Santa Anita

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) voted 6-0 on Thursday to approve a dates package for the back half of 2024 that will establish the current fairs-meet-only track at Pleasanton as the new crux of a Northern California circuit. The entire state has been trying to come to grips with the looming June 9 closure of Golden Gate Fields, the lone commercial track in the region, and the Mar. 21 vote by the CHRB was viewed as a NorCal racing lifeline by the estimated 250 supporters in attendance. Those very...

Ahead of a critical California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting Thursday to decide essentially whether or not to give Northern California stakeholders a fighting chance to build a circuit in the void left by the imminent closure of Golden Gate Fields, 1/ST Racing and Gaming set out their stall Tuesday in a letter to the regulator urging them to decline race dates to the North. In a proposal to the state regulator, the California Association of Racing Fairs (CARF) outlined a 10-week meeting this year that would run from Oct....

Last weekend represented a staging post on the Derby trail, a chance not only to reflect on some rather puzzling sophomore skirmishes, to this point, but also to celebrate fulfilments that remain far more pertinent to the vast majority of Thoroughbreds. After all, very few get anywhere near testing their eligibility for the Classics and few others, certainly among the male of the species, will contrive a second career from such opportunities as remain once they have missed that one. That's why purses are so important. Otherwise racehorse ownership would...

It's Sizzling Time (Not This Time) finished second in Saturday's $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial S. at Laurel, but trainer Valrie Smith wasn't about to complain. The gelding banked another $20,000, upping his career earnings to $327,766. Not bad for a horse who cost $1,000 as a yearling, which is what It's Sizzling Time sold for at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling sale "If you had told me back then that he'd win all these races, win a stakes and make all that money, I would have told you...

Trainer Mark Glatt is weighing his options for the promising Judge Miller (Curlin). The lightly raced 4-year-old, a jaw-dropping winner while making his route debut in an optional claimer at Santa Anita Feb. 24, has been nominated to Oaklawn's $600,000 GIII Essex H. and the $500,000 GII New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds. Both races will be contested at 1 1/8 miles and are slated for Saturday, Mar. 23. "He's nominated to a couple of stakes coming up, but I don't know what we're doing with him yet for certain,"...

Tickets are now on sale for the 2024 Horse Racing Women's Summit (HRWS) Annual Summit and HRWS Events. Events at Keeneland (Apr. 18) and at Saratoga (July 23) kick off the year, all leading up to the third annual Horse Racing Women's Summit at Santa Anita Sept. 25-26. There will be another gathering prior to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar Oct. 31. Attendance at each event is limited and it is expected that events will sell out. Click here to purchase tickets. "Coming into our third year of the...

Southern California-based trainer Milton Pineda has been banned for 15 years and ordered to pay a total of $195,000 in fines and legal fees after an arbitration panel found him guilty of seven rule violations under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Unit (HIWU)'s Anti-Doping and Medication Control (AMDC) program, according to a final decision dated Mar. 12. Between June 2 and July 4 last year, seven different Pineda-trainees tested positive for Diisopropylamine—a banned substance under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)—after running at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos. During...

It's still not clear exactly what went wrong Saturday when a tote failure impacted several tracks, including Tampa Bay Downs. The Oldsmar, Florida track took a huge hit when it was forced to run the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby as a non-wagering event and to also cancel the last race of the day. Tampa Bay Downs Vice President and General Manager Pete Berube estimates that the track lost as much as $4.5 million in handle because betting wasn't available. There was a massive telecommunications network failure Saturday afternoon...

Facing a bevy of more experienced rivals, lightly raced SWEET AZTECA (f, 4, Sharp Azteca--So Sweetitiz, by Grand Slam) led every step of the way to capture the renamed GI B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile S. at Santa Anita Saturday. Last summer's GI Clement L. Hirsch S. winner and even-money favorite Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) was second, while 'TDN Rising Star' and Pumpkin Pie S. winner Green Up (Upstart), an East Coast shipper, was third. Final time for the mile was 1:36.40. A homebred for Pamela Cee Ziebarth, Sweet Azteca...

Saturday's GIII Santa Ysabel S. proved yet another walk in the park for Michael Lund Petersen's 'TDN Rising Star' Kinza (Carpe Diem), who treated her seven other rivals to a front-running beating while not asked for anything close to her best. It was a second straight win in the race for Petersen, who sent out fellow Fasig-Tipton Midlantic acquisition and 'Rising Star' Faiza (Girvin) last year. The 1-2 chalk to add to her facile two-length victory in her two-turn bow in the GIII Las Virgenes S. going a mile Feb....

The GI Beholder Mile is being renamed the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile in honor of the multiple champion's late owner, who passed away in August 2021. Hughes, the founder of the Public Storage company and whose silks carried the same purple-and-orange color scheme, owned horses for five decades and was the proprietor of Spendthrift Farm from 2004. Beholder, a daughter of Henny Hughes, was purchased for $180,000 at the 2011 Keeneland September sale and won a record 13 stakes races at Santa Anita, including the 2012 GI Breeders' Cup...

Trainer Chad Brown has started but three horses in the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, none of which has finished better than sixth, but in the form of Klaravich Stable's Domestic Product (Practical Joke), he could very well be getting his picture taken Saturday afternoon. Having won his maiden over nine furlongs at second asking at Aqueduct in late October, the next logical step was the Dec. 2 GII Remsen S., but he caught a rain-affected strip he may not have preferred and faded through the final furlong to...