This year came and went without a Triple Crown sweep, so the
Kentucky Derby 2025 winner will be the 20th different horse to get to the
winner’s circle in the last 20 classics.

Golden Gate Fields closed, the second Belmont Park
grandstand was torn down to make way for the third, and Pimlico will be rebuilt
under the aegis of the Maryland state government. Or so we are told. We have
heard different versions of that last one before.

There was more to 2024 than Thorpedo Anna’s championship
campaign and Bob Baffert being welcomed back to Churchill Downs and all the
court fights over the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

As Marv Albert used to tell David Letterman, we had the
weird and the wacky. This is not meant to be a complete chronicling of the
biggest stories. Rather it is a paean to the quirkiest happenings of a racing year
that is nearly done. Some are funny. Others are serious. All are odd.

Continuing in the vein of the old Letterman shows, this is a
top-10 list. Unlike “Late Night” and “Late Show,” it comes with a bonus oddity
thrown at the end.

10. Threat to close Santa Anita. Before the
California Horse Racing Board approved the ill-fated Golden State Racing in the
north state this fall, it got an ominous letter in March from then-1/ST Racing
executive vice chairperson Craig Fravel. If NorCal racing dates were authorized,
Fravel wrote, “an analysis of alternative uses for Santa Anita and San Luis Rey
will be undertaken in short order.” Fravel begged to differ with the
characterization of his letter as being a threat, but he was in a distinct
minority. “Your letter, to me, was crap,” CHRB member Damascus Castellanos told
Fravel. “It shouldn’t have been done. But that’s the way you chose to play the
game.” The board voted 6-0 to green-light the NorCal fall meet. Five months
later, Fravel left 1/ST Racing.

9. Tepin dies in Europe, but when? Out of the blue during
Arc weekend this fall in Paris, Coolmore trainer Aidan O’Brien dropped a
bombshell when he announced Hall of Fame mare Tepin had died. He did not say
how it happened. More alarming was his answer to when. It was sometime in 2023.
It is bad enough that trainers blame everything from sudden scratches to
long-term layoffs on impromptu fevers and vague setbacks, which have become
racing’s version of the National Hockey League’s upper- and lower-body
injuries. To let a champion die without any public notice showed a disgustingly
callous disregard for the industry that gave Tepin value beyond her monetary
worth.

8. More than just a hiatus. Del Mar is usually where Todd
Schrupp can be found during the summer. This year he was conspicuous by his
absence. He vanished from FanDuel TV with nary a reason offered. Sources said
he and management did not see eye to eye on the future of the channel’s racing
coverage. Then in September, Schrupp was back, again without any formal
explanation. Simultaneously, longtime executive producer Kevin Grigsby was out
without any formal explanation. Coincidence? Think again. Michael Shiffman, a
production executive who got caught in a different crossfire of layoffs at
ESPN, more or less replaced Grigsby. There was a news release but again no
formal explanation. But hey, Kay Adams got FDTV a lot of pub for hosting NFL
games on Netflix, so there is that.

7. One and done for Golden State Racing. In hindsight
the timing was bad. Actually, it seemed that way in foresight, too, what with a
lack of added gaming revenue to stoke the state’s Thoroughbred coffers. With
the bravado of wishful thinking, the California Authority of Racing Fairs tried
to fill the autumn void left by the June closing of Golden Gate Fields by the
Stronach Group. The 26-day fall meet at the Alameda County Fair track in Pleasanton
came and went, but not before purses were cut twice. Two days before the meet closed
last week, CARF threw in the towel, withdrawing an application for a winter
meet. Thus ended nearly nine decades of fulltime racing in Northern California,
whose skeptical horsemen have been promised by Santa Anita management a
schedule of entry-level races if they head south.

6. King’s Plate is rained off all-weather track. The first
Canada classic of the year was postponed six days in August when rainwater
backed up in a tunnel and pooled on the eight-year-old Tapeta racing surface at
Woodbine. The decision to hit the brakes was made after five races were run
Aug. 17 and after Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau already had shown up. The
day that was all wet was a microcosm for a troubled year at Woodbine. Nine
horses died between Oct. 28 and Nov. 29 from catastrophic injuries, leading to
new rules that were written in the name of safety. The King’s Plate
postponement also underscored the inaccuracy of the term all-weather.

