Penn National

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 Tribalism in Arcadia. No Nay Never Colt Finds His People BR Thoroughbreds' Tribalism (No Nay Never) graduated going a mile at Santa Anita on May 30 (video). The Michael McCarthy trainee was bred by Phoenix Thoroughbreds Limited. Second on debut at Keeneland, Tribalism was a $280,000 buy-back out of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The third foal and first winner for the multiple stakes-placed...

[caption id="attachment_519798" align="alignleft" width="1024"] Duplicitous breaks his maiden at Delaware Park in 1990 | Hoofprints, Inc. [/caption] As is the case with most of these horses who live on in relative anonymity after their careers on the racetrack end, Duplicitous really didn't accomplish much of anything on the racetrack. He ran just 11 times and won just once, in a $4,000 maiden claimer at Delaware Park way back in 1990. But ask his owner, Fonda Dixon, and the horse who was renamed Athens, is as special as any racehorse who...

The 2026 Pennsylvania-Bred stakes schedule will offer $1,700,000 in purses across 20 stakes races. All three of Pennsylvania's racetracks will host stakes. Beginning Apr. 22, Parx Racing will feature three Pennsylvania-Bred stakes, including the $75,000 Wait for It Stakes for 3-year-old PA-Sired runners, which was carried over from December 2025. Contested over six furlongs, the Wait for It is restricted to Pennsylvania-Breds sired by registered Pennsylvania stallions. Also featured on the Wednesday card are the $100,000 Unique Bella Stakes for fillies and mares and $100,000 Page McKenney Handicap, both over...

Parx will begin installing a new turf course in March with the goal of racing on it by late summer 2026. There has been no grass racing at Parx since September 2024. In August of that season the course was closed after a catastrophic equine injury during a stakes resulted in a euthanization, triggering a safety review by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). The track was cleared to reopen by HISA within several weeks, with Parx agreeing to put new protocols and maintenance procedures in place. But another...

Eleven weeks ago, jockey Tyler Conner lay on the turf at Colonial Downs calm, but for all the wrong reasons. "I couldn't feel anything," he said. "I was totally calm which was weird but it was because I wasn't in any pain." Conner was involved in an incident in the seventh race in Virginia July 24 when his mount, the Elizabeth Merryman-trained Stanza (Great Notion), clipped heels with eventually-disqualified race winner Montador (Nyquist) and fell around the far turn. Francisco Arrieta, who was aboard Montador, was suspended 15 days by...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has appointed Eric Johnston to the position of stakes coordinator, according to a Friday morning press release by the track operator. Johnston brings more than four decades of racing industry experience to his new role, and was previously the director of racing and sportsbook at Penn National. As the new coordinator, Johnston succeeds Andrew Byrnes, who had held the position since 1999 and will retire at the conclusion of the summer meet at Saratoga. Johnston will assume his stakes coordinator responsibilities Oct. 3....

   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 Sigh No More in the Boiling Springs Stakes at Monmouth. Boiling Springs Stakes To Sigh No More Heider Family Stables' Sigh No More ran out a 1 1/2-length winner of Monmouth Park's Boiling Springs Stakes at the end of last month (video). Conditioned by Brendan Walsh, the daughter of Starspangledbanner was making her second US start. Bred by Barronstown Stud out of the...

Dreams came true in the GIII Penn Mile Stakes Friday evening when Dream On (c, 3, Not This Time-Mamma Kimbo, by Discreet Cat)--winner of Aqueduct's Woodhaven Stakes in April--split horses in late stretch after trailing throughout to capture the first graded victory of his career. Cairo Caper (Cairo Prince), a stakes winner at two who finished seventh in the Woodhaven, got up for second while Out On Bail (Tiz the Law), who has never been off the board in eight career starts, held third after pressuring the frontrunning 3-5 favorite...

Executing a well-timed turn of foot like a seasoned professional, Laurelin (Zarak {Fr}) ran to her odds and in the process swept up the Penn Oaks at dusk. The chestnut came in as a deserving favorite, since her record was without blemish. After breaking her maiden at first asking during the Belmont At The Big A meet last October, the filly picked up the Tepin Stakes at the Big A in mid-November. Turned out for the winter, Laurelin returned to Ozone Park and promptly took home the Memories of Silver...

Following a couple of weather-related postponements, a field of eight will finally get their chance to run in the GIII Penn Mile as the sun begins to set over Grantville on Friday evening. Chad Brown won the second running of the Penn Mile with Bobby's Kitten (Kitten's Joy) back in 2014, and Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns) will start a warm favorite to pull the conditioner into a tie with Mark Casse on two wins. A two-time graded winner and low-odds seventh in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf last...

Already postponed once for rain from May 30 to June 20, weather has yet again pushed the four turf stakes on GIII Penn Mile day another week out. In a press release Tuesday morning, Penn National stated that the four stakes in question, the Penn Mile, Penn Oaks, Alphabet Soup Stakes and Lyphard Stakes will be now be held Friday, June 27. The release reads: "With significant, persistent rainfall in the local forecast for the next several days, the four turf stakes races carded for Friday, June 20th at Hollywood...

An 81-year-old Penn National-based veterinarian charged in February by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) with allegedly intentional, conspirational and repeated violations of intra-articular injection rules designed to safeguard the health of horses has consented to an "agreed order" of a lifetime ban of practicing medicine on Thoroughbreds covered by HISA. Allen Post Bonnell, a veterinarian who has been practicing for 45 years, signed the consent order May 7, according to documentation provided by HISA. Beyond his work as a veterinarian, Bonnell is barred from "participating in any activity"...