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A McPeek At the Life of a Trainer
8/5/2010
Ken McPeek has played a lot of roles in the racing game: hot-walker, groom, trainer, bloodstock agent. Now, he can add equine safety advocate to his résumé.
McPeek was one of three trainers who served on the Racetrack Environment & Safe Training Practices panel at the third Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, held in June at Keeneland and coordinated and underwritten by The Jockey Club and Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.
He was asked to be on the panel by Ed Bowen, president of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, because, said McPeek, “I’ve always been pretty outspoken in those types of things.”
McPeek began his training career in the claiming game, eventually moving into bloodstock and developing yearlings to race. He believes that his experience at various levels of racing gives him a valuable perspective.
“I see all levels,” he said recently, “and I don’t believe that the Thoroughbred is more fragile than it was 25 years ago.
“I do think that using Lasix lowers the number of starts per horse per year pretty dramatically, because horses lose so much water weight when they’re on Lasix. They can’t recover as quickly.
“I don’t see how,” he said, “you can train horses on Lasix and race them on Lasix and get as many races a year out of them as you used to.”
Furosemide, known as Lasix, is a loop diuretic that can reduce the bleeding in a horse’s lungs that is the result of exertion. The medication has been in use in horses in the United States since the 1970s; New York was the last state to approve its use in horses, in 1995.
One of the side effects of the use of Lasix is dehydration, and McPeek believes that as long as horses train and run on Lasix, there will never be another Triple Crown winner. Horses can’t, he says, sustain for five weeks the level of racing necessary to win Triple Crown races when they’re dehydrated by the drug.
“To me,” he said, “[eliminating Lasix] is a no-brainer.”
Over the last five years, approximately three percent of McPeek’s starters have run without Lasix, despite his belief that 90 percent of horses running don’t need it.
“I use it to keep from getting fired sometimes,” he admitted. “I have owners who get upset if I don’t put a horse on it. They think that they’ll be at a disadvantage without it.”
Another suggestion that McPeek made at the Summit was to alter the current claiming rules, so that a claim is voided if the claimed horse doesn’t finish the race.
Changing the rules, he says, could help to save horses, and would support the gambler. According to him, the current rules disadvantage the gambler who bets horses dropping down because they “financially reward owners and trainers for starting unsound horses.”
McPeek recognizes that instituting such rules would require the cooperation of racing jurisdictions across the country, but he’s hopeful that racetrack management will take steps to do so.
Changing the claiming rules, he said, “is an easy one if you’re talking about the safety and welfare of the horse.”
Panel participants were given the opportunity to identify recommendations and objectives for follow-up, and McPeek’s suggestion about changing claiming regulations made the list of 2010 goals. Between now and the next Summit, in two years, a committee will explore how to implement this objective.
McPeek will have no further role in the process, beyond his participation in June. His role, he said, was to “just show up and talk.”
“I thought it was important [to participate]; I want it to be something that gets things done, as opposed to just talking about getting things done.”
McPeek is also hoping to get things done on the track at Saratoga this year.
He’s particularly hopeful about two Speightstown colts in his barn, both owned by Eugene Melnyk, both “very talented,” according to McPeek.
Moontown, a four-year-old, broke his maiden in his second start last year and went three-for-three in October and November. McPeek expected him to make his first start at Saratoga already, but the race didn’t fill. He’ll look for another spot for him here later in the meet.
Bridgetown, a three-year-old chestnut colt, won the Latham Stakes, here at Saratoga, most recently. He broke his maiden at Saratoga last summer by five and a quarter lengths before going on to finish second by less than a length in the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
In 2005, McPeek took a year off from training to work as a bloodstock agent and spend some time with his family. From claiming to stakes horses, from picking out yearlings to developing them, from walking the backstretch to taking center stage at industry events, McPeek embraces his many roles in racing.
“I love the game,” he said. “It’s a fun sport.”
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Few Better Than Team McPeek!!!
7/11/2010
Bloodstock agent Rory Callis sports an almost indecipherable poker face as he inspects a yearling prior to the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale of selected yearlings, which begins Tuesday in Lexington.
The filly has a muscular body, fairly correct front legs, and a good top line. Callis’ concentration level increases as he zeros in on her back legs and hocks.
He groans slightly, then draws a line through her number in his catalog.
“Can’t do that,” said Callis, a Los Angeles native who moved to Lexington 15 years ago for a career in horses.
Callis is part of trainer Ken McPeek’s auction inspection team.
“We are obsessive-compulsive about the hind leg,” McPeek said as his team breaks for lunch in the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion. “The hind leg makes the horse.”
That focus—and a willingness to forgive other flaws that scare some buyers away—sets McPeek apart. It also might be one of the secrets that has made him a savvy evaluator of sales horses.
McPeek has bought or recommended the purchase of more than two dozen graded stakes winners at public auction in North and South America. But what separates him from some of his peers is his ability to buy talented horses for relatively little money.
Graded stakes winners make up the top 1%-2% of all auction horses. Yet of the at least 25 graded winners that could be directly attributed to McPeek through auction records, 14 of them were bought for less than the sale average—some of them for considerably less.
Born in Arkansas on August 2, 1962, McPeek graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in business administration in 1984. He took out his trainer’s license in Kentucky in ’85.
“In the beginning, cheaper horses was all I had,” McPeek said. “I loved going to the races and paying attention to the stakes horses. They looked a lot different than mine did.”
The first time someone entrusted McPeek to go to an auction with their money was 1991. Roy Monroe turned McPeek loose at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale with $6,000.
McPeek went over budget, buying a Lord At War (Arg) filly named Warside for $8,500. She won two stakes, placed second or third in another six, and earned $185,409.
“A couple years later Mr. Monroe gave me a little more money,” McPeek said. “He sent me to the Keeneland September yearling sale with $200,000, and he said I could go to $25,000 on any colt. He told me, ‘Don’t go a penny over, and oh by the way, I want a Derby horse.’ ”
McPeek bought eight horses for Monroe, including a Tejano colt for $20,000. Named Tejano Run, he won the 1994 Breeders’ Futurity (G2) and Kentucky Cup Juvenile Stakes (G3) and finished second in the ‘95 Kentucky Derby (G1). Tejano Run retired with earnings of $1,166,842.
Another member of McPeek’s team is Dominic Brennan, an Irishman who came to the U.S. in 1983. Brennan managed Another Episode Farm in Ocala for 15 years. He now operates Kilbride Stables, specializing in breaking, training, and pinhooking from his Ocala base.
Brennan has been breaking McPeek’s horses since 1993, in addition to short-listing the sales for him.
“Kenny likes a big, good-looking horse,” Brennan said. “I leave as many on the list as I can and let him sort them out.
McPeek’s biggest auction coup came at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale, where he bought two-time Horse of the Year Curlin for $57,000.
The first time McPeek saw Curlin, the strapping Smart Strike yearling had a large, swollen left ankle.
“It was almost unsightly, but other than that he was a Greek god,” McPeek said.
Curlin had an OCD lesion and had undergone surgery, but the site had not completely healed. McPeek had two veterinarians look at Curlin.
“They both told me, ‘Give him 90 days and you’ll never know the OCD was there,’ ” McPeek recalled. “I can accept a flaw like that in the repository. I don’t accept many flaws on the throat. But a little flaw in the repository, that makes it easier for us to buy. I don’t believe in the perfect set of X-rays. If it looks like a runner, we’ll go.”
Like many other runners McPeek has taken a chance on, Curlin was not perfectly conformed in his front legs.
“The front legs are the last piece of the puzzle. There’s been a whole lot of good horses that weren’t made perfect up front,” McPeek said. “I’ve never seen many that had a bad hind leg. If they’ve got a good motor, they can overcome the front.”
