Author: grarick

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A good start

Satwa Sunrise finished 9th in Deauville yesterday, but ran very well and passed a very big test: She had absolutely no trouble breathing and clearly is NOT having any bleeding issues. She broke very well – too well, really – and Fabien had to fight with her a bit at the beginning to get her to rate. In the end, she settled a bit, but not soon enough to leave us three wide with no cover, which is a shame. In the stretch, the entire field spread across the track, which was one of the messiest finishes I’ve seen, and coming out of the turn, everyone had a chance. Sunrise didn’t accelerate quite quick enough and then got blocked, and Fabien had to check her badly. But she came again and showed a nice acceleration to finish and was still passing horses at the post.

She recovered very quickly and didn’t even give us one cough walking out. We may try longer next time out, which I hope will be Jan. 2. Our pre-race routine with her was the same as with any of our horses: Normal breakfast, light lunch and access to water until one hour before post time.

Our friend Jackie took some fabulous photos at the track, and we’re all pleased with this run, which was her first race since Oct. 15. Next up, meanwhile, should be Magical Flower next week.

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Sunrise on Solstice

Satwa Sunrise will finally debut for us on Wednesday in Deauville, running a 1,900-meter claimer for a tag of 17,000 euros. We paid 2,000 for her, partly because she was allegedly a mild bleeder; her trainer told me that he galloped her on Lasix, which is a rare thing for European trainers to do. Since she arrived here at the beginning of November, I have seen absolutely no sign of any respiratory problem. She has been everything her sales price, pedigree and past performance suggested she would be: a blue-collar horse that tries her best to do everything we ask of her. She is unlikely to set the world on fire, but from what she has shown me in the morning, she should have every chance to be a useful horse in the right category.

Sunrise is a big bay four-year-old filly, who didn’t start racing until this year – very late, so I’m sure she had her problems growing up. She was trained in France before moving to England, and now she has come full circle. She was third last time out when she raced on the all-weather track at Wolverhampton, a dismal place (from everything I’ve heard – never been there myself) tucked up in the north of England. She was bought for an owner to have some fun with during the winter season in Deauville and Cagnes sur Mer, and I’m sure she’ll do the job for us. She has taken on condition and her morale has improved quite a bit since she came here – she even gave me a good buck today while hacking around the Rond Poniatowski. She has never needed the vet, dives into her Bailey’s Racehorse mix at every meal and never even turned up her nose when the winter staples of Vitamin C, seaweed and codliver oil were added at lunch. She works 1,800 meters (a mile and an eighth, or nine furlongs, if you prefer) twice a week, usually head-to-head with a stablemate. On other days, she hack canters a couple of miles or treks through the national forest.

Her owner has spoiled her by stopping by with heart-shaped sugar cubes, and I’m sure she’ll bring plenty more of those on Wednesday. The race looks like a decent entry; there are five horses who look tough to beat, and the rest of the field looks very mediocre. I have no idea how Sunrise will race, but it seems fitting to debut (well, she’s debuting for me, anyway) a horse so named on the shortest day of the year. Gives us something to hope for during the darkest days of winter.

Sunrise on a recent morning out.

 

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On the edge of the storm

In just over an hour, we are expected to start seeing the leading edge of a weather system called Joachim, a depression that is supposed to bring with it a tempest to rival the one we had a decade ago. It’s been a gusty, rainy week already, but Joachim promises to be much more than all that. For the moment, it is sunny and still, and maybe Joachim will not turn out to be as big and bad as forecast. Or maybe he will. In any case, all the horses got a good workout this morning in case they’re stuck in their boxes tomorrow. Hard Way and Sunrise galloped, Milly and Magic got a long tour through the forest and Deep Ocean and Strictly Rhythm took a couple of turns around the Rond Poniatowski.

Milly got eliminated on Saturday, as did 22 other horses in her race. It takes practically an act of god (if you believe in that sort of thing) to get into a race in Deauville in the winter time; there are just too many horses needing a race, and almost everything on the card draws 100 entries. She’ll have a priority for next time – but so will the 22 other horses. Now we have to wait until Jan. 2 for the next good chance for her.

