Category: Updates from the yard

I don’t know why, but something about the latest Paulick Report post that turned (again) into a debate on the merits of drugging horses on race day has left me feeling defeated and fatigued. I can’t understand how an issue that seems so clear to me can be at best misunderstood and at worst defended by people who handle horses for a living. I realize that the racing industry in the United States has a multitude of problems (and yes, every racing jurisdiction has issues, including France), but I believe that banning all race-day medication in thoroughbreds would be a big step toward solving many of them. I realize that most people involved in American racing disagree with me. Usually, I don’t care, because I happily race in a country where medication is banned (and our breakdown rates are half of what they are in America).  But one of the comments in the latest debate made me lose all hope. Somebody said, basically, well, fine, you have no drugs in France, but where’s the proof that your system could work for American-style dirt racing? This smacks of so much ignorance and disrespect for the horse that I couldn’t even reply. Rather than considering changing the system to preserve the horse, this guy apparently wants trainers to inject whatever is necessary to adapt the animal to the system. And by the way, get rid of those stupid synthetic racing surfaces, too, that interfere with my timed workouts and Beyer speed figures. Who cares if a longshot breaks a leg? I just want to get my bet in.

Then there’s the veterinarian (yes, apparently a licensed vet) singing the praises of lasix. Really, it’s all too depressing. I’m actually going to America next week, where I plan to spend a day or two at Tampa Bay Downs. I’m a little afraid to go. I’m not sure what I will do when I encounter this mentality face-to-face.

Anyway, just had to vent. I’ve gone native tonight, with snails and a good Bordeaux for dinner. Somehow makes me feel more at home than the thought of a cheeseburger and a beer. Oh, and by the way, forgot to mention Chantal Sutherland. Apparently the mere mention of the sexy Santa Anita jockey will make your blog hits go through the roof. I don’t have the semi-nude photos that you can find on the Handride and Cangamble blogs, though, so you’ll have to go there next….

The Deauville sales went pretty much as expected: Horses being given away. The best market seemed to be for decent broodmares in foal to decent stallions, but even the best of those were going for less than 20,000 euros. The half-sister of Overdose sold for 16,000, which I thought was a stunningly low price. So did her owner, who was disappointed but needed the cash, so what can you do? Most yearlings went for 1,000 a pop (who’s gonna take the chance and have to wait in this market? Pinhooking is practically non-existant in France). I nearly bought a filly practically ready to run for 2,000 euros, but then realized my marriage might not survive yet another horse in my own name. She’s called Lady Cecilia, if anybody wants to follow up and see if my judgment was good or bad. She caught my eye because I was looking at a Country Reel yearling, and I was pointing out to Mark, my American friend, all the flaws in his legs. The filly was standing right behind him, and I said, “For comparison, look at her legs. They’re perfect.”  And you know, they were.

Anyway, we got a little bored, so we decided to pop over to see the stallions at the Haras du Quesnay, where Anabaa stands for 30,000 euros, making him one of the most expensive stallions in France. He spent a season in Kentucky, but there wasn’t much interest, so he came back to France, where there’s plenty of interest. Anabaa was the No. 2 stallion in France last year, and the sire of Goldikova among other champions. At 17, he looks fantastic, and the crew at Quesnay were happy to have him back. He is joined there by Bering (still active at 26) Gold Away (who seems to be a bargain at 5,000 euros), Kentucky Dynamite and Panis, who was a leading sire of two-year-olds last season. The stud itself is breathtaking. Acres of paddocks with post-and-rail fencing around a small chateau, a huge brood-mare yard and the stallion barn that is a restored old Norman structure. The stallion boxes are absolutely enormous, and all five of the stallions we saw were well-mannered and happy when led out, even though this is breeding season and it was dinner time on top of it. The market might be going to hell, but there was no sign of it at that place. The stallions’ dance cards are active and everybody (horses AND staff) seemed to be eating very well, thank you.

We’re off to the Deauville February Mixed Sale tomorrow. The catalog isn’t all that interesting, but there are a few lots worth seeing: No. 44 is a half-sister to the crack sprinter Overdose. She is sold as out of training, which is a shame, so she must be injured and going as a brood mare prospect. Some others will be worth looking at, and it’s always interesting to see what the market will do these days. The sale is a mix of two- and three-year-olds, some raced but most untried (obviously all the 2YOs) a smattering of older horses in training and a good number of brood mares, in and out of foal. The highlight of the day is most likely to be a dinner of line-caught sea bass at Les Vapeurs. Since I’m not actually going up there with a horse to race, I get the luxury of staying for dinner!

I posted recently on the Nicanor that is NOT Barbaro’s brother, who was getting ready to return to racing after a nearly three-year layoff. He did just that on Saturday, making his steeplechasing debut in heavy going at Gowran Park in Ireland. He finished 4th of 17 runners in an effort judged “no more than satisfactory” by the Racing Post. The jockey opted for prudence rather than pushing the horse, which certainly seemed wise for a return after that kind of layoff.

Nicanor holds two entries for the Cheltenham Festival in March, both over fences. His trainer said Nicanor “got very tired in the gluey ground” on Saturday and might race again in Ireland rather than going to Cheltenham. He said he was very pleased with the horse’s jumping, though, in what was really a promising return.

The folks at France Galop in charge of recruiting foreign owners have finally figured out I exist, and to make up for lost time, they’ve declared me “trainer of the week” in their newsletter and online:  http://www.frbc.net/

Mark, meanwhile, has been working tirelessly to get speaking/race days set up with the numerous expat groups around Paris, and we are making progress. We’re also off to the sales in Deauville next week. A big attraction for American owners, I think, is the chance to lease a horse rather than buy one. This gives all the benefits of ownership (name in the program, on-track access, prize money, win photos) without the responsibility of having to make arrangements for the horse if there are career-ending injuries or if the animal is just not good enough for the game.  If a leased horse can’t race, it goes back to the lease-holder. I’m working on putting together a few horses to offer on this program, and they will be added to my web site when they become available.

