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I have had my differences over the years with the New York Times, my former employer via the International Herald Tribune, but there are some things they still do well. While the old gray lady seems to prefer to spend money on lavish executive bonuses rather than gathering and reporting the news, they still have a reserve for funding investigative reporting, and they recently threw a packet at a series looking at the U.S. racing industry. The first installment (of how many, I’m not sure) was released over the weekend, and it has caused quite a stir. I’m only worried it isn’t causing enough of one. There were about 100 comments on the Times’ web site in the first hours after publication, and there are about 480 now. The pace has slowed dramatically in the past few days.

My friends at the Paulick Report are following it pretty closely, and there is a good debate going on over there, but one would expect that since the site is a gathering place for people either connected to the industry or dedicated fans and gamblers (a dying breed, to be sure).

The first article was pretty sensational, but it had to be to get the point across: Fatal accidents are rife in American racing, much moreso than elsewhere in the racing world, and the major difference between the United States and the rest of the world is the allowance of various medications to be in a horse’s system on race day. I have been crusading against race-day medication in America pretty much since I learned about racing as a journalist and certainly since I became a trainer. I remember very well a few long conversations with Joe Drape on the subject when we met up at the Dubai World Cup in 2007. He had never really thought much about the prevalence of Lasix use or the fact that most other jurisdictions banned such drugs. I expounded that I didn’t think it was right that most horses racing in America had two or three injections for breakfast on race day. That planted the seed.

A few high-profile accidents (Eight Belles or Barbaro, anyone?) and one Big Brown later, and people started to wake up to the difference. When the unfortunate Barbaro was put down, I was asked to write a European perspective for the Times, which I did. At the time, I didn’t feel I could hit the subject as hard as Joe and his team have now done, but if you read my story, all of the same issues are raised. And therein lies the problem. There has been endless talk of the problems plaguing U.S. racing and plenty of pledges to do better. But nothing has changed.

I applaud the new Times series, and I hope – yet again – that something can change. But given the track record of those in charge of the sport, I’m not optimistic. Still, I add my voice, yet again, to those who know that racing CAN truly be the sport of kings, with thoroughbreds from age-old bloodlines competing on their merits, rather than on those of their veterinarian.

Deep Ocean won easily in Lyon yesterday, paying an incomprehensible 26-1. I had thought he would have a good chance, but all of the handicappers in the media put us in the “outsider” category. No matter; people who know the horse (or read my blog) had themselves a nice bet.

Deep had everything going for him: The entry was good, it was a right-handed track where he had performed well in the past, and he was coming off a month’s rest after Cagnes-sur-Mer. We had a nice outside draw, and Deep settled in the rear third of the pack and galloped relaxed through the opening quarters. He started to move up in the final turn, moved out of the pack at the head of the stretch and never looked back. He won by four lengths, which is a beautiful thing to see, except that it was a handicap, and those four lengths will now cost us at least three kilos in weight next time out. If he had won a little less decisively, we might have gotten away with two. But winning well is better than not winning at all, and everybody’s happy.

He came home a bit sore, which is normal considering the amount of arthritis in his hocks, but he had an aspirin with dinner last night and was walking fine today. He’ll be ridden out tomorrow and we’ll take it relatively easy for a bit. It won’t be too easy to find his next race, because I need a 2,000-meter right-handed race on the fibersand or on perfect, good-to-soft turf. Unfortunately, nothing is jumping out of the calendar at the moment. In any case, he’ll tell me when he’s ready for another run.

Elbow Beach has the next entry, in Fontainebleau on March 30, but I’m unlikely to run there. She’s still not quite where I want her in her form at home, so we’ll probably wait for Maisons-Laffitte in April. The next runners are likely to be Hard Way and Milly on April 1 in Lisieux, which should be quite an event if it happens, because Hard Way hasn’t raced since August of 2010 and a growing fan club can’t wait to see him back. Milly is looking better and better, too, and an easy race in the country should be just what she needs to give her a bit of confidence.

