Trainers With Juveniles Adapt to Keeneland Cancellation

While many older racehorses are in a holding pattern due to extensive COVID-19-related track closures and delayed meet openings, 2-year-olds are waiting to merely take flight.

The cancellation of the Aqueduct Racetrack spring meet and the early closure of Sunland Park have left an absence of early season juvenile racing, which in past years took place at those tracks as early as mid-April and late March, respectively. But nowhere in the United States is the juvenile void more apparent than at Keeneland, which was scheduled to have its spring meet begin April 2 before COVID-19 resulted in the entire season being canceled.

Races for 2-year-olds at 4 1/2 furlongs are as much a part of Keeneland in the spring as burgoo and bread pudding are to the track's dining menu. Last year, the track staged 10 such races, including its meet opener, carrying on its long tradition of showcasing juveniles, some of championship quality, such as 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick and 2016 Cartier champion Lady Aurelia.

More often, Keeneland is a proving ground for precocious types and a place for connections to display a quick youngster who can be bought. For others such as Wesley Ward, the trainer of Lady Aurelia, it serves as a launching pad for trips across the Atlantic Ocean for international stakes at Royal Ascot.

Some trainers even make these Keeneland 2-year-old races a focal point of their year, having specifically purchased and targeted runners to excel over the short distance.

This year because of the health crisis, Keeneland is merely a training center for these juveniles, just as it is for the older horses there, leaving horsemen to search for alternatives that are few and far between as more tracks close due to COVID-19. There is no racing in Kentucky until, at best, April 25—when Churchill Downs is scheduled to open for its spring/summer meet, though an announcement of a delayed opening is imminent.

In a world struggling with the health dangers of COVID-19, these are small problems, but problems just the same.

As a result of the Keeneland cancellation, Ward—who has dominated the 4 1/2-furlong juvenile races at Keeneland in recent years—consolidated the majority of his 58 juveniles to Circle S Farms in Davie, Fla., after bringing a group of 2-year-olds to Kentucky in early March for workouts at Turfway Park.

"Fortunately, Gulfstream is still running," he said. "Other than that, I have to wait for these tracks to open up. Essentially, I'm stuck."

So, for now, 2-year-olds whom Ward intended to run at Keeneland in early April have now become prospects for the middle of the month at Gulfstream Park. The first 2-year-old race in the Gulfstream condition book is one for 2-year-old fillies April 16, followed by an open 2-year-old race April 17.

"I got a whole lot of them ready to go, but I will have to stagger them out," Ward said. "I know with the (cancellation) of sales and pushing back of the sales, a lot of 2-year-old consignors that bought their horses back, they might not have any choice but to race. So that might be good for the competition—more guys to fill the races."

On April 1, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced "stay-at-home" orders for April to slow the spread of COVID-19, a decision that could potentially affect racing at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs. Both tracks have continued racing in front of crowd-less grandstands that have been restricted to participating horsemen, racing officials, and essential staff.

Should Florida racing options cease, Ward will have to place his juveniles on "cruise control," he said, as he awaits reopening announcements.

"They'll get one fast work a month, and the rest of them will be nice and easy," he said.

If he has to play the waiting game, he'll have company. Trainer John Hancock is awaiting a resumption of racing in Kentucky, or in surrounding states such as Indiana, before running the seven juveniles he had pointed for Keeneland.

"We've elected to back off them just a little bit after this weekend but still have them fit enough to run, and if Churchill Downs opens in May or June, we'll be ready to run," Hancock said.

Hancock said Keeneland's cancellation of the spring meet—announced March 16, just days after he brought his horses to the track from Riverside Downs in western Kentucky—left him shell-shocked. He said many of his owners utilize the 2-year-old races as a business venture or to privately sell a promising performer that might not have met its reserve at auction as a yearling. He begins prepping his 2-year-olds with one-furlong breezes in late January.

"I'm blessed that I have good owners," he said, mentioning Hat Creek Racing, Nancy Shuford, Charles Brown, and others. "I don't know how a number of people can survive another 60 days like this. There hasn't been any pressure on me. They've all said the same thing, 'You do what you need to do, and we're here for you.'"

Mark Hubley, who serves as president and trainer for Larry and Karen Doyle's KatieRich Farms, a boutique breeding operation in Midway, Ky., believes perspective is vital in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though KatieRich Farms is facing challenges in its operations—it planned to race at Keeneland and sell six horses during Keeneland's also-canceled April 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale—he feels fortunate that Kentucky has not been as badly impacted as other states such as New York, where some of his siblings reside.

"I feel for all the people losing their jobs, living month to month and week to week, can't pay rent, can't go to school, can't go to daycare," he said. "I wish there was something the horse world was doing or could help those people.

"People ask about racing and what we're going to do, the sale and so on. The conversation in a month might be who is living and who is not. It could get a lot worse."

Hancock also feels appreciative of the relative good health of Kentucky residents, crediting Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear for being proactive in his COVID-19 leadership, even though it meant Turfway Park had to end its meet a few days early last month under his "Healthy at Home" executive order. That cost a horse he trains an intended start.

Until COVID-19 shows indications of being under control, Hancock and Hubley are resigned to focus on morning training before the racing calendar is clarified.

"We'll see what the conversation is in 30 days," Hubley said. "Maybe they will have the meet at Churchill or maybe it will be Armageddon. We just don't know."