Hastings' Weekly Winter Round-Up
With a 'Big Thaw' expected over the next few days, horses should soon start returning to Hastings
Here's the latest on the reopening of Hastings Racecourse & Casino from Ryan McCartney:
"It looks like it will be warming up starting on Saturday.
Horses will be welcome to arrive on site after 7am on Saturday, February 15th. We will do our best to get water turned on in barns as they become occupied. We thank you for your patience in advance.
We are hoping the track will be ready to commence training by Tuesday, February 18th. At this moment, the date is TENTATIVE. We will not open the track if we believe it to be dangerous. I am sure we are all on the same page when it comes to keeping our horses and humans safe.
Finally, Barn M sleeping rooms will not be available until further notice. There is a ruptured water main underneath and we have been advised that repairs cannot commence until it warms up. This means we will have no fire sprinklers operational. We cannot risk the fire hazard of occupants in that space until we have proper fire safety measures functioning.
We are looking forward to welcoming you all back. See you soon!"
Ryan McCartney
“Love” conquers at Turf Paradise
How appropriate! BC-bred LOVEABOVEANDBEYOND got the hearts and flowers flying a day ahead of St Valentine’s Day when she landed an optional claimer at Turf Paradise on Thursday. The daughter of Counterforce, now trained by Marvin Buffalo since being claimed out of Assiniboia last July, has four wins from four starts at “Turf” this season. Bred by CTHS director Ralph Jesiak, Loveaboveandbeyond won the BC Cup Debutante Stakes in 2022 for trainer Mark Cloutier before following up in her division of the CTHS Sales Stakes later the same month. This week’s victory was her eighth win from 30 starts. Loveaboveandbeyond is another durable performer out of the Tejabo mare, INTERROGAR (also bred by Jesiak) and is consequently a half-sister to the likes of 13 time winner, ASSETS INCLUDED (Rosberg). Interrogar was out of the Ontario-bred ALWAYS A STAR (Sunny’s Halo), a Maiden Special Weight winner at Hastings for Peter Redekop when it was Exhibition Park and who also finished third in the Cinderella Stakes.
Rodent Control
Valentine’s Day Signals Start of Breeding Season
While St Valentine’s Day traditionally signals the start of the Thoroughbred breeding season, which will run from this week until July, it’s also true that the global breeding industry has rarely experienced a more trying time,
writes Nigel Reid
In many regards, the problems facing breeders here in B.C. are a concentrated version of the challenges facing the rest of the continent and beyond. Whether it’s real estate prices, lack of inward investment, an uncertain future for racing in the province, difficulty in getting staff, or just the huge inflationary pressure on all associated costs (feed, farrier, vet, etc.), it has become extremely hard for breeders to produce horses cost-effectively.
It's clear that, here in BC at least, a complete overhaul of the breeding sector is required if the province’s shrinking population of foolhardy optimists is to have any chance of continuing to produce horses at a meaningful level.
However, before we can move forwards, we must first acknowledge the size of the problem. We must accept that the old roads that led us to this point are not fit to take us where we need to go if breeding is to survive. New thinking and bold decision-making are the minimum requirements if we are to begin the long process of repopulating and, subsequently, growing our breeding stock.
Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom. The current issues facing the breeding industry can be seen as an opportunity to rebuild from the ground up. We must, in my opinion, look to take the best of what works from around the world and jettison the old ways that have led, across the continent of North America. We must stop our overreliance on “speed” over durability, stop breeding for the sales ring over the race track, stop choosing the first-season “sexy” new sires over established stallions with proven records of producing tough stock, stop following fashion over stockmanship, stop recruiting stallions who weren’t able to race for more than a season or two and, of course, gradually stop breeding stock that is unable to race without the use of furosemide.
With such a small but hardy bunch of breeders in B.C., there has probably never been a better time to develop a long-term strategy that commits to producing horses suitable for racing in the 21st Century – that means soundness, that means “drug free”, that means longevity and it means committing to a vision of the future that can eventually lead to BC-bred horses again being the envy of our region. Now is the time to be bold.
