By Graham Motion

Editor’s Note: Trainer H. Graham Motion has penned the following response to a KHRC ruling Tuesday fining him for a Robaxin positive with last year’s GIII Bewitch S. winner Kitten’s Point (Kitten’s Joy). Click here to read a TDN article on his initial appeal to the suspension and fine.

After over 11,000 starters and more than 2,000 winners over the course of more than 20 years, [Tuesday] I was fined by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for the first positive in my career and Kitten’s Point was disqualified from her win in the 2015 GIII Bewitch S. at Keeneland. This hearing took place in a meeting where I was denied the opportunity to address the commission. Of course I wanted to defend myself, but moreover I wanted to address some of my concerns with this medication and how it was handled. The entire process has been extremely disappointing and troubling to me.

I always felt that if the day ever came where, by some unforeseen circumstance, I was charged with a drug violation I would not lawyer up to defend myself, but rather would take my punishment and move on. It would upset me to see trainers go to such great lengths to defend themselves. But, when I found myself in that position I felt differently. I felt that my staff and I had gone to extraordinary lengths to protect myself and my clients. When I was made aware of a withdrawal time I would add plenty of cushion as was the case with Kittens Point. The last time she was treated with Robaxin was seven days before the race, more than double a recommended withdrawal guideline published by the KHRC. After all, if we as trainers can not rely on the guidelines that are given to us, how on earth can we be expected to operate within the rules?

More over, I was troubled to learn that the current threshold for Robaxin as set by the RMTC and adopted by the KHRC was not supported by good science, including going completely against the recommendation set by the head of the KHRC’s testing lab Dr. Sams. Unfortunately in my case I was not allowed to defend myself based on the science, including a recently approved paper published by Heather Knych which clearly states that the RMTC guidelines for Robaxin are misguided. In my opinion this is information that should be turned over to horseman as quickly as possible. Surely the KHRC are not looking to trip up horseman with unsupported thresholds and guidelines? In a time of ever changing restrictions on certain medications it should be imperative that horsemen are kept informed.

Equally as important to me is the way in which our samples are handled. I strongly believe that it is a good thing that post race testing has become increasingly more sensitive, but shouldn’t there be a responsibility with the commission that our samples are handled with the utmost of care. We are now being tested for nanograms, that is a billionth of a gram. It is disturbing to me that the samples are frequently collected and handled in unsecure environments, very little has changed with regard to this process over the years considering the technology and sensitivity of the testing process.

So there, I have said it.

All I was asking for was two minutes, it didn’t seem like an unreasonable demand. By all means we need to keep our game honest, but at what cost to the guys that are trying to play by the rules.

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.

By Bill Finley

In Florida, it doesn’t take much to be a “racetrack." Places that go by the names of Gretna Racing, Oxford Downs and Hamilton Downs have been able to offer forms of gaming at their facilities by holding races that, by no logical standards, resemble anything close to what is reasonably considered actual horse racing. The races are called “flag-drop races" and are oftentimes nothing more than two Quarter Horses starting at the drop of a flag and running at slow speeds until reaching the finish line some 100 yards from the start. They are parimutuel races, but during the meet run at Hamilton Downs during the 2015-2016 fiscal year the handle was zero. Not one bet on one race was placed. And one race at Hamilton included a 20-year-old horse.

Members and officials with legitimate Quarter Horsemen’s associations, and even their counterparts in Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing have been irate that the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering has allowed these meets to exists, but what has been a strange and troubling situation may be about to get much worse. Management at iconic Hialeah has been making moves that indicate they, too, may be dropping legitimate Quarter Horse Races and replacing them with the type of racing that is conducted at Oxford, Gretna and Hamilton.

“What they are trying to do is to have racing that is not recognized by the American Quarter Horse Association," said Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association President Ron Smith. “This is fake horse racing. Everybody in the Thoroughbred business should be scared to death over this because if they can get us, they can get them, too."

Hialeah has severed ties with the AQHA, which sanctions races around the country and sets standards for quarter horse tracks, and its only Florida affiliate, the FQHRA, and signed an agreement with a group called the South Florida Quarter Horse Association, about which little is known.

Conducting “flag-drop racing" allows Florida tracks to have casinos and other forms of gaming is because the language in the racing statutes is so poorly defined that it requires a track simply to have “horse racing." Thus far, the courts have determined that flag drop racing is horse racing. There are, after all, horses and they race against one another…more or less. Usually, these races consist of two horses.

Hialeah has slots, a poker room and electronic table games. It cannot have them without holding horse racing of some kind and it can not conduct a racing meet without an agreement with a horsemen’s group.

