The June California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting put to bed a problem that has been brewing for a few months in the North of California. Due to the fallout from COVID-19, and the ongoing issues surrounding stabling and staff accommodation in the north of California, commissioners voted to switch the three-week State Fair–scheduled to [...]

Great expectations don't necessarily begin with lofty intent. Most new licensees start out hungry for that one lionheart of any stripe to announce their arrival. Those trainers who are routinely sent the big weekend warriors learn to acquire a more refined palate, to remodulate their ambitions accordingly. But scant few are fortunate enough to have [...]

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has released its annual report, covering both the fiscal year 2019-2020 and the calendar year 2020. As expected, given the onslaught of a global pandemic, it paints a rather grim economic picture, but there are major positives to be gleaned, chiefly in the equine safety arena. When it comes [...]

Facing a reported $2-million budget deficit, the Southern California Stabling & Vanning Racing Committee has performed a fiscal juggling act to maintain the stabling status-quo in the southern portion of the state during 2021, with year-round auxiliary stabling assured for the year at Los Alamitos and San Luis Rey Downs, while off-site training will continue [...]

If pressed to pinpoint a single Achilles heel in the racehorse, it's probably a fair bet to assume many would zero in on the fetlock–the intricate joint mechanism that in a racehorse travelling at top speed proves especially vulnerable to system failure. Indeed, 19 of the 22 horses that suffered catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries at Santa [...]

Del Mar's short fall meet ended this past weekend with a flourish and a blitz of top-class racing that lured quality runners from across the country, as epitomized by Chad Brown's Grade I double courtesy of Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) in the Hollywood Derby and Viadera (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) in the Matriarch S. [...]

News last week that more than 200 people living or working on-site at Golden Gate Fields had tested positive for COVID-19, and that the facility would have to close its doors to live racing through November, arrived against a state-wide backdrop of rising cases, hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths. As with Golden Gate, these trends have [...]

When Lorna Chavez moved from England to the United States in 1995, the land of abundance had a surfeit of skilled participants willing and able to don helmet and boot and join the nation's ranks of exercise riders. “I started in Delaware,” said Chavez, a former jockey, of her time as an exercise rider for [...]

A towering presence of California horse racing in both stature and sheer strength of character, trainer, owner and breeder Barry Abrams has died at the age of 66. “He really looked into the soul of a horse,” said David Abrams, Barry Abrams's brother. “He had horses run that didn't run for anybody else.” Abrams had [...]

This intrepid TDN correspondent has just spent the better part of 10 days on a road to the Kentucky Derby. Well, not exactly THE road to the Kentucky Derby. Rather, a long road trip from Los Angeles to Lexington via some of the country's most awe-inspiring national parks and monuments, arriving in the Bluegrass State [...]

In a teleconference Monday morning to discuss whether or not to suspend Los Alamitos' racing license, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) voted in favor of the racing association, deciding that enhanced safety plans the track unveiled over the prior week satisfied board concerns after a rash of equine fatalities at the Southern California facility. [...]

The Los Alamitos Quarter Horse Racing Association released Tuesday evening a seven-page draft “Equine & Rider Safety Enhancement Plan,” ahead of a follow-up meeting July 20 with the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) concerning a recent uptick in equine fatalities at the track. Among some of the new protocols outlined in the plan is an [...]