It seems I’ve had my head down shoveling lots of things since Cagnes, settling back in and getting ready for spring. We’ve had a bit of racing, but nothing too exciting yet. Elbow Beach ran 5th in Deauville, and is now having a bit of an easy recovery time because she worked hard through Cagnes and needs to digest it all a bit. The three races in short succession triggered a bit of a growth spurt (she’s only just turned three), but now she seems to be coming back to herself and will either run at the end of the month or early April.

Milly had a crack at Fontainebleau, the first time on the grass and the first time at a longer distance of 2,200 meters. She got a horrible trip, trapped on the rail, which is not a good place to be for a tiny horse like her. She finished out of the money, but actually ran decently and handled the surface and distance with no trouble at all. She’s brightening up in her coat and seems quite well, so she’ll either run in Amiens on March 28 or we’ll take her out to the country on April 1, where she can share a truck with Hard Way, who is likely to finally make his racecourse comeback after a year and a half off! There’s a tiny handicap for him at Lisieux on April 1, and I think he’ll give it a go.

Strictly Rhythm has basically thrown in the towel, so we’re looking for brood mare solutions for her. She ran a good three-year-old season, and she was very unlucky not to win (finishing placed just behind group and listed horses). But she’s not training on as a four-year-old, so she should find other options. Her paper is quite good, and she’s a lovely big horse, so she’ll do well as a mom, I think.

We have two unraced three-year-olds in the yard, Triple Tonic and It’s Only Money. Both have had various issues that stopped us from getting them to the track last year, so I hope we’re on track now working toward a debut. I don’t know when that will happen for either of them yet, but hopefully this spring.

And the fun horse in the yard, Deep Ocean, should have a very good chance to win one in Lyon on Tuesday. He’s doing very well and will be back racing right-handed, which is his preferred direction, and against less-than-stellar company, just like we like it!

I left the sun behind and headed back to Maisons-Laffitte yesterday, finishing up racing in Cagnes on Wednesday with a nice third from Droit Devant. I didn’t get a win down there, unfortunately, but so far this year I have eight places from 16 runners, which is a decent percentage. Hopefully the win column will start to fill in soon. It was a successful meeting, with good contacts made and horses that have come home fit and healthy. The weather was spectacular, and I hope to be there again next year.

We’ll move right on with the Paris-area racing starting back up, and Elbow Beach is likely to head to Deauville on Friday for a 1,300-meter maiden on the fibersand. We’re racing her on a bit of a tight schedule, but it is the best entry coming up and she’s only here for a limited time, so I’d like to see if we can win one. Strictly Rhythm also will have another run soon. She is probably on her way to retirement soon, but she did run well last time out, so she’ll have another chance while the owners decide whether she will be bred this year.

Milly picked up very well between her two last races, and was only beaten a short way when she finished fifth in Cagnes. She has a maiden over 2,200 meters in Fontainebleau on March 7. I’m eager to get her on the turf and I think the distance should suit her. She’s still tiny, but she seems to be coming on. Deep Ocean doesn’t have a great choice of entries coming up, but I hope to find something on the fibersand, either in Deauville or on the new track in Chantilly, soon. Both of those are right-handed, so he should be happier there.

Droit Devant is back with her previous trainer, as had been planned at the start of the meeting. I would have liked to have kept her, because I think she is making progress, but it wasn’t possible.

Meanwhile, Hard Way and Triple Tonic are getting ready to race. Both stayed home from Cagnes because Triple was recovering from her nasty cough and Hard Way would have been lethal down there, where he would have had to be ridden on the racecourse every day. Both will have gallops tomorrow, and we’ll see how much work needs to be done before starting to look at entries. We also have to bring in It’s Only Money, a three-year-old filly who has been in pretraining and hasn’t yet raced, and King needs to get started back to work after his winter off and gelding.