Callis, who graduated from the Kentucky Horse Park’s equine program in 1996, gets full credit for one of the team’s latest successes. Callis bought the Cuvee colt Noble’s Promise as a weanling for $10,000 at the 2007 Keeneland November breeding stock sale for a partnership.
Noble’s Promise was small, but Callis liked his walk, hip, head, and balance. He also noted the colt had plenty of leg, another trait McPeek looks for.
“He was one of the first ten horses through the ring that morning, and nobody was there but me, literally,” Callis said. “I think one of the main things is to look at them all. We cover all the bases—look at every single horse in the sale, and that’s one of the things that has contributed to Kenny’s success.”
Trained by McPeek, Noble’s Promise won the 2009 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland Race Course and finished third in the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Santa Anita Park. He was by far the cheapest purchase in this year’s Kentucky Derby, in which he finished fifth.
“Rory finding Noble’s Promise has been a big deal, and that was all him,” McPeek said. “Rory and Dominic have done a great job for me for a long time.”
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McPeek Returns After Ascot Sojourn
6/22/2010
Trainer Ken McPeek was back in Kentucky yesterday
after a trip to England for the Royal
Ascot meet. McPeek sent three horses
across the pond for the prestigious
meeting. Noble’s Promise (Cuvee), fifth
in the GI Kentucky Derby, filled the
same spot against Canford Cliffs (Ire)
(Tagula {Ire}) in the G1 St. James’s
Palace S. last Tuesday. McPeek’s other
runners, both juveniles, finished third:
the filly Tiz My Time (Sharp Humor) in
Friday’s six-furlong G3 Albany S., and
the colt Casper’s Touch (Touch Gold)
in Saturday’s seven-furlong Listed
Chesham S. “It was in the 60s over
there and it was great for the horses,”
McPeek said after returning to a sweltering
Louisville. “All three horses are
doing well and will fly to New York on
Wednesday.”
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Observations from Ascot - It's about the Sport of it All!!
6/21/2010
Kentucky-based trainer Kenny McPeek brought three horses
across the Atlantic to run at Royal Ascot, but as the meeting reached
a conclusion, he seemed happy to go home with just one, his St.
James’s Palace Stakes (G1) fifth-place finisher Noble’s Promise.
After Casper’s Touch finished third in the Chesham Stakes on Saturday,
he said of the juvenile colt: “He’s professional and easy to handle,
and if somebody offered me the right amount of money we’d
entertain anything.”
He made a similar comment after filly Tiz My Time finished third
in Friday’s Albany Stakes (Eng-G3), and while no one has ever operated
a trade stand in the winner’s enclosure at Royal Ascot, none
of the bowler-hatted stewards step forward.
McPeek has been a fun fixture at this year’s meet, for he is civil
in defeat—some of his British counterparts should make note—and
it will be a pleasure if he returns next year. He plans to, and said: “If
I’ve got horses good enough, I’ll be back. You simply bring nice
horses and you go.”
Future targets are rarely given with McPeek’s clarity from behind
the drawbridge at Ballydoyle Stables, but Aidan O’Brien and the
team at Coolmore Stud are garrulous after Starspangledbanner won
the Golden Jubilee Stakes (Eng-G1).
“He would go by me in the morning when I’m sitting in the Jeep
and I’ve never seen anything go so fast,” O’Brien said. “Tom Curtis,
who times the gallops, had to go back and check them to see if the
GPS system was correct.”
Carl O’Callaghan’s Kinsale King completed
a 2010 Royal Ascot treble for U.S. stables in
this race, but it’s a three-timer of thirds, not
winners.
Eight years ago, this fifth and final day did
not exist, but a shuffle of races has extended,
not stretched, the occasion. Even minimalists
admit it works.
It has also saved red faces, for the royal rendezvous
used to run from Tuesday to Friday, while the Saturday was
a routine day’s racing with no queen. Embarrassment brimmed
among those unwitting males who arrived in tail coats and top hats,
unaware the dress code was informal.
It was becoming informal once more after the final race Saturday,
when the 76,554 paying customers (284,196 attended the entire jamboree)
began retracing their steps, and queues formed for taxis and
buses. Tired and emotional after a serious day’s people-watching
from the many bars, some women gave up the unequal struggle and
stepped out of their toe-squeezing high heels. Others slumped down
on the sidewalks or squatted in the dusty car parks, arm in arm with
tired friends.
Most had left cash with the bookmakers, but as McPeek said: “It’s
not all about the money, it’s about the sport of it all.”
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McPeek Filly Third in Albany Stakes at Ascot
6/18/2010
In Friday’s opener, Memory fended off a gritty effort from American-
based filly Tiz My Time in the Albany Stakes (Eng-G3) for twoyear-
old fillies.
A daughter of freshman sire Sharp Humor trained by Ken McPeek,
Tiz My Time set the pace in the field of 22 and rallied back when
she was caught with about a furlong remaining in the six-furlong
contest.
Memory edged Margot Did by a head and Tiz My Time finished
another 21⁄2 lengths back in third.
“I thought she would show up well and she did,” said McPeek,
who finished fifth in the St. James’s Palace Stakes (Eng-G1) on
Tuesday with Noble’s Promise. “Running her was more of a test to
see what type of fillies and colts I need for the future and what has
happened this week has given me a good feel for that.”
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McPeek shares thoughts on Noble's Promise and Kentucky Derby
4/29/2010
Ken McPeek, 47, who upset the 2002 Belmont Stakes with 70-1 shot Sarava and saddled 8-1 Tejano Run to finish second in the 1995 Kentucky Derby, is training Breeders' Futurity winner Noble's Promise for Saturday's 136th Run for the Roses. This week, he shares his thoughts on the horse and the race. (As told to Ed Fountaine.)
"I said before yesterday's post draw that I wanted two things: to be inside Dublin and inside Jackson Bend, because both horses have a history of veering to the right, [and I got what I wanted]."
"In the Arkansas Derby, I'm not sure Noble's Promise wasn't a bit intimidated by Dublin being on his inside, because he's such a big horse and my horse is medium to small. When you break, and a horse like that comes into you, your race could be lost at the gate.
And any time you can get an inside trip in the Kentucky Derby, you give yourself an advantage. If you watch the replay of Mine That Bird last year, with the magical holes that opened for him, you hope your horse gets that kind of trip."
"I certainly don't want to see Noble's Promise go wide on both turns, so I wanted to be inside the 12 post. So the 3 is perfect."
"There's two closers to the inside of us, so they're out of our way. He can run straight to the first turn, and I think it's our race for the taking. Hopefully he can go that far, and everything will go smoothly. I'm thrilled."
"We're not going to concern ourselves with the other horses. We're going to concern ourselves with our colt's running style, which is going to be a stalker. He'll lay off the pace no problem."
"In 2002, when I had Harlan's Holiday (the 6-1 favorite), we made a real bad tactical error and tried to predict the pace. It looked like there were six speed horses. It's kind of like playing poker: If you think everybody's holding aces and you fold, next thing you know, they don't have anything. So you don't necessarily try to guess what everybody's holding."
"The thought that year was, there was going to be speed, and Edgar Prado took back -- the reason was complicated -- but then War Emblem went wire-to-wire because the speed duel everyone expected never unfolded. So this time, we're not going to try to predict the pace."
"I think the fact that Noble's Promise isn't a big horse is a positive. Because he's a horse that can negotiate quickly through whatever holes open or close."
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Trainer Ken McPeek knows pressure situations, and Kentucky Derby is anything but!
4/28/2010
It was enough to make a grown man cry. They had given him this horse that immediately had proven he wanted to run. He came out of the starting gate seven times and hit the board each try.
And then he coughed.
