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Whence Sires First Winner in Louisiana

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All of Us won his second career start Feb. 28 at Delta Downs.

 

Averett Farm’s Whence , a multiple-winning sprinter by Scat Daddy, sired his first winner Feb. 28 when his 3-year-old son All of Us  won a five-furlong maiden claimer at Delta Downs by three-quarters of a length in his second start.

All of Us is the first foal out of the winning Half Ours  mare Mine Yours an Ours  and was bred in Louisiana by Gerald Averett Jr. The mare has a 2-year-old by Ocean Knight  and is in foal this year to a full sibling to All of Us.

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Grassley, Manchin Fight HISA Amendment

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Grassley, Manchin want to remove a HISA-related amendment from spending legislation.

U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have jointly filed an amendment that would strip changes to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act from an omnibus spending bill being considered this week in Congress.

The single sentence added to the spending bill is intended to place the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on sounder legal footing by clarifying the Federal Trade Commission’s oversight. This change is a reaction to a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last month that determined HISA’s enabling legislation was unconstitutional on the grounds that it inappropriately gives federal power to a private organization.

Nine state attorneys general also reportedly sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky asking for the HISA language change not to be included in the spending bill, according to a Dec. 21 press release from the Iowa Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. The initial HISA legislation was adopted as part of the 2020 COVID-19 relief bill.

Grassley filed his amendment Dec. 19, and Manchin signed on as a sponsor.

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Strike Power to Enter Stud at Red River Farms

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Grade 3 winner by Speightstown will stand for $2,000.

 

A partnership recently closed on a deal to buy multiple graded-placed, grade 3 winner Strike Power , who will enter stud at Red River Farms near Coushatta, La. The 7-year-old son of Speightstown   will stand for $2,000 with a stands and nurses guarantee.

“It’s a bit late but we think we’ll get a good first book of mares to him,” said Jay Adcock with Red River Farms. “Being by Speightstown and running a 102 Beyer in his first start were the first things that got our attention. Then he showed he could run two turns in the Fountain of Youth.”

A homebred for Don and Donna Adam’s Courtlandt Farm, Strike Power won his debut at 2 at Gulfstream Park by eight lengths with trainer Mark Hennig. At 3, he started off by winning the Swale Stakes (G3) and was second in the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) to Promises Fulfilled  . He would go on to place second in two more graded stakes with both Hennig and trainer Steve Asmussen, the True North Stakes (G2) and Maryland Sprint Match Series Stakes (G3), respectively. Strike Power retired with a 4-4-1 record from 20 starts and earned $497,935.

 

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Lauri’s Wish is Catalina Red’s First Winner

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The Louisiana-bred won Dec. 23 at Delta Downs by 8 1/4 lengths.

 

Elite Thoroughbreds’ graded stakes winner and freshman sire Catalina Red  sired his first winner when his son Lauri’s Wish  won a 7 1/2-furlong maiden special weight Dec. 23 at Delta Downs by 8 1/4 lengths.

A Louisiana homebred for Tony Lenci and Chad Stewart, Lauri’s Wish won his second career start gate to wire in 1:36.54. He was ridden by Thomas Pompell and is trained by Lee Thomas.

The colt is the first and only foal out of the Archarcharch daughter Laurigolightly, who is out of graded-placed stakes winner Tiger Belle (Tiger Ridge ). Stewart trained Laurigolightly for owner/breeder Robert Roffey Jr. The mare was bred to Catalina Red this year.

Lenci raced Catalina Red, whom he bought at the 2014 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for $71,000 from de Meric Sales. The son of Munnings   became a stakes winner at 2 in the Inaugural Stakes and Pasco Stakes, both at Tampa Bay Downs, won the Jackson Bend Stakes at Gulfstream Park at 3, and at 4 won the Churchill Downs Stakes (G2) and Hilton Garden Inn/Hampton Inn and Suites Sprint Stakes in addition to placing third in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1). He retired with a 5-1-3 record from 13 starts and earned $549,885. Stewart trained Catalina Red for his first nine starts.

Catalina Red stands at Elite Thoroughbreds near Folsom, La., for $2,000 in 2022.

