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Horse Racing. Thoroughbred race horses. Jockeys, trainers and horses. Horse betting. http://amzn.to/HorseRacingMemorabilia
Monday marks an important date for trainer Rick Dutrow and his fight to get back into the sport. It was exactly 10 years ago that he started a horse named Colossal Gift (Songandaprayer) in a claiming race at Aqueduct. Then he was forced to disappear, the result of the New York State Racing and Wager...
https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/the-week-in-review-rick-dutrow-has-served-his-time/
Monday marks an important date for trainer Rick Dutrow and his fight to get back into the sport. It was exactly 10 years ago that he started a horse named Colossal Gift (Songandaprayer) in a claiming race at Aqueduct. Then he was forced to disappear, the result of the New York State Racing and Wager...
Derby Time!!
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/254017/oakes-expected-to-plead-guilty-on-ped-related-charges
Oakes Expected to Plead Guilty on PED-Related Charges
Navarro allegedly told Oakes to give a PED to X Y Jet before a February 2019 race.
By Byron King Today, 10:53 AM
Indicted harness trainer Chris Oakes, allegedly captured on federal wiretaps conspiring with Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro to give performance-enhancing drugs to racehorses, is expected to enter a guilty plea Oct. 20 in a U.S. District Court on charges related to purchasing, selling, and distributing PEDs.
Oakes and Navarro were among two dozen individuals charged in the horse-doping case, from which numerous convictions have taken place as guilty pleas have been entered over the past few months. Navarro faces up to five years in prison after entering his guilty plea in the Southern District of New York, where he acknowledged to U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil that he administered and directed others to administer non-approved, misbranded, and adulterated drugs to his horses.
Court documents say Oakes also will come before Vyskocil during the change-of-plea hearing scheduled Oct. 20.
The government claims Oakes directly assisted Navarro. Prosecutors allege Oakes purchased, resold, and distributed products supplied by veterinarian Seth Fishman, and also manufactured his own customized, misbranded PED that he boasted was undetectable in drug tests.
In one intercepted telephone conversation, Navarro allegedly told Oakes to give a PED to Navarro's star sprinter X Y Jet before the horse ran and won an allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park Feb. 13, 2019. Navarro told Oakes to lie, if necessary, to gain access to the barn area.
Indicted harness trainer Chris Oakes, allegedly captured on federal wiretaps conspiring with Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro to give performance-enhancing drugs to racehorses, is expected to enter a guilty plea in court Oct. 20.
https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/monmouth-jockey-mejia-banned-10-years-for-using-battery/
Monmouth Jockey Mejia Banned 10 Years for Using Battery!
The Monmouth stewards took no mercy on jockey Tomas Mejia, banning him 10 years and fining him $5,000 after they concluded he used a battery or electrical shocking device when riding Strongerthanuknow (Mineshaft) to victory in a Sept. 3 allowance. In addition to the penalties, the stewards have refe...
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/asmussen-agrees-to-pay-563800-in-back-wages-liquidated-damages/
Asmussen Agrees To Pay $563,800 In Back Wages, Liquidated Damages
by Paulick Report Staff | 09.10.2021 | 10:37am
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to pay $563,800 in back labor and liquidated damages to 170 employees, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News.
The agreement, filed Sept. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, stretches from June 7, 2016 through at least Sept. 8, 2020, during which time the Secretary of Labor, Martin J. Walsh, alleges that Asmussen failed to pay his New York employees overtime wages and to keep accurate work records.
The amount is derived from $281,900 in unpaid wages plus another $281,900 in damages. The average owed to individual employees is $3,000, though one individual is owed $44,367.84.
This is the third time Asmussen has settled a complaint from the Department of Labor; the trainer was previously sued by the government in 2012 and in 2015.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to pay $563,800 in back labor and liquidated damages to 170 employees, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News. The agreement, filed Sept. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, str...
https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/wiretaps-reveal-alleged-dopers-bravado-ignorance-and-fears/
Wiretaps Reveal Alleged Dopers' Bravado, Ignorance and Fears
Monday, September 6, 2021 at 3:44 pm | Back to: Shared News, Top News
Updated: September 6, 2021 at 4:00 pm
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Jorge Navarro | Bill Denver
By T. D. Thornton
Newly disclosed transcripts of intercepted phone conversations involving alleged doping co-conspirators Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro reveal both an initial brazenness against getting caught and an utter ignorance about some of the substances the two now-barred trainers were purportedly injecting into their racehorses.
According to a previously unreleased collection wiretapped calls made public last week by federal prosecutors, Servis and Navarro didn't always know the names of some the illegal pharmaceuticals they purportedly administered to their horses. Nor were they always clear on exactly what those substances were or what they did.
But the two trainers who amassed gaudily high win percentages during the 2010s decade prior to getting arrested on doping conspiracy charges in March 2020 seemed to agree on one certainty—that those illegal concoctions worked remarkably well to make Thoroughbreds run faster.