When a promising thoroughbred horse coughs, his trainer sneezes. When that horse is a 3-year old with Kentucky Derby written all over his future, his trainer runs a fever.
The road that leads to the Derby is a minefield covered with the hoof prints of the ghosts of too many near misses whose names fade into obscurity. Noble’s Promise has earned $726,000 and now down in Arkansas he had become a four-legged brother to every red-eyed sniffling man and woman who ever dreaded the onset of hay fever season.
"We were trying to use the Oaklawn Derby as his big stepping stone," Ken McPeek, his trainer, recalled Tuesday, "and in the mornings the pollen was so thick you see the grass turn color. Noble’s Promise ran fifth. He was bumped and stepped on at the start."
The race was seconds old and he was bleeding from his coronet band and his suspensory. He moved forward with all the stability of a drunk on an escalator.
And when it was over, he coughed. It was a lung infection.
McPeek did not panic.
Not after the basic training that had shaped him in the Kentucky hardboots’ minor league at Ellis Park over in Henderson or Turfway Park in the teeth of a January snowstorm in Florence. It was a classroom where the races could be too long and the horses too short.
He never forgot that. When he finally had the favorite in the Kentucky Derby (2002), a colt named Harlan’s Holiday, he told a guy when asked about Derby pressure:
"This isn’t pressure at all. Pressure is having 15 bad horses in a month without a winner at Turfway and an owner who refuses to pay you. Pressure is not knowing where enough money is gonna come from for you to make the Friday payroll and you’ve got help standing around with their hands out and their pockets empty."
"The Kentucky Derby isn’t pressure. The Kentucky Derby is where you want to be."
Yes, he has been here before Harlan’s Holiday — in 1995 with Tejano Run, which surprised everyone (possibly even including McPeek) by finishing second, and in 2000 with Deputy Warlock, a 10th-place finisher who couldn’t have lived up to his name if he had Harry Potter on his back.
A long time ago, he learned the real meaning of perspective in a personal purgatory where win, place and show were simply ripples on a flood tide that threatened to engulf everything he had, where hope and fear walked lockstep into his life and neither would blink, where the best of times and the worst of times blurred together until they became a test of times.
Suddenly, in silent horror, Ken and his wife Sue were alone in the world, clinging desperately to what was important in their lives — each other. Theirs had been a magnificently shared life. The common denominator was the horses. She had been a groom, a shed row foreman, a handler of colts at the sales and an equine photographer. She was pregnant with their first child.
And then they found the cancer.
It was on the roof of her mouth.
There were no options.
First they took the child by cesarean section, a beautiful baby whom they named Jena. That enabled them to begin what the doctors called an aggressive course of chemotherapy.
You survive that and you learn what’s important.
On Monday they scoped Noble’s Promise after his final work. He was clear and the Derby became a "go". So here is Ken McPeek, being where he wants to be and doing what he wants to do.
From the time he was 7 and went to his first horse race at Churchill Downs with his dad, horses had been the focal point of McPeek’s world. In a dorm at the University of Kentucky on the night he graduated, he and his roommate sat and drank, talked and drank, planned and drank, all through the night.
“I don’t know what to do for a living.” he said.
“What do you like?” the guy replied.
“Horses. I love horses. I want to work with horses.”
“Good. So go. I’m going to bed.”
“We were pretty drunk,” McPeek said. “He went to sleep. I walked out the door, drove over to Keeneland. I got there at 5 a.m. An hour later, I was hired as a hot walker."
He had gone up to New York a year earlier on a Wall Street internship, which was spent more at the races than with his assignment at Prudential Securities.
“My girlfriend said to me that all I cared about was the darned horses," he said. “Uh, anybody know where she is now?”
Now as we count down to Derby Day, McPeek likes his chances. His horse is healthy. He has done all he can do to get him ready. A long time ago, he learned you can’t control the other horses in the race. Hell, it’s hard enough to control your own.
With a horseman’s total perspective he tells you:
"I don’t worry about what other horses are doing, I worry about mine. I think he has a great shot.”
Win or lose, that’s all any trainer can ask
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Orchestrator Engineers Bourbonette Oaks Win!!
4/27/2010
Koolmen Racing Stable’s Orchestrator determinedly held off Age of Humor after a long stretch duel, prevailing by a neck under Alex Solis to take the $125,000 Bourbonette Oaks (gr. III) March 27 at Turfway Park.
Orchestrator and Age of Humor hooked up at the top of the lane in the one-mile Bourbonette after wearing down pacesetter Helen Belen and were heads apart for most of the final furlong. But Orchestrator, a 3-year-old filly by Bernstein, always held a narrow advantage and stubbornly kept Age of Humor and Russell Baze at bay. Midway Holiday rallied to get third under Victor Lebron.
The final time on Polytrack was 1:38.29.
Trained by Ken McPeek, Orchestrator finished off the board in both career stakes efforts entering the Bourbonette, including a sixth-place finish in the China Doll Feb. 20 on the Santa Anita turf in her season debut. The dark bay filly broke her maiden on the Keeneland Polytrack last fall, then scored a first level allowance victory on turf during the same meet.
“She was very game today. She didn’t want to get beat," Solis said. "I just wanted to make sure she stayed in front. She needed that last race. It made the difference today.”
Bred in Kentucky by Bryant Prentice III, Orchestrator is out of the Temperence Hill mare Lucky Socks. She has now earned $155,496 from eight starts.
Orchestrator was purchased for $75,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s selected sale of 2-year-olds in training in 2009.
“She ran super," McPeek said. "Alex did a great job getting her out of the gate. She’s been pretty flawless on the Poly up to now. In California, we had a hard time finding a race for her, so we nominated her here. I’m not sure about the Kentucky Oaks. I’d prefer to run her back on synthetic somewhere.”
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My Baby Baby Wins Fairway for Fun!!
4/27/2010
My Baby Baby bided her time early in the $50,000 Fairway Fun Stakes Saturday at Turfway Park, and the patient strategy left her with just enough to finish a neck ahead of the usual strong closing run of Danzon. Irish Ridge was another 3 1/4 lengths back in third.
With jockey Alex Solis's tight rein holding her two to three lengths off the lead, My Baby Baby tracked the sensible :25.24 and :49.21 pace set by Grande Annee to the half-mile point. The stalking Irish Ridge took over the lead approaching the three-quarter mark, but My Baby Baby was on the move by then and had the lead by a comfortable 2 1/2 lengths a furlong from home. Under an urgent hand ride by Solis, she lasted to the wire as Danzon cut quickly into her margin. Final time for the Fairway Fun, a 1 1/16-mile race for older fillies and mares, was 1:44.72.
The win was the second on the day for Solis and trainer Ken McPeek, who teamed up earlier to win the Bourbonette Oaks with Orchestrator.
On the strength of an impressive third-place finish in the Grade II Santa Maria Handicap behind St Trinians and Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1) winner Life is Sweet, My Baby Baby was the heavy favorite at 3-5.
"She had been running against some really good mares out in California," said McPeek, "and we had been thinking about bringing her back home to get a stakes win. We looked for a spot for a while and this race seemed ideal. We'll think about going to Keeneland for the Doubledogdare next."
"She had an incredible trip," said Solis. "She's a very special horse, so professional. In her last race (the Santa Maria), I really thought we were going to get there at the quarter pole, but she was just up against two monsters. She won very easy today."
Noting the diminishing margin, McPeek said, "Alex didn't want to hit her there at the end because she was running so hard on her own, and I'm glad he didn't."
My Baby Baby's win pushed her record to an impressive five wins, six seconds, and four thirds in 20 career starts, primarily in stakes company. She has earned $328,126 for owners Magdalena Racing LLC, et. al. and was bred in Kentucky by E. H. Beau Lane III. Now five years old, she is by Bernstein out of the Wavering Monarch mare Sarah Darling.