As for the current group of trainees, we’re making what progress we can given the weather. The high winds arrived as scheduled, and luckily moved on as scheduled, too, so we were able to get some training done around noon. Skid’s gelding went off without a hitch (perhaps not the best choice of words). In any case, he seems not to know anything is missing, and we should be able to bring him back home from Normandy in three weeks or so. Turfani will start galloping on the all-weather track tomorrow, and Tommy will start to go a little quicker, too. In another month, we should be racing, and that thought keeps us moving through this crappy winter.

OK, have I said this before? This global warming thing is just NOT working out for me. We had another blizzard today, it melted just enough to slush things up this afternoon, and now the whole sloppy mess is freezing overnight. All due to melt on Monday, just in time for the apocolyptic tempest that is due to arrive Tuesday, with winds gusting to 100 kilometers per hour. We got the horses out today before the worst of it hit, but tomorrow will probably be out of the question. Monday, yes, Tuesday, no way. Damn hard to train horses this way. One thing is sure: They will all be well-rested for the spring season, if spring ever comes.

On the home front, the toilet sprung a leak, which I didn’t notice until I went down to the wine cellar and began to wonder how it was that the wooden crate housing my Chateauneuf de Pape was wet. So Tim got to spend the evening replacing the guts of the toilet while I rearranged the cellar and opened a bottle of the Chateauneuf de Pape just to make sure it was still OK (it was). Cocoa the dobermann puppy helped with the toilet. Several wrenches are now missing. I’m sure they’ll turn up strategically buried around the house (or possibly the yard). Winter. Ugh.

We took Skid up to Normandy yesterday for his date with destiny on Monday. Hard Way, meanwhile, seems to have twisted his ankle, which puts him out of action for the next 10 days or so. That leaves the T’s: Tyke, Turfani and Tommy. Only three operational horses at the moment leaves me severely under-employed, so I’m programming myself for a round of presentations on racing to expat groups in Paris. The barn must be filled, and with spring around the corner and horses being practically given away at the sales, now is the time to find the owners. Luckily, I just met an American racing fanatic that can help. Mark Tronco, a New Jersey native, is marooned here while his wife toils away at a big French bank. Let me tell you, he’s suffering: his schedule is packed with walking tours, wine-tasting, volunteering at a local food bank and other social events. I was able to nab him for company on the trip up to Normandy with Skid with the bribe of explaining France’s somewhat archaic pari-mutuel system. In return, he has given me several ideas in the search for owners. We had a good day, and once the racing season gets going again, I’m hoping to entice him out to come and help spiff up a horse or two on race day. It’s always a pleasure to have someone enthusiastic around the barn…now I just have to find more occupants so he won’t be lonely!

Endless amounts of ink (digital and otherwise) have been spilled over the past year as Nicanor, Barbaro’s brother, finally saw a racecourse. But on this side of the Atlantic, another Nicanor is drawing just as much attention – and this one’s a winner. Nicanor the elder is an eight-year-old French-bred hurdler who has won five of his 11 starts and has only once been out of the money – and that was when he fell. He came back to win three races after that spill, but he has been out of action with a tendon injury since 2006. He  is poised to make a comeback this week (if the snow clears off enough to allow racing) and then holds two entries at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

I don’t know what the American Nicanor will end up doing on the race course, but I am absolutely sure that whatever it is, he will not still be doing it at the age of eight. If he manages to win a race or two, he’ll be hustled off to stud duty. If not, he’ll probably be retired for one problem or another by the time he’s four. That’s the beauty of jump racing – the stars stick around for a good long time. OK,  most of them are geldings, so what else have they got to do? But it’s nice to hear the jumps trainers make comments like “he’s still a young horse” about a seven- or eight-year-old. These guys take patience to new levels – the Europeaen Nicanor didn’t even run until he was four and he’s now been off the course for nearly THREE YEARS. Now that’s faith – and deep pockets. If the snow melts enough to allow racing, it will be interesting to see what Nicanor does this weekend.

Last year was the first year new anti-smoking rules took affect here, banning smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants. Bar-owners feared they would lose business, and the folks over at the PMU, our pari-mutuel monopoly, were worried the betting handle would fall off because so much betting is done at corner “Tabac” shops. I don’t know how the bar-owners are faring, but apparently it’s not necessary to smoke and bet at the same time, because the overall betting handle went up 4.8 percent, to 9.3 billion euros. Of that, 540 million was bet online, up from 431 million the previous year. Nothing stopping smokers from puffing away in front of their home computers.

According to a psychiatrist who studies addictive behavior quoted by the PMU, the types of gambling that suffered the most because of the smoking ban were repetitive games like slot machines or keno. As for the economic crisis, the psychiatrist, Jean-Luc Venisse, said there was no apparent impact on gambling, because two mind-sets offset each other: gambling offers a refuge from the crisis and the hope of winning, vs. gambling requires disposable income that is no longer available. Hmm. Gambling may have ridden out the smoking ban, but the numbers this year will offer a better look at whether Venisse is right on the impact of a weak economy.

Yup, we’re going to stop wringing our hands over this and just go ahead and do it. Skid goes for the Big Snip on Thursday. I’ll truck him up to Normandy, where he’ll be done at the farm and spend three or four weeks recovering before coming back here for light work. If all goes well, in two months he’ll be working again and never notice anything is missing. And he’ll probably be a lot more comfortable.