“He sent me something with amino acid right last year. And I [expletive] gave it to this horse,” Navarro allegedly said in a Jan. 25, 2019, wiretapped call, one of many secretly recorded by law enforcement officials. “This [expletive] galloped. Galloped!”
But the alleged doping scheme might have been working too well. Two months later, when Servis's bravado had started to give way to fear, Servis allegedly told Navarro in another wiretapped call that he was “scared to death” because “the horses are running like crazy.”
Navarro's response was to laugh and reply, “You're killing them, buddy!”
Another set of intercepted calls that spring—after Servis's trainee, Maximum Security, crossed the wire first in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby but was DQ'd for interference—depicts Servis as continually wanting validation from Kristian Rhein, a now-suspended veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park, that SGF-1000 was “untestable” by regulators.
Rhein, according to the wiretaps, not only provided Servis with that reassurance, but he also allegedly disclosed how he hid PED charges on bills to clients and knew of Olympic-level sport horses that were clearing international drug tests after using the very same pharmaceuticals.
On Aug. 11, 2021, Navarro cut a deal with federal prosecutors in which he admitted to doping and pled guilty to one count in the years-long conspiracy in exchange for having a similar second count against him dismissed. One week earlier, Rhein had pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding for use in the covert doping of Thoroughbreds. At that court hearing he directly implicated Servis, who was his regular client.
Servis is still fighting his drug conspiracy charge. On Aug. 3, the same day that Rhein implicated him, Servis' and other co-defendants filed a motion to get the government's wiretapped calls thrown out as evidence.
When federal prosecutors on Sept. 2 filed paperwork in support of allowing the wiretaps, the 155-page document contained the widest release yet of intercepted call transcripts. TDN is publishing them here in chronological order, edited for clarity.
March 3, 2019: Navarro and Michael Tannuzzo, a now-barred trainer, allegedly discuss modeling a doping program on a horse based on one Navarro used on his star sprinter, X Y Jet.
Navarro: What I'm going to do is tap his ankles, put him in a series every week with SGF. I'm just trying [to get] my vet to give me a good price, man, because I want to [expletive] tap every week.
Tannuzzo: You're going to tap him every week?
Navarro: Yeah, with SGF that's what I did with X Y Jet. I'm going to call my vet up north, my surgeon, to see how he did it to X Y Jet and that's it. Don't worry man, you're in good hands. Don't worry.
Tannuzzo: You're talking about the HGF, not the SGF.
Navarro: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. The SGF whatever. The thing that you sent me the
syringe.
Tannuzzo: Yeah.
Navarro: Yeah, yeah. And [this undisclosed horse] is getting one of those SGF 1000 whatever. He's getting one today.
March 5, 2019: Navarro and Servis allegedly discuss PEDs, and made their first mention (to each other) of a drug that they also referred to as “SGF.”
Navarro: And if you know something new, if you know about something new, don't forget about your man, okay? Don't forget about your man.
Servis: I'll tell you what, Jorge. I'm using that [expletive] shot. What is it, SGF?
Navarro: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, uh, I got more than 12 horses on that so I'll let you know, okay?
Servis: I've been using it on everything, almost.
Navarro: Jay, we'll sit down and talk about this [expletive]. I don't want to talk about this [expletive] on the phone, okay?
Servis: All right. You're right.
An undated interception from around the same time frame between Servis and Navarro involves Navarro's alleged provision of an irregular (as opposed to “regular”) version of clenbuterol for Servis.
Servis: You got my message yesterday, right?
Navarro: Yeah, yeah, I got it.
Servis: I mean…
Navarro: But also the head of security was looking for me, he's a good friend of mine, so I think he was going to tell me too [It is not disclosed which racetrack they are referring to].
Servis: Okay.
Navarro: Just…just…just follow everything he does, cause he could be a [expletive].
Servis: Okay.
Navarro: All right. The only thing, any medications, pills and stuff, you have to have it
under lock.
Servis: That was the only thing we didn't have cause [unintelligible] didn't go in today. [Unintelligible] said [unintelligible] got to have everything locked up.
Navarro: Yeah. Yes, that's the only thing, and I have cases of GastroGard. I…he confiscated all that three years ago, but he gave it right back to me, cause I had an attorney and everything that I was going to sue him and, ah…Like generic GastroGard, so everything has to be labeled.
Servis: He gave [unintelligible] a bunch of [expletive] about generic acid. I got [an] expensive c**t that went to Palm Beach Equine. They want omeprazole with, uh, something else in it.
Navarro: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He could be a [expletive] about that. He could be a [expletive].
Servis: I mean, Jorge, [unintelligible] time to bu****it around about regular clenbuterol. Them horses, the three win the other day, they are just on regular.
Navarro: Yeah, well I…
Servis: You know how long.
Navarro: Well it came in already. I have it at home, but [expletive] I'm afraid. I'm afraid to bring it over.
Servis: No, I'm scared to death right now.
