The March 2015 edition of the Horsemen's Newsletter is now online and available for download. To view this edition click here
The Horsemen's Newsletter is published monthly by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and is mailed to each licensed owner and trainer in the state of Maryland.
The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s board of directors approved a new Preference Date System in February that is intended to streamline the procedures and make life easier for officials and horsemen when coping with overbooked race entries.
Horsemen now will get their date for both dirt and turf when they turn in their foal papers to the Maryland Jockey Club horse identifier. Once that is done, the horse will only lose his date if he runs out of town when Maryland tracks are running.
“Our new system is really a hybrid of ours and those used in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and establishes a pretty fine-tuned pecking order,” said MTHA board member Katy Voss. “It tries to be fair to everyone, but helps the home team, too.”
In the past, when you said the word cricket around Laurel Park racetrack a chirpy insect came to mind.
Times have changed. In early February the Washington Cricket Center opened on the second floor of the Laurel Park grandstand. That’s cricket, as in the ball-and-stick game, better understood in England, Australia and other countries once ruled by the British Empire.
“I’m from Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon when it was under British rule,” said Dr. Ajith Silva, a professor on aging at the University of Maryland, University College, who owns the new facility. “I grew up playing cricket. I’ve been here [in the United States] for 25 years. I have a passion for the sport and I do a lot of cricket coaching.
“My philosophy is to train young kids. You’ve got to catch them early, train them and build up the game. It’s the only way to promote the game.”
It is a philosophy that management at Laurel Park can certainly relate to. The Maryland Jockey Club and its new general manager, Sal Sinatra, are working hard to attract young families with children to the racetrack, to instill a love for horse racing that will carry into later, adult life.
When racing moves to Pimlico Race Course this spring, a new series of races – the “Whips International” Turf Starter Handicap Series – will offer owners a new way to utilize their horses, offer fans a new way to familiarize themselves with more of the area’s horses and offer trainers a new way to develop their horses without fear of having them claimed. And the top finishing trainers will earn bonuses, too.
“I ran this kind of series at Parx [Racing in Pennsylvania] and it was very well received,” said Maryland Jockey Club vice president and general manager Sal Sinatra, whose idea it is for the series. “Here, trainers like the idea. It’s three new races and a bonus trainers can use.”
The series will run April 4, with a purse of $25,000; May 2 for $30,000, and June 6 for $35,000. It will feature two races each of those Saturdays, one for colts and geldings and another for fillies and mares. It is for horses who have run for $5,000 or less in 2014 or 2015.
The three races will progress in length from one mile to a mile-and-a-sixteenth, to a mile-and-an-eighth. Earned points will decide the overall winner, with 10 points for finishing first in a race, seven points for second and five points for third.
The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association in conjunction with the Maryland Horsemen’s Assistance Fund will resume its popular offering of English As A Second Language classes on March 2.
Two separate classes will be offered to backstretch workers free of change in the Laurel Park track kitchen once a week. These classes will be divided into beginner and advanced levels to accommodate all skill levels.
Taught by Esthermaria Esquina, currently an adjunct faculty member at Baltimore City Community College and Montgomery College in Silver Spring, the courses will each be three hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, from 4 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., and will include a 15-minute dinner break.
All one has to do is look at the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association’s support of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and its own on-going assistance to local programs to know Maryland’s horsemen are committed to their racehorses’ futures.
Most recently, the MTHA made its 2014 contribution of $31,389 to the TAA. It marks the first full year of funding for the program in Maryland and represents an increase of $8,163 over its 2013 payment.
The horsemen’s commitment to the Thoroughbred’s post-racing career made both MTHA board member Chris Bricker, who oversees the program, and Maryland racing secretary Georganne Hale, who is on the TAA board of directors, proud.
“Our horsemen are the best in the country and I think that accounts for the way they care about their horses,” Hale said. “I think our horsemen make us one of the top-notch states in the country in terms of taking care of our horses.
“The MTHA’s donation to TAA is substantial, but they do much more than that,” Hale said. “They support the local aftercare programs throughout the year, beyond their TAA commitment.”
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