Honey Creek Farms

by Patty Wolfe

Bob Edwards and his family have experienced the ride of a lifetime in their initial foray into the racing industry, capturing an unprecedented three Breeders’ Cup events in two years. A pharmaceutical executive whose involvement in racing began as a casual fan, Edwards and his e Five Racing stable enter new territory Saturday as champion and 2017 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero Good Magic (Curlin) begins his road to the GI Kentucky Derby in the GII Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream. Edwards sat down with the TDN‘s Patty Wolfe to discuss Saturday’s race and what lies ahead for e Five in 2018.

TDN: It’s a unique accomplishment for an owner to win two Breeders’ Cup events in the same year, but it’s particularly exceptional to win a championship race with a maiden. What was Good Magic’s victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile like for you?

BE: As you know, we’ve actually broken our maidens before in stakes races, but this was extra special because it was the Breeders’ Cup. It was just kind of hard to fathom. We were in the paddock, we had the whole crew…It was just unbelievable once he broke away, he just took off. Everybody was just kind of in shock, and Chris came and gave me a big hug and we started jumping around, and then the camera all switched from Bob Baffert and went over to us, because he was in the paddock as well. So just as I had came in, he had saw me and he came up and said, “Congratulations, Bob.” It was very classy.

TDN: So much attention in the racing world is devoted to the road to the Kentucky Derby this time this year. Do you have any added nerves campaigning a horse who now has “champion” attached to his name?

BE: All I’m doing is thinking about today. I try not to think in the future, because it just compounds the stress. Fortunately I have a day job or two to keep me busy, so it’s just day by day. I try not to think about the Derby, although we have to plan for the Derby to get a house for the derby, and to get tickets for the Derby and get everybody situated for the Derby. It is a lot to think about, but I try to compartmentalize all the stress and just move forward.

TDN: Good Magic is considered the leader of the 3-year-old division by many. Do you follow the other Derby preps to scout out the competition?

BE: I watch them, and I know Chad watches them with a different eye than I do. There are a lot of things I can’t control, so to get worked up over a horse that ran a great prep race, we’ll see him in the Derby if we get there, and let the day play out. There are a lot of factors that happen to get to there, and there are a lot of great horses, and it’s going to be a great race. I don’t necessarily look at somebody as a competitor, I just like watching the sport. I like the sport, it’s exciting. You like watching people win, you like watching the owners, you like when the jockeys win. So it is exciting to see these big prep races, and you are looking at competition–but there’s nothing I can do to change it.

TDN: What would you like to see from Good Magic in his return to action?

BE: I’d like to see him stay sound, obviously. He’s got a brilliant career ahead of him. I’d love to see him win–love to see him win big races as everybody would. It’s great for the sport, it’s great for his sire, it’s great for all the connections. This is a sport where there are so many connections, everybody has a part. It’s the owners, the breeders, the jockeys, the trainers, the bloodstock agent, and the consignors. Everybody’s got a piece of the action–or skin in the game at some level–and his win would help all these people.

TDN: Is the Fountain of Youth a stepping stone more than anything?

BE: Indeed, yes it is a stepping stone. It’s getting him back on the track, getting him back on the track in great company. He’s in good form right now, but he’s not going to be at his best on day one–he’s coming off a nice rest. We rested him and that was the plan after the Breeders’ Cup. Chad has done a great job managing him. He went up to Stonestreet where Ian Brennan and his crew took very special care of him. When he came back down he looked unbelievable. After a month with Chad he looks phenomenal–everybody’s seen him breeze, he looks like he’s the part. He’s getting bigger and he’s getting stronger. He looks like a champion and he’s expected to be a champion because he won the Eclipse Award.

TDN: It seems like racing is something your entire family embraces and enjoys. Will they all be on hand for the Fountain of Youth?

BE: Absolutely. We have a full box at Gulfstream Park. My mom and my wife’s parents will be there, as well as our kids. There will be cousins, friends, assorted friends and family. It will probably be 25 or 30 deep in the box, and then the Stonestreet crew is coming as well. Unfortunately, I don’t believe Barbara [Banke]’s going to make it–I think she’s got some work she has to do, but hopefully she can.

TDN: You live not too far away from Palm Meadows. How often do you go out and see Good Magic train?

BE: I go up at least once a week. [My daughter] Cassidy’s been up a few times during the week just to kind of check on things and see everybody. But definitely once a week. I don’t like to get involved too much–Chad’s got a big enterprise, he does a phenomenal job and he’s got a great crew, so I talk to him more than I see him.