I’m trying to get used to the loss of the sun, but hopefully it won’t be for long, since the weather is forecast to get better next week. On the drive north from Cagnes, the autoroute passes the “Porte du Soleil,” and that’s just about where the sunlight ends and the clouds begin. Spring is in the air just the same, so we’re moving forward.

We’re turning into the home stretch here, with some horses running their final races this week. The last few runs have been disappointing, but there have been some good reasons. Deep Ocean ran a handicap on Saturday in which he should have had every chance to win, but it was on the turf, which is in horrible shape here and he didn’t travel a step. It was his first finish off the board in eight races, which of course is disappointing, but it was all due to the ground. He has fragile joints, and not only was it hard, it was pitted full of holes. Some trainers decided not to run, and they were the wiser. I wish I had done the same. That said, our jockey wisely didn’t push Deep, and he came back in great form. Not only was he calling for dinner, he was stamping his feet for hay as well. I rode him out on Sunday and it felt like he hadn’t raced. So we will try again either this coming Saturday or Monday, depending on how accommodating the handicappers at France Galop are. The Saturday race is an open handicap, back on the fibersand at 2,400 meters. The Monday race is the same course and distance, but limited to horses rated 26 and under. We’re currently sitting at 27, but I’m hoping that since he hasn’t won in a bit, they might give us the kilo. The reality is, though, that we’re probably going to have to settle for Saturday in open company.

Milly ran on Wednesday and it went exactly as I had hoped. Carla gave her a very good lesson without asking for anything, and while she only beat one horse, she really didn’t find her action until 100 meters from the post and then she ran on well. She came back in great form and has been eating and working very well since, so she’ll have another run this coming Wednesday. It’s still a 2,000-meter maiden, and she will eventually need longer to win, but I’m hoping to see some progress and maybe, just maybe, pick up a small check. She is a very tiny horse and won’t probably be in her top form until later in the spring, but if she makes progress down here, she’ll win something in the Paris region eventually.

Coming up we’ve also got Elbow Beach back on Saturday. She is double-entered in the 1,500-meter maiden on the turf and the 1,600-meter “D” race on the fibersand. In theory, the maiden should be much easier, but the D race actually looks inviting, too. I’ll sit tight through forfeits tomorrow before deciding which way to go.

Strictly Rhythm will have another go Saturday as well, but we’re dropping her back to a mile for the first time. Unfortunately, she showed a bit of respiratory trouble after her last race, and I’ve been treating her in hopes of getting a win down here before she goes off to breeding. We’ll see what Saturday gives us.

I’m gearing up for my influx of visitors on the weekend. I’ve got friends and owners from America and Maisons-Laffitte all coming down, so I hope we’ll have a good showing on Saturday before we all head off to watch the opening of the Nice Carnival on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the rhythm of track life goes on. Apparently I missed a good bar fight at the Concorde the other night, when a trainer (who I won’t name) went after a jockey (whose name I don’t know), the culmination of a longstanding dispute. It all happened past my bedtime, I’m afraid. I have been doing my share of hanging out at the cantine after night stable, I’m slightly embarrassed to admit. Something about all this sunshine, even if it’s cold, brings out the craving for cocktails…

The past two weeks have been so busy I didn’t realize I’ve neglected to say what’s been going on! Backtracking to Deep Ocean’s race, which is where I left off: He finished only 5th, and I had expected better. Unfortunately I had to shoe him a few days before the race, and he has rather delicate feet. My farrier back home does a wonderful job, but the guys down here are, quite frankly, not as good. He got a too-tight trim, and I think he was slightly bothered during the race. In any case, he still tried hard, as he always does, and left his reputation as an equine ATM machine intact by taking a small check, anyway. He will run again next Saturday, and he seems in fine form. The foot has cooled out and I’m being very careful to avoid walking around on any roads because I don’t want him to need new shoes again down here.