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Striking Dancer Gains First Stakes Victory In La Canada
2/14/2010
After having raced predominantly on turf, Striking Dancer stormed home under jockey Alex Solis Sunday to capture the Grade II, $150,000 La Canada Stakes for 4-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles over Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride synthetic surface and gain her first stakes victory in her 11th career start.
Dismissed at 20-1 on the morning line and sent off at 13-1 in the field of 11, the daughter of Smart Strike ran past another longshot, 17-1 Gripsholm Castle to win by 1 ˝ lengths with 6-1 Floating Heart another half-length back in third. The winning time was 1:48.48.
Stardom Bound, the 2-1 favorite, wound up a well-beaten seventh while being ridden by 2009 Eclipse Award-winning jockey Julien Leparoux for the first time. As a result, the champion juvenile filly of 2008 remained winless in four starts since being purchased by IEAH Stables and partners for $5.7 million last March.
Striking Dancer was making her second start at Santa Anita for Eastern-based trainer Kenny McPeek. In her previous competition over turf on Jan. 8, she finished seventh in an optional claimer, but encountered considerable trouble before ending up within 2 ľ lengths of the winner, General Consensus.
Solis, who engineered Sunday’s triumph while aboard Striking Dancer for the first time, said. “The trainer (McPeek) called me and just told me, ‘I trust you. Just use your own judgment.’
“I had an awesome trip. I was able to save ground around the first turn. When we got to the five-eighths, I moved out where I had a good position and I had some options. She’s an awesome filly, and she beat a nice group of horses today.”
Striking Dancer rewarded her backers with payoffs of $28.60, $11.20 and $6.40. Gripsholm Castle, ridden by Victor Espinoza, paid $16.60 and $10.40. Floating Heart, with Joe Talamo aboard, paid $5.40 to show. The winning $1 trifecta was worth $1,557.30.
With McPeek traveling in South America, assistant Jordan Blair saddled Striking Dancer. “It’s not a surprise,” he said of the outcome. “This filly trains well on every surface she’s been on, dirt, turf, synthetic. She’s been a bad-luck filly. She’s had a lot of bad, troubled trips through nobody’s fault. But every time she gets clear, she wins, and she wins impressively every time she wins. We knew she had it in her, and she showed it today.”
Owned by Steve Kaplan of Cincinnati who races as Stevestan Stables, Striking Dancer earned $90,000 while becoming a graded stakes winner. The payday raised the Kentucky-bred chestnut’s career total to $206,097 from a 4-1-3 record.
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MCPEEK SOPHS ARRIVE AT GULFSTREAM
1/29/2010
Noble's Promise (Cuvee) and Beautician (Dehere)
arrived at trainer Ken McPeek's barn at Gulfstream Tuesday from California. Noble's Promise, winner of last year's Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders' Futurity and third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, ended his juvenile campaign with a runner-up effort behind champion Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike) in the Dec. 19 Grade 1 CashCall Futurity.
Beautician was second in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and Grade 1 Spinaway S. last season. She was last in the Dec. 20 Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet S.
"They're both back to galloping and could breeze for the first time early in February", McPeek said Wednesday afternoon. "I don't have anything in particular planned for either one just yet".
(Thoroughbred Daily News, January 29, 2010)
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House of Grace Impressive in Jessamine Stakes win
10/16/2009
Magdalena Racing’s House of Grace remained unbeaten in two career starts on Thursday as she made a determined bid in the stretch and lunged at the wire to capture the $150,000 JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes on the main track at Keeneland Race Course.
Moved from the turf course because of heavy overnight rains, the bay Limehouse filly covered 1 1/16 miles on the synthetic Polytrack surface in 1:44.32 to win by a nose over Smart Seattle.
The race originally was scheduled to be a Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but the automatic bid was not in effect when the race was taken off the turf.
Racing along the rail early, House of Grace angled out in the stretch under jockey Mike Luzzi and wore down Smart Seattle for the narrow victory. Hatheer, the 2.20-to-1 favorite in the field of nine, finished another 3Ľ lengths back in third.
House of Grace won her only previous start, a 1 1/16-mile turf race at Saratoga Race Course in August.
Trainer Ken McPeek said House of Grace “definitely” will run in the Breeders’ Cup.
“We’d like to get back to the grass,” McPeek said. “I think she’s better on the turf. It’s just a great situation.”
(Thoroughbred Times, October 15, 2009)
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Noble’s Promise continues rise in Breeders’ Futurity
10/12/2009
by Myra Lewyn (Thoroughbred Times) --
An outsider in the wagering at 12.90-to-1 odds, Noble’s Promise capably handled a big step up in class when he easily held back a determined rally from Aikenite to land the $500,000 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity (G1) on Saturday at Keeneland Race Course.
Noble’s Promise scored by a half-length in his first start around two turns and covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.12 on the synthetic Polytrack surface while earning a place in the starting gate for the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at the same distance via the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” series.
The bay colt broke his maiden by 2˝ lengths in a 5˝-furlong turf race at Ellis Park on September 5 after a layoff of more than more four months and went directly to stakes competition three weeks later, scoring a 3Ľ-length triumph in the Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial Juvenile Stakes on September 26 on the synthetic Tapeta Footings surface at Presque Isle Downs. The sixth wagering choice on Saturday, he continued his ascent up the class ladder.
With Willie Martinez at the reins, Noble’s Promise raced in fifth through the opening quarter then moved up to third, a length behind pacesetter Soundman, who clocked a half-mile in :47.73 while pursued by maiden winner No Shenanigans.
No Shenanigans bid for command nearing the far turn as Soundman began to fade. He was challenged midway through the turn by Noble’s Promise, who had moved up four wide . The bay colt shook loose of No Shenanigans, opened a 2˝-length advantage in early stretch, and held on to the lead to the finish line.
Aikenite, third in the Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes (G1) on September 7 at Saratoga Race Course, launched his rally from three furlongs out and closed determinedly but could not get to the winner, who will head to the Breeders’ Cup.
Roman Emperor, sent off at 22.20-to-1 odds, finished another three lengths back in third. Backtalk, the 3.70-to-1 favorite, finished eighth.
Saturday was a banner day at Keeneland Race Course for Noble Promise’s breeders, Charles Kidder and Nancy Cole of Corner Woods Farm. The Lexington-based veterinarians also bred George Strawbridge’s Grade 1 winner Informed Decision, who won the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) two races earlier at the Lexington track. Kidder and Cole bred Noble’s Promise along with their son Ben Kidder.
Trained by Ken McPeek for owner Chasing Dreams Racing 2008, Noble’s Promise is the first graded stakes winner for Cuvee, who stands at Gainesway in Lexington. Out of the placed Clever Trick mare The Devil’s Trick, he has three wins and one second in four career starts and earnings of $385,500.
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Bridgetown stays hot with Summer Stakes win
9/20/2009
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/racing-news/2009/September/19/Bridgetown-stays-hot-with-Summer-Stakes-win.aspx
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Best Lass pulls away in Prairie Meadows Oaks
9/20/2009
http://www.drf.com/news/article/107434.html
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Redreamit Coasts to Easy Win In Twin Lights Stakes
9/7/2009
http://monmouthpark.com/news.aspx?id=2430
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Bold Start Gets His Graded Stakes
6/2/2009
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/51020/aristides-bold-start-gets-his-graded-stakes?&utm_source=RacingRecapNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20090601
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McPeek Saddles 1,000th winner at Churchill
5/25/2009
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/racing-news/2009/May/25/McPeek-saddle-1000th-career-winner-at-Churchill-Downs.aspx
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War Kill wins duel in Beaumont Upset
4/8/2009
http://drf.com/news/article/102832.html
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Old Man Buck Rocks (turf) Cradle
9/4/2007
It's McPeek's third win and Ouzts' first:
By Jennie Rees
CINCINNATI -- The Miller Lite Cradle Stakes was run on grass yesterday for the first time. But the outcome had a familiar ring with Louisville trainer Kenny McPeek taking River Downs' marquee race for a record third time as Old Man Buck defeated Cherokee Triangle by a length.