TDN: Chad Brown has seen a rapid rise to the top of the sport in recent years, and e Five has enjoyed a great deal of success of its own in a short period of time. How much confidence does it give you to have someone like Chad in your corner?

BE: Well, we won three Breeders’ Cups together in the last two years–he’s a student of the game. Obviously he’s young, he has a phenomenal staff, he has great horses and they’re getting better every year. This year he maybe even has better talent than last year. He’s a force to reckon with–he takes great care of his horses, he takes great pride in that. He’s a taskmaster, he’s a condition book expert. Everything you want from a trainer is Chad, and we have a good relationship both personally and as a trainer.

TDN: I understand Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) spent some recovery time at Stonestreet before returning to Chad last month–how is she doing?

BE: I think she had her second breeze last Saturday–she looks great. Same thing, she’s stretching out, she’s getting bigger, she looks the part. Getting ready for Keeneland.

TDN: Racing is a relatively new endeavor to you, but you’ve put a lot of hard work into it. Is having a champion in your second year of buying horses expected or a surprise, or a combination of the two?

BE: It’s a huge surprise. It’s not supposed to happen this way, I’ve been told this a lot. Maybe it’s just we’re getting hooked so we can stay in longer. It’s a lot of fun, but it obviously makes it more fun to have winners. To win any race is very exciting as an owner. It’s the same energy when they come out of the gate and when they come past the finish line. The same adrenaline is there. So yes, we are winning at the highest level and it’s very exciting, but any time we win is exciting.

Prominent owner Rick Porter does not believe that the slaughter of retired racehorses is an unsolvable problem. Along with Victoria Keith, the executive vice president of Porter’s Fox Hill Farms, Porter has started the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization, which he says will be an all-encompassing organization whose mission is to end slaughter and deal with other welfare issues, such as the illegal doping of horses.

The news of the founding of the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization was first reported by the Blood-Horse.

“Can we end the slaughter of Thoroughbreds 100%? Maybe not, but I think we can end it 95%, and that would be pretty big,” Porter said. “But our goal is to end it 100%.”

There are literally hundreds of horse rescue operations in the U.S., but Porter and Keith foresee their group as an attempt to take horse welfare problems and have them addressed primarily by one large, well-funded organization that has the assets to put a huge dent into the problem.

“This is much needed,” Keith said. “We have other people cleaning up our mess and this is the industry’s mess, so the industry needs to be the one that cleans it up. We also believe the industry needs to say they have an all-encompassing Thoroughbred welfare organization run by an industry that looks after the horses…including every aspect in which they need care. If racing is going to have a future it’s going to have to have something like this.”

Porter said he would write a sizeable check to get the NTWO off the ground and then would solicit help from others.

Just this week Keith visited a slaughter auction in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where she said she saw about six racehorses being sold. There is a new trend in the auction-slaughter business where buyers are paying more for the horses than they are worth strictly for their meat and then posting them on social media. They inform people that the horses are for sale, at a price higher than what they paid for them, and that if someone does not buy them they will be slaughtered. It’s more or less a matter of holding the horse for ransom. For that reason, Keith said she is going to focus first on Louisiana.

However, her goal is not to outbid the killer buyers at every slaughter auction in the country, knowing the costs to do that would be prohibitive. Rather, she wants to hire agents at every racetrack in the country whose job it is it to buy any horses owners or trainers may want to discard, therefore keeping them out of the slaughter pipeline. The NTWO will pay the owners or trainers at least what the horse is worth at the slaughter sales.

“I want to get all my contacts lined up and have full-time workers, agents at every track,” Keith said. “Their job will be to develop a congenial relationship with the trainers and tell them we will take their horses. I want posters. I want a hot line. There should be one national number that everyone in racing has on their contact list in their phone that they can call if they have a horse they need to find a home for.”

Keith hopes as many NTWO horses as possible can be retrained and then sold as riding or pleasure horses. Money from the sales will be used to help fund the project. But she says they will not turn away any horses, even if they are unsuitable for a post-racing career.

“We have to take all horses,” she said. “If we say we are going to be your outlet and we are going to help you that means we have to take every horse. We plan to do that. That also means we will incur expenses. Unfortunately, if someone brings us a horse and the only humane thing to do is euthanize it and they don’t want to pay for it we will. You never want to do it because it’s sad, but we won’t have a problem euthanizing a horse if our vets tells us this is the right thing to do.”