We got a nice surprise last Thursday, when Elbow Beach ran fourth in a decent maiden race. She was very short of work, and I really had expected her to need the race as a warmup before doing anything serious. But she showed she’s got heart and ran very well. I’m not sure if she was helped or hurt by her pre-race performance: She dumped her jockey as soon as she was let loose on the track so she did a warm-up lap alone. Luckily, she was pretty cool about it and didn’t bolt off like an idiot, so she was able to line up to take her chance. She didn’t care much for the starting gate, either, and had to be really dragged in by the gate crew. But she ran well and came back well, so she’ll have another go on the 18th, this time on the turf. I don’t really care for the turf track down here, but she has pretty big, sturdy feet, so she’ll probably be fine.

The big disappointment of the week was Strictly Rhythm, who ran another clunker yesterday. I had expected her to come in the money. She looks fantastic, has a great coat, lots of muscle, veins popping out all over the place and has been galloping well. She spent three-quarters of the race galloping along with beautiful action on the rail just behind the leader, but when things got serious in the home stretch, she showed no interest in participating. I can’t find anything physically wrong with her, so I’m going to try to shake her up with a one-mile handicap and a proper set of blinkers next time out. I think she needs a tough race to wake her up a bit – she’s been enjoying the sunshine a little too much down here.

Milly, on the other hand, needs an easy training gallop to get her on track, and she’ll get one on Wednesday. I’m running her in a 2,000-meter maiden with Carla, who has been riding her in training, up. We need her to have a good, confidence-building lesson, and Carla will give it to her. If it so happens that she ends up running well and in the money, fine, but more importantly I just want her to learn.

Droit Devant, who has joined my team just for the meeting, also will have another run on Wednesday. She won on opening day, and seems to be in decent form.

I’ve had a string of visitors, and in all the commotion I can’t believe three weeks of the meeting have already slipped away. We have three places from six runners (Droit Devant doesn’t count, unfortunately, because she ran for her previous trainer on opening day), which is decent, but I’m still looking for a win or two. I don’t think it will happen this week, but Deep might come through for us on Saturday.

I’m very happy to be down here, because even though it has turned cold, it’s nothing compared to what the rest of the country is suffering. I understand there is quite a bit of snow back in Maisons-Laffitte, so it’s a good thing most of the horses are here. Hard Way and Triple Tonic have been doing very limited work. But at least Hard Way has been keeping fit by a bit of dancing in his box.

It all started much more calmly than last year, but Cagnes sur Mer still has all the ingredients of a frat party for grown-ups (and the not-so-grownups). Sun, sea, alcohol and horse racing. If there’s a better combination than this, I don’t know it.

I came down last Sunday with Satwa Sunrise, and Deep Ocean, Strictly Rhythm and Surrey Storm followed two days later. But four quickly became three, unfortunately, because Sunrise was claimed on opening day, Monday, after finishing fifth. Her owner was devastated, and I, too, was very sorry to see her go, because she is a lovely big filly and will certainly win down here. We have to look on the bright side: We bought this filly for 2,000 euros less than three months ago and she was claimed for 21,000 and change. On top of that, she had already earned 6,500 in prize money. That is a tremendous showing for a filly that the previous trainer said had little talent and was probably a bleeder. I would have loved to hang onto her longer, but I’m pleased with my work and have to be content with that.

I tried to get her owner to claim another horse on Friday, but she was still licking her wounds from losing Sunrise and wasn’t interested. But for anybody reading this who bets, follow a horse called Splinter Cell. He’s a lovely old colt who is always in the money – much like Deep Ocean. He was brought in from Italy because they have no racing there at the moment, and he was claimed for just over 13,000 euros, which I think is quite a deal.