Hialeah owner John Brunetti Sr. did not rule out that flag-drop racing would be held at Hialeah in 2017.

“I’ve always wanted this to be a Thoroughbred track but the other tracks ganged up on me and basically shut me down," he said. “Then we tried Quarter Horse racing. I did not have a good relationship with their horsemen’s group. I was used to working with Thoroughbred horsemen. We didn’t always agree but at least we all wanted to do our best for Thoroughbred racing. It wasn’t the same way with the Quarter Horse people. I’ve lost $10 million running the Quarter Horse racing and I had to find a way to put a stop to that. There are still a lot of things going on, including with the legislature, so I’m not certain yet what we are going to do next year. But anything is possible. I call those other tracks (Gretna, Hamilton, Oxford) the ‘Mickey Mouse’ circuit. If I’m forced to join them I will. What else do people want me to do?"

Though Hialeah has not conducted a thoroughbred race since 2001, it remains one of the most famous and historic tracks in thoroughbred history. Listed on the National Register of Historical Places, Hialeah opened in 1925 and was the winter capital of horse racing in the U.S. For most of its history, Hialeah was awarded the prime winter dates by the Florida racing commissions, but when regulations were changed to allow any Florida track to run any time it wanted, Hialeah became the odd track out, unable to compete with Calder and Gulfstream.

But Hialeah had a second life. In 2009, it re-opened, a requirement to have alternate forms of gaming. Each year since, it ran a 40-day Quarter Horse meet. And while thoroughbred purists may not have been pleased to see another breed take over at a track of such significance, at least Hialeah was open, operating and conducting racing sanctioned by a legitimate organization, the AQHA and its affiliate, the FQHRA.

That, apparently, is about to change.

Tony Glover, the director of the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, did not return phone calls from the TDN. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Deputy Director of Communications Kathleen Keenan did respond to an email from the TDN that included several questions about Hialeah’s future, but the only information she provided was the dates Hialeah had applied for in 2017 and a list of new regulations covering pari-mutuel wagering. Many questions remain unanswered.

The only two certainties are: Hialeah plans to race 18 days in June, conducting a total of 36 cards by labeling each racing day as a doubleheader; and Hialeah management has managed to disassociate itself with the FQHRA and has come to an agreement with a group calling itself the South Florida Quarter Horse Association. In Florida, as in all states, a track cannot have gaming unless it has a signed agreement with a horsemen’s association.

According to current records available from the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations, the only officer or member listed under the SFQHA is a Tallahassee-based attorney Samual Ard, who is, according to the website floridalobbyist.gov, a lobbyist for Hialeah. Ard did not return phone calls seeking information about his connections with Hialeah and the operations of the SFQHA, which, beyond Ard, has no known members.

Previous documents involving the SFQHA include the names of Wesley Cox and Cindy Gramling, both representatives of the horsemen’s group representing Gretna racing. It appears that neither is any longer affiliated with the SFQHA.

So, how and why did the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering allow Hialeah to push out a legitimate horsemen’s group that had been there since Quarter Horse racing began at Hialeah and replace it with a group headed by a Hialeah lobbyist that has no known members?

“Those are the big questions we are asking ourselves," Smith said. “I think Hialeah sent it over to them and they just rubber-stamped it. They didn’t do their homework, even though we warned them what was going to happen."

That doesn’t mean that the courts don’t see through the farce.

In a ruling where Administrative Law Judge E. Gary Early ruled that Hamilton Downs could keep its license, he didn’t hide his disdain for the type of racing conducted there.

He wrote: “The races must be seen to be believed. The 14 events for which video evidence was received showed a series of races involving–as a rule–tired, reluctant, skittish, or disinterested horses moving at a slow pace down the dust-choked path. There was no marked starting line or finish line. The horses were often yards apart when the red rag-on-a-stick was waved. With one exception…the gait of the ‘racing’ horses ranged between a slow walk and a canter. Horses often simply stood at the starting line before slowly plodding down the track." (

Early also noted that in one race it took a horse 1 minute and 45 seconds to finish the 110-yard race and said this of the races: “they were about what one would expect of an entry-level campers’ horse show held at the conclusion of a two-week YMCA summer camp."

Will tired, reluctant, skittish, or disinterested horses moving at a slow pace soon be covering the same Hialeah track where Triple Crown immortals Citation, Seattle Slew, War Admiral, Whirlaway and Assault once raced?

Even Smith, who has never been involved in thoroughbred racing, understands how distasteful a scenario that would be.

