Hall of Fame
It's been a memorable few months for trainer-turned-jockey-agent Kiaran McLaughlin, who joined in as guest on this week's TDN Writers' Room. He's been nominated to the Hall of Fame for the first time and, as the agent for Luis Saez, has his client lined up with many of the top horses in the sport.
Xtra Heat (Dixieland Heat--Begin, by Hatchet Man), winner of 25 black-type races in an overachieving career that saw her named the Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old filly of 2001, passed away last December at the age of 24, according to a release from Woodford Thoroughbreds. Bred in Kentucky by Pope McLean, Sr., Pope McLean, Jr., Marc McLean and P. Feringa, the diminutive Xtra Heat sold for less than five figures as a weanling, yearling and 2-year-old, but won her first six races before tasting defeat for the first time in the 2000...
A four-time Eclipse Award winner and a member of racing's Hall of Fame since 2017, Venezuelan native Javier Castellano has won the 2023 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award via a nationwide vote of his fellow riders. Castellano, 45, will be honored in a Runhappy Winner's Circle ceremony at Santa Anita this spring. Married to his wife, Abby, Castellano, who immigrated to the United States in June of 1997, has three children, Kayla, Sienna and Brady and is the son-in-law of Terry Meyocks, National Director of the Jockeys' Guild. Presented annually...
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced that Jose Arias, Dennis Decauwer, Jim Goodman, and Bill Shurman have been voted by their peers for induction into the NTRA National Horseplayers Championship's Hall of Fame. The handicappers represent the ninth class of NHC Hall of Fame inductees and will be recognized during the NHC Champions Dinner Sunday, Mar. 12, 2023 at the conclusion of the NTRA National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) at the Horseshoe Las Vegas. For more information on the latest inductees, click here.
John Veitch, a Hall of Famer who trained numerous stars, including Alydar, whose legendary battles with Affirmed were part of one of the sport's greatest rivalries, passed away Tuesday in Lexington, Kentucky. He was 77. The news of Veitch's passing was first reported by the Blood-Horse. Veitch's training career ran from 1974 through 2003. According to Equibase, he had 410 career winners and his stable amassed earnings of $20,097,980. He won 76 graded stakes and 93 stakes races overall. Veitch's best years came as the head trainer for Calumet Farm....
Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez won a pair of races on the opening day of the Bing Crosby meet at Del Mar and his presence is something that Southern California is about to get more used to. The 50-year-old is using his time at Del Mar as a steppingstone to the winter stand at Santa Anita Park, where he plans to ride full time. "I wanted to get it started here so the trainers and owners know I'm going to be here for the winter," Velazquez told the Del...
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, located in Saratoga, will host a "Countdown to the Breeders' Cup" program Saturday, Oct. 29. Jeff Carle, a former jockey and trainer, as well as a public handicapper, and Michael Veitch, a chairman of the Museum's Hall of Fame Historic Review Committee, a member of the Hall of Fame Nominating Committee, and a turf writer with extensive credits, will provide analysis and predictions for each of the 14 races. Brien Bouyea, the Museum's communications officer, will serve as the event moderator....
Owner/breeder Charles E. Fipke, a Canadian geologist and diamond prospector who has made an impact on the sport on both sides of the border, will be inducted as part of the 2022 class in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. The other Thoroughbred inductees include jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva, as well as horses Court Vision (Gulch) and Alydeed (Shadeed). Fipke has been involved in Thoroughbreds for over 40 years. His Sovereign Award winners are all homebreds: Not Bourbon (Not Impossible {Ire}), Impossible Time (Not Impossible {Ire}), Perfect Soul...
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - By far, the most enthusiastic applause during the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame induction ceremony Friday morning was for a video clip of race that everyone in the audience likely had seen many times. Beholder's (Henny Hughes) career-capping victory by a nose over the previously unbeaten champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) in the 2016 GI Breeder's Cup Distaff was nearly as gripping on the big screen at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion as it was live at Santa Anita Park. For sheer drama it ranks with...
The National Museum of Racing will induct the 2022 Hall of Fame class Friday, Aug. 5 at Fasig-Tipton. The event is slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. Tom Durkin will serve as the master of ceremonies. The event is open to the public and free to attend. The ceremony will also be broadcast live on the Museum website at racingmuseum.org. A stellar class of inductees comprises the 2022 ceremony, namely four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder (Henny Hughes); Hillsdale (Take Away), who is also the first Indiana-bred in the Hall of...
Amplify Horse Racing, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to promoting education and careers in the Thoroughbred industry, has announced the opening of registration for behind-the-scenes educational tours at Saratoga Race Course for youth and young adults, along with additional programming throughout the month of August in Saratoga Springs, NY. On Monday, August 1 from 5:30-7:30 p.m., community members, racing fans and industry employees are invited to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame to attend "Amplifying the Future of Racing," a presentation about education, workforce and international opportunities in...
Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino will induct two horsemen into its Racing Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 9 including Quarter Horse jockey Stormy Smith and prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder, H. Allen Poindexter. His maroon and grey silks have been carried by multiple stakes-winning horses at Prairie Meadows and other tracks across America, such as GIII Fantasy S. runner-up Chanel's Legacy (Dominus) and GIII Iowa Oaks victress Flat Out Speed (Flat Out). Both will be inducted in a ceremony on the second day of the 2022 Iowa Festival of...