Navarro: Ha, ha, ha!
Servis: The horses are running like crazy.
Navarro: Buddy, you're killing them, buddy. You're killing them.
Servis: But I ain't doing it. I'm [expletive only using] just regular [clenbuterol]…But when the dust settles I'd like to get some [irregular clenbuterol].
On June 5, 2019, Servis allegedly calls Rhein to discuss concerns with drug testing, namely the possibility that the New Jersey Racing Commission would discover Servis's use of SGF-1000.
Servis: You got a minute?
Rhein: Sure, sure, sure.
Servis: Are you by yourself?
Rhein: Yeah, yeah, yeah I just walked out of the barn.
Servis: Hey. So they've been doing some out-of-competition testing, which I have no problem with. Um, they took Maximum Security Monday and they came back again today. But Monday he got the KS. I just want to make sure we are all good with that.
Rhein: Wait, what did he get?
Servis: I'm sorry, I said “KS.” The, you know, your shot. The…
Rhein: Oh, the SG.
Servis: Yeah, that stuff.
Rhein: Yeah—no, no, no. The Jockey Club tested it, and I met the guy who tested it way back when. It comes back as collagen. They don't even have a test for it.
Servis: It will probably come up with [dexamethasone] probably, right?
Rhein: Yeah, that's it. It will be dex. It will be dex. It will be like—that's it. And I've had them, I had them pull some stuff, and I was like, “Oh, [expletive], I wonder what
will happen?” Nothing. Nothing. I mean and the guy said SGF doesn't even test close, thank god. But the only thing will be the AZM and you can just say he
was like hives or something, but…
Servis: Right. But they're not even going to ask me about it.
Rhein: They won't, even.
Servis: Because you're allowed to have that anyways. Dex, I mean.
Rhein: He's allowed. He's allowed. So [unintelligible] I don't know. I've done it. I've had it tested. Jockey Club did it, and I've had at least three different times it's been tested on horses that I gave it the day before and nothing. Not a word.
Servis: Yup.
Rhein: There's no test for it in America. There's no testing. There's nothing.
Servis: Okay, that's fine.
Rhein: There's nothing you did that would test.
Servis: So Monday they took Max and they got three other horses. Actually, they got two. They were looking for [Sunny Ridge] and I told them he's at Belmont. I think they got him today, Henry [Argueta] said. But they took a 2-year old filly that ran the other day and finished fourth. Um, and I'm thinking, “Why the [expletive] would they want to take her?” But maybe they are just doing random or maybe looking for clenbuterol. I don't know.
Rhein: Yeah, that's what I am wondering. I'm wondering if it's clenbuterol they are
looking for.
Servis: Right, because [at] Parx you are not allowed to have it on the grounds.
Rhein: That's really an odd thing and that horse, I guarantee, has never had any [expletive like] that. I mean, I know because I met the guy inadvertently when The Jockey Club took a box of the SGF. They took it and I met the guy, and I met the guy down at the conference, and he goes, “The Jockey Club.” And he saw the hat that I had on was the same [equine pharmaceutical] company, and he goes, “Oh, man I just tested a box of that stuff.” And I go, “What stuff?” And he goes “MediVet. You've got a hat on—SGF. Yeah, Jockey Club sent it to me out in California. Yeah, it came back as just a bunch of collagen. Nothing interesting [unintelligible]. These guys think it's got something that can be like a PED.” He goes, “There's nothing in it.” And he was the actual head of the testing lab.
Servis: Yeah, I think you told me.
Rhein: Yeah, so you are golden. And like I said, we have had it done two or three times here. Nothing.
READ TODAY'S PAPER
Servis: Okay.
Rhein: [The expletive] I just had that I gave to some horses, and they just took it.
Servis: Well, that's what I'm saying. That horse got it Monday.
Rhein: Yeah.
Servis: And then they come in and test it [unintelligible].
Rhein: No, but they won't. It's—you know, I promise. It's never been anywhere, anyway, anyhow, and I got guys going through [international equine drug testing] that is 50 million times stricter, because these guys are giving it for their horses in the Grand Prix. They give it to them. The Grand Prix jumping. So I have like three horses that are gold medal—well, medal winning—horses in the Olympics, and they are all on it. And they go right through the [testing] box and it's far stricter than anything we got.
Servis: All right, Kristian. Just want to make sure.
Later on June 5, 2019, following his conversation with Rhein, Servis allegedly places a call to another individual (whose identity is not disclosed) regarding falsely listing “dex” on veterinary records to obscure the use of SGF-1000.
Servis: Yeah, so I just want to give you a heads up. So they pulled blood on some horses Monday. One of them is Maximum Security, and then they pulled it again today. Um, and I talked to Kristian [Rhein]. I mean the shots shouldn't be a problem because, you know, it may come up as dex. I don't know if you cover your ass if they want to look at a [veterinary] bill and see if the horse why he got dex or some…I just wanted to give you a heads up with the dex because that horse, you gave it to him Monday, I think, right?