5. Brown wins less meaningful title. Four-time Eclipse
Award winner Chad Brown had a did-you-read-what-he-said moment just before the
start of the Saratoga summer. He told Horse Racing Nation contributor
Tom Pedulla that quality fields were no longer assured from top to bottom on
each day’s Spa program, and that high-profile trainers of his ilk could be
disadvantaged. “The win totals aren’t going to matter so much to a guy like me
if there are so many cheap races on the card,” Brown said. Two months later
Brown finished the meet with 45 wins, more than any two other trainers combined,
and he had his eighth Saratoga training title. Was Brown forthright, or was he
sandbagging? Two things can be true at the same time.

4. We don’t heed no odor, let the upper structure reek. Friday
racing at Aqueduct was canceled Oct. 11 when an aggressively noxious smell
drove New York Racing Association officials out of the top floor of the
Aqueduct grandstand. The stench came from a chemical treatment being applied to
the roof by the neighbors at Resorts World Casino. Never mind that the
work could have been done on a day when there was no racing. That and advance
notice to NYRA would have made too much sense.

3. The winner returns $0.00, $0.00 and $0.00. The
Tampa Bay Derby is the biggest racing day every year at Tampa Bay Downs. Of all
the times for the tote system to crash, it had to be March 9. Try as they
might, track bosses could not get the mutuels to thrust and pari, so Domestic
Product won what turned out to be a non-wagering event. About $5 million in
revenue went down the drain when, as the story goes, the internet-service
provider Lumen failed, cutting off access to the AmTote pools for which there
were no backups. Truth serum now. How many of us actually saved money?

2. Pee patch is not at Ellis Park. Thankfully, since
Romero Maragh and his ride Mama’s Gold were not hurt, we had fun with this Dec.
12 story. Inside the final furlong of an allowance race at Aqueduct, the 4-year-old
colt unexpectedly jumped to avoid something on the main track en route to
winning. Even though Maragh slipped and had to regain his balance, Mama’s Gold still
earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily Racing Form. According
to the Equibase chart for the race, the winner “jumped a puddle of urine 70
yards from the finish.” Don’t look for that explanation now. Some prudish sort objected,
and now the chart refers to the puddle as “debris.” Nothing like having thought
no. 2 about reporting a horse’s no. 1.

1. An inquiry that was not an inquiry. Borrowing a
page from the NFL’s assisted-replay reviews that are not reviews, Kentucky
stewards seemed to carry out an inquiry without lighting the inquiry sign at Kentucky
Derby 2024. After Mystik Dan, Sierra Leone and Forever Young finished only noses
apart in that order, it took a garden-variety four minutes for the top five to
be posted on the toteboard. It was another seven minutes before the race was
declared official. That was unusually long. Sierra Leone’s jockey Tyler Gaffalione
eventually was fined $2,500 for grabbing at Forever Young near the finish line,
but there was no disqualification, no formal inquiry and no further explanation.
What happens in Kentucky stays in Kentucky.

As promised, here is the bonus coming in from the heavens.

A celestial interruption to racing. Horseshoe
Indianapolis usually does not open its season so early. There were extenuating
circumstances this year involving the earth, the moon and the sun lining up in
that order. A four-minute total solar eclipse inspired track management to move
opening day up to April 8, about 1 1/2 weeks sooner than usual. Thoroughbreds
raced early, quarter horses late, and a long break for the shadow show came in
between. The luck of the weather was with the crowd who came to the track. It
was clear with the temperature in the 70s, at least until the eclipse dropped
it into the 60s. Horses sporting curious looks paused in their barn stalls
until they took their cue from birds waiting for blinding sunshine to replace
the soft corona light. Then they were chirping, the horses were stirring, and
all was normal again. Trainer Tim Eggleston might have put it best that day. “That
changes your outlook on things a little bit,” he said. “When’s the next one?”

Not until Aug. 12, 2026, mostly over the Atlantic Ocean from
Greenland and Iceland to Spain. We will make do without it in 2025, hopefully
through 12 happy months of cashing tickets and safe rides.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse
Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com
are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron
Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.