. continue to work as hard as we can to improve the safety of the The track had already ceased racing for 21 days earlier in horses racing here. I don’t think we’ll ever be finished when it March in an attempt to try to figure out what, if anything, was comes to the job of improving safety for the race horse.” TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 18 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MAY 17, 2019 Santa Anita cont. While there’s little doubt that the measures Santa Anita has installed to improve equine safety have been a factor, so, too has the weather. The Santa Anita area endured an almost unprecedented amount of rain while the worst of the problems were occurring. Without much of anything in the way of a break in the weather, the track maintenance crew was dealing with highly unusual conditions and was sealing the track after every rain storm. Subsequently, TSG COO Tim Ritvo has said that was a mistake and that if there is ever again another run of weather like the one that occurred last winter management will likely cease racing until the track is suitable for racing. “At least right now, it’s quiet,” said trainer Bob Baffert. “There have been no serious injuries and after what we went through that’s a tremendous relief. A lot of it was the rain. I think when it was drying it out, that’s when it was the worst. A lot of tracks can be sealed, but when they’re drying out you have to be careful. That’s why I trained around it. We haven’t had much in the way of rain in a long time. Everybody has learned from this. All eyes were upon us and we needed to make it work and it looks like we did. The track is in good condition right now.” The hiring of Benson was one of several steps TSG took to do anything it could think of to create a safer environment for the horse. The former Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium in Lexington, she was hired April 23. But the work had begun well before that. On Mar. 14, TSG Chairman and President Belinda Stronach issued an open letter to the industry in which she announced there would be “a complete revision of the current medication policy to improve the safety of our equine and human athletes and to raise the integrity of our sport.” Some of the reforms, like the banning of whipping and Lasix have not gone through because they must first clear hurdles at the California Horse Racing Board, but others went into effect immediately as so called “house rules.” The most significant changes were that any horse given corticosteroids cannot run or work for 14 days, the time limit on giving a horse bute or banamine before it starts or works was changed from 48 hours to 24 and the allowed level of Lasix a horse could race on was cut in half, from 10 cc to 5 cc. In conjunction with the rule changes on medication, veterinarians employed by the state and the racetrack were told to be much more vigilant. A trainer had to apply to work a horse and the vets were told to take no chances when watching horses coming onto the track for a work and also when warming up before a race and going into the gate. If they suspected anything were wrong with a horse, it would not be allowed to have a workout, and if showing any signs of distress in the afternoon would be ordered scratched.