Sunrise is entered for next Wednesday, and she already holds a priority card after getting eliminated last time out. She is working well, although she did give me one cough in her box after galloping today. It’s probably nothing, but I’m hyper-alert to any sign of trouble because we have had such a horrible problem with viruses this year. I’ll be watching her carefully for the next few days – and taking her temperature at least twice a day, too. Deep Ocean came down with something after his canter just over a week ago; luckily, he tested negative for both rhino and flu, and seems to have bounced back strongly. He also is entered for next week, but that’s probably a bit too optimistic after just being sick, and I’m far from sure we’ll try to run. Triple Tonic also has a fever again.

Solidly on the healthy list, at least for now, are Magic, Hard Way, Milly and Strictly Rhythm. Hard Way is galloping twice a week now and he’s training like he has a date at Longchamp next week. Strictly is going to bounce back quickly from her vacation, and the rest of them just need a race.

Shit Mountain
Shit Mountain and its primary architect.

But meanwhile, we’re waiting for the storm. All of the doors have been attached, stray forks and brooms stored and buckets picked up. We’re all worried, of course, about the fate of Shit Mountain, which could be blown to bits with the right gust of wind overnight. Have mercy, Joachim!

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Drawing a line in the fumier

Our yard is split between two trainers. We are not friends, but we each do our work and generally don’t get in each other’s way. We do, however, have to share the fumier – the big pit behind the south wall where the droppings are dumped. The fumier is a cement-lined enclosure, about three meters wide and 10 meters long, sloping down to a depth of about three meters in the back. When it is full, a truck with a clam comes and empties it. Simple enough system, but sometimes the truck doesn’t come around as often as one would like, and since we have to pay for removal, we try to cram as much into the fumier as possible so that when he comes, it’s worth it.

Needless to say, fumier maintenance has often been a bone of contention between me and the other trainer, because one has to keep pitching the shit to the back to make maximum use of the space available, and the other trainer is not particularly adept in the use of a pitchfork. I, on the other hand, am an Olympic-level shit slinger. The situation turned serious when we found out about two weeks ago that the truck would not be back until the end of December. That was when my assistant, Agata, became obsessed with the fumier.

The morning we received this news, Agata went back to the fumier and impeccably manicured half of it. She created a terraced landscape, a veritable shit palace with a border up the middle to signify who could dump their shit where. The other trainer ignored the message, but this changed after the first two days, when Agata unceremoniously pitched all the shit from their boxes onto their side. Their pile started to creep forward, while ours just grew in height and stature.

Finally, after about a week, the girl who does boxes for the other trainer took up the challenge. I came around the corner with my wheelbarrow after night stable one night and almost fell over at the magnificent site of twin shit mountains. Mark, an owner  who comes to help with the boxes when he can (no one in France has owners as good as mine!) was not to be outdone, and our side continued to outpace the other in height.

“How’s the shit chateau?” I asked Mark one morning, not having yet had time to look.

“I’d say it’s more like the Matterhorn,” he replied. He was right. the pile had grown to an impressive four meters or so. I started to wonder about the potential of spontaneous combustion that might turn the Matterhorn into an active shit volcano. I mentioned this to Mark. “How cool would THAT be!” was his reply.

It remains to be seen whether we can last until the end of December. The mountain is growing. Meanwhile, if you hear of any seismic disturbance coming from Maisons-Laffitte, you’ll know where it came from.

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Sunrise waits for a spot

Satwa Sunrise was eliminated from her race this past week so didn’t get a run, but she is certainly ready to race. She’s been working very well, and there’s been no sign of any respiratory distress that would indicate a bleeding problem. (Her previous trainer galloped her on Lasix, even though she couldn’t race on it – thankfully.) Her next entry will be Dec. 21, and we have a priority after being eliminated last time, so hopefully she will get a run. Only a race will really test whether conditioning trumps pharmaceuticals, as I believe it will.

