Memories of Sir Ray and the Wrath of Gill

Back in 2005 a colt by Sir Leon did the impossible, he bolted to the outside rail in a race and still won. One would think that would be impossible, but Sir Ray did just that at Calder. Here is a video of that race:



Sadly that would be the highlight of his career. After drifting between claiming races and starter allowances, Sir Ray was claimed by notorious owner Michael Gill on November 22, 2008 for $7,500. He would never win another race after Gill had claimed him. Akindale Thoroughbred Rescue is where he would live after his racing career, however not before being declared MIA for a couple of months. Sadly, Sir Ray lost his life today due to colic. He was just 10 years old, finished his career with 22 wins in 77 starts and earnings of $430,089. Here is a photo of him on Akindale's Facebook page.

It makes me angry that one of my favorite horses (abeit not well known) would end up being a Gill horse. Sadly though he was not alone. Clair Bear (to this day I have no clue where she is), Master of Diesaster, and High Blues (a half brother to Lotta Kim the dam of Rachel Alexandra) are just three horses who where former Gill horses. However, High Blues was one of the lucky ones, he was claimed shortly after Gill claimed him from John Servis. The claimer? Jason Servis, John's older brother (eventually Jason lost him in a claim and I assume he is pasture puff now somewhere out there as he did not race again). The other two horses however, not as lucky as far as I know.

Recently Gill's trainer Darryl Delahoussaye was arrested after being caught with snake venom. This is very simlar to when Patrick Biancone with Cobra venon (which can be used as a painkiller). As far as I know Gill is still banned from Penn National which is good news. Hopefully somehow someway, he will be perminatly banned from horse racing. Sadly though, horse racing as so many problems that I think in the end it will be a moot point.

If anyone has any information about any former Gill horse, please let me know in a responce here so that in the future I can/will do an update on them. Thank you in advance.

The Double Standard

Penn National is allowing Anthony Adamo back into their track after being banned with contraversional owner Michael Gill. However, what I find interesting is the following from the article I posted,

The Penn National jockeys alleged safety issues involving Gill’s horses, though some of them have continued to ride his stock at Philly Park.

One would think that that's setting a double standard right? I mean you are not riding his horses at Penn National because of safety issues, but yet it's okay to ride them at Philadelphia Park? I've got a big problem with that for one big reason:  If you ride them at one track, then you have to ride them at another. The same goes for if you don't want to ride them. I understand that being a jockey doesn't pay much, but you also have to standup for what's right sometimes. I know this might strike a nevre for some people, but this is something I need to talk about tonight. This is a case where I think setting a double standard is wrong, you either ride the horses in both tracks, or you don't. Decidesion making is supposed to be hard right?

I also have an update on Arcata, as you may or may not know the piece I wrote on Arcata ended up on TBA's Bloodhorse blog (I've submitted another post which I'm hoping will be up withen the next few days). Anyway, since I orginally posted that post, Arcata has run once more finishing second and being claimed by Amy Randolph. I asked on TBC, what people may know about her and from what it sounds like he's in good hands. I've been thinking of e-mailing Penn National, but I also don't want to bother them as well. Actually he runs tomorrow, so I'm really excited about that. As useal I hope all of the horses come out of the race, safe and sound.

Tomorrow, we will start breaking down this weekends races focusing on the three Derby preps, the Rebel, TB Derby and San Felipe. Who knew that Derby preps would be overshadowed by a non-graded stakes and a weak G1? When the stars of those races are Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, it's really no suprise at all.