Laurel Park

Vincent "Jimbo" Bracciale, Jr., winning rider of 3,545 races--the bulk of them in Maryland, passed away Dec. 15, according to a release from the Maryland Jockey Club, which will hold a moment of silence and a video tribute after the first race Saturday. Bracciale was 72. Among Bracciale's many career highlights was piloting Ruffian to victory in the 1974 GI Spinaway Stakes and GIII Astoria Stakes. "I've ridden some good horses, but there was nothing to compare to her," said Bracciale said in a 1988 interview. He also rode Broad...

Lyudmila (Gun Runner), a $1-million Keeneland September yearling purchase by Edward Seltzer's Stonebase LLC, won for fun in her Laurel Park unveiling Friday. After being pinched back at the start, the 5-2 chance raced in fourth through an opening quarter in :22.33, began to launch while three wide at the top of the stretch and kicked on in the lane to graduate by six lengths over favored Juniper's Jubilee (Honor A. P.). Hailing from a deep Edward Seltzer family, the winner's dam Lucrezia (Into Mischief) is also represented by a...

For 2026, Maryland's racing calendar will look more or less like this year's schedule after the Maryland Racing Commission on Wednesday approved a slate of 120 dates for Laurel Park. That's the same number of racing days that the non-profit Maryland Jockey Club had been awarded for this season, with the only difference being that in 2025, six programs were run at Pimlico Race Course as part of the GI Preakness Stakes meet. Pimlico has since been demolished and is being rebuilt with the goal of all commercial-track Thoroughbred racing...

Live Oak Plantation's blue-blooded homebred Ultimate Love (Curlin) will put her perfect record on the line in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar Oct. 31. She will look to emulate Sharing (Speightstown), who followed a win in Laurel Park's Selima S. with a 13-1 upset at the 2019 Championships at Santa Anita. "I think she fits and hopefully she's a logical player to give it a try," trainer Mike Trombetta said. Ultimate Love has won her first three career starts--all on grass--by a combined margin of...

State-bred and -sired programs in Louisiana, West Virginia and Maryland were in the spotlight over the weekend, and the while main events at Delta Downs, Charles Town Races and Laurel Park each featured heavily backed odds-on favorites, the results produced varying outcomes: A new track record, a double-digit-lengths blowout, and an upset of a Breeders' Cup-placed horse who had seemed like a cinch dropping down into restricted company. On Saturday at Delta Downs, Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) returned from a 4 1/2-month layoff in the co-featured $100,000 Gold Cup Stakes for...

With a resume of graded stakes-placed experience anchored by a runner-up try in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and a 10-for-10 lifetime record at Laurel Park that included a 17-length blowout in an open-company stakes there last month, Post Time (Frosted) figured to deserve his formidable 1-10 favoritism in the six-horse feature on Saturday's 40th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million program for the offspring of stallions standing in Maryland. But even though the 12-time winner enjoyed a decided advantage on paper in the $150,000 Classic Stakes over 1...

Bill Knauf is the president and general manager of the non-profit Maryland Jockey Club Inc., (MJC), which took over the management of Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course this year. It's a time of tremendous transition in that state, with Pimlico currently being demolished and rebuilt with the goal of all commercial-track Thoroughbred racing in Maryland moving to the new Baltimore venue by 2027. Laurel will then close for racing and training, and a new training facility at Shamrock Farm in Carroll County will be built. Knauf updated TDN on...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Notable Speech at Woodbine. Dubawi Classic Winner Shines At Woodbine Godolphin homebred Notable Speech arrived late on the scene to take the GI Rogers Woodbine Mile for Charlie Appleby on September 13 (video). The son of Dubawi won the G1 2,000 Guineas last year and defeated older milers in the G1 Sussex Stakes. He is a son of the group-placed Swift Rose (Invincible...

Purchased privately following a maiden win, last year's overachieving Debutante S. winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Vodka With a Twist (Thousand Words) hit the board in five straight graded stakes races for trainer Phil D'Amato in Southern California beginning with the GIII Sorrento S. at Del Mar. Taylor Made's Medallion Racing will look to follow a similar blueprint with impressive Laurel Park debut winner Dreaming of Alys (Upstart), who will face five rivals, led by the Bob Baffert-trained 'TDN Rising Star' Himika (Curlin), going six furlongs in...

Campers from the HERoes on the HERizon program turned out for a morning at Laurel Park July 18. The event was hosted by Maryland Jockey Club (TMJC), in partnership with the Anne Arundel County Office of Emergency Management (OEM). HERoes on the HERizon is an annual free week-long summer program designed to encourage young women in high school and college to explore careers in emergency management and public safety. The program offers participants the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities, interactive workshops and field trips led by industry professionals. HERoes...

Eclipse Award-winning jockey Axel Concepcion, who was named top apprentice in 2023, will return to the Mid Atlantic and make his first appearance at Colonial Downs this summer as the 20-year-old has joined the local riding colony for the 2025 summer session. "It feels great to be here," Concepcion said. "I want to take advantage of these opportunities that the trainers are giving me. My goal is to win as many races as I can and to try to win a title." No stranger to the Mid Atlantic circuit, Concepcion...

The 2025 Triple Crown season delivered something even more elusive than a sweep of the series by a single horse--a legitimately intriguing rivalry between two talented colts that could end up on par with the likes of Affirmed vs. Alydar or Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer. The afterglow of the GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga includes plenty of anticipation and speculation about when one-two finishers Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and Journalism (Curlin) might meet again. In the meantime, here are seven takeaways from Saturday's card at the Spa. 1) The Preakness...