Individual: Yeah, he got the dex Monday.
Servis: Yeah, I don't know if [regulators might question] why did he get dex [if] it's not on the bill, or something.
Individual: Nah. [Unintelligible] put it down. [Unintelligible] put it down. Got it.
The following day, June 6, 2019, Servis and Rhein allegedly continue their conversation about SGF-1000 and the untestable nature of it.
Rhein: On what we were talking about the other day—there is no problem with it. But, like, somebody squealed around here about it.
Servis: Okay.
Rhein: So that is the only thing that we should be cautious of. I got a…I got a couple of…
Servis: That's the SGF?
Rhein: Uh-huh.
Servis: Okay.
Rhein: So somebody squealed. Not that it is testing, or that…there's no…it's untestable. It's that they were crying about it. I don't know why. They didn't tell me who. But somebody is crying about it.
Servis: Okay.
Rhein: So it's just, just that we know. I just wanted to let you know that I, you know…the guy said this is a big, higher-up official. I was like, “What are they? Is it some weird test? Or is something coming back?” And he was like, “No, not at all.”
Servis: Okay. I just, like I said, they pulled blood the same day that he got it, that is what threw me off.
Rhein: Yeah, well, this was the…I'm not worried in the sense of anything going wrong with it because, like I said, the guy already tested it, so it's not that. It's more people crying.
Servis: Right, right.
Rhein: It's more people crying about it and I am sure, as you well hear. Believe me, more people come up to me and bitch and cry about you. They are like, “Oh, he is cheating, he is cheating, he is cheating.” I was like, “Yep, sure.” I said, “They test all of his horses over and over and over again.”
Servis: I know. I hear it all the time.
Rhein: I know you do. So, but…between you and me, because [of] the testing, they called me from the test center here and I was like, “What's up?” They go, “Do you know anything?” So what they called it, they called it “growth hormone.” They were like “You're using some sheep growth hormone.” I go, “No, it has no growth hormone whatsoever in it.” And I said, “It tested as collagen, which is a protein. A fine…there is nothing wrong with it.” I told him the name of the gentleman that [had tested] it in California. I said “His name is [redacted].” He goes, “Oh, I know him.” I said, “The Jockey Club had it tested. They were all freaked out, they thought it was this, they thought it was that.” I said, “So, it has been tested up and down.” And he said, “Listen, somebody dropped a dime on me.” And I was like, “What?” They are like, “Yeah.” So all we need to do…I'm not going to say anything to anything else. I'm just going to tell [co-defendant veterinarian] Alex [Chan] and people like that. Like it is not on any of our bills. It never is.
Servis: What about is [the drug] on your truck?
Rhein: No, nah. I don't take it on my truck. I just, when they call for, it I just have it. Come and get it.
Servis: Well, if you want us to back off, I mean, I have no problem with that.
Rhein: No, no, no, no, I mean, I'm going to find out some more. I just wanted you to know. I mean, I'm not worried. I am not worried because it has been tested, you know? And the person that just called me is the guy who tests. So I'm not worried about that. We do it further out. I mean all those things. So I am not trying to be clever or tricky or anything. This guy said “Listen, I am letting you know.” And I said…
Servis: Right, somebody dropped a dime on you.
Rhein: Put it this way: They have no test, period, but we don't get close. We never do. I mean I don't get close with it.
Servis: Yeah, we are 10, 12 days.
Rhein: Exactly. The rules of New York say anything outside of seven days is anything that is not listed. And this is truly listed as a biologic. So if they really want to fight, guess what? A biologic in New York is forty-eight hours [withdrawal time].
Servis: Right.
Rhein: Because that's all it is.
Servis: The only thing I was concerned with is, is it FDA approved?
Rhein: Well, no, no. Not that I know of.
Servis: That's the only thing I was thinking, I don't…does it have to be?
Rhein: Well, no, because, no. I mean, there is so many things. That is the beauty of being a veterinarian. As a veterinarian you are allowed to use any drug that you think would be…and this is not even considered a drug. It has no drug in it, it is literally just a purified protein from a sheep's placenta.
Servis: Right.
Rhein: So, I was like, look this isn't a drug, this isn't manufactured. So the Federal Drug Administration, they wouldn't approve it anyway, just because it is not a drug. Yeah, so, I just want to beware. I am not like, “Oh my God!” panicked.
Servis: Yeah, because I use it down here.
Rhein: [Expletive]. I love the stuff. I mean, you should see like, tendons.
Rhein: He [an undisclosed individual about whom Servis had previously complained, presumably a trainer] is such a little bitch. He just is a little sawed-off bitch. I worked for him. I mean, I worked for him. He had me shock-waving horses. He would leave me these notes. They were hidden in his drawer. And then we used to use Deca-Durabolin. I used to use Winstrol, and he was like, “Don't you dare put that on the bill.”
Servis: Wow.
