This is the annual HEALTH & NUTRITION issue. Here
are summaries of some of the top stories in the issue. For more on these
stories see the current issue. If your nearby tack shop is already out of
copies, calls us at 610 793 1425 or e-mail us at thehorse1@erols.com and
we’ll send one to you free of charge.
The USET’s show jumping team moved to the top of
the leader board of the Meydan FEI Nations Cup League series, formerly
known as the Super League, after winning both the Nation’s Cups in
Rome, Italy and in St. Gallen, Switzerland, the second and third legs of
the series.
By SARA CAVANAGH – DEVON, Pa. — Despite a flailing economy and one day of a total
wash-out, the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair was a roaring success.
Expectations were that attendance and the Country Fair receipts would be
way off, given that last year was a blow-out, with an extra day and no
rainy days resulting in record attendance. “We had budgeted the
Country Fair’s proceeds to be off by about 20 percent,” said
Fair co-chairman Karin Maynard. “We don’t have complete figures
in yet, but we’re thinking we’ll be only about five percent off
last year.”
From leadline winner to leading rider
By MARTHA BARBONE – DEVON, Pa. – When Reed Kessler won her first blue
ribbon as a 4-year-old leadliner at the Devon Horse Show in 1999, she never
imagined that 10 years later she would be youngest rider to ever earn the
Leading Junior Jumper Rider award. Now 14, Kessler, who trains with her
godmother, Katie Prudent, lives in New York City and attends the
Professional Children’s School.
Ward wins duel with Dobbs
By SARA CAVANAGH – DEVON, Pa – The much anticipated battle for the Devon Open Jumper Leading
rider title turned out to be even more exciting than expected. Before the
show, the question was whether Hillary Dobbs, who won both the Jumper
championship and the Leading Rider title last year in her first attempt in
that division, could take on two-time Olympic team gold medalist McLain
Ward and six-time Devon Leading Rider Laura Chapot and win again.
Stewart backs into 8th title
By SARA CAVANAGH – DEVON, Pa. – Scott Stewart of Flemington, N.J., did it again – he
was Devon Leading Hunter Rider for the seventh year in a row and for the
eighth time since 1998. For most of those years, Stewart has been dominant,
earning at least one if not more championships on the way to the title, but
this time he had no championships or reserves and just squeaked out the win
for Leading Rider by 1 1/2 points over Maggie Jayne of Elgin, Ill.
Bragging rights to Pennsylvanians
By SARAH L. GREENHALGH –
Pennsylvanians earned the right to brag in May after Keystone State
trainers, jockeys and owners dominated some of the biggest steeplechases of
the spring. Leading National Steeplechase Association owner Irvin S. Naylor
of York, Pa., has not only timber wins, but a hurdle victory as well. It
started with the $75,000 Virginia Gold Cup on May 2 with Naylor’s
veteran, Salmo.
Intense research improving feeds
Horse owners are bombarded with information from
companies promising to provide everything from the shiniest coat on the
aisle to performance enhancing supplements. Some owners like to venture
into unchartered territory, looking for technologically advanced products
while others prefer to stick with well-established companies that have been
trusted for decades to provide products that have proven track records.
Nowadays, to be competitive in the equine industry, there is no such thing
as static complacency. To keep up with more and more sophisticated demand,
even the oldest companies are taking advantage of the latest and most
cutting edge research to offer their customers the very best products for
horses in all stages of life. No area is more intensely researched than
nutrition and supplements, as it is there that the foundation for future
well-being and performance is established.
Pennsylvania BREEDING & RACING
Breeders wary of future raids on Breeding Fund
By LINDA DOUGHERTY – KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. – For the third straight year, the Pennsylvania’s
thoroughbred horse breeders met on May 20 in Kennett Square to celebrate
their good fortune as the beneficiaries of a cascade of money from slot
machines. But at this meeting you could discern, if just barely, the dim
outline of an 800-pound gorilla sitting in the room. That gorilla is a
state government strapped for cash, which may have already begun to focus
on the state's racing and breeding industry. So far, it has focused
on it in a small way, but it may be only a matter of time before it is
overcome by hunger pangs.
Unconventional breeding plan may have spawned dynasty
By LINDA DOUGHERTY –
Nicanor, the full brother to ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro,
didn’t just defeat nine rivals in breaking his maiden on the Delaware
turf May 13 … he walloped them by nearly 16 lengths, almost an eighth
of a mile. To those thousands of fans nationwide that had been following
Nicanor’s career since he made his belated debut in January as a
3-year-old, his smashing performance was not entirely unexpected. Certainly
the results were not a surprise to Roy and Gretchen Jackson, his owners and
breeders, who have found that blending the blood of Kentucky stallion
Dynaformer and their mare La Ville Rouge has already produced some magic.
