TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021 ROB MASIELLO ON HIGHS TURF PARADISE RACE DATES APPROVED, BUT DOUBTS REMAIN OVER MEET AND LOWS OF RACING by Dan Ross In a special meeting Monday morning, the Arizona Racing Commission formally approved the proposed 2021-2022 race dates for Turf Paradise--Nov. 5 through May 7--but hard practical questions remain over what participation at that meet could look like due to an ongoing standoff between the Arizona horsemen and Turf Paradise management. As a result of welfare concerns springing from a 2020-2021 Turf Paradise race meet marred by a high number of equine fatalities, the Arizona Horsemen=s Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) have stated they will not sign any meet contract until a list of track safety upgrades and other facility management-related requests have been satisfied. Cont. p6 Click here for our interview with rising owner Rob Masiello IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Katie Ritz POWER-PACKED PREMIER SALE KICKS OFF The Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale begins its two-day run on Rob Masiello has been coming up to Saratoga since he was in Tuesday and Kelsey Riley has the preview. Click or tap here the seventh grade. to go straight to TDN Europe. It all started when he went to Anerd camp@ at Skidmore College one summer. He was miserable there, missing his usual summer vacation spent playing baseball with his friends. His parents came to visit and told him they would take him home if it was what he really wanted, but first they wanted to go to the track. AWe had a great time and I ended up staying,@ Masiello recalled. AThen it sort of became a tradition for us to come up every year. Now even to this day when I walk into the track, I always think of being a kid here with my parents and I=m sure a lot of people probably have a similar experience. It=s certainly a special place.@ Fast forward to 2005, two years after he graduated from Johns Hopkins with a degree in Economics, when Masiello got involved as an owner with West Point Thoroughbreds. AWhen I started I had the smallest piece of the smallest horse, but I enjoyed it,@ he said. AThe cool thing about being with West Point, or any partnership I think, is that you buy into a piece of one horse but you learn about an entire stable. So if you=re smart about it, you get to see what=s going on with 50 or 60 different horses at any given time and it really gives you perspective on what a stable looks like and what the ups and downs can be.@ 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 Tuesday, August 24, 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 Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Associate Producer BANKE, LEAR, RANKIN ELECTED TO TJC BOARD 13 Katie Ritz Barbara Banke, William M. Lear, Jr., and R. Alex Rankin have been elected to The Jockey Club (TJC) board of Director of Customer Service stewards, joining chairman Stuart S. Janney III, as well Vicki Forbes [email protected] as Dr. Larry Bramlage, C. Steven Duncker, William S. Farish, Jr., Ian D. Highet, and Vinnie Viola. Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Chief Financial Officer Ray Villa TODAY’S GRADED STAKES [email protected] ET Race Click for TV [email protected] 5:15p Parx Dash-GIII, PRX TJCIS PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 5:50p Smarty Jones S.-GIII, PRX TJCIS PPs TVG 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 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 24, 2021 Rob Masiello On Racing's Highs and Lows cont. from p1 AIt=s been a lot of fun and it=s a lot harder,@ he admitted. AIt=s a Over the years, Masiello has been a West Point partner on different skill set because with West Point, they=re basically graded stakes winners Freedom Child (Malibu Moon), Twilight buying the horses they want even if they=re seven-figure horses. Eclipse (Purim), Ring Weekend (Tapit) and--the one he now I can=t really do that on my own, but it=s kind of fun this way too thinks of as his all-time favorite-- because you really have to think dual Grade II winner and Grade I about your budget and what producer Justwhistledixie (Dixie you=re trying to achieve. It=s a Union). little bit more strategic thinking.@ AShe was my first good horse,@ Earlier this month, he made it he said. AI knew it at the time, to the winner=s circle with a 5- but I also didn=t know just how year-old mare he bred and now special the run she had was races in partnership with trainer when she won five straight races Tom Albertrani. Itsakeyper ending in the GII Davona Dale S. (Brilliant Speed) got her first win and the GII Bonnie Miss S. To against allowance company at see what she has gone on to do Saratoga on Aug. 12. as a broodmare has just been ATom and I actually claimed incredible.@ her dam, Finders Key (Discreet In recent years Masiello, an Cat),@ Masiello explained. AShe equity trader for Chimera Ring Weekend | Sarah Andrew was a horse Tommy trained for Securities, has had success in Godolphin who got claimed developing his own racing stable. While he remains a loyal West away, but he had always wanted to try her on turf. The funny Point partner, he said he is enjoying the challenges that going story with her is we claim her and then go with Twilight Eclipse solo has presented. to Dubai [for the 2014 G1 Dubai Sheema Classic].@ Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 24, 2021 ATommy lived in Dubai for several years and trained there so bringing a horse over to Dubai was special for him, but all he wanted to do on that trip was talk to me about Finders Key,@ Masiello continued. AAt a certain point I was like, >Tom, what are we talking about right now?= We were there with Twilight Eclipse and all he wanted to talk about was the $25,000 claimer we had.@ Finders Key made her first start on turf for the duo a winning one, but an injury forced her to retire soon after. Masiello and Albertrani sent her to another Albertrani trainee in GISW Brilliant Speed. That first foal, Itsakeyper, didn=t break her maiden until May of her 3-year-old year, but Masiello said their homebred is just now reaching top form. AShe has always trained well, but she=s gotten better and Fiya takes the 2020 Claiming Crown Canterbury S. better as this year has gone on. Tom was really happy with her Lauren King coming into the race [on Aug. 12] and it=s special because he trained the mare and Brilliant Speed, so it=s the whole all-in-the- But Fiya did win that first race for his new owner by over three family thing. Dylan Davis gave her a perfect trip. A lot of times lengths and would go on to claim the Maryland Million Turf you come up here and nothing works out, but everything that Sprint H. and the Claiming Crown Canterbury S. later that year. day just worked out perfectly.@ Trained by Tom Albertrani, he was 11th this spring in the GII On the flip side, Masiello knows all too well how things in this Twin Spires Turf Sprint S., but came back with a victory in his last sport can go from perfect to disastrous in the blink of an eye. start in an allowance at Belmont. On July 31, Fiya (Friesan Fire), a $400,000 purchase for AHe was a very talented horse,@ Masiello said. AEvery race he Masiello that had gone on to win four of his next five starts for ran in was a special experience for me. Even the one race he lost his new owner, was training at Saratoga in preparation for the was awesome, too, because I took my dad and my uncle out to GIII Troy S. when he suffered a catastrophic injury and was the Kentucky Derby when he ran in the Turf Sprint on Oaks Day. subsequently euthanized. I=m incredibly grateful for that.@ Reflecting on the loss, Masiello said he thinks of Fiya as the Masiello said this was the first horse he and Albertrani have horse that got his racing stable off the ground. had suffer a catastrophic injury together and spoke on the AI remember the morning of his first race, I was walking struggles he has worked through since the accident. around Battery Park City where I live and I had really not been AIt was very difficult.