Pomona

Former Southern California jockey and "King of the Bullring" Francisco "Paco" Mena died last week in Rosarito, Mexico where family members said he had been living. He was 78. Mena's brother, former jockey Guillermo Mena, said his older sibling retired to Mexico and had been staying with family before recently getting his own beachside residence in Rosarito. "He just recently decided he wanted to live on his own. He got a nice little place by the ocean in Rosarito," Mena said. Born in 1947 in Jalisco, Mexico, Mena started riding...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 59 horses of racing age entries for its upcoming California Fall Yearlings and Horses of Racing Age sale, the auction house said in a release late Thursday. These entries, which are catalogued as hips 301-359, will be sold immediately following the conclusion of the yearling portion of the catalogue. They include several stakes performers, unraced 2-year-olds with recent public works and 3-year-olds and older horses with current form. "There's a lot of quality among the horses of racing age entries, and the timing works well for those...

When Amy Bunt and John Barton teamed up to present their first consignment as Baldwin Bloodstock at the 2021 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, Barton was still based in Southern California and making a living underwriting auto loans. Two years on, Barton has made the transition full-time to the Bluegrass and Baldwin Bloodstock is set to present six horses in its third January consignment. While earning a living in the industry might have been a new experience when he joined forces with Bunt two years ago, Barton was...