Surrey Storm debuted for me on Friday, and it didn’t go well, unfortunately. She is only a tiny filly, and I think she took the trip down here quite hard. She had the worst spot on the transport – at the back of the double-hitch semi trailer. When I opened the back to unload her, it looked like she had shrunk in the dryer. And she isn’t a horse that has room to shrink. I went ahead with the race because she seemed to be settling in and was eating very well, but she never got ahold of the fibersand track and struggled from beginning to end. It’s a race to throw out, though, because she is capable of much better. Her pedigree is stunning, and she just needs a little more time to get back to racing. Both she and Strictly Rhythm seemed to come into season immediately upon getting into the sun down here, so after a week or so she’ll be back on track. She’s still eating well and her eye is good, so we’ll see how she adjusts and find a longer race for her next time out. I’d really rather run her on the turf – the race Friday was her first time on the fiber and she really seemed to struggle with it. But there’s nothing for her on the turf for now, so she’ll probably be back on the polytrack next time out, too.

Strictly raced on Saturday, in an amateur lady rider’s race just to give her an easy gallop. She hadn’t raced since early October and was coming back from a few weeks of turnout in Normandy, so I wasn’t expecting her to do anything Saturday. She was outclassed in any case, and it was really just to get her moving again. We did the same thing with Hi Shinko last year and he came back to win next time out, so I’m hoping to repeat the pattern. She handled everything fine and came back looking for dinner, so she’s ready to crack on now. The starting gate crew remembered her from last year, though, and they asked if she was still as much trouble. They were relieved to find out that her gate manners had improved dramatically.

Our next runner is Deep Ocean on Thursday, in a handicap he should have every chance to win. He seems to have handled the trip down very well, and the big question is whether he can run left-handed or not. He hasn’t done so well at that direction so far, but we’ve treated his hock and he seems much straighter now, so I think he’ll be fine. He is passing his days sunbathing and watching the trotters, who are in paddocks not far from his box. He has become absolutely fascinated with the sulkies we have to pass in the morning, and he keeps telling me he’d like to give it a try. I have explained to him that that is not happening.

The atmosphere down here is the same as last year: It’s sort of like a college campus. Everyone is here temporarily and there is a mix of old hands, new people and – unlike college – a huge range of ages. There’s a rhythm to the place. Work starts relatively early, because all the horses have to be exercised before the track closes for racing. By mid-morning, people start to congregate at the Cantine. Some leave after coffee, but some head directly into the pastis, then beer, then lunch. On race days, it’s back to work to lead up, tack up and run, then back to the barns for night stable. Then back, of course, to the Cantine, where it’s cocktail hour until everyone decides what to do for dinner.

I’m lucky enough to live “on campus” this year. I have a studio above the racecourse offices, which puts me conveniently close to my horses. And, of course, to the dreaded Cantine. There are fewer English trainers here this year, which means my daily alcohol consumption is slightly below what it was last year. But only slightly. I’ve been wise enough to head back home before any of the rough stuff starts. So far…

 

Five water buckets, five mangers, 10 rugs, two saddles, pads, bridles and a partridge in a pear tree. We’re packing for Cagnes. As I suspected last year, it’s come around again before I could blink. I can’t believe we’re making the expedition south again.

I feel better prepared this year, since I know what I’m in for. We’re taking the right horses, for the most part, I think. Satwa Sunrise is already on the road; she left tonight at 5, and will be there at 5 a.m. Florence went on ahead as a scout – she’ll make sure Sunrise gets there OK and has a proper bed and blanket when she arrives. I’m leaving tomorrow, and Deep, Milly and Strictly will follow me down on Monday night, arriving Tuesday morning. Elbow Beach, our newest arrival from England, will have another two weeks in Maisons-Laffitte before she joins us.

With the exception of Elbow (not sure what, exactly, to call her yet), they are all ready to run. Deep just finished 4th at Deauville, beaten just half a length. The horse is practically an ATM machine – he’s always up there. He usually runs right-handed, and he’ll have to go the opposite way in Cagnes, but it’s certainly with a try. He seems in fine form, and in racing, one has to strike while the iron is hot. Sunrise is also coming off a place in Deauville, and she will race on Monday, opening day. I am not expecting her to win yet – it’s a claimer, so I’d rather she didn’t, actually. The race will qualify her for handicaps later in the meeting.