“I think that it is an absolute shame that an historic racetrack like Hialeah would do this," he said. “That track has been there a long time and there are still a lot of possibilities for a revival. It’s just sad that horse racing is not promoted as a positive. Evidently, they think it is a hindrance."

But what is stopping Hialeah from running whatever kind of racing it wants? If the horsemen’s group is run by a lobbyist for the racetrack, why wouldn’t the horsemen’s group do whatever Hialeah management tells it to do? As things stand now, purses will come from the profits from Hialeah’s card room and will equal about $280,000 for the meet. Regulations require Hialeah to hold 288 races, meaning the average purse will be $972 a race.

“The problem with this is that it is in fact decoupling," Smith said. “Because if in fact Hialeah and the horsemen’s group are one and the same they have decoupled. That’s because they are making their own rules and all their own decisions and there is no arm’s length between the two. There will be no horsemen’s group working in the best interests of racing."

The Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association hasn’t given up its fight. It has filed suit against the Division of Pari-Mutuel Racing over its decision to recognize the SFQHA and not its group. The hearing will be held during the last week in October.

“We had a number of questions regarding whether the department had followed statutes and what have you when they recognized (the SFQHA)," Smith said. “They had 30 days to reply. We heard nothing from them; the department did not answer our questions. Now we will go before a judge and explain our position. We believe we can be successful in making what happened before go away and that we will once again be the horsemen’s group." If that happens, Brunetti may be forced to run a “normal" Quarter Horse meet.

“The entire intent of the legislation that when coupled horse racing with casinos was this: you create a need for a breeding industry and all the jobs it creates," Smith said. “If you have eight to 10 horses in each race and you have a true meet you need about 1,000 horses. That requires lot of broodmares and stallions to make that happen. If you’re looking at what Hialeah is trying to do it’s a sham when it comes to the idea of being an economic engine."

While Hialeah hasn’t had thoroughbred horse racing in 15 years and Gretna, Oxford and Hamilton never have, the prospect of another racetrack with a casino being able to essentially hold gaming without actual horse racing is raising concerns within the Florida thoroughbred industry.

“Obviously, if you can drop a flag and have a couple kids on barrel horses run down the track and that qualifies you to run a casino, you really have no need for horse racing," said Barry Berkelhammer, a member of the Board of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association. “Horse racing is expensive to run and that’s the main reason Churchill really doesn’t want to conduct racing at Calder. They just want to run a casino. The essence of the statutes and the way it was intended and presented was to keep an agricultural industry alive, which has positive economic impacts. The state allowed (casinos at racetracks) and passed it on that premise and now these wiseguy lawyers can find these little loopholes to declare the definition of a horse race is not actually defined in the statutes, and therefore who’s to argue a horse race isn’t a flag drop between two horses?

“(Gulfstream owner) Frank Stronach is committed to horse racing and loves horse racing, but at the same time, he is a businessman and his heirs are businesspeople. If at some point it becomes too difficult to offer horse racing and more profitable to exist without it then who’s to say what they will do? This could be a downward spiral that opens the door for destruction of horse racing."

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.

By Michael Adolphson

Few jockey agents have been as successful as Ron Anderson. Eloquent, amiable and a shrewd analyst, Anderson has an enviable rolodex of past and present clients that have elevated him–and whom he has helped raise–to the upper echelon of horse racing. From Jerry Bailey, Fernando Toro, Garrett Gomez, Gary Stevens, Chris Antley, Corey Nakatani and currently Joel Rosario, his clientele includes some of the best to ever ride a racehorse. Now 61, the Las Vegas-born, Los Angeles-raised and now New York-based agent seems as energetic as ever, excited for what the year may bring.

“Things are going well. I’ve got people looking for [Joel] and that’s always a huge plus," Anderson explained. “These last few weeks are pretty critical leading up to the Breeders’ Cup. The theory being you have to end up on the right horse on Breeders’ Cup day and there are a couple weekends where I can have Joel in three different places, so you have to understand which horses and which days can maximize things where it counts regarding the Breeders’ Cup. It’s a bit of a juggling act.

“Joel has had a better season than it appears, having had two major injuries in the last couple years," he continued. “When you look at national standings, he would be on top of the list if he hadn’t got hurt. He was really progressing before that was interrupted, but at this point it’s hindsight and we move on. We have won the [GI] Kentucky Derby and [G1] Dubai World Cup together and been an Eclipse finalist two years. I enjoy working with a jockey like him because he’s approachable and always wants to try something to get the horse to win next time. He’s very different in that he can talk after a race and analyze what he can do to get the horse to win, instead of dwelling on losing."