Rhein: I'm like, you know, so this guy, he talks out of both sides of his mouth.
Servis: Yeah, he does. And one day somebody is going to write a [expletive] book. It is going to be a groom or a vet somebody and he is going to hang them all out.
Rhein: Yeah, believe me we could. I was there. I mean, I know these hypocrites. I mean I did all these guys' work. I know who was using and who was not, who needed to, who didn't. I mean. I don't say it lightly, but [expletive], I was doing [vet work for several other individuals]. I had all those barns. I was doing all their lameness. And these guys were the first ones that wanted you to [enhance performance]. “Hey what can we do?”
Servis: Yeah.
Rhein: And then they were like, so…We will be fine. Like I said, it is never on a bill.
It is never on a bill. That is the problem.
Servis: I have been billing it Baycox in Florida and here.
Rhein: Oh, good. Good. No, I think we do…ours are totally innocuous so…and I bill a
lot of mine as like acupuncture. I'm an acupuncturist. I'm a trained…licensed acupuncturist. So, that is for me why I do it. They can't say I am not. I have my advanced degree for equine acupuncture.
On July 10, 2019, Servis and Argueta allegedly discuss concerns about getting caught administering PEDs.
Servis: Be careful man, Henry, with that. Really careful, because…
Argueta: Yes?
Servis: Because we are getting really good.
Argueta: Yeah, no.
Servis: All we need is a problem like that. Oh, with the Derby and [expletive]. Oh my god.
Argueta: Yeah. Then they glad they are looking for us in the tree.
Servis: Yeah, they will.
Argueta: They are going to be in the tree looking for you with their binoculars.
Servis: What?
Argueta: The mounts right after the road.
Servis: Right.
Argueta: They'll be over there. They be there looking for you.
Servis: No they'll be in a van or a car with black windows you won't be able to see in.
Argueta: Ha, ha!
Servis: You know what I am saying. But they can see out.
Argueta: Yeah, but what are they going to see? Nobody going to see nothing. What are they going to see? Nothing.
Servis: Right.
Argueta: We don't do nothing—ha, ha! They can look wherever they want to look.
Newly disclosed transcripts of intercepted phone conversations involving alleged doping co-conspirators Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro reveal both an initial brazenness against getting caught and an utter ignorance about some of the substances the two now-barred trainers were purportedly injecting i...
https://twitter.com/i/status/1431704394018533380
#8 Firenze Fire attempts to savage #7 Yaupon
in the Forego Stakes 8th Race at Saratoga today!
Yaupon won anyway!
“Wild horses.. https://t.co/AofyeSfBO5”
http://brcdn.brisnet.com/content/2021/07/turcotte-at-80-reflections-beyond-the-big-two/
Turcotte at 80: Reflections beyond the big two
July 8, 2021 Vance Hanson Features, Racing History 0
Ron Turcotte
Ron Turcotte (Courtesy Keeneland Library Thoroughbred Times Collection)
The ninth decade of life typically isn’t one in which the retired expect to be overly active or in the spotlight, but for Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, the next few years figure to be busier than normal.
Turcotte, who turns 80 on July 22, is the last survivor among the inner circle connected with the legendary Secretariat, whose racing career will be recalled and celebrated over the next few seasons, as the 50th anniversary of his racing accomplishments approaches. There is also an overlapping anniversary involving Turcotte’s second most famous mount, Secretariat’s older Hall of Fame stablemate Riva Ridge.
With reflections on Secretariat (and to a lesser extent, Riva Ridge) a well-trodden topic going on half a century, and with more to come, Turcotte was kind enough to share thoughts and memories about some of the other significant horses, personalities, and events of his illustrious career when reached at his Grand Falls, New Brunswick, home last month.
Northern Dancer
Although he didn’t get to ride him to his notable victories in the 1964 Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Queen’s Plate, Turcotte was there at the beginning for Northern Dancer, Canada’s most famous and influential Thoroughbred son.
Turcotte was a five-pound apprentice when he climbed aboard Northern Dancer for the c**t’s debut in a six-furlong maiden race at Fort Erie on Aug. 2, 1963, which the E. P. Taylor homebred proceeded to win by a widening 6 3/4 lengths.
“I was very high on him,” Turcotte said. “When I rode him in his first race, he was kind of lazy-like. I just had to tap him once, and he took off. I knew he was heading for something big.”
Northern Dancer made his stakes debut 15 days later, in the 6 1/2-furlong Vandal at Fort Erie, but without Turcotte in the saddle. Turcotte was contractually bound to ride a c**t named Ramblin Road.
“(Trainer Horatio) Luro got real mad at me, but there was nothing I could do,” Turcotte said. “My contract holder owned Ramblin Road, and I couldn’t ride against my contract holder. I knew I was riding the second-best horse”
Turcotte might have felt he was riding the second-best horse, but the betting public favored the more experienced Ramblin Road, who started as the 3-5 favorite, after a romping win in the Victoria at Woodbine and an earlier second-place finish to the brilliant Raise a Native in an Aqueduct allowance.
