BABY BRICKS WEST VOWS to FIGHT DERBY LAWSUIT DISMISSAL, CITING >UN-AMERICAN= and >TOTALITARIAN= PROCESS by T.D
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019 BABY BRICKS WEST VOWS TO FIGHT DERBY LAWSUIT DISMISSAL, CITING >UN-AMERICAN= AND >TOTALITARIAN= PROCESS by T.D. Thornton Gary West, who co-owns the disqualified GI Kentucky Derby winner Maximum Security (New Year=s Day), said Monday an appeal is in the pipeline after a federal judge on Friday dismissed his civil rights lawsuit that sought to overturn the foul ruling that cost his colt the first leg of the 2019 Triple Crown. In a statement emailed to press members by his media liaison, West used terms like Aun-American,@ to describe his displeasure at the court-backed stewards= adjudication process, likening what he has experienced to Asecret and unreviewable actions by state actors@ that are reminiscent of Atotalitarian regimes in third world countries.@ Cont. p4 Bricks and Mortar as a foal at Stone Farm | Alberto Davalos by Alberto Davalos IN TDN EUROPE TODAY I know I shouldn't do it. Nothing good ever comes out of it, but CARAVAGGIO COLT TOPS GOFFS OPENER I can't help myself sometimes: I read the comment sections on A son of Caravaggio topped the first session of the Goffs horse racing websites. November Foal Sale on Monday. Click or tap here to go straight Typically, I have no proverbial horse in the race in regards to to TDN Europe. the arguments I read in almost every article. But recently I've felt my blood pressure rise and face begin to heat up when reading arguments about this year's Horse of the Year. We can all agree that Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), Mitole (Eskendereya), and Bricks and Mortar (Giant=s Causeway) all had objectively wonderful years, but to me it's clear that Bricks and Mortar is the Horse of the Year. That said, it's not uncommon for me to yell at my computer screen and scoff whenever I see someone argue against my boy >Bricks=. But I know I'm biased--that's my baby you're talking about. I was an intern at Stone Farm when Bricks and Mortar and I met on a foggy Kentucky morning in March, 2014. We met politely with a firm handshake as I pulled him out of his dam. A remarkably unremarkable delivery, Beyond the Waves >14 entered the world quietly and quickly. AGood morning, buddy@ are the first words he ever heard. Even if his foaling was unremarkable, he quickly set himself apart from his peers early on. I was astounded by his maturity and eagerness to please. Whereas other foals were an exercise in patience and horsemanship, Bricks and Mortar took to everything quickly. 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, November 19, 2019 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN 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 Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni e Five Racing’s MGISW New Money Honey (Medaglia d'Oro) will be on the roster of Director of Customer Service featured horses for the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame's Foal Patrol Vicki Forbes [email protected] Season 3, which debuts online Friday, Dec. 27 at www.foalpatrol.com. The first two seasons of Foal Patrol, a collection of live cameras following the daily activities of Marketing Manager in-foal mares, had more than three million total views from December 2017 through Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen September 2019. More participating horses will be announced weekly leading up to the Director of Information Technology debut of Season 3. In foal to War Front, New Money Honey resides at Indian Creek Ray Villa Farm near Paris, KY. | Mathea Kelley [email protected] Bookkeeper Terry May [email protected] FEINSTEIN TO CO-SPONSOR HIA 7 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), an outspoken WORLDWIDE INFORMATION critic of racing in the past year, has signed on as a co-sponsor International Editor of the Horseracing Integrity Act. 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 9 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 19, 2019 Baby Bricks cont. from p1 As he grew and developed from a foal to a lanky weanling, he I remember always leaving Beyond the Waves and her colt continued to impress me. I worked with over 40 foals that towards the end when bringing in mares in the morning because breeding season, including a tenacious (and stubborn) colt that I knew they wouldn't cause any trouble. would later be named Mastery, but Bricks was always my A few weeks into his life, favorite. Beyond the Waves required a He wasn=t one to bully the small medical procedure done at other colts around or always be the clinic, so her foal was in front when they started to separated from the herd for a chase each other. What drew while. Because his dam required me to him was his quiet stall rest, Bricks got a lot of confidence. A level of maturity I one-on-one time with me, an hadn=t seen in such a young overly eager intern living his horse before. dream in the Bluegrass. After a I moved back to California a few days of stall rest, Beyond few days after Bricks was the Waves graduated to weaned, a poetic way to end our hour-long stretches in a small time together. I made sure to paddock where she could keep track of my foals through hand-graze while her bouncing Bricks and Mortar | Breeders= Cup/Eclipse Sportswire the years and was surprised colt could stretch his legs. During when he went for a Abargain@ of these sessions, I would brush Bricks and tell him about a horse $200,000 during Book 1 of Keeneland September. from my home state who was on the Kentucky Derby trail. AWow, someone just got a steal,@ I thought to myself. AYou know, California Chrome was on stall rest when he was a Watching my favorite foal develop into the strong competitor baby, too. Don't forget me when you=re famous like him, bud.@ he has become today has been a thrill. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 9 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 19, 2019 Watching him win the Breeders' Cup brought a literal tear to make clear that the disqualification is not subject to judicial my eye. review. Further, the disqualification procedure does not He has made me so proud and I can only hope he keeps up his implicate an interest protected under the Due Process Clause of end of the promise and still remembers me. the U.S. Constitution. Accordingly, the Court must grant the motion to dismiss.@ Alberto Davalos completed the Spring 2014 session of the After taking the weekend to mull his options, Gary West issued Kentucky Equine Management Internship at Stone Farm. He is the following statement on Monday: now the Assistant Director of Admissions at the University of AThe Court=s decision holding that disqualification decisions by California, Berkeley. He keeps a photo of Bricks and Mortar at Kentucky=s stewards are never >subject to judicial or any kind of his desk. review= literally puts Kentucky=s stewards above the law. AStewards= decisions are of momentous financial and intangible importance to owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, and the betting public. The transparency and reviewability of Gary West cont. from p1 decisions by stewards is essential to the integrity of racing in On May 14, West, who co-owns Maximum Security with his America and is critical to the public=s confidence in the sport. wife Mary, sued the three stewards assigned to Churchill Downs, ASadly, the Court=s opinion allows secret deliberations by plus the 14 board members and the executive director of the Kentucky=s stewards that affect millions of people and billions of Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), based on allegations dollars to forever go unreviewable by any court; indeed, by that Athe final [Derby] order is not supported by substantial anyone, no matter how negligent, reckless or nefarious such evidence on the whole record@ and that the DQ violated the secretly-made decisions may be. plaintiffs= Fourteenth Amendment rights. On June 8, the AThe opportunities for abuses under such a bizarre and defendants filed a motion to dismiss the suit. un-American system are self-evident. This is an outrageous state On Nov. 15, United States District Court Judge Karen Caldwell of affairs that does irreparable damage to the >trust= in the sport agreed with the defendants that the lawsuit should get tossed of Thoroughbred racing in Kentucky. Cont. p5 out. She wrote in her court order that, AKentucky=s regulations TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 9 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 19, 2019 AAs important as it is to me to have a court review the stewards= disqualification of Maximum Security, this case has now become much bigger than that. It=s now a case about Due Process and the fundamental fairness of how racing is conducted in Kentucky.