MONDAY, MAY 24, 2021 BREEDING & SELLING THE TRAINER LIZ MERRYMAN HAS HIGH HOPES FOR HOMEBRED FILLY by Katie Ritz MILLION-DOLLAR RACEHORSE It=s a rare feat to get to the winner=s circle on one of the THAT DOESN'T EXIST biggest weekends in racing with a horse bred, owned and trained by the same connection, but Elizabeth Merryman did just that when her speedy filly Caravel (Mizzen Mast) gave a gutsy performance at Pimlico to take The Very One S. by a nose on Preakness weekend. Many would consider the juggling act between the foaling barn and the training center to be an impossibility, but Liz Merryman says, for her, it=s the best way to produce a racehorse. AI love working with a horse that has no mystery to what happened before I got them,@ she said. AYou know everything about them, you know why they do what they do and it=s really rewarding. It=s my favorite way to train a horse.@ Did last Friday=s victory mark Caravel as the most successful homebred Merryman has brought up? ADefinitely,@ the Fair Hill-based trainer said. Cont. p5 Zed Run photo IN TDN EUROPE TODAY The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton BALLYDOYLE EXACTA IN IRISH 1000 GUINEAS There's an adage in poker playing that says if you take a look Empress Josephine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) nosed out Aidan O’Brien around the card table and can't tell who the sucker in the game stablemate Joan of Arc (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Tattersalls Irish is, it's you. 1000 Guineas on Sunday. There's also an old saw about never investing in any business Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. transaction you don't fully understand or can't explain to someone else (or yourself) in fewer than 30 seconds. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency-styled racehorse trading spree rages on at Zed Run, the online global marketplace that went live in 2018 and has since sold 11,000 "Thoroughbreds" that exist only as digital assets on the Ethereum blockchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to a May 12 New York Times article by Taylor Lorenz, one trader reportedly flipped a single "horse" that initially cost $16,000 on Zed Run for $125,000. Another sold an entire stable for $252,000 when demand skyrocketed for that particular collection of Alimited drop@ offspring. A third touted the thrill of being able to churn a "crazy return on investment," and predicted that prices on individual digital equine assets could soon surge into the million-dollar range, matching--and at times far exceeding--the auction prices of real-life Thoroughbreds. 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 Monday, May 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 Project Manager Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Aidan O'Brien's 10th Irish 1000 Guineas. Empress Josephine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) just Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson nosed out Joan of Arc (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to win the G1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh on Sunday. The result gave the master of Ballydoyle the first two home. Go Photographer/Photo Editor to the TDN Euro for more. | Credit: Racing TV Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] HAPPY SAVER RETURNS FRIDAY 6 Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Wertheimer and Frere's Happy Saver (Super Saver) puts his unbeaten record on the line when he makes his 4-year-old Associate Producer debut in a Belmont Park allowance Friday. The colt has Katie Ritz not been seen since winning the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Director of Customer Service last October. Vicki Forbes [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen ET Race Click for TV 7:23a Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen-German 2000 Guineas-G2, COL -------------- ------ Director of IT & Accounting 8:25a Preis der Annette Hellwig Stiftung-Silberne Peitsche-G3, COL -------------- ------ Ray Villa [email protected] 8:33a Prix Hoquart-G2, LCH -------------- TVG [email protected] 9:50a Saxon Warrior Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary-G1, LCH -------------- TVG 11:35a Prix Vicomtesse Vigier-G2, LCH -------------- TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 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 6 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • MAY 24, 2021 The Week in Review (cont. from p1) pick-the-winners or betting component (yet). Rather, its entire structure is based on trying to replicate--and AThis is either going to be the smartest or stupidest thing I've capitalize from--an ever-changing, real-time digital bloodstock ever done,@ one Miami-based Zed Run enthusiast who has amassed 48 horses told the Times. AI'll either buy a house with marketplace. the money I make from it or never show my face for a year." Assets that take the form of NFTs have been popping up in the The Australia-founded Zed Run has been thriving in recent news with increasing frequency. On May 20, David Stevenson of weeks. Or it at least has the appearance of thriving, because, as the Financial Times in London described the complicated with any rapidly emerging market--crypto, traditional, or concept of an NFT as Aa certificate of authenticity held on the otherwise--you never truly know who is driving or profiting from blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions that cannot be the stampede. This is especially true when highly hyped trading hacked. These tokens may refer both to an actual item, such as is based on assets that have no tangible underlying value outside an artwork, as well as its authentication. Cut through the jargon of their specific marketplace. and they are just a piece of code I spent a good chunk of the with specific functionality and a weekend trying to get my head unique identifier.@ around Zed Run's core concept In essence, the buying and (Ato create an ecosystem selling of NFTs is closely linked to where collectible digital assets our society's infatuation with hold value and have use in an ownership and property rights. exciting and ever-evolving On Apr. 29, Sophie Haigney gaming and wagering described that idea in the New environment@). I read through York Times, detailing how the company's work-in- someone recently paid more than progress website and absorbed $69 million at auction to Aown@ an varying outside opinions on it NFT-derived JPG image that that ranged from Anext big anyone else could freely thing@ to warnings about the download on the internet. platform being a Zed Run photo Someone else bought a Adigital pyramid-styled investment house@ that can be owned, but vehicle that could be rewarding early adopters at the expense of not actually lived in for $500,000. A conceptual artist created a late-to-the-party participants who might have to bear the costs specific shade of blue, stored it digitally, then sold it for $800. of any collapse. Yet another New York Times story on May 13 described how My opinion? Although there are enough waving red flags National Basketball Association players are investing in and surrounding Zed Run to keep my digital wallet fully sealed, I trading proprietary, NFT-backed video highlight collections. must admit to being drawn in by how the platform is completely Some players have become so obsessed with the concept that unlike any other digital horse racing endeavor to date. Even on-court trash talk now involves barbs about how much though Zed Run conducts virtual races 24/7, it is not so much spectacular dunks and blocks will be worth as crypto-collectible focused on the actual racing, per se. It doesn't even have a clips. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 6 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • MAY 24, 2021 Earlier this month, The Stronach Group launched an NFT series Zed Run plans to initially make available, via periodic releases, of GI Preakness S. souvenirs that David Wilson, the company's a total supply of 38,000 AGenesis racehorses.@ Think of this as chief marketing officer, said would Aoffer our consumers some the first foal crop. You can either buy individual horses via the really rare value.@ The collection consisted of 18 different platform when they Adrop@ as a batch (in previous drops, some Preakness-related NFTs, 14 of which were video recordings of of these could initially be had for under $100), or purchase them past races, plus four Aspecial edition@ NFT offerings that were on a secondary marketplace, quite likely at a higher price. paired with real physical assets and experiences, like VIP tickets AHowever, players can choose to breed their racehorses, to next year's Preakness or a replica of the Woodlawn Vase. thereby creating more unique racehorses,@ the site explains, Zed Run pushes beyond the memorabilia mindset, but the laying the groundwork for what Zed Run hopes will be many company underscores on its site that AZed is NOT a future generations of digital Thoroughbreds.