Author: grarick

This past weekend several stud farms across Normandy opened their doors to show off their stallions. It was the first time the Breeders’ Association staged a coordinated effort on a single weekend, and it was extremely well-organized. My breeder friend Genvieve, who has brood mares at her stud next to the Aga Khan’s Bonneval operation, mapped out a route that allowed us to see most of the bet stallions on offer in France. The stallion selection is getting better than is used to be, with the addition this year of proven talent like King’s Best and Dr. Fong, along with some good-looking newcomers like Zafeen and Naaqoos. Many are standing for less than 10,000 euros, which is ideal for breeders breeding to race rather than sell. On the commercial side there is less to choose from, but Elusive City and King’s Best can be marketable in Deauville in August.

My favorite of the day was Orpen, standing at the Haras du Thenney for 8,000 euros. I don’t think there is better value for money in France. He has sired 45 black-type winners and I often see his products in the winner’s circle at all level of racing. He’s a bit long in the back, but other than that a stunning horse with a good eye. I also have a soft spot for King’s Best, but at 15,000 euros he’s a little on the expensive side for France. I also got a chance to see Ultimately Lucky, the sire of our own Hard Way and a foal due in May. He was beautifully presented and has that swingy, supple big-cat walk that Hard Way has inherited. It does make you worry about the hocks, but he has sired some solid racehorses and has a book of 60 mares so far for this year. He stands for 2,200 euros at the Haras de Grandcamp. Not all the stallions were much to look at; Anabaa Blue, at the Haras d’Etreham, was one of the most unappealing sires on offer. He has tree trunks for legs, the neck of an overweight draft horse and the sleep eye of one, too. Country Reel, a three-quarter brother to the deceased Anabaa, has the same legs but is slightly more appealing up top. I suppose if you need to add bone, these guys would be on your list.

Nearly every stud offered a buffet of some kind, the two most impressive were at the Aga Khan’s Bonneval and the Haras de Thenney. But the jambon a l’os and the home-made terrines at the Haras de Petit Tellier were pretty good, too. And there was an impressive array of petit fours at the Haras de Logis…let’s just say we never had to think about stopping to buy food. There were a good number of English speakers in the groups tour the region, many attracted by the French owner/breeder premiums. As for me, I don’t have a  mare to cover this year since Well Done Clare will foal too late, so she will have a year off. But it was interesting to see what’s out there, and to hear what the breeders are thinking. I think I’ll start saving for Orpen next year.

There is yet another amazing meltdown happening in American racing that sort of defies the imagination. Michael Gill, known as the King of Claimers, is in trouble again after jockeys at Penn National refused to ride races in which his horses were entered. Gill’s horses are breaking down at an alarming rate (although what exactly that rate is seems open to argument, and it seems other owners and trainers are killing horses at a similar rate but attracting less attention doing it). I’ve been following the story and the outrage at the Paulick Report. It’s hard not to be amazed and horrified by this situation for lots of reasons, but the primary one for me is this: There is no system of authority in place in the United States that can ban irresponsible owners and trainers and get them out of the sport. Every state sets its own rules, and from what I can tell, individual tracks seem to be able to play by their own rules, as well. That means that everyone is in charge, so no one is in charge. And despite the latest flare-up over Michael Gill, nothing will change.

What is amazing to me is now narrow-minded my fellow Americans can be. After riding hundreds of dangerously infirm horses, jockeys finally draw the line at Gill, so now Gill is villain No. 1 in American racing. No one seems to be looking or caring about breakdown numbers of other owners or trainers. Same with synthetic racing surfaces. “Plastic,” as Jess Jackson likes to call it, didn’t completely stop horses from snapping their over-medicated bones on the track, so it must be no good. Let’s get rid of it. But let’s keep up the medication and breeding for speed, because that’s what America is all about. I am more convinced than ever before that horse racing in America is going the way of dog racing – destined to die out. Unfortunately for the horses, it looks like the death will be a long and painful one.