Barbaro, before his untimely death in 2007 due to complications from an
injury suffered in the 2006 Preakness, was a multiple G1 winner and earner
of more than $2 million. The Jacksons are unusual among modern thoroughbred
breeders in that they have returned La Ville Rouge back to
Dynaformer’s court five consecutive times since 2005.
PA-breds top Timonium averages
By LINDA DOUGHERTY –
Pennsylvania-breds again were a desirable commodity at auction, with a
dozen selling at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in training
at the Timonium, Md. salesgrounds on May 18-19. The sale concluded with 247
juveniles selling for $10,522,500, an average of $42,601. The twelve
Pennsylvania-breds, however, sold for $559,000, an average of $46,583.
10 mares await Real Quiet in Uruguay
Champion Real Quiet, who captured the 1998 Kentucky
Derby and Preakness Stakes and just missed winning the Triple Crown, will
stand the Southern Hemisphere breeding season at Pablo Salomone's Haras
Cuatro Piedras in Uruguay as part of a two-year lease agreement. The
14-year-old son of Quiet American currently stands for $7,500 at Mike
Jester’s Penn Ridge Farms near Harrisburg. Real Quiet is booked to
100 mares so far in Uruguay.
Interest strong in Mtn. Springs August sale
Mountain Springs Arena in Shartlesville, Pa. will be
the scene of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Summer Mixed Sale on Sunday,
Aug. 23, starting at noon. Sale manager Rich Miller said that he has had
strong response thus far from consignors for this Summer Mixed Sale, which
replaces the cancelled Spring Mixed Sale that had been scheduled for May.
“People are calling every day, and there’s been good interest
so far,” said Miller. “I think we’re going to have plenty
of horses.”
Bettor hits Derby Superfecta for $287,000
A female patron of Philadelphia Park’s Brandywine
Turf Club cashed a superfecta ticket on Derby Day for $278,000. The
unidentified woman, a resident of West Chester, Pa., described herself as a
casual bettor who only plays the Triple Crown races.
Secretintelligence wins 3rd stakes
BENSALEM, Pa. – Win
More Stable’s homebred Secretintelligence won the third stakes race
of his very successful career when he posted a neck victory in the $75,000
Lyman Handicap at Philadelphia Park on May 9. A 6-year-old son of Smart
Guy, who stands at Fox Tale Stud in Coopersburg, Pa., Secretintelligence
set a quick pace in the seven furlong Lyman, then was able to hang on to
defeat Movin’ Out and Whistle Pig in 1:22.07 under jockey Justin
Shepherd.
3 tracks open on promising note
By LINDA DOUGHERTY –
Three tracks in the mid-Atlantic region kicked off their 2009 meets in late
April and early May, with all experiencing encouraging openers with good
racing and solid attendance and handle.
Smart Enough back on his game
OCEANPORT, N. J. – Edith
Dixon’s Smart Enough found the winner’s circle for the first
time since suffering an injury in early 2008 when he captured the $60,000
Wolf Hill Stakes at Monmouth Park on May 30. Trained by Dr. John R. S.
Fisher and based at the Fair Hill Training Center, Smart Enough scored a
dominating front-running victory in the 5-1/2 furlong Wolf Hill, coming
home two lengths in front of Atticus Kristy and Awakino Cat.
Penn National boosts purses again, adds 10th race
GRANTVILLE, Pa. – An
announced purse increase and more races per card were the order of the day
at Penn National Race Course in Grantville during May. Management added a
10th race to the usual nine-race programs on Friday and Saturday evenings,
and found that the additional contests were well received by both horsemen
and the betting public.
Even though slots were approved by Maryland voters
during last November’s election, over six months later there has been
little progress made toward getting the one-armed bandits up and running
and pumping revenue into both the state’s coffers and the struggling
horse racing industry. The latest legal wrangling occurred in late May in
Anne Arundel County, where Council members were set to vote on whether to
grant zoning approval to a slots parlor near Arundel Mills Mall, slated to
be Maryland’s largest slots facility.
Gift that keeps on giving
By LINDA DOUGHERTY –
One of the most attractive aspects of the Pennsylvania breeding program is
that a breeder can reap financial benefits from a racehorse without
actually owning him. Such is the case with Galen R. Behney, who bred the
4-year-old colt Refined Design, an easy winner on May 6 at Penn National
Race Course in a $33,118 allowance race. As a matter of fact, Behney
hasn’t owned the son of Pennsylvania stallion Fastness (IRE)-Refined
Collen, by Puntivo, since the gray was a foal. But as the registered
breeder, he earned a nifty $6,264, which is 30 percent of the purse money
earned by the state-sired colt.