Rosario is part of a long chain of top journeymen whose opportunities have been maximized by Anderson’s prowess. An agent to winners of 27 Breeders’ Cup races, 14 Triple Crown events, including four Kentucky Derbies, and countless Grade Is, Anderson remains an amicable balance of driven, humble and focused, while splitting his time between homes in New York and the Bluegrass State.

“I’ve been very successful and feel incredibly fortunate," he reflected. “I had actually started in 1973 and was going to junior college hoping to end up at UCLA Law. I took a jock on a whim just to try it. I had grown up around Santa Anita and loved racing. My big break was in 1980 when I was given Fernando Toro’s book by [Chick] McClellan, who was a great agent whom I admired for being very organized and really treating everyone right. Toro taught me a lot about what to look for in a horse and gave me the piece of the puzzle to buffer my lack of horsemanship. If I’m ever considered good at what I do, it’s because I was lucky enough to end up with him at one point. He was the big break.

“In the 1990s Gary [Stevens] and I had a great time together," he continued. “Then the 2000s, I had both Jerry Bailey and Chris Antley and was really lucky to have both of them. What helped a lot was moving from the West Coast to the east. We did very well and dominated at times. I’ve been very fortunate to have those riders and great jockeys like [Garrett] Gomez."

Being one of the most prominent figures in a trade that is not exactly held in highest regard because of its tooth-and-nail nature, Anderson keeps everything in perspective.

“You’re dealing with all different kinds of demeanors, just like in life in general," he explained. “Sometimes you don’t know what turmoil people are going through or the stress they’re under. Working on commissions and struggling to make ends meet can make things very difficult. There are plenty of agents who maybe do things or say things they shouldn’t, but there are also all different styles and a lot of stresses that go along with the job.

“You first have to have a decent product," he continued. “It’s obviously always better if they’re knocking on your door instead of the other way around. In the end, you try to be mild-mannered and not let the bad results bother you too much–that’s something I always admired in McClellan."

If there is one thing that Anderson seems to represent, aside from his actual client, is the idea of agency. By nature a slanted trade where the agenda of the product, client–or in this case jockey–is placed above all, agency also means understanding how to act and adapt to a given environment while comprehending the interconnected intricacies of such. In other words, Anderson has likely been successful because he actively discerns and seems to master the balance of being competitive and complementary in and to his industry.

“There is no blueprint for what we do or how we do it," he concluded. “I was and am lucky enough to be around the right riders and I’ve tried to treat people right."

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.

By T. D. Thornton

An all-female racing partnership of 40 women based in seven different countries tasted global success with a Group 1 winner in Australia last weekend.

Kentucky-based Anna Seitz, the co-founder and syndicate manager for It’s All About the Girls, LLC, told TDN in a Monday phone interview that the win by Global Glamour (Aus) (Star Witness {Aus}) in the A$500,000 G1 Sydney Airport Flight S. at Randwick on Saturday could be partially attributed to the partnership’s desire to want to cash in on the lucrative Magic Millions Racing Women initiative that rewards female-owned graduates of that yearling sale if their horses go on to run big in the Magic Millions Race Series.

Seitz also credited streamlined racehorse ownership rules in Australia that she said are generally geared toward making it easier for newcomers to break into the sport via partnerships. She added that she is hopeful some sort of similar bonus scheme and a rethinking of horse syndicate rules here in the United States could someday be incentives that would help invigorate Thoroughbred ownership in America.

But until then, Seitz said, It’s All About the Girls members are content to savor their most recent victory by partying in style–the syndicate even has its own champagne and wine sponsors.

A business model based on good times and inclusiveness is the backbone of It’s All About the Girls, which Seitz brought to reality in 2013 thanks to a brain spark about “fillies owning fillies." The syndicate now owns eight distaffers either in training or on farms throughout the world, she said.

“Everybody’s always talking about wanting to help racing, and I was sick of sitting around just talking about it," Seitz said. “So I thought it might be a good idea to start some syndicates more based around fun, education, cheekiness, and not taking ourselves too seriously. Just kind of doing it on the side as a fun way to get new people involved in racehorse ownership."

Seitz herself is no stranger to Thoroughbreds. She grew up working on her family’s Brookdale Farm in Versailles, and after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2003, took an office manager job with trainer Todd Pletcher’s racing stable. Since 2008 she has worked for Fasig-Tipton Co., where she now manages client development and public relations.