What to do with the horses that come off the racetrack too unsound to go on to a second career figures to be a bigger problem. Keith said there are no current plans to buy land or a farm where they can live out their years, but says that is under consideration. She also believes that many unsound horses, with the right veterinary care, can be patched up and used as riding horses. She also will put all the horses on a website in hopes that people will adopt the them, even if they can be nothing more than a pasture pet.

“It’s going to be a long project,” Porter said. “One of the biggest things we’re going to need is the racetrack’s help and to convince people at the racetracks to stay away from the slaughter people. We’ll take the horse from you and we are going to make it as easy as possible. It’s really horrible what’s going on with the slaughter part of it. There are so many things we can do to make racing better. We’re going to give it 100% and make a difference.”

The Jockey Club of Canada has unveiled the winners for the Groom, Handicapper and Special Sovereign Award. The Groom Award will go to Alfredo Ramos, who has worked for Hall of Famer Roger Attfield for the past 10 years. The Handicapper Award was won by Michael Eisen, former Microsoft of Canada Chief Legal Officer and winner of Woodbine’s Player of the Year Award. Sam Lima is the winner of the Special Sovereign Award, which recognizes someone who has significantly contributed to the horse racing industry in Canada. Lima is a horseman, HBPA official and driving force of the Toronto Thoroughbred Racing Club. The Sovereign Awards will be given out Apr. 19.

Trainer Carlo Vaccarezza, whose sons Mike and Nick survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Feb. 14, raised approximately $160,000 for the families of the victims during a fundraiser held Sunday at his family restaurant, Frank and Dino’s. The event, which spanned much of the afternoon and evening, featured appearances by a number of well-known racing personalities, including Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown and Gulfstream Park host and analyst Acacia Courtney.

“I want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting the families of these victims,” said Vaccarezza. “I want to thank the horse racing community for all their support and their time and donations.”

Donations to the cause can still be made by calling 561-218-4636.

MINE THAT BIRD DERBY, $100,000, SUN, 2-25, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:44.06, ft.

1–RERIDE, 121, c, 3, by Candy Ride (Arg)

                1st Dam: Remit (MSW, $257,556), by Tapit
                2nd Dam: Free Spin, by Olympio
                3rd Dam: Spin n Win, by Private Account
O/B-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen;
J-Alfredo J. Juarez, Jr. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-0,
$166,220.
2–Runaway Ghost, 121, c, 3, Ghostzapper–Rose’s Desert, by
Desert God. ($240,000 RNA Ylg ’16 KEESEP). O/B-Joe R
Peacock (KY); T-Todd W. Fincher. $20,000.
3–Trooper, 121, c, 3, Gemologist–Bureaucat, by Tale of the Cat.
($30,000 RNA Wlg ’15 KEENOV; $9,000 RNA Ylg ’16 KEEJAN;
$20,000 2yo ’17 KEENOV). O-Judge Lanier Racing; B-John
O’Meara & WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-Miguel L. Hernandez.
$10,000.
Margins: 2HF, 15 1/4, HF. Odds: 3.40, 0.40, 55.50.
Also Ran: Sphene, Modern Man, Trigger Warning, Beautiful Game, Ministersdontparty, Pinpoint.
Reride, tabbed a ‘TDN Rising Star’ after his debut win at Churchill last June, added an allowance victory over the turf at Keeneland Oct. 25 before concluding his juvenile campaign with a sixth-place effort in the Nov. 25 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. He returned this year with a narrow score in the Jan. 13 Big Drama S. at Delta Downs. The bay colt was just off the lead as favorite Runaway Ghost battled through an opening quarter in in :21.54. He snuck through along the rail to make it a three-way battle for the lead down the backstretch through a half in :47.88. Reride took command nearing the stretch and looked set to pull away, but Runaway Ghost battled back to just get his nose in front again at midstretch only to have Reride find another gear and forge clear. The winner’s first three dams were all Winchell homebreds. Remit, a two-time stakes winner in the Winchell colors, produced a filly by Munnings last year and was bred back to Candy Ride (Arg). The mare is a full-sister to stakes winner and graded stakes placed Retap and to multiple graded stakes winner Tapiture. Her dam Free Spin has a yearling colt by hot second-crop sire Take Charge Indy and she was bred back to Fast Anna. The Winchells purchased Spin N Win’s dam Debs Angel, in foal to Capote, for $190,000 at the 1991 Keeneland November sale. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.