It was a popular result as 53-year-old jockey Perry Ouzts, River Downs' career wins leader, captured the $200,000, closing-day stakes for 2-year-olds for the first time. It was the richest victory ever for Ouzts, who two weeks ago gained his 5,000th win.
"I don't know how else to say it, but it feels great," said Ouzts, who was sidelined 10 months last year with a fractured forearm and five fractured vertebrae. "This is a good colt."
McPeek won the 1 1/16-mile Cradle in 1999 with Deputy Warlock and in 2001 with Harlan's Holiday. He also has three runner-up finishes in the race.
"We always point for this race," McPeek said. "It's a great city, a lot of good people and a good time of year. I like running 2-year-olds long, and this really fits our program."
It also gave Lawrence Carroll of Virginia his biggest triumph in two years of owning horses.
"When I decided to get real horses, I found Kenny," said Carroll, who teamed with McPeek to finish third in last year's Cradle with Bold Start. "We've had a lot of good seconds and thirds. This one I really wanted because it was the first stakes I ever ran in with Bold Start. We went off (as the) favorite then and to be honest were disappointed. But we made up for it today. I just feel great for Perry Ouzts."
Old Man Buck broke on top but relaxed beautifully in fourth under Ouzts, sweeping to the leaders on the second turn and finishing strongly through the stretch to hold off second-choice Cherokee Triangle.
The 2-1 favorite covered the distance over firm turf in 1:42.40 and paid $6 to win. It was another 3 1/2 lengths back to Caberneigh in the field of 10.
With the creation of the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, River Downs opted to move the Cradle to grass after 30 years, hoping to fill a niche.
McPeek, who bought Old Man Buck for $13,000 at Keeneland's September sale last year, said the Juvenile Turf or Juvenile on dirt will be the target.
Trainer Mike Maker said the Juvenile Turf is the objective for Cherokee Triangle.
The two colts could meet again in Turfway's Grade III Kentucky Cup Juvenile over Polytrack on Sept. 29.
Old Man Buck, a son of Hold That Tiger, is 2-0-1 in four starts, earning $137,050. He won River Downs' allowance prep, in which Cherokee Triangle finished third.
"He's taking the next step, and that's all you can ask of him," McPeek said.
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On The Way Back to McPeek Form: Kenny's Leaf Looms Large for Travers
8/17/2007
BY SHERRY ROSS -
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER-
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Super-trainers such as Steve Asmussen and Todd Pletcher make it look so easy, guiding the careers of hundreds of horses and scores of employees from coast to coast. Kenny McPeek found the personal cost too high. After stepping away from the training game for half a year to focus on his family, McPeek is slowly rebuilding his business.
"I remember the day I made the decision, I woke up and I told (his wife, Sue), 'I've created Godzilla and I have to feed him every day, and I don't like this,'" McPeek, 45, said. "I had gotten disconnected from the horses, which is the source of what we do. When you're managing multiple divisions ... some guys are content doing it. I learned it wasn't for me."
At his peak in 2005, McPeek said he had more than 150 horses in training at four different sites. The stress was putting a strain on his marriage to Sue, a cancer survivor, and left him little time for their young daughter, Jenna. Additionally, his mother was diagnosed with a debilitating illness, which she is still fighting.
McPeek worked as a bloodstock agent last year after dispersing his horses, many of them to his former top assistant Helen Pitts. One of the horses he selected out of a sale for Midnight Cry Stable was a $57,000 yearling named Curlin. A share in the colt was sold for a reported $3 million after his smashing maiden debut, and he went on to win the Preakness.
McPeek decided late last spring to get back into training, a job he found he missed, but he is doing so on a reduced scale. Of about 70 total horses (including babies still on the new McPeek farm in Kentucky), he has 10 here at Saratoga. Because he knew he would have trouble getting stalls, he bought a private barn not far from the Nelson Avenue stable gate.
Best known for his upset win with Sarava at 70-1 in the 2002 Belmont, McPeek is aiming for another stunner in the $1 million Travers on Aug. 25 with the lightly raced Loose Leaf, who posted a win here on Aug. 5 in the $80,000 Lemon Drop Kid. The 3-year-old colt has been a new horse after undergoing throat surgery over the winter.
"I think at the worst he's going to get a check," McPeek said after watching Loose Leaf gallop yesterday morning. "If it's a short field, the owners don't have anything to lose and all to gain. If we win the race, we're heroes. If we lose the race, we weren't supposed to win it anyway."
Small as the field is expected to be, it will be headed by Kentucky Derby and Jim Dandy winner Street Sense, who worked five furlongs yesterday in :59.68. Loose Leaf is scheduled for his final Travers prep on Saturday.
In addition to Loose Leaf's win, McPeek has two thirds in the meet and was second by less than a length in yesterday's Adirondack with A to the Croft out of only nine starters.
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Curlin Just the Latest of McPeek's Thrifty Finds
5/27/2007
By Cliff Guilliams
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Like most horse stories, the freaky tale of Curlin winning last week's Preakness Stakes had to start somewhere.
For Curlin, it started at Keeneland's 2005 September yearling sale when trainer-bloodstock agent extraordinaire Kenny McPeek raised his hand and signed the ticket on the son of Smart Strike for $57,000.
In today's game, that's peanuts. But that's McPeek. At a spry 44, he has forged a worldwide reputation as a guy who can buy you a top horse without spending a fortune. Curlin joins a list of modest purchases who made it big, including Tejano Run, She's a Devil Due, Take Charge Lady, Einstein, Sarava, Sweet Talker, Prince Arch, Hard Buck (BRZ) and Repent.
I've never had time to travel stall to stall inspecting yearlings with McPeek, or sit with him at a sale. But I've spent lots of mornings at his barn, perused past performances, talked race strategy and gave him a few pointers when he made an attempt two years ago to buy Ellis Park. His formula for each is solid.
Curlin was forecast to sell for about $300,000. McPeek bought the colt cheap because he'd had an OCD lesion removed from his left ankle as a weanling. That dissuaded any pinhookers who train them for a few months and resell at a profit. "He had it all," said McPeek. "Hips, legs, length, girth. Everything but a real attractive head. People trying to turn a horse quickly wouldn't touch him with that ugly ankle. I gambled. That's what I do. I gamble where some won't."
McPeek sent the colt to the Lexington farm of Shirley Cunningham, one of Curlin's original owners along with Bill Gallion. They vacillated for several days before agreeing to keep him. "Could have sold him elsewhere. They got lucky and finally said OK."
At that time, McPeek had cut back his training operation in order to complete construction on a base in Lexington and do bloodstock work. Curlin and the rest of his horses went to a former assistant trainer, Helen Pitts. She trained Curlin through his maiden victory before he was sold for megabucks to a syndicate of owners.
"When I returned full time, Curlin had yet to start, but he was the one horse I wanted them to bring back to my barn to train. I politicked hard," said McPeek. "But they'd promised the horses to Helen. She did a fine job for them. Me personally, I got nothing out of it."
McPeek is the ultimate competitor. He can't reveal the exact manner in which he measures a yearling. But it starts with looking at offspring of young, normally unproven sires with "long hind legs which help going a route of ground." Fast 2-year-olds aren't part of his game, and many owners lack needed patience.
He has nothing but praise and "I told you so" for Curlin, who bucked shins twice and never started at 2.
