Ruis to Move Horses Out of CA Over Stabling Dispute

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis, known best for his grade 1 winners Bolt d'Oro and Union Strike, says he is planning to ship a substantial amount of his horses out of California because of a dispute over stabling space at Santa Anita Park.

Ruis said during the final weekend of the Del Mar's summer meeting that he will ship all 30 of his broodmares and his two sires—Saburo and War Envoy -—who currently reside at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, to Pennsylvania to participate in breeding there.

The decision to move his breeding operation, Ruis said, stems from Santa Anita's decision to cut his stall space for its upcoming fall meet. He had 22 horses stabled at Del Mar, and he said they are mostly 2-year-olds, and Santa Anita initially offered him and his daughter Shelbe Ruis, who runs the day-to-day operations at the Ruis Racing barn, 10 stalls. He also said he will be "stepping back from training" and Ruis Racing's horses will be running under Shelbe's name in California, effective immediately.

"I've always been loyal to (Santa Anita's ownership, The Stronach Group)," he said. "I was born and raised in San Diego—a California native. I bought a $5 million house in Arcadia. I'm totally dedicated, and when Bolt d'Oro was running (ahead of the Triple Crown), I said, 'My horse is running here. I'm staying.'

"I was one of the founding members of the Pegasus (World Cup), and I lost $650,000 on that deal alone. So for them to say, 'You only get 10 stalls at Santa Anita,' when I have 30 mares, two stallions, and I'm supporting the California breeding program. ... This is what I need to do.

"I can't say I'm not going to run at Santa Anita, because I don't want my daughter out of a job. She loves it and she works hard every day, and I want her to have horses to run. But I don't have enough stalls, and it doesn't make sense for me to breed if I have nowhere to put them."

After an appeal for more stalls, Ruis said Santa Anita gave them five more, but spread out across the barn area, not all together in a single structure on the backside.

"It isn't like I buy $16,000 claimers. I buy $500,000 horses, $300,000 horses," Ruis said. "And I'm going to have no one watching them? Then if there's a (drug) positive or something, who is accountable? ... The purpose of (speaking out about this) is (Santa Anita racing secretary) Rick Hammerle told my daughter, 'My boss doesn't care if I don't give you any stalls.'"

Hammerle declined to comment on Ruis' statements or any other individual stall assignments, but The Stronach Group's chief operating officer, Tim Ritvo, spoke to the issue, although he admitted it was the first he had heard Ruis intended on pulling horses out of California.

"Mick is a nice guy, and I try not to get in the way of the racing secretary doing his job," Ritvo said. "We want horses in stalls who will run. Everyone has the chance to make their case for stalls and people's race record speaks for itself. We don't want anyone to leave, and these things should never be based on personality. They're based on statistics. All I care about is getting horses to run and giving the public a good product to wager on."

Ruis admitted that his numbers late in Santa Anita's meet that ended in June were not up to par, but said that was because he pulled some of his horses to run at lower levels outside of California since they weren't capable of competing on a top-level circuit. In the final month of the season at Santa Anita, Ruis Racing had four starters at the Arcadia racetrack.

"(Hammerle) said toward the end of the season we weren't running anything. Well, our 2-year-olds were getting ready ... and then, when I took the horses away, I took cheap claimers that were 30-1 here," Ruis said. "They ran at Ellis Park because they couldn't hang here."

Ruis also accused Santa Anita of applying different rules for more prominent trainers.

"Back in the day it didn't matter who you were," Ruis said. "It didn't matter if you were Charlie Whittingham. Everybody got 36 stalls. I'm the little guy. I'm working hard every day. ... I think Bob Baffert is the best trainer out there, and I've said it more than one time. What he does—he's a magician. But when he can have 60 stalls, and another 60 at Los Alamitos, how can they expect anyone else to get there?

"(The trend of owners sending horses to fewer trainers is) going to get worse and worse, but if you give 35 stalls to everyone, owners have to spread them out.

"I mean, Dream Tree was training for months at Santa Anita and runs at Saratoga. You think he's going to run her back at Santa Anita? Now she's going to be in training for five, six months over there, and they don't have heartache about that?"

Ritvo said he encourages all trainers to start more, including Baffert.

"The super trainers bother us as much as they bother them," Ritvo said. "And Bob will tell you firsthand, I get on his ass, too. Mick is not getting picked on. Bob and everyone is held to the same standard."

Ruis doesn't agree with that assessment.    

"I asked for a tack room. Bob has a museum in a tack room," Ruis said. "I asked Ritvo, 'Is that fair?' I asked for a tack room. I didn't ask for a museum.

"Bob deserves it—he has the clients, I see him stressed out, and I'm not taking anything away from that. ... But when one guy gets special rules and the other ones don't, that's just not right. And I don't want to single him out, because there are a couple of them out there."

Ruis is not the first horseman to express displeasure about stall space at Santa Anita, but few, if any, others are willing to go on record. He said he's willing to take the heat for that, with hope it leads to a change.

"If that's what they want, and this is where racing is going, that's OK. I'm not a whiner. I'm for the little guy. It's super unfair, but it's not about me personally. None of those small barns will say anything, because they won't get stalls over there. ... I've got big shoulders. Everybody is afraid to say it, because they don't want to lose stalls, but I don't give a (expletive)."

Ruis did say, however, that he will ship horses back into California to race at Del Mar, even if it comes at a high price.

"If I have to go winter in New Orleans, or something like that, I will. And then I'll come back for the summer meet—I'm born and raised (in San Diego)," Ruis said. "If it costs me $100,000, that's nothing for what we make and where we want to be. But I'm not going to take 10 stalls and think, 'How are we going to compete?' At Del Mar we won a grade 1 with Union Strike and with Bolt, and this is against major players. We want to play at the top of the game."