CHRB

As in past years, the concept of "compromise" was accentuated in the assignment of 2021 race dates by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) at its Oct. 22 meeting. But this year, crafting a statewide racing calendar based on cooperation took on even more importance. That's because both the Southern and Northern California circuits have been significantly altered by closures and cancellations over the past 18 months due to several spates of equine fatalities, unseasonably wet weather, wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. With all of those factors in mind, the...

The connections of Justify and Hoppertunity were unsuccessful in their attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order to stop the California Board of Stewards from holding a hearing regarding the disqualifications of those horses due to scopolamine positives in 2018, and the hearing will go forward as planned, according to a press release from Darrell Vienna, the attorney representing Mick Ruis. Trainer Bob Baffert, and the owners and two jockeys who rode the undefeated 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify and the MGISW Hoppertunity, had filed a legal petition against the...

Trainer Bob Baffert, plus the owners and two jockeys who rode the undefeated 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify and the MGISW Hoppertunity, filed a legal petition against the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Oct. 13, alleging that the CHRB's recent decision to reopen hearings on two scopolamine positives from those horses in 2018 amounts to "arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful conduct" that purportedly targets Baffert and his clients unfairly while supposedly damaging the horses' reputations as stallions. The petition, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks a judgment, injunction,...

According to the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), two bills--SB 800 and AB 1974--have been passed and signed into law in the state of California. Both bills are instrumental in strengthening California's commitment to both equine and jockey welfare and safety. Senator Bill Dodd's SB 800 provides greater access to veterinary records for racehorses, requires the reporting and publication of equine fatalities that occur at facilities regulated by the CHRB, and requires the publication of positive post-race test findings within five business days of their confirmation. In anticipation of this...

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) president Josh Rubinstein told the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Sept. 24 that he expects the track will no longer have to rely on hand-timing turf races at its upcoming fall meet because its inaccurate Equibase Gmax GPS timing system has since been tweaked to fix problems that produced numerous wrong clockings throughout the summer season. TDN reported back on Aug. 18 that some dirt and turf final times at Del Mar were mis-clocked anywhere between .07 seconds and 1.19 seconds by the industry's official...

The win by scopolamine-positive Justify in the 2018 running of the GI Santa Anita Derby is now going to come under official administrative scrutiny by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). But Bob Baffert, the trainer of the eventual undefeated Triple Crown winner, will not have a CHRB complaint lodged against him "due to substantial evidence that the scopolamine resulted from environmental contamination from jimson weed," the CHRB stated in a Wednesday press release. As part of a negotiated settlement stemming from a lawsuit filed against the CHRB by the...

Brenda Davis, 65 has been appointed to the California Horse Racing Board and Wendy Mitchell, 49, has been reappointed. Davis has been principal at the Brenda Davis Law Group since 2007. She was managing counsel at the California Farm Bureau Federation from 1999 to 2007. Mitchell has served the CHRB since 2019. Mitchell has been principal of WM Consulting Inc. since 2006. She served on the California Coastal Commission from 2011 to 2016 and the Los Angeles South Valley Area Planning Commission from 2009 to 2011. Both positions requires Senate...

Santa Anita Park has broken ground on a new turf chute adjacent to the main dirt track's seven-furlong chute that will allow sprints up to 6 1/2 furlongs to be conducted on the grass oval. The new configuration won't be ready in time for the upcoming meet that commences Sept. 19. But once the extension is completed, track management is going to consider reopening the currently closed 6 1/2-furlong downhill turf course for select usage. Aidan Butler, the chief strategy officer and executive director of California racing operations for The...

Mick Ruis has announced that he has reached an agreement in principle with the California Horse Racing Board regarding a settlement of pending litigation in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The preliminary agreement is intended to resolve claims against the CHRB for failure to hold a purse disqualification hearing related to the 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby, in which the first-place finisher and subsequent Triple Crown winner, Justify, tested positive for the prohibited substance scopolamine. Bolt d'Oro, owned and trained by Ruis, finished second. Members of the CHRB, the state...

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 additional veterinarian to scrutinize horses entering and exiting the track during morning training, and the creation of a program whereby every equine fatality triggers a "Fatality Review" to be conducted by a panel including a...

In an emergency California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) teleconference Friday in the wake of a series of equine fatalities at Los Alamitos, the board voted to put the track on a 10-day probation, while live racing continues, to devise a plan to address various horse welfare issues raised during the meeting. At the end of those 10 days, the board will reconvene to review the plan. At that point, if the proposed plan doesn't pass muster, the board has the option of suspending the track's racing license. "I agree that...

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) is scheduled to conduct an emergency meeting early Friday morning to discuss whether to suspend or impose certain operational conditions to Los Alamitos's racing license. The emergency meeting comes in the wake of a series of equine fatalities at the track—nine since May 26 alone. The Long Beach-located facility is primarily associated with Quarter Horse racing. A seven-day thoroughbred meet recently concluded. This story will be updated with news from the meeting.