Seitz said that a few years ago she helped to found Hit The Board Stable, a general syndicate of about 20 owners. That group enjoyed success with the $20,000 purchase of I’m Already Sexy (Ready’s Image), a MGSW filly who won $762,300 in purses and later sold for $420,000 at Fasig-Tipton November after her racing career was over. But during that same time frame, Seitz decided to narrow her focus to recruiting female horse owners for the then-new It’s All About the Girls partnership.

“I realized there were a lot of women who wanted to be a part of racing but were intimidated by the whole process, or they didn’t want to buy a whole horse all by themselves," Seitz said.

“I love buying fillies," Seitz continued. “I think they have a chance at more residual value [as broodmares], because if they go on to win anything, it ups their value. A lot of times we don’t have the ability that these real big syndicates have to buy really well-bred fillies, so if our purchases can win a race it helps us a lot, because at the end our goal is to sell them at public auction. It’s hard to breed [as a syndicate] when you have so many people involved."

Seitz’s job at Fasig-Tipton often takes her around the world to promote the sales company at other major global auctions. “And Magic Millions has a bonus where if you buy the horse from their sales company, and run back in their specific races, you can run for major bonuses if you’re an all-female syndicate or individual owner," she said.

It was while riding the bus to the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Seitz said, that “I ran into my friend Elaine Lawlor, who works for Goffs, the sales company in Ireland. And we started talking about the bonus and how I have these all-women syndicates, and how there’s a bunch of women in Australia and all these other different countries that we both know, and we started thinking together, ‘Maybe we should buy a horse.’ [The bonus program] encourages women to get into racing, and that’s why we really wanted to buy a horse down there."

Seitz recruited Lawlor into the partnership, and they reached out to bloodstock agent James Bester for help in acquiring the right yearling.

“We got outbid on some really nice fillies and were kind of getting frustrated because we really wanted a horse and the sale was almost over," Seitz said. “And then James found this little filly by Star Witness, and we got her for A$65,000. It was just one of those things, being in the right place at the right time, and then Elaine and I just started calling [potential syndicate members] all around the world."

“So we ended up with about 40 owners from seven different countries, and five different sales companies are represented in this one horse," Seitz said. “It truly is about having a good time. There are no egos involved."

Seitz said that even though the syndicate members weren’t all together for Global Glamour’s win on Saturday, they were collectively popping champagne corks in celebration after the filly secured the first Group 1 win for sire Star Witness.

Some It’s All About the Girls partners had been at the G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France, others were at Randwick for Global Glamour’s race, and Seitz herself was at home on the family farm in Kentucky watching the race at nearly 2 a.m. local time.

“So there were people all over the world cheering for this one filly," Seitz said. “It was amazing. We weren’t expecting to have a Group 1 winner, so we just try to make sure we have a lot of fun along the way."

According to Lawlor, who manages the Australian day-to-day operations of the syndicate, co-trainers “Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott with their outstanding communication have made the syndicate tremendous fun. They have done a terrific job with Global Glamour and full praise to jockey Tim Clarke for a superb ride on Saturday. The filly will travel to Melbourne on Tuesday and will accept for the Caulfield One Thousand Guineas, a Group 1 over 1600 meters next Saturday at Caulfield. The long-term plan is for her to run in the 3YO race at the Magic Millions Gold Coast meeting in January over 1400 meters, which features A$2 million total prize money."

According to Seitz, in terms of partnerships, “Australia is completely different than America. In the States, you have to set up a limited liability company for each horse. But in Australia, they make it much easier. They kind of encourage people to get into racing down there, but over here it’s a little more complicated."

Seitz continued: “We want to be an entryway for new owners. I don’t want to talk negative about it, but it’s still difficult with licensing [in the U.S.]. Every state has different rules, and then you have to set up a different LLC for each horse and have a special bank account. It’s just very complicated, but we have a pretty good system now that we’ve done so many of them, and women can just show up and have fun; go see their horse train and race. I hope that the racetracks will try to make it easier. I notice that some of these tracks–Churchill Downs and Canterbury Park–have started racing clubs, so that’s wonderful to see them doing all that work for you, and then you can kind of just come and enjoy the benefits."

Seitz encouraged women interested in joining the syndicate to contact the partnership through its website, www.itsallaboutthegirlsracing.com.

“We work with whoever wants to do it," Seitz said. “We build each budget around how much interest we think we have with each horse, and we try to be inclusive. We don’t want to turn any woman away who is interested in getting into racing."

—@thorntontd

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.

Fashion Icon's Mindfulness in Business Led to Big Success

Remembering Steve Jobs: Reflecting On His Legacy.