It’s very tough to get into races in Deauville; there were 134 horses entered for Satwa’s race, and 96 start declared for 16 spots. This results in ridiculous “double” and “triple” priorities by the end of the meeting. I hope to race Surrey Storm next Saturday, but there are 71 entered. I have to hope for a lot of forfeits and that France Galop will add a second race.

Deep Ocean was supposed to run next Saturday, too, but he has come down with something and is out for the moment. He had a fever and was coughing this week; we have had a terrible year for viruses even though we have taken every precaution in disinfecting boxes and making sure every horse has their own tack. Vitamin C is helping, too, but it’s been very frustrating. I can take some solace in knowing I’m not alone; there are lots of horses coughing out there in the morning from various yards. I was hoping we had already had our share, and now Deep comes down with it (whatever “it” is – lab results are due back tomorrow).

The rest of the team seem fine, touch wood. Now it’s just a matter of finding the races we need.

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November: Why?

When T.S. Eliot penned “April is the cruelest month,” he obviously had forgotten about November. But then again, he probably wasn’t involved with racehorses. For those of us who are, November has to be the most miserable time of the year. The days are so short that you start work in the dark and you finish in the dark. Thankfully, this year hasn’t been nearly as cold and snowy as last year, but it has featured bone-chilling high humidity. A thick fog has blanketed Maisons-Laffitte for the past few mornings, and it gets heavier in the hour after sunrise, already the coldest of the day.

The horses don’t appreciate it much, either. They change their coats, pushing out winter wool, which we then have to clip off so they can work and sweat without catching cold. The heavy rugs have come out, but get alternated with the lighter polar fleeces during the day, because the winter rugs are too hot in the afternoon. Changing their clothes three times a day adds to the work load, and wiping all the runny noses and seeing to the coughs and sneezes are keeping us running, too. It’s the time of year when we need to decide who should push through a winter campaign and who needs a break. The turf racing is almost over, and the all-weather races in Deauville and Cagnes-sur-Mer are ahead.

We’re counting the days until Dec. 21, when we start to add back those precious minutes of sunlight that make such a huge difference. By then, too, the horses will have adjusted to winter. The coughs and niggling health problems that come with the change of season should be behind us – to some extent, it seems we’ve already turned that page, because most of the horses seem to be coming up in form. All that Vitamin C and echinacea extract has paid off.

Satwa Sunrise has started galloping without the aid of Lasix, and seems to be completely fine. We haven’t done head-to-head work with her yet, but will start that next week, and she should run in two weeks (or at least she has an entry – we’ll have to see if she gets in. Magical Flower seems to be recovered from her brush with a cold, and even Triple Tonic seems back in form, except that she popped a splint on her near fore and will have to have an easy week to let it set.

Deep Ocean is a lovely horse, and the infiltration and Tildren treatment seem to have made him pretty comfortable. He had a gallop yesterday that was quite impressive, and I’m looking forward to seeing him race in December. He has to switch boxes and go to a bed of shavings, though, because he has threatened to colic twice in the past week after trying to eat his entire straw mattress.

Little Milly (Surrey Storm) is giving us no trouble at all, and seems to be balancing up a bit better. Hard Way is training up so well I’ve had to cut his feed back because I can’t hold onto him any more. He was supposed to be spending the winter as essentially the stable pony, and he’s only eating pony food, but he thinks he’s ready for Longchamp. I had forgotten what a magnificent stride he has – even going slow he opens up huge distances from the others. Anyway, we’ll try to keep him turned down to simmer for the moment.

The enigma has been King Driver, who just doesn’t seem to have a great immune system. He ran two nice races, but then we had to give him a flu shot, after which he promptly got a fever and a cough. Just when I’m ready to pick up the phone to call the vet to come and geld him, though, he seems to stage a miraculous recovery. He’s not quite 100 percent yet, but he’s fighting hard to get there.