How McPeek ultimately was treated is another story. Realizing that what comes around always goes around in this business, he says, "I've had shots at the big bull's-eye (Triple Crown races). Hit all around it. One of these days I'm going to nail it dead center. Hopefully it will be with a horse for a client that's deserving, like Ray Cottrell or one of those kind of guys who'll stand by you come hell or high water."
The Preakness is a totally different environment from the Kentucky Derby. In the Triple Crown's middle jewel, Curlin stumbled at the start and made a tremendous move on the turn. Despite failing to perfectly negotiate the stretch turn, he wore down Street Sense in race record-equalling time (1:53 2/5). For the lightly raced winner of four races during five months of live combat, it was an amazing effort.
Was it the greatest of all time? No. The greatest finish? No. The greatest horses? No. Would it have happened had McPeek not bought Curlin as a weanling? No.
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Crafty Curlin
5/26/2007
Crafty Curlin
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Blemish Made Curlin a Yearling Bargain
5/26/2007
By FRANK MITCHELL, Daily Racing Form
LEXINGTON, Ky. - After his victory in the Preakness Stakes, Curlin filled the eye of race watchers and television viewers around the country as a grand specimen of the Thoroughbred racehorse. Not only is the son of Smart Strike a game and talented colt, but the blaze-faced chestnut is a big, very robust, and handsome animal who seems to improve with each race.
At this pinnacle of his young career, he has a nearly spotless racing record and a future of great promise. At the sales in 2005, however, many yearling inspectors marked the future classic winner off their lists because of a minor veterinary concern.
So Curlin's success illustrates that a good-looking, well-balanced, athletic yearling should not be written off as a suitable prospect because of a minor blemish or two. While even Curlin had one, the man who saw the promise in the colt, despite a minor ding, was trainer Ken McPeek, who found in Curlin a colt with all sorts of athletic potential.
Bred in Kentucky by the Fares Farm of Lebanese politician and businessman Issam Fares, Curlin, like most of the Fares Farm homebreds, was consigned to the Keeneland September yearling sale, selling through Eaton Sales, agent, in 2005.
There McPeek acquired the colt as agent for Midnight Cry Stable for the pittance of $57,000.
"Curlin had a great hip and balance, a great presence," McPeek said. "Without the vet issue, he brings $200,000 to $300,000. So the buyers were able to get him for tremendous value for the level of potential he had.
"He was a very big, strong, serious horse - just a tremendous athlete. He wasn't for every buyer because he did not have the prettiest head, was not totally perfect in front.
"There was a note on him in the repository," he added, referring to the X-ray and veterinary information on yearlings, "and that put a lot of pinhookers off the horse. My vet felt that it would be fine with time, and we took a shot with him."
Taking that shot has paid enormous dividends to McPeek's client, Midnight Cry Stable, who not only got a Preakness winner but also sold a majority interest in the colt months ago for more than $3 million.
The veterinary comments on the yearling Curlin concerned his left front ankle.
In the long preparation to be a commercial yearling, Curlin had acquired a calcium deposit on that ankle that significantly diminished his value at the sales.
Shannon White, general manager for Fares Farm, explained that Curlin "was always about 10 percent above average for weight and height in his crop of foals. We weigh our foals monthly to keep track of their development, and he was one of our nicest."
As a rugged and robustly made young colt, however, Curlin began to bow out at the knees and turn in at the ankles, faults that are severely penalized by yearling buyers.
"He toed in badly in the left front ankle," White said, "and to correct that we had a transphyseal bridge put in place, and after it has been in place more than 30 days, you can have some calcification, which was the case with Curlin. The procedure was done at about 60 days of age, with one screw above the growth plate, one below the growth plate, and a wire that applied torque on that side of his ankle."
This procedure was done by Dr. Rolf Embertson at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital on the recommendation of Dr. Debbie Spike-Pierce, who does the vet work for Fares Farm.
This is a relatively common procedure, and is done to present buyers with yearlings that are expected to be sounder and more raceable.
The procedure with Curlin worked as planned, but there was the complication of calcification on the ankle.
"Despite our best efforts with after-care and sales prep, he carried the bump [from calcification] with him to the September sale," White said. "Naturally we were disappointed he didn't bring more at the sales, but he did have a blemish on his left front ankle."
Although the blemish cost the breeder at the sales, it doesn't seem to have slowed down Curlin one bit.
After Curlin won his debut impressively, Stonestreet Stables, Padua Stables, and George Bolton bought a majority interest in the colt and transferred him to trainer Steve Asmussen.
Curlin is the fifth foal out of his dam, the Deputy Minister mare Sheriff's Deputy. She has not had the most serene career as a broodmare. Her third foal, a half-sister to Curlin, died at 3, and the mare was barren the year after she produced the Preakness winner.
Then in 2006, the mare's filly by Medaglia d'Oro died as a foal.
On the positive side, Sheriff's Deputy has a good-looking and progressive filly at her side by Horse of the Year Saint Liam. This is one of the foals in the only crop by Saint Liam, who unfortunately died last summer as the result of a paddock accident.
Sheriff's Deputy was bred once to Curlin's sire, Smart Strike, after foaling this spring. She is not in foal, and will probably be given the year off.
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Curlin Camp a Crowded Place
5/26/2007
Curlin Camp a Crowded Place
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Downsized McPeeks Think Roses
3/9/2007
Downsized McPeeks Think Roses
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Cottrell Hopes His Colt is the Word on Derby Day
3/8/2007
By Jennie Rees
A-well-a, everybody's heard about the bird.
B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word.
And-a-well-a if you haven't heard, Ray Cottrell hopes you will soon. Like Saturday.
That's when the Brandenburg car dealer's 3-year-old colt Birdbirdistheword -- whose name is derived from the 1963 song "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen -- makes his first start of 2007 in the $600,000, Grade II Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds.
Birdbirdistheword is one of the richest horses on the Kentucky Derby trail, having captured the $1 million Delta Jackpot on Dec. 1 in his last foray into Louisiana, where he also won Louisiana Downs' Harrah's Juvenile on the turf. That was the first stakes victory for Kenny McPeek since he returned from a year-long hiatus from training.
To McPeek and Cottrell's family and friends, Birdbirdistheword is fitting payoff for not only Cottrell's 20 years of owning horses but for the man's lifetime of generosity.
"He's a guy who has put a lot of energy and passion into horse racing in the state of Kentucky," said the Louisville-based McPeek, who has trained for Cottrell for 18 years. "There isn't anybody who deserves it much more."
For years, Cottrell's main racing game was claiming horses, though he did have long-shot Kentucky Derby starters in Fighting Fantasy (last in 1990 after leading at the quarter pole) and Wilder Than Ever (15th of 16 in 1991). In Birdbirdistheword, McPeek believes Cottrell has a legitimate classic contender. Indeed, McPeek said the Pure Prize colt could be better than the Louisiana Derby winner (Repent) or Florida Derby and Blue Grass winner (Harlan's Holiday) he trained for other clients.
"That's what you always hope for, especially with Churchill my home track," Cottrell said. "If I could get a horse they allow me to put in the Derby, that would be a great feeling. It would be the greatest thing in the world to win it. But you just have to hope for that."
Cottrell knows about keeping hope. He grew up more or less a street kid in Richmond, Va. It is family legend how as a child Cottrell walked across town to get home because he was one penny shy of bus fare.
"He swore to himself that he would never be penniless again," said daughter-in-law Karen Cottrell, wife of Ray Jr., who works with his father at Ray's Ford. "… He's just an awesome person, and we're so excited that he might have the opportunity to have a horse run in the Kentucky Derby and do well."
Cottrell enlisted in the Army at 16 and served in both the Korea and Vietnam wars. The latter is the genesis of Birdbirdistheword's name. The helicopters that brought soldiers to and from combat were called the birds, and Cottrell said sometimes the pilots would have "Surfin' Bird" blasting as they landed.
