thoroughbreds

GSW Starting Over Humanely Euthanized After Injury In U.N. At Monmouth

GSW Starting Over (Liam's Map) sustained an injury on the grass in the GII United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday and was humanely euthanized by the track veterinarian staff after the race. Owned by Nice Guys Stables and transferred to the care of Brittany Russell last year, the 8-year-old ran third in the Cape Henlopen Stakes at Delaware Park June 14, and then shipped to Monmouth after registering a workout at Saratoga July 13. In the United Nations, the gelding raced at the rear of the field past...

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Monday's Racing Insights: Not This Time's Piastri After Pole Position On Debut At Ellis

4th-ELP, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 2:16 p.m. ET. A $500,000 buy during Keeneland September, PIASTRI (Not This Time) gets behind the wheel for L & N Racing and Robert Zoellner. The Steve Asmussen trainee is out of SP Boule (Exchange Rate), who herself was purchased for $160,000 by Rhianon Farms at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale while in-foal with current 4-year-old filly Thorny (Violence). Boule is a half-sister to GSW Tide of the Sea (English Channel) and her own grand dam is MGISW Tates Creek (Rahy), who is responsible for...

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Quarantine Issued On Barn 28 At Saratoga, CCA Oaks Entrant La Cara And Pair Of Casse Runners At Monmouth Scratched

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) have placed a group of horses located in Barn 28 at Saratoga Race Course under quarantine due to a suspected case of strangles, which includes La Cara (Street Sense) who was scratched from the GI CCA Oaks, the track said in a press release on Saturday morning. The 4-year-old filly [Surprenant Cocca (Catholic Boy)], who is trained by Mike Maker and stabled in Barn 28, presented symptoms early Saturday, July 19 and has been transported...

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Horses, The Tax Bill, And 2028: A Conversation With Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear

The TDN always strives to remain scrupulously non-partisan and confines its occasional attention to the world of politics to such opportunities and concerns that directly affect the Thoroughbred industry. Recently, for instance, we spent time with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he stepped in to support the campaign against decoupling in that state. A few days ago, Chris McGrath was given the opportunity to sit down with the Governor of the Bluegrass State itself, Andy Beshear, a figure increasingly on the national radar as a potential White House contender in...

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Immersive takes a bath
Saratoga Notebook, Presented By NYRA Bets: The Heat Has Been On, But Relief Is On The Way

SARATOGA SPRINGS - The first six days of Saratoga have been hot. As in really hot. Blast furnace type hot. Trainers have felt it. Jockeys. Patrons. New York Racing Association executives. Parking attendants. Everybody. And, of course, the horses. But the stars of the show have been watched very carefully by those entrusted to take care of them. Some horses, like people, can't stand the heat. "Some horses can be extreme sweaters," trainer Gary Contessa said on yet another steamy Saratoga morning on Thursday outside his barn at the Oklahoma...

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Funeral Services Scheduled For Trainer Garry Simms Who Battled Cancer For 15 Years

Kentucky-based trainer Garry Wayne Simms, Sr. passed away on Tuesday, July 15, 2025 after a 15-year bout with cancer. He was 73. A conditioner and the owner of Garry Simms Racing, his obituary on the Ratterman Funeral Home site described him as having had a passion for developing Thoroughbreds. The post says he was one of only three trainers to win the Debutante Stakes and Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs in the same year. He achieved that feat in 2012 with Blueeyesintherein (Magna Graduate) and Circle Unbroken (Broken Vow)....

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Weekly National Regulatory Rulings, July 10-16

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. The following rulings were reported on HISA's "rulings" portal and through the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's (HIWU) "pending" and "resolved" cases portals. Among this week's rulings, Bonnie Lucas has been banned for 60 days and fined a total of $8,000 for violating the rules on intra-articular joint injections within a specified standdown time prior to a timed workout or race. For the 47 horses that had been...

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Suspended Trainer Serpe Back In Federal Court Against HISA: 'This Gamesmanship Has To Stop'

One day after an arbitrator ruled that Phil Serpe would be suspended for two years in a contested clenbuterol positive case from last summer at Saratoga Race Course, the 66-year-old trainer was back in federal court Tuesday seeking to renew his request for a preliminary injunction in his nine-month-old lawsuit against the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). At the same time, Serpe's legal team also wasted no time in filing an immediate appeal with the FTC to have his July 14 Horseracing Integrity...

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War Front Colt Two Out Hero Bags 'TDN Rising Star' On Debut At Woodbine

With a soft crunch of the ground beneath and a spring in that step of his out of the box, Two Out Hero (War Front--Song River, by Liam's Map) was smashing as he graduated on debut at Woodbine on Sunday which earned him a 'TDN Rising Star' patch for his saddlecloth. In a race which was moved from the turf to the all-weather, the 2-year-old first-timer did not mind the new surface one iota. Tearing up the base paths, Two Out Hero clearly distanced himself from the rest of field...

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Monday's Racing Insights: Well-Bred Son Of Gun Runner, Out Of Our Khrysty Makes Ellis Debut

2nd-ELP, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:19 p.m. ET. The seventh highest-priced Gun Runner to be taken home for $975,000 by Lael Stables during Keeneland September last year is now making her debut at Ellis on Monday. Sent to trainer Cherie DeVaux, GLORY ME is out Blue Heaven Farm's GSW Our Khrysty (Newfoundland), who acquired her for $600,000 at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Fall Sale while she was in foal to Tiznow. The productive mare counts among her offspring GISW & $2-million buy Grace Adler (Curlin) and recently retired GSW...

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Saratoga Maidens, Presented By Keeneland, Experience Matters as Amoss Filly Wires Field in Saratoga Maiden

Spa Prospector (Authentic) didn't fare well in her first career start. She was seventh, beaten nine lengths in a race at Churchill. Saturday's second race at Saratoga didn't figure to be any easier as it was filled with a collection of well-bred first-time-starters from some of the game's top stables. But trainer Tom Amoss went into the race with a lot of confidence in his filly. He was proven right and she skipped over the Saratoga slop to win the six-furlong race by 3 1/2 lengths under Jose Ortiz. "Why...

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StrideSAFE Update: A New Level of Veterinary “Finesse”

In discussing the evolution of his StrideSAFE wearable sensor, Dave Lambert turns to a tufty-haired German philosopher called Arthur Schopenhauer, who described new truths as a play in three parts. "First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident." Lambert has had the rejection and a little bit of ridicule, he said. "Some people have thrown rocks at me," he added, one recent afternoon via Zoom in a brightly lit corner of his Kentucky home, a small bronze horse as his virtual companion. "But...

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