Pretty much everybody can race in December, I think, and then we need to decide who goes to Cagnes. Strictly Rhythm will come back into training in December to get ready to go down south, and Sunrise, Magic and Milly will probably also go. Deep Ocean can’t because he can only run left-handed (Cagnes runs right), but King and Triple can go if they are healthy. I have six boxes, so the final roster will wait awhile to be determined.

Meanwhile, dreaming of Cote d’Azur sun will get us through November, which, apologies to T.S. Eliot, really is the cruelest month.

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Put up or shut up

Unfortunately, the Lasix debate in the United States has become sort of an U.S. vs. Them, as in the rest of the world, but that’s the American way. Sort of “Oh, yeah? Says who?” Well, says me, for one. I have been an outspoken critic of race-day medication, and I got the chance to express my views again in the Daily Racing Form (thank you Ryan Goldberg, for contacting me). For those who have not been paying attention (which means you must be living in a deepest, darkest cave), most of the world prohibits the presence of any drug in a horse on race day. You can treat a horse that needs treatment, but it must be cleared from the system to race. In the United States, Saudi Arabia and some South American countries, horses are allowed to be treated with Lasix, a diuretic that has shown some evidence of reducing the incidence of bleeding into the lungs. Racing authorities that allow Lasix often allow a list of other “therapeutic” medications as well, including anti-inflammatory drugs, Lasix “adjuncts” and other steroidal respiratory remedies.

My quarrel with Lasix is simple: If a horse needs it to race, it shouldn’t be racing. I have several other issues with allowing its use: First off, it has a list of very unpleasant side-effects, which over repeated use break down the skeletal system of the horse and leave it more vulnerable to catastrophic breakdown than it already is. Secondly, racing jurisdictions that allow lasix tend to allow a laundry list of other medications. All of this leads to a shortened career and a host of health problems.

But I digress. In the best tradition of “put your money where your mouth is,” I offer a test case. At the Autumn Horses in Training sale in Newmarket, I saw a filly that seemed right for a client of mine. She was four years old, had not run at two or three but had placed a few times on the all-weather tracks this year. I was looking for a cheap horse to have some fun with this winter at Cagnes-sur-Mer and Deauville, and this filly fit the bill. Plus, she was French-bred, so she qualified for our lucrative premium system. Her trainer told me he galloped her on Lasix, even though it wasn’t allowed on race day, because he suspected she had a bleeding problem. Most trainers in Europe do not train this way, but I came to find out that this particular trainer galloped most of his horses with the drug. I bought the filly anyway, because she ticked all the right boxes and I thought it was worth the risk. She cost all of 1,500 Guineas, or just under 2,000 euros.

She is called Satwa Sunrise, and she arrived at the yard on Nov. 1. She is a lovely big filly, seems to be doing very well and I have no intention of galloping her using Lasix. As a matter of fact, she had her first speed work yesterday and showed no sign of trouble. I will write about her progress here, and I am fully prepared to fall flat on my face if this horse turns out to be an unmanageable bleeder. But I will be honest with you, and I’ll chronicle her road to the races, pitfalls and successes alike. For the moment, I plan to race her on Dec. 7 at Deauville. She isn’t going to set the world on fire, but I think she will do what we want her to do, which is run successfully in low-level claimers and handicap races. Watch this space…

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The road to perdition…

…is paved with good intentions. That certainly was in evidence this past week, when a number of attempts at good deeds were fraught with unintended consequences. Where to start? How about the story of George.