"That was the greatest thing to see them fly in to pick you up and get you back someplace safe," he said. "When I got this horse and saw how well the choppers are doing in Iraq, the first thing that popped in my mind was to name this horse after the chopper pilots."
Ray Jr. said his dad's specialty in the military was selecting the misfits and troublemakers with whom no one else tried to or could succeed.
"He always reached out to somebody that he could try to help," he said. "He's done that in the car business as well. We've had people working here over the years that probably wouldn't have been hired anywhere else, and they've done an excellent job."
The Army took Cottrell to Fort Knox, and after retiring as a command sergeant major, he opened his first dealership in 1979.
"He's always taken the path of most resistance," Ray Jr. said. "When we started the car dealership in Brandenburg, interest rates I think were 19 percent and got up to 21 percent. I'd say we were probably the only one in the country who opened a dealership during that time."
Indeed, the elder Cottrell said, "The three toughest things you can do in your life is one, being in the military 24 years and fighting in the Korean War when you're 16. The second-toughest thing you can do is be a car dealer. The next thing is the horse business. Combine the three, and you're lucky you've lived through it."
Cottrell had a serious heart attack two years ago, but he continues to work seven days a week. The only bad part of racing is that his family worries he'll get too excited. Fortunately, daughter Brenda Tyree of Lexington and Karen Cottrell are nurses who flank Cottrell during a race.
"I'm glad he's got an implanted defibulator," Ray Jr. said. "But he lives life like every day is his last. He doesn't let it hold him back at all."
Tyree calls Bird excellent medicine for her dad.
"When he first had a heart attack, people would ask my mom (Lovell), 'Why don't you make Ray rest? Why don't you make him stay at home?' " she said. "That would kill him faster than anything. He has to keep busy. He has to have a challenge. And he loves to wheel and deal."
Cottrell has never spent a lot of money on buying yearlings. In fact, at $32,000, Birdbirdistheword was over budget. But McPeek has made a career of buying inexpensive horses who turn into stakes winners.
"I was just hoping maybe to win a few races," Cottrell said. "And after he went down to Louisiana to win his first stakes race, that's when I really started getting excited that he had a better future than I thought he might."
In the 11/16-mile Louisiana Derby, Birdbirdistheword will face his toughest competition since he finished fourth in Keeneland's Grade I Breeders' Futurity behind Great Hunter, Circular Quay and Street Sense -- who, in reverse order, completed the trifecta in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. The Bird came out of the Breeders' Futurity with a significant lung infection.
With the Breeders' Cup out, the plan became the Delta Jackpot. That day, Birdbirdistheword and rider Robby Albarado blasted from far back to the lead on the far turn to give Cottrell his first million-dollar triumph.
"When he came around to the backside, I said to myself, 'Oh, man, I just don't think he can make up the distance,' " Cottrell said. "Before he hit the top of the turn he started moving. I never saw a horse move that quick. He really shocked me."
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McPeek Comes Full Circle
3/7/2007
By MARCUS HERSH
It was some 20 years ago that Ray Cottrell, a gravelly voiced car dealer in Brandenburg, Ky., put his faith - to say nothing of his hard-earned capital - in the hands of a young, unproven Kentucky horseman named Ken McPeek. There are far worse investment strategies.
McPeek, 44, has made a name for himself not just as a trainer, but as a judge of young horseflesh, demonstrating over and over the ability to discern in the frame and carriage of a raw young equine body the stuff of a good racehorse. Among the gems he has found at auction for less than a princely sum include Tejano Run, who cost $20,000, finished second in the Kentucky Derby, and earned more than $1.1 million; She's a Devil Due, purchase price $30,000, career earnings of almost $534,000; and the Cottrell-owned Prince Arch, bought for $37,000, retired with almost $610,000 in purse money.
Add to that list Birdbirdistheword, for whom Cottrell paid $32,000 at a Florida yearling auction in August 2005. "I'm a small budget guy," Cottrell said. "Birdbird - that was about $2,000 over my budget."
Call it money well spent. Thanks to his win last December in the $1 million Delta Jackpot, Birdbirdistheword already has earned more than $702,000. His connections are hoping for more. Birdbirdistheword makes his 3-year-old debut on Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Louisiana Derby, and if things go as planned, the colt will take McPeek back to the Kentucky Derby for the first time since 2002, Cottrell for the first time since 1991, when his horse Wilder Than Ever finished 15th. Fighting Fantasy, Cottrell's first good horse, had finished 15th the year before.
Here's the thing with McPeek: At that auction in the summer of 2005, he was on hiatus from life as a horse trainer. McPeek had begun scouring the globe - especially South America - looking for stakes horses at the same time that his training operation had sprawled to dimensions greater than he'd ever intended. McPeek told clients he'd continue to help manage the racing stable, but turned day-to-day operations over to his assistant, Helen Pitts, and got out of training between June 2005 and April 2006, saying he was devoting himself full-time to bloodstock work.
"The time away was something I needed to do, personally and professionally," said McPeek, a native of Lexington, Ky. "I think the structure of the stable, it had grown into something I hadn't envisioned. You get to doing something in life, and the next thing you know, you look up and say, 'How did I get here?' "
There was some awkwardness as Pitts transitioned to head trainer, but Pitts has done well enough that even after McPeek decided to return to training she has stayed on with a solid stable of runners. And McPeek was able to pretty much pick up where he left off: Eight months after his comeback, he won a $1 million race, and besides Birdbirdistheword, he has another good 3-year-old in Bold Start, who finished second in the Hutcheson Stakes last weekend.
"Because I buy most of the horses I train, I guess you could say it puts me in control of my destiny," McPeek said. "I'm fortunate. I've got people that trust my judgment in buying."
Cottrell said he liked and trusted McPeek from their first meeting. He rarely attends auctions himself, just listens over the phone as McPeek calls out bids. Cottrell never has spent more than $60,000 for a horse, and got little in return the time he went that high. A horse like Birdbirdisthword can make up for the failures.
"He was the picture of the racehorse," said McPeek. "He's got a beautiful hip on him. He was by a young sire [Pure Prize] out of an unproven mare - which I like - and he had all the right parts in all the right places."
Birdbirdisthword, debuting at Arlington last July 30, finished fifth in a fast sprint maiden race. He made his second start at one mile on Arlington's turf course, not so much for the surface, but because McPeek felt he needed more distance. Birdbirdistheword won impressively, then won again over the Louisiana Downs grass course in the $100,000 Harrah's Juvenile. He came out of a fourth-place finish behind Great Hunter in the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland with a lung infection that McPeek described as "4 on a scale of 5," but showed no lingering effects at Delta, where a fast early pace aided Birdbirdistheword's finishing kick.
McPeek said he picked out Saturday's race long ago for Birdbirdistheword's first start at 3, and wants the horse to have only two preps for the Kentucky Derby, theorizing that Birdbirdistheword comes to a quick form peak.
"I think he's better, a lot better, than he was last year," McPeek said.
So is McPeek, for that matter. Drawing on training practices he saw in Australia, McPeek bought property near Lexington that has turned into a training center called Magdalena. Come summer, the facility will house close to 50 horses that can train on dirt and turf. Who knows how this sort of thing will work out, but for McPeek, part of the satisfaction lies in finding out.
"I've had more fun in the last year doing what I'm doing than I've ever had training horses," he said. "Maybe I like climbing mountains more than I like standing on top of one."
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12/4/2006
By MARY RAMPELLINI
VINTON, La. - Birdbirdistheword's win in last Friday night's Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot represents a new chapter in the longtime relationship of owner Ray Cottrell Sr. and trainer Ken McPeek.
