Horse Racing
In 2016, just a few months after completing a championship season with a victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Nyquist (Uncle Mo) made the first start of his 3-year-old season in the GII San Vicente S. before adding the GI Florida Derby and GI Kentucky Derby. Reigning Eclipse Award winner Storm the Court (Court Vision) will look to emulate that success by kicking off his season in the seven-furlong test Sunday afternoon at Santa Anita. The bay colt defeated 1-5 Garth (Into Mischief) in his Aug. 10 bow over...
Racing continues Saturday with a 10-race program at Sha Tin, even as the coronavirus outbreak that has its origins in Mainland China is causing some major contingency planning by officials at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Over the last few weeks, attendance at live meetings at Sha Tin in the New Territories to the north and at Happy Valley Racecourse on Hong Kong Island to the south has been restricted to those with pre-existing reservations, with public areas closed. The Chinese New Year racecard at Sha Tin, which normally attracts...
Bruce Johnstone, who transitioned from a trainer to management at the New York Racing Association, the last 13 years of which he spent as Manager of Racing Operations, died Thursday following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 76. "Bruce was a true horseman who used the lessons of a lifetime to make all of us better in so many big and small ways," said NYRA CEO and President Dave O'Rourke. "He was a man of impeccable integrity who was a beloved member of the thoroughbred racing community here in...
Having more than proven her aptitude going short with a devastating maiden-breaking victory over 6 1/2 furlongs last time out, Venetian Harbor (Munnings) stretches out to two turns for Saturday's GII Las Virgenes S. at Santa Anita. While the trip remains a bit of a question mark, the bay is strictly the one they'll all have to beat. The subject of considerable pre-debut chatter, Venetian Harbor was duly sent off at even-money for a five-furlong turf dash at Del Mar Nov. 15. She sent the chalk players home slightly disappointed...
Editor's Note: the following is part of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's weekly `Free-Data Friday' series. New Jersey moved first. Again. Continuing a trend that has seen the Garden State lead the way forward on sports betting and evolving the nation's wagering landscape, Tuesday's announcement was a potential positive volley in that evolution as Monmouth Park and their operator, Darby Development LLC, entered a 10-year exclusive agreement with The BetMakers to manage and distribute a fixed odds signal. This is the first such deal in North America for North American customers....
With a forecast calling for sustained winds of 25-35 miles per hour with gusts as high as 60 mph, officials at the New York Racing Association canceled Friday's live program at Aqueduct. The track remained open for simulcasting. Live racing is scheduled to resume Saturday at 1 p.m. ET with a nine-race card featuring the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield S. Later in the day Friday, Laurel cancelled after race four of its eight-race program due to similarly gusty conditions.
In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Kyoto and Tokyo Racecourses: Saturday, February 8, 2020 2nd-KYO, ¥9,680,000 ($88k), Maiden, 3yo, 1800m QUALITY TIME (JPN) (f, 3, Quality Road--Gypsy {GB}, by Distorted Humor) is out of a winning daughter of Glia (A.P. Indy), a stakes winner and GSP...
Studying political science at college, the only Constitution she might have expected to see put to the test right now was the one that opens with the words, "We the people..." As it is, Shannon Castagnola just feels relief that fate diverted her from her original vocation, to chronicle impeachments or caucuses, and instead afforded her a professional stake in one of the frontrunners for the highest sophomore office of 2020. Castagnola is the Director of Marketing and Client Relations at Woodford Thoroughbreds, the farm that bred and raised Independence...
A horse suffered a nearly shattered jaw bone when it was struck by a bullet near the Jessamine-Fayette County border off Tates Creek Road in Lexington, WKYT, the CBS television affiliate in the city reported. A surgeon caring for the horse told the station that the shooting happened in the early morning hours of Feb. 3 when she was informed there was a horse with blood around its face. "If the bullet had been, say, four inches higher she would not be alive at this time," Dr. Liz Barrett told...
After a devastating 2019 fire at Louis and Grace Merryman's Anchor and Hope Farm in Port Deposit, Maryland, the rebuilding process has come full circle with the arrival of Force the Pass, a Grade I-winning son of Speightstown, who will begin his first season at stud at the farm this year. Force the Pass also marks a new beginning for T. K. Kuegler's Wasabi Ventures Stallions as the first stallion to stand for the growing syndicate. Kuegler grew up listening to racing stories from his great grandfather, trainer P. J....
Darby Development LLC., the operator of Monmouth Park, has entered into a 10-year agreement with the Australian firm BetMakers in which BetMakers will manage and distribute fixed-odds betting on Monmouth's races, starting at this year's meet. For now, the agreement covers only Monmouth's races and New Jersey customers, but there is the potential for other jurisdictions to take fixed-odds betting on Monmouth's races and for other tracks to reach separate agreements with BetMakers to offer fixed odds betting on their races. BetMakers CEO Todd Buckingham predicted that fixed-odds wagering will...
Ontario Racing's Mare Purchase Program (MPP), designed to bolster the province's breeding and racing industry through its Thoroughbred Horse Improvement Program (TIP), has concluded with a total of 123 new broodmares added to the breeding program and 76 of those pledged to breed back to Ontario stallions. Through the end of the OBS Winter Mixed sale Jan. 29, a total of 24 in-foal broodmares were purchased at various public auctions with 16 expected to be bred back to a registered Ontario sire during the 2020-21 breedingseason and eligible for the...