I sold him to an organization called Ecurie Second Chance, which buys out-of-training racehorses, reschools them and then sells them on as riding horses. Sometimes, with the owner’s consent, they are placed again for racing. When I sold George, for just 500 euros, which is the going rate for retired racehorses, I said I wasn’t opposed to him racing again if a small permit-holder was found and if the horse had a much-needed break. George is sound, nice and could race next year in easier venues than around Paris. A week later, the man who bought the horse called me and said he had two possibilities that both involved racing: One in Martinique, and one in France, but for either one he’d have to move on immediately. Needless to say I wasn’t pleased with either choice, but in all fairness I had sold the horse, so I had very little say in the matter. Between a rock and a hard place, I said I prefer he stay in France. That week, he showed up declared in training with a public trainer with a yard of 25 horses, and a week after that he was entered in a sprint up in Le Croisé-Laroche, a dismal track near Lille that I would avoid racing at at all costs. George would have to endure a seven-hour truck ride each way to get from his new trainer’s base to race and back, not to mention it was a race completely unsuited for him even if he WAS in shape. He raced, and needless to say he finished last, poor kid. The next day I saw he was entered in a race at Amiens seven days later. That was when Kay, my American owner who had leased George while he was with me, and I took action. Long story short, we bought the horse back, and we’ve found a new home for him that will not include racing.

The man who runs Ecurie Second Chance was highly apologetic and I believe he sincerely did have good intentions, but just had no idea how to execute them. During our numerous phone exchanges, he would always complain that he was severely overworked, that numerous trainers were looking to “dump” their bad horses at the end of the season and that he couldn’t cope. These are the times that try men’s souls. Yes, there are too many horses, and yes, we’re looking, at this time of year, to move the underperforming ones on. But if Ecurie Second Chance felt overwhelmed by the task, he should not have bought the horse! I would have kept him until I found a suitable situation for him myself. Which brings me to the second story of the week…

…and the names are changed to protect the – well, not the innocent, really, but…a horse, let’s call her Sadie, was injured in a race at the end of September. The nature of the problem meant that she had to be on box rest for a few weeks, but she was a very nice-natured filly and would make an excellent riding horse; the injury wasn’t limiting in that sense. I immediately started looking for a home for her, but obviously it is hard to place a lame horse, even with good potential. So I was forced to hang onto her for longer than I wanted, and certainly far longer than the owner wanted, but I did eventually find a very nice home for her at the end of October. This meant the owner was being billed for the horse a month longer than he wanted to be. He paid, along with a registered letter saying how furious he was with my “extortionary” price of 30 euros a day for a horse out of training. I understand his frustration, but despite all, I applaud him for paying his bill and not ordering the horse sent to slaughter, which I suppose he could have done (for the record, I wouldn’t have done it, even if it meant paying the horse’s keep myself). In any case, this story ends well: I just got a photo from the new owner, and he is thrilled with her. And for the record, the price I charge is far from extortionary; there is no profit margin there. Hay and straw prices have skyrocketed this year, and while the horse wasn’t ridden out, she was kept in a clean box, brushed and fed daily. The standard of care doesn’t change when the horse can no longer race.

We soldier on. Going into winter is the worst time of year in the horse business. Magic picked up the dreaded cough right before her race on Monday, and I nearly scratched but didn’t and should have, probably. In any case, the distance of 2,500 meters seems just a bit too long on heavy ground, and I’ll look for something shorter for her once we clear up the cough. King ran a great second race at St. Cloud last week. He’s learning his lessons well and I want to get a couple of more races in this year, but we had to give him a flu shot this week, and of course, he’s had a reaction to it. I’m hoping it’s a brief setback, but don’t know yet.

The new fillies from Newmarket are doing well, and Triple Tonic, back from her convalescence in Normandy, is jumping out of her skin. It’s great to have Hard Way back. He seems better than ever and hasn’t lost a step – if you don’t hang onto him in the morning he’ll be off like a shot. And we have a new colt, Deep Ocean, who came to us from Marseille. He can only race right-handed because of stringhalt in his left hock, which makes him a challenge, but he’s a lovely horse who clearly always tries his best (he’s had a win and six places this year). All of them are being aimed at some winter racing on the fibersand in Deauville and later in Cagnes (except for Deep, who can’t go to Cagnes because it is left-handed).

Already, November this year has been paradise compared with what we had to put up with last year. I don’t know how long we can escape the freezing temperatures, but I’m treasuring every day I don’t need to put ten layers and gloves!