For many years, claiming horses were the hallmark of Cottrell's stable. Now, it is a promising 2-year-old that is accounting for the excitement. The $600,000 that Birdbirdistheword earned for winning the Jackpot should guarantee him a spot in the starting gate for next year's Kentucky Derby, which is McPeek's goal for him.
"We're not under any pressure now," said McPeek. "All I need is a couple of good races out of this horse, and I'll have him dead-right for the Kentucky Derby, as long as he doesn't get injured."
Birdbirdistheword arrived at Palm Meadows training center in Florida on Sunday, and his connections are just starting to determine the best route to get him to the Kentucky Derby.
"We're going to give him a bit of a rest to let him recover from everything, and make a plan," said McPeek. "If I had to say right now, more than likely the Louisiana Derby and the Blue Grass. More than likely he will not run any sooner than March. You might see him in the Florida Derby."
McPeek won the Florida Derby and Blue Grass with $3.6 million earner Harlan's Holiday in 2002, and the same year won the Louisiana Derby with Repent. He also trained Belmont Stakes winner Sarava.
Birdbirdistheword blew open the Jackpot with a sharp move from off the pace on the far turn. He then held off favored Pirates Deputy by a comfortable three-quarters of a length to earn his third win in his last four starts.
After winning his maiden on the turf at Arlington Park in August, McPeek shipped him to Louisiana Downs, where he won the $100,000 Harrah's Juvenile, also on the grass. He finished fourth to Great Hunter in the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity on Keeneland's Polytrack in his start prior to the Delta Jackpot.
Birdbirdistheword, who has earned more than $700,000, was purchased for $32,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sale in August 2005. He is a son of Grade 2 winner Pure Prize, and the sire line was one reason McPeek liked Birdbirdistheword.
"I don't see how you could go wrong with him," he said of Pure Prize. "I bought three of them. He's by Storm Cat, and [his dam] Heavenly Prize is one of the great race fillies around."
McPeek quit training and dispersed his stable in April 2005 to become a bloodstock adviser. Birdbirdistheword is the first big horse McPeek has come up with since he reopened his stable last summer.
While he was working overseas, he took time to visit the training facilities of top horsemen in Australia, England, and Ireland. Upon his return home, McPeek purchased the former Pillar Stud in Lexington, Ky., and turned it into a European-style training center called Magdalena.
"I've taken a lot of what I've learned from going different places and tried to kind of put them in a pot, all the good ideas, and stir it up and this is what worked for me," said McPeek.
The farm's first success story is Birdbirdistheword, whom McPeek developed at Magdalena.
"He's a really, really good horse," said McPeek. "He's shown he's very versatile. He's run turf, dirt, Polytrack. He's a very efficient horse, and he's quick, too. But he also knows how to run, which is something we've concentrated on from the beginning with him, teaching him how to sit back and reserve himself."
McPeek, who began training in 1985, said there was a time when he and Cottrell would claim about 30 to 50 horses a year.
"I've been working for him for 20 years," said McPeek, 44. "When I was a kid trainer, he gave me a chance then. There were a couple of years I didn't work for him, but we didn't get too far apart. He's a guy that's supported me through thick and thin, and he's somewhat of a surrogate father for me."
The best horse McPeek and Cottrell have had together is Prince Arch, winner of the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap. Birdbirdistheword could surpass him.
"I think he's a better horse than Repent at this stage," McPeek said, "and very well could be better than Harlan's Holiday."
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Birdbirdistheword Takes Down $1M Jackpot
12/2/2006
By MARY RAMPELLINI
VINTON, La. - Birdbirdistheword swept to the lead four wide on the final turn and held off a bid by favorite Pirates Deputy for a three-quarter-length win in Friday night’s Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs. It was another three lengths back to Xchanger in third.
The Delta Jackpot is the richest race in Louisiana, and was one of five stakes on a card worth a cumulative $1.5 million.
Birdbirdistheword ($12.80) raced well off the pace set by Go Poppa Fooze, who led through fractions of 22.10 seconds for the opening quarter and 45 seconds for a half-mile, while under pressure from Malt Magic.
Birdbirdistheword began to pick up horses down the backside, advanced on the final turn, and was strong through the stretch, covering the mile and a sixteenth over a track rated fast in 1:45.42.
“He ran a big race,” said Robby Albarado, who rode the winner for trainer Ken McPeek. “I thought he held off that horse pretty well. I don’t think he’d let that horse get by him. I’m impressed with him. He’s a nice colt.”
McPeek said Birdbirdistheword will ship this week to Florida.
“He’ll be in Miami in a couple days,” said McPeek.
Birdbirdistheword earned $600,000 for the win for owner Raymond Cottrell Sr. He has now won 3 of 5 starts and $702,100. The Delta Jackpot was the second stakes win for Birdbirdistheword, who captured the $100,000 Juvenile at Louisiana Downs
The remaining order of finish was Malt Magic in fourth, followed by Freesgood, Officer Rocket, Go Poppa Fooze, Scatter the Tak, Ice Man Cometh and Mystical Light.
Go Poppa Fooze, who won the prep for the Jackpot, the $150,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs on Nov. 3, was disqualified from first and placed sixth after he was found to have exceeded the permitted level of bicarbonates in his system. The track announced the disqualification on Friday. The ruling has been appealed by trainer Cole Norman.
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Kenny McPeek To Return To Training
2/23/2006
By Ric Chapman, The Blood-Horse.
Kenny McPeek, who last summer switched from training horses to bloodstock work, is establishing a training center near Lexington and will soon return to training.
When he announced last April he would quit training July 1, McPeek said he was taking a "hiatus" from training and did not rule out a return to the backstretch.
He has regained his enthusiasm, he said, following a soul-searching trip to Australia.
"It opened my eyes to what can be done," McPeek said. "I spent a few weeks down there in January, visited all the top Australian trainers, and the way they do things is incredible. I have brought back with me a blueprint from the way Lee Freedman and David Hayes run their extremely successful businesses and will implement it as soon as possible."
Freedman trained Australian champion Makybe Diva to two Melbourne Cup (Aust-I) wins and also trained Alinghi prior to her assault on North America. McPeek liked what he saw so much, he charged onto the Internet before leaving Australia looking for farms in Kentucky.
"Lee and David have sprawling, one-stop-shop type set ups. They rest their horses there when they need a break from racing, they train at their pace on their own private racetracks, and everything is done the way I want to do it. So I have purchased a farm just behind Fasig-Tipton in Lexington and we start building the u-shaped private training racetrack in March."
The property purchased by McPeek and his wife, Sue, is the former Pillar Stud.
McPeek had a golf course designer oversee the layout of the 115-acre training setup and 1 1/2-mile training track that will have up and down hill runs.
"It will be mostly turf, but I want a section on the outside of the track to be made of polytrack so I can work horses all year round if need be."
McPeek trained more than 80 stakes winners including grade I winners Harlans Holiday, Sarava, Take Charge Lady, and Hard Buck.
"I needed to find myself again," McPeek explained. "I was stretching the family way too much with more than 110 horses in work all over the country at any given time. It was affecting Sue, who had been very ill for a while there, and it was frustrating me because I felt like I was losing control. And a trainer needs to be aware of everything going on with his horses. This new farm allows me a lot more options to care for the horses. I want and need to be a hands-on trainer but so many problems were arising as a result of getting too big before that I found my time was spent more and more managing the people problems associated with a huge stable. So I just tossed it in. But both Sue and I are very, very excited and happy about this new adventure."
McPeek, 43, plans to have about 50 horses in his new stable.
"The one thing I learned from before was this--do not get too big. So I will restrict my numbers this time around."
He hopes to have his first runners at the Keeneland meet in April. Prince Arch and all of former client Ray Cottrell's horses will be among his first runners back.
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