Ramblin Road conceded Northern Dancer 13 pounds in the Vandal, but Turcotte rode a savvy race, which resulted in a four-length win for his mount.
“Northern Dancer hooked up with another horse and they were killing each other,” Turcotte said. “I just sat back behind them and galloped past. I shouldn’t have beat him.”
Ron Turcotte. (Photo courtesy of the Keeneland Library Thoroughbred Times Collection)
Turcotte rode Northern Dancer three more times and won twice. The most emphatic was a 6 1/4-length triumph in the 1 1/8-mile Coronation Futurity at Woodbine.
“Not only did he have foot trouble as a three-year-old but also as a two-year-old,” Turcotte said of Northern Dancer, who notably struggled with quarter-crack issues. “They had to keep patching it.
“He was an extremely good horse — a great horse. I’d have to pick him as the second-best horse I ever rode.”
November 22, 1963
Turcotte was riding at Pimlico on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
“I remember very well, when the announcer said the remainder of the card was being canceled,” Turcotte said.
While most tracks throughout the country went dark until after Kennedy’s funeral the following Monday, Pimlico went ahead with its Saturday program, ostensibly to avoid the cancellation or postponement of the lucrative Pimlico Futurity. Nominators had already paid roughly $100,000 toward the Futurity purse, the equivalent of more than $850,000 today.
“The nominations and the fees were all started two years ago, and these horses and riders have shipped in from all over the country,” Maryland Racing Commission chairman Bruce Livie told the Baltimore Sun at the time. “If we weren’t running something like the Futurity, we’d certainly cancel. I don’t see how we can put it off.”
While Turcotte’s mount in the Futurity ran out of the money, he rode one winner earlier on the card, his ninth of the 10-day-old meet. The program was contested in dreary conditions, both weather-wise and in mood.
“He was very, very well loved in Maryland,” Turcotte said of Kennedy. “The crowd was crying. It was a very sad day.”
Tom Rolfe and Damascus
Turcotte’s first taste of classic success came in 1965, when he guided that year’s champion c**t, Tom Rolfe, to victory in a thrilling edition of the Preakness.
“He was a long time coming around,” Turcotte recalled of the Ribot c**t, whom he won aboard three times as a two-year-old, most notably in the Cowdin at Aqueduct. “He really matured to come into his own.”
Turcotte was also aboard for all three of Tom Rolfe’s wins leading up to the Kentucky Derby in the spring of 1965, but the pair wound up third to Lucky Debonair in the Run for the Roses. That form was reversed in the Preakness, where Tom Rolfe was all out to defeat Dapper Dan by a neck, with Lucky Debonair a distant seventh.
Three weeks later, in the Belmont, which was contested that year at Aqueduct, Tom Rolfe lost in the final strides, by a neck, to Hail to All.
“I didn’t win the Belmont with him, but that was my fault. I moved a little soon,” Turcotte said.
Turcotte also had an opportunity to ride the Hall of Fame c**t Damascus on two occasions. While he had no trouble piloting Damascus to a facile win in the 1967 Leonard Richards at Delaware Park as a 1-10 favorite, Damascus lost a stretch duel with Most Host in the 1968 Charles H. Strub at Santa Anita, where the reigning Horse of the Year started at 1-5.
The track was listed as slow, an anachronistic rating formerly used to describe a surface between muddy and good.
“I knew he was a great horse,” Turcotte said of Damascus. “When I rode him at Santa Anita, he was the only horse not running with mud caulks. He was slipping a lot and cut himself pretty good. Otherwise, he would have won the race.”
Tom Rolfe and Damascus were both trained by Frank Whiteley, who, despite his curmudgeonly reputation, has long been considered one of the finest horsemen in racing history.
“I got along real good with Frank Whiteley,” Turcotte said. “He was kind of a loner. He didn’t like to speak to the press and stuff like that.”
Turcotte’s relationship with Whiteley also extended to riding, on occasion, Damascus’ “rabbit,” Hedevar, most notably in the 1967 Woodward at Aqueduct, a race that pitted Hall of Famers Buckpasser, Damascus, and Dr. Fager against each other. The connections of Buckpasser and Damascus both employed rabbits to soften up the speedy Dr. Fager.
Turcotte mentioned Buckpasser and Dr. Fager when asked which horses he would have liked to have ridden but didn’t get a chance to, but he did his part aboard Hedevar to ensure a tactical 10-length win for Damascus, an anticlimactic finish to what was referred to at the time as the “Race of the Century.”
“I felt bad doing it, but it was my job,” the rider said.
Shuvee, Fanfreluche, and Summer Guest
Just before Secretariat came to the fore, Turcotte had exceptional success with several notable fillies. Foremost was Shuvee, who to this day remains the only female ever to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup, then contested over two miles.
