Keeneland

Ever in search of new markets to conquer, Jimmy and Martha Gladwell landed on the expanding racing industry in mainland China in 2019 and, after making several trips to the Far East, the couple has hopes the country's importation of American Thoroughbreds will only increase in the coming years and help to build up demand in the middle market of the U.S. breeding industry. "Several years ago, I was reading the Thoroughbred Daily News and it talked about how China had lifted the ban and were going to start importing...

Tickets for Keeneland's 16-day Spring Meet, which runs April 5-26, go on sale Feb. 20. Headlined by the 100th running of the GI Toyota Blue Grass S., the meet will award more than $8.1m in purse money over 19 stakes races. Tickets can be purchased in advance here and fans are also welcome to tailgate on The Hill without a ticket or reservation. Keeneland will so also host fans for Kentucky Derby Day with general admission and Equestrian Room dining tickets available along with upgraded tailgate packages.

The third annual Horse Racing Women's Summit will be held at Santa Anita Park Sept. 25-26 the group announced Thursday, with satellite events at Keeneland, Saratoga, Del Mar and the 2024 Global Symposium on Racing and Gaming. The HRWS, founded in 2022, brings speakers, networking opportunities and events together from across the horse racing industry. "Our executive committee and volunteers are working hard to pull together another series of great events across the country in addition to growing the membership and tackling the other priorities identified at the 2023 Summit,"...

Hemp Meats, a beef farm and butcher shop, is a family business now into its sixth generation. In fact, it's the oldest of its type not just in Maryland, but in the whole country. So you could say that Gary Hemp is accustomed to taking the long view. But something remarkable has just happened, really out of nowhere. "About two weeks ago," Hemp says. "That's when I got this call from Lexington, Kentucky, which is one I don't see too often." The voice on the other end of the line...

The New York Racing Association has announced the formation of an All-Weather Surfaces Committee to study the impact of various racing surfaces on equine injury rates. According to a Wednesday NYRA press release, the committee, which first met last October, will evaluate safety metrics from tracks utilizing all-weather racing surfaces, as well as study the feasibility of broader adoption of all-weather surfaces nationally. The committee, chaired by NYRA CEO and President David O'Rourke, was formed at the request of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, as part of HISA's strategic...

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 Tokyo Racecourse. An otherwise-typical Sunday afternoon of racing at headquarters is spiced up considerably by the seasonal debut of the US-conceived reigning Japanese champion 2-year-old male Jantar Mantar (Jpn) (Palace Malice) in the G3 Kyodo News Hai over 1800 meters:...

Purses for maiden special weight (MSW) races are projected to remain unchanged for the third straight spring at both Keeneland Race Course and Churchill Downs. Track executives disclosed the pre-condition book figures during the Feb. 1 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting. Keeneland expects to write $100,000 MSW races for 3-year-olds and older horses, with 2-year-olds competing for $80,000, according to Gatewood Bell, Keeneland's vice president of racing. Continuing a condition that Keeneland tried last fall, Bell added that there will also be four maiden-auction races written for...

Oisin Murphy, the British Champion Jockey in 2019, 2020 and 2021, decided to spend part of his winter riding at Gulfstream Park. He didn't come just for the sunshine. Murphy felt that experiencing something different, riding on the dirt and competing against one of the best riding colonies in the world, would further his career. How has he done? Has the experience made him a better rider? Those were questions we asked Murphy when he joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast sponsored by Keeneland. Murphy was the Green Group...

The Eclipse Awards Ceremony, to be held Thursday at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida, will be broadcast live on FanDuel TV and Racetrack Television Network (RTN). The Keeneland red-carpet show will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, with the ceremony following at 7:30 p.m. ET. In addition to FanDuel TV and RTN, the ceremony will be streamed live on multiple outlets including: NTRA.com, americasbestracing.net, bloodhorse.com, DRF.com, equibase.com, ThoroughbredDailyNews.com, and NTRA's YouTube channel. The ceremony will be co-hosted by Britney Eurton, Acacia Courtney Clement, and Nick Luck. Caton Bredar will be...

To get his new business off the ground--or at least out of the basement of his house in Iowa--Dennis Albaugh took out an SBA loan of $10,000. "Against the house," he says. "Had to talk my wife into that. Then I bought an old tanker and, my first trip out, I loaded up with chemicals headed for South Dakota. And all the way up there I'm thinking, 'Hey, this is really a good truck.' It just runs a little better all the way up. I get there, I get out,...

by Jessica Martini & Stefanie Grimm LEXINGTON, KY - Driven by strong demand at the top--which saw the auction produce its first seven-figure horses in five years--the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale concluded Thursday in Lexington with a fairly steady average, but a double-digit decline in median. "I think it's been a very fair and stable market," said Keeneland Director of Sales Tony Lacy. "We saw a lot of stability and a lot of good trade going on. When you look at the fact that we haven't had...

by Jessica Martini & Stefanie Grimm LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale continued into its second half Wednesday in Lexington with a session which, while significantly smaller, produced results largely in line with its 2023 counterpart. For the session, 196 horses sold for a gross of $4,352,900. The average of $22,209 was down 2.54% from last year's corresponding session, while the median of $10,000 was up 25%. From 316 catalogued horses, 242 horses were offered and 46 failed to meet their reserves for a buy-back...