News and Notes for September 22, 2017

ACCREDITED TEXAS-BREDS IN WEEKEND STAKES
Several Accredited Texas-bred horses will compete in 4 stakes races at Remington Park on Sunday.

Two strong runners bred by Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch will compete in a field of 10 In the $75,000 Kip Deville Stakes for 2-year-olds going 6 furlongs. Final Arrow (Crossbow – Final Trick) who is now owned by T and M Precision Services won a 5 ½-furlong maiden claiming race by 8 ½ lengths on September 2nd.

Bret Calhoun will saddle Kats Second Silver (Silver City – Red Thread) for Sanders and Hirsch.  Kats Second Silver won a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight on July 30 by a whopping 9 ¾ lengths. 

Mindy Willis sends out two in the $75,000 Ricks Memorial Stakes for fillies and mares, ages 3 and up which has a field of 12 going a mile and a sixteenth on the turf.  Texas Belle (Angliana – Inthemiddleofitall) was bred by Eureka Thoroughbred Farm and runs for Richard P. Chandler, and stakes placed Special Rockstar (Special Rate – Buckstar) is a homebred for Star Bright Thoroughbreds.

Graded stakes winner Ivan Fallunovalot (Valid Expectations – Flashdance Missy) is in a field of 8 for the $150,000 David M. Vance Sprint Stakes for 3-year-olds and up going 6 furlongs.  Bred by Eileen Hartis, the 7-year-old gelding is trained by W. T. Howard for owner Lewis E. Mathews Jr.  After a long layoff, the former Texas Horse of the Year won a 6 furlong allowance by 5 ½ lengths on September 2nd.

Current reigning Texas Horse of the Year Texas Chrome (Grasshopper – Margarita Mistress) takes on four opponents in the $175,000 Remington Park Stakes for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and an eighth.  Bred by Craig Upham, Allen Milligan trains the 4-year-old colt for Keene Thoroughbreds LLC.  Texas Chrome’s win in the July 22 Assault Stakes at Lone Star Park put his earnings over $1 million.

While not a Texas-bred, we are proud to cheer for multiple graded stakes winner Girvin in the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby.  Girvin is owned by TTA Brad Grady of Grandview.

ATB AWARDS IN THE MAIL
ATB awards for the Gillespie County Fair summer meet mailed earlier this week, and are based on the following percentages of purse money earned for placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd:

Breeder Awards: 7.55508%
Owner Awards: 8.40395%
Stallion Owner Awards: 4.64425%

Also, if you own a horse that placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in an OPEN COMPANY race, you will receive an additional 10.03175% of purse money earned.

Congratulations, and be checking that mailbox!

RECAP OF SEPTEMBER 20 TRC MEETING
In spite of solid, rational, spot-on testimony from horsemen, the Commission approved a proposal for funding the Texas Racing Commission that was signed by representatives of Gillespie, Sam Houston, Retama, Gulf Greyhound, Valley Race Park and Gulf Coast Racing along with paper licenses for Manor Downs, Laredo Downs and Valle de los Tesoros. Representatives for Lone Star Park refused to sign the proposal. 

The funding proposal will increase fees from $500,000 to $700,000 for each Class 1 track for regulation of 20 race days each. Additional race days can be “purchased” at a cost of $6,313 per day to cover regulation. All other racetrack license fees will be cut in half.

As the next step, proposed rules to implement changes to the racetrack license fee schedule as stated in that funding proposal, along with a proposed 20% increase to individual license fees will soon be published in the Texas Register for a 30-day public comment period. The Commission will meet again during the week of November 6 to vote on the fee increases.

We will be asking all horsemen to respond to the proposed rules during the public comment period.

Chairman Steen indicated that the TRC Ad Hoc Finance Committee will soon be meeting with TRC staff and industry representatives (racetracks, breed registries and THP) to continue to pursue ways to cut TRC expenses.

Commissioner Ederer stated that eliminating all overlapping race days would naturally reduce some Commission expenses, and requested horsemen and racetrack representatives to work together to develop a race date schedule with no overlap.

The Commission also voted to designate an application period for race dates from January 1 through December 31, 2018 with those requests to be considered at the November meeting. This action will also provide opportunity for racetracks to file an amended request for any dates already granted.

Retama Park had filed a request to eliminate another 4 days (October 27, November 3, November 10 and 11) from the current Thoroughbred meet in order to avoid a purse overpayment. Track officials agreed to work with the Texas Horsemen’s Partnership to reduce some purses in order to keep those 4 race days.