Turcotte rode Shuvee for the first time in the 1968 Selima at Laurel, which Shuvee won by a neck, over that season’s co-champion juvenile filly, Process Shot. However, according to Turcotte, he missed out on riding the filly to her sweep of New York’s Triple Tiara for fillies — the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Coaching Club American Oaks — in 1969, because her owners preferred to have a rider under contract, in this case Jesse Davidson.
Turcotte picked the mount back up in the summer and fall of 1970, when Shuvee won the Diana, Beldame, and the first of her back-to-back Jockey Club Gold Cups, en route to her first divisional championship. Turcotte was also aboard Shuvee when she captured the Top Flight and Diana in 1971.
Shuvee, with Ron Turcotte up, wins the 1970 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Aqueduct. (Photo courtesy of NYRA/Bob Coglianese)
Fanfreluche, the co-champion three-year-old filly in the U.S. and Horse of the Year in Canada, was another Turcotte had fun with in the summer and fall of 1970. They earned their first stakes win together in the Manitoba Centennial Derby at Assiniboia Downs, before an audience that included Queen Elizabeth II. Later, they teamed up to win the Alabama at Saratoga and the Quebec Derby at Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal.
One prize that eluded them, though, was the Queen’s Plate. Chris Rogers, who rode Fanfreluche regularly prior to the Plate, provided Turcotte with some advice.
“Chris Rogers said, ‘Ronnie, sit on her as long as you can,'” Turcotte said. “A hole opened, and I let her go through there, but it was a little too early.”
Almoner, the slight favorite in the wagering over Fanfreluche, wore down the filly to win by three parts of a length.
Sadly for a native Canadian, Turcotte never tasted success in the Queen’s Plate. However, he says it doesn’t bother him.
“Winning the Queen’s Plate is the thing in Canada, but I’d rather have gone to the States and done all that I did,” he said. “It was the pinnacle of my career. I really have no regrets.
“Even though I couldn’t ride Secretariat for the last time, I was happy to have prepared him for the Canadian International, which I won two of them anyway (aboard Will I Rule in 1964 and Vent du Nord in 1969).”
Summer Guest, one of the top three-year-olds of 1972, was another star filly Turcotte had an opportunity to ride. Together, they teamed up to win the Black-Eyed Susan, Coaching Club American Oaks, Monmouth Oaks, and Alabama.
“She could really run,” Turcotte said. “She was the reason I didn’t ride Secretariat the first time, because I had a commitment to ride her at Monmouth Park.”
Fort Marcy and the Dixie DQ
Besides Summer Guest, Turcotte also took the call from owner Paul Mellon and trainer Elliott Burch several times on Fort Marcy, the gelding who won or shared three grass titles.
Turcotte guided Fort Marcy to a couple of his earliest stakes wins, in the 1967 editions of the Tidal at Aqueduct and a division of the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga. Fort Marcy was a three-year-old facing older in both, and in the Baruch, he toppled reigning grass champion Assagai.
However, it was Turcotte’s ride on Fort Marcy in the 1971 Dixie at Pimlico that produced one of the more bizarre outcomes of his career.
Heavily favored at 7-10 in the 1 1/2-mile Dixie over soft ground he relished, Fort Marcy crossed the finish line six lengths in front. However, a claim of foul against Fort Marcy by the jockey of fourth-place finisher North Flight, Tommy Lee, was soon lodged. North Flight had led the Dixie for more than 1 1/4 miles when Fort Marcy roared past on the final turn, at which point Lee stood up in the irons.
“It was very, very foggy,” Turcotte recalled. “You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. I was never close to any horse. The horse they said I bothered wasn’t even around me.”
According to a contemporary report in the Baltimore Sun, the patrol camera that would have given stewards the best angle malfunctioned shortly before the incident, thus footage from a camera farther away was used to adjudicate the claim of foul. The claim was allowed, and Fort Marcy was disqualified to fourth, despite being overwhelmingly best.
“Lee ought to get an Academy Award,” Turcotte fumed to the Sun. “The film also lied.”
Ron Turcotte. (Photo courtesy of the Keeneland Library Thoroughbred Times Collection)
Turcotte was handed a five-day suspension for careless riding, but appealed on the advice of Fort Marcy’s connections. The patricians Mellon and Burch cared little, though, about the loss of the winner’s share of $36,920, the equivalent of a quarter-million dollars today.
“Mr. Burch is the man that pushed me to appeal,” Turcotte remembered. “He said don’t appeal for the money. They both said that. Just appeal for yourself, so you can keep a clean record.”
Five days later, the Maryland Racing Commission heard Turcotte’s appeal for several hours, during which the lack of clarity in the footage available became evident.
“The patrol judge wore very thick glasses and couldn’t see very good,” Turcotte said. “He approached the TV monitor and showed the commission, ‘See where he fouled him?’ ‘Yes, we see very well, and he was never close to him.’
“After the hearing, when I walked out, they said, ‘You’re clear. We can’t see no foul there. Are you appealing for yourself or for the purse?’ I said I’m appealing for myself to keep a clean record.”