Milly will run a maiden race next Friday. This is a complete unknown. She’s a tiny, scrappy horse with a great paper (by Montjeu out of a black-type Dansili mare ), and she ran three places as a two-year-old in England. We will be up against the usual future stakes horses from Rouget, so we’ll see what happens.

Strictly Rhythm is coming back to get the victory that escaped her last year. She is working well, and will have a prep race with an amateur jockey next weekend before getting serious in the four-year-old handicaps. Elbow Beach is the big question mark; she seems to be a very nice filly but is a bit short of work. I’m really hoping she comes to hand quickly, because we only have her for a short time and it would be nice to win one with her.

But before all that comes the Big Move, which is always an adventure. If all goes well, we’ll end up at the Concorde tomorrow night; let’s see if the jockeys get into a scrap again this year. Nothing like a good old-fashioned bar fight to start the meeting off right!

Deep Ocean heads back to Deauville tomorrow for another handicap, this time at a slightly shorter distance of 1,900 meters. He ran a nice third last time out at 2,400 meters, but I had the impression, shared by the jockey, that a little shorter would be better. Tomorrow, we shall see. He seems healthy and in fine form since his last race (if you remember, he had a fever and a cough before that, like many of our horses who struggled with a mystery virus).

If tomorrow goes OK, Deep will join the team heading for Cagnes on Sunday. Satwa Sunrise is likely to kick off the festivities down there with another run in a claimer on Monday, Jan. 16. I’d rather wait another week for her, but we don’t have a lot of choices for her, so I think we’ll have to take this one. Waiting would mean putting her in for a cheaper claiming price than we’d like; after her nice run last time, she just might get bought for anything less than 15,000. She will run for a tag of 20,000 on Monday, which should be high enough to keep buyers at bay. She needs a third run to qualify for handicaps, so I’m not bothered if she takes a check.

Our new arrival, Elbow Beach, also is on the slate for Cagnes, but she will probably need a week or two of fittening here in Maisons-Laffitte before she joins us down south. Horses need to hit the ground running, so to speak, in Cagnes, because the facilities really don’t lend themselves to speed work in the morning. You want to bring horses that just need to keep ticking over, and race every two weeks or so.

Magical Flower’s injury still leaves me one short on the Cagnes team; I’m hoping a solution will present itself before the week is out!

Satwa Sunrise ran a game second of 16 runners in Deauville today, starting our year off right. She couldn’t quite catch the winner, but she showed great turn of foot in the straight and lots of promise for Cagnes sur Mer. Best of all, she came back great, again hardly blowing, and no coughs or any other sign of respiratory distress. For those of you who hadn’t been following the story: Sunrise was trained on Lasix in England. I picked her up for about 2,000 euros at the Tattersall’s autumn sale, and she has shown no signs of bleeding during the two months I’ve been training her. Her closing speed today shows me that this is not an issue for her, and she is probably pleasantly surprised to find out she can go at top speed without the hindrance of being dehydrated by Lasix.

The pre-race routine was the same as it always is for my horses: She ate a slightly bigger-than-normal breakfast (three liters of feed instead of two) around 7 a.m. She got a second feeding of two liters, some apples, carrots and a syringe of Vitamin B12 orally around 9:40. She got on the truck for Deauville at 10:15, and post time was 3:05 p.m. She was offered free access to water up until 2 p.m. She had been getting Vitamin C in her feed in the days leading up to the race; a few of my horses have been coughing, so almost everyone is getting Vitamin C to keep their defenses up. Other than that, she had no vet attention whatsoever.

She picked up about 5,200 euros for the second place (she gets the French owners’ premiums, which add 48 percent to the prize money).

Her nice run follows up on a third place on Friday for Deep Ocean. He had a great run, and seems to have come back well, so let’s hope he has put his sniffles behind him. If he continues to be healthy, he’ll have another shot on Jan. 10.