East Avenue Leads Field of Thirteen in Grade Two $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Risen Star
New Orleans, La (Feb. 9, 2025) – Set to make his sophomore debut, Godolphin’s grade one winner EAST AVENUE (Medaglia d’Oro) leads a field of 13 3-year-olds as the 9-5 morning line favorite for the 53rd running of the $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Risen Star Stakes (G2) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. Slated as the finale on Saturday’s “Louisiana Derby Preview Day” 14-race program, the Risen Star is the first Derby prep on the calendar to award 50-25-15-10-5 points to the top five finishers. Run at 1 1/8 miles, the third of four local Derby preps will be the first time any of these 13 entries have raced this far.
Six stakes are scheduled to be run on “Louisiana Derby Preview Day,” including the co-featured $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Rachel Alexandra (G2), a Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep which also awards 105 qualifying points.
Past the Risen Star and Rachel Alexandra, the added money action includes two more graded stakes with $250,000 Mineshaft presented by Hagyard GI By Relyne (G3) and the $175,000 Fair Grounds Stakes presented by Horse Racing Nation (G3). Along with the Fair Grounds Stakes, both the $100,000 Albert M. Stall Memorial and the $100,000 Colonel Power are scheduled to be run on the Stall-Wilson turf course. First post on Saturday, Feb. 15 is noon CT.
One of last year’s most highly regarded 2-year-olds, East Avenue followed up his debut win at Ellis Park with an impressive gate-to-wire win in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. The Godolphin homebred has not raced since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), where he was sent off as the post-time favorite but stumbled badly out of the gates and finished ninth. Trained by Brendan Walsh, the Medaglia d’Oro colt is a half sibling to 2023 Eclipse Champion Horse of the Year, Cody’s Wish. Aboard for both of East Avenue’s juvenile stakes runs, Tyler Gaffalione will return to the irons above the 9-5 morning line favourite in the Risen Star, who drew post 4.
Gaffalione has won this event twice, including last year piloting Sierra Leone for trainer Chad Brown. With Resolute Bloodstock’s Septarian, Brown has a shot at taking the title two years in a row. Third last out in the Mucho Macho Man, the two-time winner will be guided by Flavien Prat, recently named the 2024 Eclipse Award Champion for Outstanding Jockey.
Can Carbon Dioxide Stimulate Hoof Growth in Horses?
By Kentucky Equine Research Staff
Speed of hoof growth depends on many factors, including nutrition, activity level, and environmental conditions. In addition to biotin supplementation, research suggests that topical delivery of carbon dioxide may accelerate hoof growth in healthy horses.*
Slow hoof growth may result in loss of use or decreased welfare as result of pain emanating from thin soles and from inability to fasten a shoe because of insufficient hoof wall. While manufacturers often claim that their products accelerate hoof growth, few studies support these claims, other than biotin.
“While poor-quality hooves respond to supplementation with therapeutic amounts of biotin by increasing hoof wall strength, improving hoof growth rate was only observed in some, but not all, studies,” said Kathleen Crandell, Ph.D., a Kentucky Equine Research nutritionist. “Improvements in hoof quality will be evident anywhere from 8 to 15 months after supplementation begins, depending on growth rate. Bio-Bloom PS (Bio-Bloom HF in Australia) supplies biotin as well as other hoof-building nutrients in therapeutic amounts.”
In humans, transcutaneous (across the skin) application of carbon dioxide demonstrated some benefits in wound healing. The potential mode of action remains unknown but may involve increasing oxygen delivery to the tissues by carbon dioxide exchange with the blood vessels, known as the Bohr effect.
To determine if transdermal carbon dioxide could increase forelimb hoof growth, 14 healthy Warmblood mares were recruited. Mares were barefoot for three months prior to commencement of the study, maintained without shoes, and were not trimmed during the study. Three small horizontal lines were created with a rotary cutting tool 1 cm from the coronary band on the medial, lateral, and middle aspects of the hoof. All horses had their hooves dampened and a bag placed over the forelimb. In the control group, the bags were inflated with room air, whereas the treatment group bags were inflated with medical grade, humidified carbon dioxide. Both treatments were applied for 30 minutes three times a week for five weeks.
“Hoof growth was significantly increased in the left front medial quarter and the right front lateral quarter in horses treated with carbon dioxide after five weeks,” Crandell said.
New Stride News
