pony

Without much notice or attention--the way he prefers it--lifelong racetracker John Pimental is easing back into a sense of shedrow normalcy as spring morphs into summer at Monmouth Park. "It feels good to be back to working--making a living again," Pimental told TDN one recent afternoon before feeding time. The 70-year-old trainer has five Thoroughbreds bedded down in the same barn his former outfit of eight occupied on the morning of July 28, 2023, when agents for the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) descended upon the modest racing stable...

Ellis Park plans to honor Marvin Prado and other backstretch workers involved in rescuing six racehorses and one stable pony during a fire in the track's receiving barn last Sunday. They hope to do so during this weekend's races, contingent on the availability of Prado, whose daughter was born two months premature the day after the fire and is still hospitalized. The barn was engulfed in flames in a matter of 20 minutes and those on the scene say the man of the moment was Prado, with assistance from fellow...