John and Betty Mabee, Robert and Beverly Lewis, and Mike Pegram have all committed their current stakes winners to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s (NTRA) licensing and merchandising program.
The Mabees have committed their stable of runners, including Santa Anita Derby winner General Challenge, multiple grade I-winning filly Excellent Meeting and Strub Stakes winner Event of the Year. Pegram has committed Eclipse champions Real Quiet and Silverbulletday to the licensing effort, while the Lewises recently had Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Charismatic licensed by the NTRA. Silver Charm, their 1997 Derby and Preakness winner, was one of the first horses to be licensed by the NTRA.
The NTRA is also close to completing a deal with the Jockeys’ Guild that would allow it to market licenses that would enable companies to sell jockey-related products, such as caps and T-shirts bearing the names or images of racing’s leading riders. Individual jockeys who are featured on any merchandise would receive royalties and the Jockeys’ Guild would also receive a percentage of the royalties.
California Racing Buys More Television Time
As a direct result of a $6.5 million promotional fund created by California state law in January, a nightly show of racing highlights has been bought on the Fox Sports network and will be shown on cable outlets throughout the state. Slated to begin the week of April 25, the show has been called the "Racing Minute." Separate productions air for Northern and Southern California audiences and include stretch runs of feature races and other racing highlights.
Marketing committee chairman Jack Liebau, who also heads Bay Meadows racetrack, said they received recommendations from Merkley Newman Harty, advertising agency for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, as to how to allocate money from the state fund. The purchase of the new television spot represents 20 percent of that budget.
According to Liebau in an interview for The Blood-Horse, more than half the fund will go to host tracks throughout the state in an effort to increase on-track attendance and nearly 20 percent is allocated to satellite wagering facilities. The remaining 10 percent is earmarked for the fair meets "to try to get people from the Ferris wheel to the racetrack."
Horseman’s Book Collection to Huntington Library
The Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., recently acquired a 7,200-volume book collection of the late California horseman Edward Lasker. Lasker was encouraged to enter racing as an owner by John D. Hertz, who campaigned 1943 Triple Crown winner Count Fleet and later owned a farm in California. The collection was donated to the Huntington Library by Cynthia Lasker, Lasker’s widow.
According to Alan Jutski, curator of rare books at the Huntington Library, the Lasker collection is enormous and extensive. "Lasker collected early rare books, major histories, books on American stud farms, the legal aspects of racing, and racetracks," he said in a Blood-Horse interview. Included in the collection are about 100 years worth of Daily Racing Form and The Thoroughbred Record, plus volumes of The Blood-Horse from 1916-1974.
Jutski estimated cataloguing the entire collection would take two or three years. Tentative plans are to create an exhibit for the year 2003. In the meantime, he said the library is trying to accommodate requests for use of some of the books, but that will be limited.
"It’s a research collection," he added. "We expect a lot of historians to come use it."
Lady Pastor Dies While Foaling
Lady Pastor, the dam of stakes winners Worldly Manner and Lively Music, died while giving birth to a colt by General Meeting in early May. The colt survived and was placed with a nurse mare.
"She ruptured an artery while foaling," explained owner John Mabee in an interview for Daily Racing Form. "That’s usually fatal, because you can’t get those things stopped. We were very disappointed to lose her, but we give thanks for everything she’s done."
Lady Pastor, a California-bred foal of 1983, was one of the first stakes winners to represent Flying Paster as a sire. She captured the 1985 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes at Del Mar and also placed in the Impressive Style Stakes for earnings of $62,685. She was the second foal and one of five stakes winners produced from the Youth mare Youthful Lady.
Soviet Problem, Work the Crowd Produce Foals
Former California champion fillies Soviet Problem and Work the Crowd recently produced foals by In Excess (Ire) at Harris Farms in Coalinga.
California’s Horse of the Year in 1994, Soviet Problem dropped a dark bay or brown colt at the Coalinga nursery on April 15 and was scheduled to be bred back to Avenue of Flags. It was the third foal for the earner of $905,546. Bred and raced by John Harris and Don Valpredo, Soviet won 15 of 20 career starts and also finished a close second to Cherokee Run in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs.
Work the Crowd gave birth to an In Excess filly on April 16, which was also her third foal. California’s outstanding filly at two and three years of age and the state’s champion grass horse at four, Work the Crowd won 14 of 22 career starts and earned $644,550. She was bred by Harris Farms in partnership with Anna Thomas, Marilyn Brazell and Norma Foster Maddy.
Event of the Year Plans On Hold
Although it was announced that Event of the Year has been retired after he injured his left knee while running fourth in the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap on May 1, plans are still on hold for the four-year-old son of Seattle Slew. Event of the Year is scheduled to enter stud at Golden Eagle Farm upon the completion of his racing career.
Event of the Year has remained at trainer Richard Mandella’s barn, where he will undergo more evaluation before a final decision is made on his career.
"Plans are to keep him there for a couple of weeks," said breeder-owner John Mabee in a Thoroughbred Times interview. "Then we’ll take some more x-rays and see about a prognosis."
Doff the Derby Dead
Doff the Derby, the 18-year-old dam of European champion Generous and four other stakes winners, was humanely destroyed at Coolmore Stud in Ireland on May 5 because of acute laminitis. The farm was able to save the mare’s last foal, an Entrepreneur colt that was born right before Doff the Derby was put down.
Sired by Preakness winner Master Derby, Doff the Derby was an unraced half-sister to $954,825-earner Trillion. She was sold in-foal to Jaklin Klugman at the 1985 CTBA winter mixed sale and was one of two broodmares that topped that auction at $82,000. Doff the Derby dropped a Jaklin Klugman filly at Riverside Thoroughbred Farm in California on June 8, 1984. That foal became Windy Triple K., a stakes-winner of $212,565.
Exported to Ireland in 1985, Doff the Derby in 1988 produced Generous, winner of the 1991 Epsom Derby, Irish Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. He was named champion three-year-old and Horse of the Year in Ireland and also topped the English and French free handicaps for three-year-olds over 11 furlongs. The mare’s other stakes winners include Wedding Bouquet (Ire), who captured graded stakes in Europe and North America; Irish 1,000 Guineas Trial Winner Strawberry Roan; and Osumi Tycoon, winner of Japan’s Yomiuri Milers Cup and Centaur Stakes.
She made international headlines once again when Satish Sanan purchased Generous’ full brother as a weanling for a world record 2,500,000 guineas ($4.4 million) at the 1997 Tattersalls November mixed sale in England. Now named Padua’s Pride, the colt is currently in training for his juvenile campaign.