One more reason why the Phipps family is good for racing
 

http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=36358

We need more owners making a commitment to try to breed sound horses to sound horses and try to identify those studs that ran on drugs (legal or otherwise) and not breed to them. Kudos to this family for their efforts.

I agree 100%. They exemplify old school excellence.

The last comment from him is interesting to me. He says they try to look for stallions that were more drug-free than others. Won't that lead him to breeding to more stallions that had really short careers on the track and thus were less proven as racehorses? I'm thinking that as a general rule, the longer u were on the track and the more u raced, the more chance that u were on some kind of drugs.

maybe...
but one could also argue that a more sound animal wouldn't need drugs to run...who know's really...but IMO steroids etc are not a great addition to the industry and if he can find horses that didn't receive them while racing (not sure that's possible) and that horse was any good at all...well since they breed to race and not to sell then he can afford to make that gamble and breed to said stud.

One of the reasons I have such respect for Mineshaft being trained by Howard who I have a lot of respect for as a clean guy.

I also respect the trainer and the horse. :)

I'm thrilled to see the Phipps story getting some play here. I just read it on Blood-horse... his operation personifies what we need more of in horse racing.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a nicer guy on the backside.

ohhhhhhh my!

travis great job at churchill...congrats..

I have nothing but the highest regard for the Phipps family and Shug.
I've seen how meticulous they've been with my own eyes.
I was outside the barn when Storm Flag Flying came back from her win at Toga and saw the care. I've seen winner after winner.
Shug's barn is the best. Hanging flower baskets, not a blade of grass out of place.
Total professionals in every sense. Even then, tragedies can happen.
I only know that they give their horses the very best of care, because they show their love.
Details make the picture.
I wish them the best in their continued excellence and contributions to the sport we also love.
DTS

Billionaires that like to race dont grow on trees.

Thank you. That one mile chute is a long ways out there!

Not to throw coldwater on the Phippsfest but many of the problems at NYRA came on Ol Dinny's watch. They do run a classy racing/breeding operation but the idea that a stallion that may be "less" drug free is better for the breed just ideological BS. It may sound rational but as I have said so many times before drugs and genetics are not interrelated. Nowdays a horse has to do so little on the track to be considered a stallion prospect. And what about unraced mares? Since many of them got hurt or were so slow and not raced as not to expose them, why do we breed them? Some of our best horses are out of unraced mares.

i suppose it's so difficult to find any completely free of drugs, he's doing the best he can with what he has to work with.
as for unraced, there are many reasons horses don't race. conformation issues, injuries, illness, or they're just plain too slow.
i remember reading a write up on a good broodmare, she dropped some nice runners, but her poor conformation was felt to be too much of a detriment to racing. a gamble as far as breeding her, but her foals all did fine.

Cannon,
Your last sentence is plenty true. Ask Mary Lou W if any of hers have ever seen the track. Not many.
Winners there? Yes.
As far as the Phipps and Shug, I've already said my piece.
DTS

yeah, i didn't put that i put that as a reason--fillies go right to the broodmare band, rather than racing first. some think, rightly or wrongly--depends on who you ask--that if a filly or mare puts out all she's got on the track, there won't be anything left in her to pass on....now, if you look at genuine risk, you would think that--but if you consider personal ensign, you wouldn't.

I just find the argument that its bad for the breed for the stallion to be "artificially enhanced" while the mare, who is 1/2 of the equation, can be a complete slowpoke silly.

Danzig,
I'm really not sure of the answer either. There are different ways of thinking.
As far as "drugs" or being used up on the track, I don't think that's necessarily so. The drugs wear off after a few months. Racing doesn't have a lot to do with fertility...that's just my opinion.
As I said, different breeders have different views. Both of my mares raced.
Both won. And both made very nice babies.
You roll the dice, you take your chances.
DTS

Yeah, the grizzly bear is a good dude...need more horsemen like him.

like i said, depends on who you ask. i've seen arguments for both sides. seems for every hard-raced blue hen mare, you have the counter of hard raced and poor broodmares...and the bluehens who never stepped foot on a track. or the 'slow' mares who breed fast babies. but seems to me, just like in many things, there are no hard and fast rules for what's best for a filly.

but if a mare doesnt' have to succeed on the track before going to the shed, you're getting an all natural broodmare.
but an enhanced stud...well, how fast would he have been without help? would he have bled? was he on steroids? studs have to prove themselves on the track pretty much. otherwise, you have to support him all on your own, as no one will have heard of him. so they have to go out on the track and give it all they've got--or all the vet has!

plus a mare won't have 100+ foals per year...if she su cks she'll weed herself out of the herd after a couple of foals...if the stud su cks well then there are that many more surpluss foals...
And IMHO I think the fact that a lot of super running mares can't come close to reproducing themselves shows you which mares had some extra vet help.

I think that it would be presumptious to say that a mare who was a top class runner that was not a good producer had extra vet help. Same with stallions. Look at a horse like Lemon Drop Kid. Top class horse who seemingly was not trained by a "move up" trainer but seems hard pressed to replicate himself as a stallion. Was he enhanced as a runner? I think not. He seems to be passing on traits from his sire, Kingmambo, namely turfy types. Same with Skip Away. It has nothing to do with drugs it is genetics which are always much clearer 30 years down the road in hindsight.

I would hardly think the 50 or so mares that a bad ass stallion will produce a year will negatively affect a horse population of roughly 125,000?

perhaps i should have said might have had help...and I think in some cases it is true...but as i said it's just my opinion. And I think Skip Away's opportunity as a stallion has suffered from his lack of fashionable pedigree.
genetics are obviously the determining factor and for to understand how genes express themselves it takes generations of a population...however it is that much harder to make a determination when runners are enhanced.

my point was simply that a single mare will have far less impact overall than a stud can potentially.

Devil His Due raced 40 times drug free and I think More Than Ready is turning out to be a decent sire. Personally I like the Halo line but I know it isn't real popular with breeders. Deb

describe drug free

yeah,
which is why SSilence is in Japan I guess.
yeah, we sure didnt need any of that blood in this country.
how unfortunate.


Repent

http://www.stallionregister.com/sr_s...n=singlesearch

maybe not, but maybe bloodhorse can explain. not the first time i've seen him said to be drug free...but i think it referred to no lasix.

i'm not sure sunday silence would have had the same impact here as he did in japan. became a legend, and that suits me fine.

Devil His Due raced without Lasix and only once with bute. Raced 40 out of 41 times drug free. He also raced 15 times at 3, 11 at 4, 12 at 5, and 3 at 6. Those #'s alone would make me happy to breed a mare to him (if I had one to breed of course). The Halo line also seems to run on both dirt and turf and alot of them seem to have that "fighting spirit" I like.

He raced drug free in regards to what is listed in the program or DRF 40 of 41 times.

I'm aware of illegal drugs but I still go by the # of times he raced. You can't hold them together sound-wise and race them that often. The Devil may not have won as much as others but at least he raced full seasons. That is more important to me than horses that can only race 4-6 times a year.

Doesn't the absence of Lasix make it significantly tougher to mask any other substances?