Delta Downs Trying to Light a Way to Safe Night Racing

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Louisiana Racing Commission delays decision on restoring night racing for 30 days.

 

better lighting system at Boyd Gaming’s Delta Downs in Southern Louisiana has not been good enough for the track to restore its valuable two nights of racing per week.

The racetrack lost its lighting during the devastation from Category 4 Hurricane Laura in August 2020 and consequently its most valuable real estate in the national pari-mutuel simulcast landscape. A new lighting system was unveiled in October, which one expert has called “exceptionally better than in the past,” but the Delta Downs jockey colony has not been happy with the results, calling an uneven spread of dark and bright spots around the track dangerous to both horse and rider.

The Louisiana Racing Commission considered the issue Dec. 13 during a hearing to consider a Delta Downs request to convert two of its four weekly racing days from afternoon to night.

 

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Red River Farms’ Takeover Target Sires First Winner in Louisiana

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My Heavy Son won by 2 3/4 lengths at Louisiana Downs Sept. 14.

Red River Farms’ freshman sire Takeover Target  scored his first winner Sept. 14 when his gelded son My Heavy Son  won a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs Casino and Racetrack by 2 3/4 lengths.

Bred by Joan Adcock, the gelding is the first foal out of the Three Hour Nap  winner Swanky Princess, who is a full sister to grade 3-placed stakes winner Wynn Time  and multiple stakes winner Cinco Star . The mare also has a yearling by Bind  named Bye Bye Big Baby and produced a colt this year by Jay Gatsby.

My Heavy Son is raced by Iron Oaks Stable and trained by Patrick Mouton. He was unplaced in his first two starts and found a late kick in his third start that propelled him to the win. His final time was 1:07.35.

 

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McIngvale Offers Shelter During Winter Storm

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The Houston businessman opened his furniture store to people without power and water.

Thoroughbred owner/breeder, Houston businessman, and philanthropist Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale again opened his main Gallery Furniture store to people in need, this time to city residents seeking refuge from cold, dark homes without safe water to drink.

In an interview Feb. 18 with Michael Strahan on ABC’s Good Morning America, McIngvale said he had almost 1,000 people show up at his Houston, Texas, store and about 300 of them stayed overnight each day Feb. 16-17. Multiple days of freezing temperatures left nearly three million Texans without power Wednesday, with more than a million of them in Houston, according to multiple reports. The state also warned residents that water pressure is so low it might be unsafe to drink. Boil water notices were issued throughout the city.

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North American Foal Crop Trends and Market Share

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MarketWatch: North American foal crop trends

 

Even as the North American Thoroughbred foal crop continues to contract, down 6.9% over the last three years and down 45.4% since 2000, the top five producing states have remained a constant.

Kentucky, California, and Florida have been the steady top three joined by New York and Louisiana that flip-flop their rank from year to year. The recently released figures on the 2020 North American foal crop show New York slightly ahead this year with 652 reported foals to Louisiana’s 647, but both at even with 3.3% of the overall foal crop for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

 

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Study Connects Rise in Inbreeding to Larger Books

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An analysis of inbreeding over 45 years shows the biggest increase during 1996-2006.

 

A 2011 study showing an increase in inbreeding in the Thoroughbred during a 45-year period from 1961-2006 also concluded the majority of the increase occurred during the last 10 years of the study period—a time coinciding with a sharp rise in the number of stallions being bred to books of 100 mares or more. Dr. Matthew Binns was the lead author of the study “Inbreeding in the Thoroughbred horse” that appeared in a June 2011 edition of Animal Genetics. The genotyping of 467 Thoroughbreds born between 1961-2006 showed an increase in the average inbreeding coefficient. More significantly, the study notes, the majority of the increase occurred during 1996-06, when the number of North American stallions breeding 100 or more mares in a given season rose from 14 to 128. In 1996, 14 North American stallions covered 100 mares or more. Only five years earlier only one stallion—Alydar—had bred a book of mares exceeding 100.

“My conclusion was that the data was showing the start of a trend that could become worrisome and needed monitoring,” Binns told BloodHorse. “It was starting to show this increase as a result of the big books.”

 

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