The commission voted 3-1 in Turcotte’s favor and reduced his suspension from five days to three days, which allowed him to fulfill his commitment to ride in the Acorn at Aqueduct two days later. However, for poor Fort Marcy, his permanent record remains stained with an arguably unjust disqualification that took away a 17th and final stakes victory from his Hall of Fame career.
Dahlia and the “Greatest Ever” tiff
In the year following Secretariat’s retirement, Turcotte had an opportunity to ride the superstar European filly Dahlia. In her second sojourn to North America, in the fall of 1974, Dahlia aimed first for the Man o’ War at Belmont Park.
Dahlia wins the 1974 Man o’ War Stakes. (Photo by Bob Coglianese)
“She had missed some time because she was in quarantine, and Lester Piggott was supposed to come and ride her,” Turcotte recalled. “They didn’t think she was quite fit for the race, so (her connections decided to) let a local boy ride her. That local boy happened to be me.”
Despite an extraordinary record that included wins in two editions of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, a Washington D.C. International, a Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, and three other Group 1 tests, Dahlia was sent off as a bargain 2.4-1 favorite. Although the margin of victory was only two lengths, video suggests she could have outclassed the field by more.
“She wasn’t the easiest filly in the world to ride,” Turcotte said. “She could really run. She was eager to run. You had to fight with her a little bit to get her to relax.”
Turcotte’s characteristic diplomacy in the wake of the Man o’ War, however, would anger owner Nelson Bunker Hunt and trainer Maurice Zilber, and he never rode the filly again.
“I find it funny now. After the Man o’ War, I went to the barn to see her and to see how she came out of the race. That was a custom I had,” Turcotte said. “Mr. Hunt and Mr. Zilber were after me to tell the whole world that was the greatest horse I ever rode. On the heels of riding Secretariat, there’s no way in the world I could say that.
“I told them, ‘Look, I never compare anybody’s horses. It’s not fair to the one I’m not going to pick. Everybody’s out there to have the best horse.’
“After I refused to compare them, (my agent was told), ‘You can take Ronnie off. Piggott’s gonna ride (her in the Washington D.C. International).'”
Following an interim victory in the Canadian International, Dahlia was made the 3-5 favorite to repeat in the Washington D.C. International, with Piggott up. Turcotte wound up with a mount on Desert Vixen, a two-time champion filly on dirt who had zero experience on turf or as far as 1 1/2 miles.
Although Desert Vixen had a reputation for sometimes setting sprint-like fractions in her route efforts, Turcotte surmised that her best chance at victory would be to slow the pace way down. Over a course rated firm, Desert Vixen set absurdly soft splits of :27.20, :51.80, 1:17.20, 1:42, and 2:06.40. Meanwhile, a seemingly overconfident Piggott had Dahlia languishing some seven lengths behind Desert Vixen for much of the journey.
“I didn’t believe they let me get away with that,” Turcotte said. “When I looked back and saw they had such a tight hold of their horses, I just backed mine down and got away with some easy fractions.”
Admetus, a 31-1 outsider from Europe, raced in close attendance with Dahlia near the back of the field but was wisely asked to improve position approaching the mile mark. That middle move proved decisive, as Admetus was in much better position to challenge Desert Vixen in the stretch than Dahlia.
If not for a distraction in the final furlong, Turcotte feels Desert Vixen could have held on to beat Admetus, who got the better of her by three-quarters of a length.
“She came to the tote board when she was on the lead, and when the lights starting flashing, she ducked out,” Turcotte said. “If not for the blinking lights and her ducking, I would have won the race.”
Instead, Turcotte had to suffice with outwitting the great Piggott and having the last laugh over the obstinate connections of Dahlia.
Arcaro’s greatest: Citation or Kelso?
As Turcotte is inexorably linked with Secretariat, so was Eddie Arcaro with Secretariat’s Triple Crown-winning predecessor, Citation. In the wake of Secretariat’s Triple Crown sweep in 1973, the two horses were often compared.
Secretariat in the winner’s circle of the 1973 Preakness (Photo by Jim McCue/MJC)
While Arcaro was quoted during his lifetime as saying Citation was his greatest mount, Turcotte stands by remarks he penned in a Blood-Horse column more than 20 years ago, when he wrote Arcaro truly felt Kelso was superior to Citation. Arcaro regularly rode Kelso during the first two of the gelding’s five consecutive Horse of the Year campaigns.
“He never once told me otherwise,” Turcotte said. “Every time I asked him who the best horse he ever rode was, he’d always say Kelso. Arcaro always told me he never let Kelso run.
“He said, ‘I had many big races with (Ben and Jimmy Jones). I was friends with them. I just didn’t want to make them feel bad.'”
Images from the Keeneland Library are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in print or electronically without written permission of the Keeneland Library.
The ninth decade of life typically isn't one in which the retired expect to be overly active or in the spotlight, but for Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, the next few years figure to be busier than normal.
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