We’ve added a tab on the home page called “Press” that takes you to a list of the articles written about my training operation over the past year. The photo gallery also has been updated. Seems like the off-season has at least been good for updating our web site…

We’ve updated our “horses available” page on the Gallop France web site, so take a look for offerings for the spring/summer season. The half-leases available are a good way to get started; of those, Email Exit and Turfani run in the silks of owners who have the other half, but Skid Solo could run in the colors of whoever takes the remaining available half. Now is the time to plan that trip to Paris to see your horse running this summer…

OK, so Rachel Alexander is the U.S. Horse of the Year. Zenyatta is not. It would be great if actual horse racing got going again so there would be something else to read about than this endless debate over an award that has very little to do with what actually happens on a racetrack. But now that the actual award is behind us, the new topic is when the two Big Mares will actually race each other. One of the themes that keep coming up on blogs across cyberspace is the worry that one or both will suffer catastrophic injuries in the year ahead. Does this not strike anyone as a stunning indictment on the state of American racing? Here you have two of the most outstanding equine athletes in modern times, and all fans are thinking is “wow, I hope they make it back alive.”  That tells me more than anything that the sport there is doomed. It doesn’t have to be that way. Goldikova is staying in training this year, too, and here in France, we’re all just thinking “cool – we get to see her race again this year.” We’re not thinking, “gee, I hope she’s still breathing in 2011.” Geez, people WAKE UP! Why is the American rate of death on the racetrack three times higher than anywhere else in the world?? Take a look at the obvious: The size and surface of your tracks, (racing around tight corners always the same direction), the distance of your races (most are sprints around a single, tight turn) and the permissiveness of race-day medication that ensures virtually every horse is running with a number of approved chemicals in his system. Now I see Santa Anita is considering going back to a dirt track, and some of the same people who are expressing concern over the safety of Zenyatta are cheering the potential dumping of the “plastic” track – which seems to have resulted in far fewer catastrophic injuries than the previous dirt surface. Doesn’t anybody remember grass? You know, the stuff that horses are born on, raised on and on which they learn to gallop? The solutions don’t have to be as difficult as everyone over there seems to make them.

Ironically, Jonathan Sheppard is being praised in the Daily Racing Form for his innovative training methods, unlike anyone has ever seen in America.  He actually gallops his horses on grass, on a farm. He doesn’t time his workouts, and some of his horses DON’T EVEN  RUN ON LASIX!!! Sounds like everyday training in Europe, except the Lasix part; here, it’s no Lasix – or anything else – allowed.

A commenter on my last post wanted to know more about the French racing program, so here’s how it works in a nutshell:  The main flat racing season runs from March through mid-November, although things start to wind down pretty quickly by the end of October. We have winter racing on the all-weather tracks in Deauville, Pau, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Lyon, but these are all pretty recent – all opened within the past five years or so. Races are divided into “PMU” and “PMH” meetings. PMU meetings are races that can be bet on across the country and beyond, now, while PMH meetings are at the country tracks and you have to be present at the track to bet. There are hundreds of tracks across France, and there is some sort of PMU racing, whether flat, jumps or trotting, every day of the year.

For flat racing, the condition books come out about three times a year. The program doesn’t change all that much from year to year, so you pretty much know what to expect. An average race card will include two or three handicaps, two or three condition races and a claiming race or two.  Two-year-old racing starts in March, with short sprints of four or five furlongs, usually run on a straight. The distance builds through the year, working towards a mile and an eighth or a mile and a half by the end of the year. Two- and three-year-olds usually only run against horses of the same age, although there are some races pitting three-year-olds against older horses by the end of the season. Once horses get to be four, they usually have to face open company (meaning older horses). There are some races restricted to four-year-olds, but those get hard to come by near mid-season. There is also a good program for five-year-olds and older. Fillies and colts tend to run separately in the beginning two-year-old races, but after that, there isn’t much segregation by sex, except in the higher-level races. Fillies racing against colts is no big deal here, and it happens all the time. It seems to be quite different in America, where much is made of a filly running in mixed company.

Purses are good relative to training costs, and money is paid through fifth place, or seventh place in the big Tierce handicaps. The average PMU purse is 20,000 euros, with 10,000 to the winner. The Tierce handicaps are usually worth around 48,000, and a low-level claimer might be only 15,000, with 7,500 for the winner. Training costs run about 18,000 to 20,000 euros a year, so if your horse comes in the money a few times or wins a couple of races, you’ve covered your costs.

Claimers work much differently here than in America. Claims are put in AFTER the race, not before. Bids are made in a “silent auction” format; the claiming prices is the minimum one can bid, bulletins are put into a box, and when they are read out, the highest bid gets the horse. Owners can put in their own bid of they want to defend the horse and keep it, but the owner must then pay the difference between the claiming price and the amount he bid (and he still risks losing the horse if there is a higher bid). The minimum claiming price at a PMU meeting is 9,000 euros, and the maximum is 42,000 euros. Two or three times a year, there is a “claiming day,” when all the races on the card are claimers. Otherwise, there usually aren’t more than two or three claimers on any card.

