california racing

Tickets will go on sale Friday, Aug. 15, at 11 a.m. PT for Santa Anita Park's upcoming Autumn Meet, according to a release from 1/ST on Wednesday. Passes will be available through Ticketmaster as the track opens its 16-day stand on Friday, Sept. 26, with free parking and general admission plus an all-day Happy Hour every Friday. Opening weekend will be showcased by Breeders' Cup Challenge Weekend which includes four "Win and You're In" stakes. Three of the track's promotions--Oktoberfest, Pumpkin Patch and Fall Festival and the Japan Family Weekend--anchor...

At first glance, Jay Hovdey's latest literary output, "The Oak Tree Story: A History of Racing's Most Generous Benefactor," might seem an exercise in nostalgia only, recounting as it does the origins, lifespan and ignominious death of an organization that last put on a show nearly fifteen years ago. The Oak Tree Racing Association came about as an industry-led non-profit to operate a race-meet during the then barren autumnal months when there was no major racing in Southern California, only to grow into a philanthropic powerhouse and gamechanger for the...

On Wednesday came the news that Fasig-Tipton will offer a digital auction, to run Aug. 14 through Aug. 19, of 90 horses owned and bred by the late John Harris, who passed away in July aged 81. Harris leaves behind a towering legacy of Thoroughbred breeding and ownership in the state. The sale signifies a major reduction of Harris Farms' bloodstock and not a total dispersal, however, with the operation expected to continue with a smaller footprint going forward. Harris's reduction sale will take place just over a month before...

Darren Filkins has been unanimously voted to fill the vacancy on the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) created by the recent passing of John Harris, the group announced Monday. The CEO of Harris Farms since January 2022, Filkins has held a variety of agriculturally centered positions before joining Harris Farms, and is a known face in California. "I'd previously worked with Darren through some difficult issues and was impressed by his intelligence, forthrightness and integrity--two characteristics welcomed on any industry board," said TOC Board member...

The nine-day Los Angeles County Fair Meet concluded Sunday with increased field sizes for a second consecutive year and with Kazushi Kimura claiming his first local riding title, the track announced. Several metrics improved for the 2025 season in addition to the field size--a bump up to 7.6 starters per race from slightly less than seven over the corresponding season a year ago. The total Players' Pick 5 pool of $974,636 eclipsed the previous high of $410,783 from 2016 when two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome had been the...

Over the 30 years former trainer Mike Machowsky spent plying his trade with stopwatch and condition book, his constant companion was the doughty California-bred. A Cal-bred helped launch his career-Native Boundary, who showed class and grit aplenty over three years and 22 starts. Only the Bobby Frankel-trained Eternity Star stood between him and the 1991 G1 Hollywood Derby. Later in Machowsky's career, the wily Cal-bred Caracortado stamped his mark over several seasons on some of the West Coast's most illustrious slug-fests over a mile. As Fasig-Tipton's California representative-a position he...

The folks who fought to preserve racing at the Northern California's remote half-miler in Ferndale deserve tremendous respect and credit for soldiering on to the bitter end. Make no mistake, the cessation of racing at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in the coastal region of NorCal definitely rates as "bitter." There is no sugarcoating this one like a sticky tuft of cotton candy from the midway of Humboldt County's charmingly rural fairgrounds, whose ties to the sport date to 1896. Advocates for racing at Ferndale (pop. 1,398), a Victorian village with...

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) on Thursday voted down two separate proposals to allocate 2025 race dates to entities at Ferndale and Fresno that wanted to keep Thoroughbred racing going on the now-nonexistent Northern California circuit. The 4-3 votes on each measure dashed what appeared to be the last remaining hopes for a 2025 resuscitation of the sport in a region of the state that as recently as two summers ago boasted a year-round rotation of racing anchored by one commercial track and five fair venues. The June 19...

With continued heat advisories in the region, and a forecasted high of 98 degrees Saturday, officials at Santa Anita Park have instituted a series of safety measures for people and horses. With the weather reaching a scorching 100 in some places and Sunday calling for 91 degree heat before the temperatures return to the low 70s Monday, racing officials have included in the heat protocols ice buckets and hoses throughout the grounds for convenient access. Riders will be legged up in the saddling barn and horses will go directly to...

Trainer Michael McCarthy has pledged to make a donation to 501(c)(3) aftercare organization Win Place Home if presumed favorite Journalism (Curlin) takes the GI Kentucky Derby this Saturday. "Michael has supported us for years, and notably, he has donated more horses to our program than any other trainer," said CJ Wilson, founder and lead trainer. "What's more, he ensures every horse he sends to us comes with a financial donation from the owners--a practice that sets a powerful standard for responsibility in the industry." Wilson said that McCarthy's pledge is...

Summer race-date allocations for meets at both Pleasanton and Ferndale failed to advance at Thursday's California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting. The former request got voted down and the latter failed to garner enough votes to be decided either way, jeopardizing the prospect of any fairs-style racing in the state for 2025. The commissioners who voted and stakeholders who testified were split on the best path forward for California racing as a whole, widening an existential Northern-vs.-Southern rift that opened nearly two years ago when The Stronach Group (TSG) announced...

Saturday's Santa Anita Derby day showed large increases over 2024 with the all sources handle totaling $22,388,003 and wagering on just the marquee race up by nearly 24 per cent, according to a press release by the track. Bolstered by a big turnout from the Derby Day 5K, the on-track attendance came in at 34,312, a seven per cent jump from last season. It was the largest turnout since 2018. Both the all sources handle and on track attendance are expected to finish the Classic Meet Sunday up by noteworthy...