CAYENNE PEPPER CREATES A HOT CONTROVERSY
Thoroughbred racing's latest controversy involves a powdery substance called
cayenne pepper, common in every tack room but virtually unheard of by anyone who
ever made a $2 bet.
Cayenne pepper, also known by the brand name "Fiery Jack," when mixed with water, forms a paste which is used primarily on a horse's bandages. Its stinging taste prevents the animal from nipping and tearing the bandages loose.
It drew headlines in the industry after trainer Frank Passero saddled a national record 14 straight winners during the recent Gulfstream Park meet. The old record was nine. Shortly thereafter, he and several of his employees were charged in an administrative complaint by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering with applying cayenne pepper "in or around the genital area of horses" with the intent to make to make them run faster. Passero has denied the charges.
Some trainers at Santa Anita did not agree that cayenne pepper applied to that part of a horse would make it run faster.
"This stuff has been around forever," said one of racing's elder statesmen. "Is it like Heet or Ben-Gay? It's a little stronger than that," the trainer said. "You just rub it on a horse and it warms 'em up."
"Stick that up your butt and see what you're gonna do," said another successful Southern California trainer. "It's not gonna make 'em run any faster. They're gonna be sitting uncomfortable for 20-25 minutes before they go to the gate.
"I had one groom do that to a horse I ran last year. We knew this horse would win anyway, first time out. He was the quietest groom in my whole barn, the last one I would ever expect to try anything like that.
"I'm watching the horse coming over, and he looks like he wants to take a dump. His tail's up and he's acting very aggravated. I didn't know if he had to move his bowels or urinate . . . I was ready to call the owner and tell him to get his bet off the horse, because something wasn't right with him.
"I thought the horse was constipated, that maybe the Lasix dried him out. There's no way cayenne pepper is going to make a horse run any faster. If anything, I think it would detract from the performance, because they're in such discomfort.
"I can't see it at all. I fired that groom in the winners' circle that day. It's just inhumane. Passero must have just gotten on a roll and thought this (cayenne pepper) was it. But that can't be it, let me tell ya."
"It might border on being inhumane, but it's not inhumane," said one veterinarian. "It won't damage tissue, and it would only burn if it got in a horse's eyes. Cayenne pepper is not illegal, but all this might seem pretty ugly once the animal rights groups get done with it."
LUKAS LIKES UNBRIDLED SONG, HONOUR AND GLORY
D. Wayne Lukas, who has more Triple Crown candidates in his barn right now
than most trainers have in a lifetime, rates Unbridled Song and his own Honour and
Glory as the best 3-year-olds in the east and west.
"He's definitely the eastern leader," Lukas said of Unbridled Song, based on the 2-year-old champion's smashing victory in the Florida Derby. "I think the No.1 seed out here has got to be Honour and Glory, at this point."
Lukas has won a record five Triple Crown races in a row and has five solid contenders. And that was before Dr. Caton broke his maiden by 6 1/2 lengths on March 17.
Dr. Caton left the maiden ranks in his third start, leading throughout to win impressively as the 2-5 favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race.
The victory came one race after Prince of Thieves broke slowly and was squeezed back, losing all chance in the San Felipe Stakes. The Hansel colt finished fourth as the 2-5 favorite, beaten more than seven lengths by Odyle.
Lukas said his horses' itineraries looked like this:
Dr. Caton: "We'll look around a little bit. There's a chance we could run him in another allowance race or we could jump into a stakes somewhere around the country."
Victory Speech: the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park on Saturday. Honour and Glory: Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
Grindstone: "Either the Arkansas Derby (April 13 at Oaklawn Park) or the Blue Grass (April 13 at Keeneland).
Editor's Note: Blue Grass.
Prince of Thieves: "Probably the Wood (April 13 at Aqueduct) or the Santa Anita Derby."
Lukas left the riding assignments open. Gary Stevens, who won last year's Kentucky Derby for Lukas on Thunder Gulch, has ridden all six of the horses, but Lukas was not in any rush. "We're going to give 'em a little time yet."
GOLDEN PICKS
DRESSER -- Led throughout and fought back gamely to lose by a head when overtaken late in nine-furlong turf test. Mel Stute-trained gelding lands in winners' circle with similar effort.
BIGGEORGEFAB -- Took up sharply when in tight shortly after start in one- mile allowance test, trailed by more than 20 lengths at the half-mile marker, but rallied wide to finish fourth, beaten only four lengths. Next time, but don't expect 9-1.
THE HOMESTRETCH: White Bronco, a 2-year-old Kentucky-bred son of
Houston who ran sixth in his debut in Thursday's second race, didn't come by his name
by accident. Among the colt's breeders are O.J. Simpson and Marcus Allen. According to one source, Simpson was made to give up ownership before his infamous double-murder trial . . . Trainer Gary Jones says rumors that he's quitting the game are not true . . Kent Desormeaux, on riding the winner of the first 2-year-old race at Santa Anita
since 1974, Truly June's in a two-furlong race for trainer Cliff Sise Jr.: "Besides quarter
horse races, this was the first thoroughbred race I've ridden going that distance. She was
pretty smart. The horse outside of her (La Moza Realeza, who finished second) was real
fractious and it took all her class not to be idiotic and flip like the horse outside her was.
She was pretty annoyed, but what got her home was her talent . . . it was all over after
two strides." Sise: "I knew this filly could run (most bettors didn't: she paid $19.20) . . .
the owner (Hanson Stock Farm) bred her, and this is actually the stallion's first horse to
the races. The sire (Truly Met) was an old cripple, but he was a race horse." Sise was
suspended for the rest of the meet (through April 22) one day after his 2-year-old won,
because one of his grooms, Jose Ramirez, was caught by California Horse Racing Board
vet Dr. B. William Bell red-handed in a stall administering Lasix to a horse that was
getting ready for a morning workout. Lasix can only be given by a licensed vet. On the
morning in question, the vet was late and Ramirez took matters into his own hands.
Grooms Scott Hansen and Ramirez were also suspended. Cindy Kelly will direct
operations in Sise's absence. "She knows my routine," he said . . . Odyle, Smithfield and Cavonnier, who were just over a length apart as the first three finishers in the San Felipe, are expected to run back in the $1-million Santa Anita Derby. Odyle's victory came on trainer Paco Gonzalez's 51st birthday. "We won three races on my birthday two years ago," Gonzalez said, "but none was a stakes." Gonzalez ran Odyle with Lasix for the first time because the colt coughed slightly after a recent workout. "We just gave him a little
to protect him," Gonzalez said. "He bled after the workout, but it was nothing. On a scale
of 10, I'd say it was a two." Odyle means "alleged force" according to part-owner Trudy
McCaffery. "I got it out of Roget's Thesaurus. It's a word from a crossword dictionary
and I was looking for another name for alleged (Odyle's sire is Alleged)." . . . Nancy
Vogel, assistant to trainer George Vogel, reports Trishyde has given birth to her first
foal, a filly by Seattle Slew.
The Running Horse (https://www.isd1.com/alauck)