Horses qualify for handicaps after having run three times to get a rating. The best way to get a nice low rating is to keep your horse in low-level claimers for those three races, and preferably not in the money. You know the saying: Keep yourself in the best company you can and your horses in the worst company you can.

We’re snowed in again. Luckily, all the horses got out yesterday so it’s not that big a deal that all the horses stay tucked in with lots of hay and bran mash on the program for dinner. I’ve decided against racing at Cagnes-sur-Mer after all. We can’t train properly, and it’s too big of a risk to transport horses that far away and have to turn around and come back after racing because we can’t get boxes to stay. Racing around Paris starts in eight weeks’ time, on March 8, and that’s really not too long to wait.

Meanwhile, I’m not doing much, either. Stoking the fire. Figuring out how my new video-on-demand works (it’s pretty cool). Walking the dogs around the training tracks looking for signs of a thaw. Good old Prof the basset hound is 11 now, but winter has given him a second youth. He sneaks away hunting on almost every walk, and Cocoa occasionally disappears, too, although play is her prime directive. Like most dobermans, she likes to chase things that go fast, and that includes deer that Prof might accidentally flush out. I occasionally finish the tour with no dogs, but they both know the way home and will get there eventually. The other night, Cocoa disappeared for a good long time. I left the gate open and went to do night stable. By the time I was finished, I found she had come back to the yard – with a trophy. It was dark, so I didn’t see what she had in her mouth before she bounced over to me with a big grin and a wagging tail and dropped the entire head of a deer into my hands. I was horrified that she might have brought down the animal until my neighbor and I had a closer look. The head had clearly been severed with a hunting knife, probably by illegal hunters near the back of the training center. I was relieved Cocoa wasn’t guilty, but I could have lived without having a head handed to me.

You can tell by this post I really don’t have enough to do at the moment, but I’m trying to take advantage of the break because I know things are going to pick up soon. Once we can work normally again, Skid and Brazil need to come back to work, and there are the yearlings (well, two-year-olds now) to get moving. But not yet.

Getting to Deauville paid off: Our first two runners of the year both placed, with Blessing Belle fifth and Turfani second. Belle ran a decent race but didn’t decide to get serious until the last 100 meters, leaving her fifth again but beating 13 horses this time around instead of four, like last time. At least she’s consistent, and she seems to have come back fine, so we’ll look for something for her next down south. Turfani ran a very nice race to finish second in her 18-runner handicap, beaten just a neck. She also seems to have come back well, but I don’t know what we’ll do with her next. I hadn’t planned to race her in Cagnes-sur-Mer, but I may change my mind since she seems in such good form. So we start the year off with two checks, which is nice, and finish the Deauville winter season with one win and seven places from 13 starts. Flat racing now moves to Cagnes and Pau, so we have to do some serious traveling if we want to keep at it. Belle, Bay and Versaki will almost definitely have entries down south, and Turfani will let me know what she should do next. And as soon as the weather breaks, we’ll start to bring back the horses to prepare for the spring season.

Yeah, I know, I bitch about this all the time, every winter. But the winters seem to be getting worse. And every summer, we fail to learn from the past and let the time slip by without adding that second layer of insulation to the house or making sure we have a good supply of DRY firewood. But I digress. The big decision of the week is what to do with the horses who are ready to race. Turfani, Belle and Bay all have entries for Friday and Saturday in Deauville, and it’s the closing weekend of the meet so this is our last chance. They are all dead fit – Turfani ran Dec. 24, and Belle and Bay ran Dec. 30. Turfani could use a work before racing again, but she won’t get one. The training tracks are in the deep freeze, and even our “all-weather” strip is in no shape for work. Belle and Bay don’t need anything. But they’ve all been stuck walking the roads for the past two days, and we’re unlikely to get to do more before race day. So the big question: Can a horse race having done nothing but walk for the week before? Probably, since they’re all just coming off races. It’s not ideal, but the two fillies, especially, need the run. I’m still on the fence about Bay, who doesn’t seem to be handling the cold as well as the girls. Turfani is squealing and kicking down the walls and really needs to race, and Belle isn’t far behind her. The snow is supposed to start on Wednesday, and over the weekend we get freezing rain, so after these races, I think everyone will be on box rest until we can move safely. George is heading to Normandy tomorrow to be relieved of the burden of manhood. We need to transport him before the weather closes in on Wednesday. Wake me when it’s March.