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Breeders’ Cup madness

Can’t help but venting a bit after watching the Breeders’ Cup races last night (or what little of the Breeders’ Cup races Equidia chose to show us). I have to say this year more than ever has left me with the impression that horse racing in the United States has absolutely nothing in common with horse racing anywhere else on the planet. First off, the Americans have shown they have absolutely checked their horse sense at the door with the handling of Announce in the Filly & Mare Turf.

Maxime Guyon was hacking the filly down to the start when she spooked at something and managed to touch a trailer of some sort parked on the track. The contact was all of a split second, and about two seconds later the outrider was over telling Guyon to dismount and unsaddle, because track veterinarians had decided to scratch the horse. One wonders what the hell was a large piece of equipment doing parked on the side of the track? But no matter – Guyon handled the situation very well, and as soon as the filly touched whatever it was behind her, she settled down and moved forward, like a sensible horse will. Apparently there was a tiny cut. There were rumors that it later needed stitches (I’ve seen no confirmation of this).  Clearly the horse was sound, and if a vet had bothered to take a look at the horse, this would have been evident.  And clearly, connections of Announce were paying the price of the ineptitude shown in last year’s Breeders’ Cup when Life at Ten was allowed to race despite every indication that there was a problem.

Earlier, another filly in the sprint, Shotgun Gulch, also was scratched at the gate because a vet apparently saw a sign of lameness when the horse was warming up. How this could happen is beyond me, since the American horses “warm up” with their head twisted toward a lead pony, so they all trot sideways. No news yet on whether anything was actually wrong with the horse.

Obviously, an unsound horse should not be allowed to race. But if the vets stationed around the gates at the Breeders’ Cup are able to make that sort of diagnosis in less than 10 seconds without getting within spitting distance of the horse in question, they are a talented bunch of doctors indeed.

Another thing that always jars me when watching American racing is the loading process at the gate. It seems the gate crew try to outdo each other in proving their testosterone levels by slamming the back of the gate as hard as possible behind the horse, and the more flourish the better. Are they looking for high marks for artistic impression? I do appreciate the speed with which they work, but is it really necessary to do it all with that much yelling, slamming and gesticulating? And don’t get me started on the insanity of crawling up into the gate with the horse and holding his head.

All that mayhem at the gate means they jump out fast and terrified. The first fractions are usually faster than the finish – sort of like watching Arabian racing here. And gunning into those tight turns makes me hold my breath and hope for the best. Then there’s the added unease of knowing nearly all of the horses out there are racing on Lasix and probably Lasix adjunct and anything else permitted by the rules. With all this, I found myself watching the races by peaking through my fingers like a kid at a horror movie.

So what will I be doing tonight? Watching anyway, because I can’t help myself. I have to cheer on Goldikova and see how So You Think adjusts to both dirt and blinkers. Come home in one piece, guys.

 

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Storm at Sunrise?

We found two nice fillies last week at the Newmarket Horses in Training sale: Surrey Storm and Satwa Sunrise. The meteorological alliteration was completely by accident. Surrey Storm is a two-year-old daughter of Montjeu out of a Listed-winning Dansili mare. She is a first foal and very small, but she’s a scrappy sort and has placed twice in four starts. She has an excellent paper and she should make a very interesting addition to our team.

Satwa Sunrise is a four-year-old daughter of Meshaheer and a Polish Precedent mare. She is a half-sister to Listed winner Mary’s Precedent and has placed twice on the all-weather track, so she’ll be perfect for Deauville and Cagnes this winter. She is eligible for French owner’s premiums, and a half-share is available.

The sales were the usual exhausting work, but it is fun at the same time to see our Newmarket friends and get a change of scenery. And it’s always amazing to see the facilities that Godolphin has going – they own most of the town, it seems, and spare no expense on anything a horse might need. Seawalkers, spas, hyperbaric chambers, swimming pools…it’s all wonderful stuff, but at the end of the day a good horse will succeed without it, and it won’t make a mediocre horse better. Good food, a good routine and letting them have an afternoon nap works, too. At least that’s what the rest of us do.