Turf Paradise
Turf Paradise had to cram them in on the day of the GI Kentucky Derby Day. Every seat in the track was sold out and, including those who bought general admission tickets, the estimated crowd was 7,500. While most tracks draw big crowds for the Derby simulcast and live racing, this was something new for Turf Paradise. The facility had grown into such disrepair that no one had wanted to come. Things were so bad that, according to new GM Tom Ludt, most people living in the Phoenix area did...
The Arizona Department of Gaming has issued a license to 63-year-old jockey Patrick Valenzuela. He last rode professionally in 2016. Valenzuela has long struggled with substance abuse problems, as a result of which, the jockey has seen his license repeatedly suspended during a career that started in 1978. In 2018, Valenzuela pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic abuse charges after slapping his girlfriend at a Carlsbad, California, restaurant. He was arrested again in 2019 on spousal abuse charges, according to a 2025 California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) hearing document. After repeatedly...
A paramedic at Turf Paradise has been suspended 90 days for refusing to take a breathalyzer test after the track's stewards found "reason to believe the licensee had consumed alcohol and/or was intoxicated" on Feb. 14. In addition to the suspension, which runs two weeks beyond the May 2 closing date of the current Turf Paradise meet, the paramedic, Robert Winters, "is ruled off for the duration of the term of his suspension and barred from all grounds under the jurisdiction of the Arizona Department of Gaming Racing Division," according...
At 78 years of age, Dana Halvorson is looking to move out of Washington State and live permanently at his farm in Ocala, Florida. He leaves behind a decades-long, storied career in the bloodstock world in Washington. He also leaves behind a state breeding industry in free-fall. Between 2005 and 2025, the number of mares bred dropped 94%, from 1214 to 70. Only two major farms remain in the whole state. "The West Coast has just taken a beating," said Halvorson, president of the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders & Owners Association...
Making his 13th start of the year and 100th of his career, the 11-year-old gelding Surprsinglyperfect (Perfect Soul {Ire}) has been named the National HBPA's 2025 National Claiming Horse of the Year, the horsemen's organization said in a press release on Friday. Based at trainer & co-owner Justin Evans's main bases of Turf Paradise in Phoenix and Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington, Surprsinglyperfect finished 2025 with seven wins out of those 13 starts, along with three seconds and a third for career-high season earnings of $94,230. The Kentucky-bred son of...
Bryson Butterfly, who was an up-and-coming teenage apprentice jockey in Maryland when he was arrested two years ago on first-degree murder charges for his part in a staged robbery that went wrong and killed a 17-year-old high-school student, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday by a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge. Butterfly, now 20, started riding horses as a toddler while growing up on a Native American Indian reservation in rural Washington. He had graduated from Pacific Northwest bush-track horsebacking to being a $2-million winning apprentice based primarily...
With Turf Paradise in the process of a racing permit transfer to a new leaseholder that puts the 69-year-old track on the cusp of a possible regime change, stakeholders who spoke about the longer-term future of racing in greater Phoenix were cautiously optimistic during Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting. But representatives of the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) did articulate short-term concerns that at times vacillated between glass-half-full and glass-half-empty, echoing a nagging tone of uncertainty familiar to anyone who has followed the ups and downs of...
Just over 20 minutes had passed when Darren Filkins dislodged the irritant in his craw concerning the future of Harris Farms without its eponymous captain, John, who passed this July. "People were talking dispersal," said Filkins, about Fasig-Tipton's recent digital sale of around 90 Harris homebreds. "I even corrected people yesterday. 'Oh, I heard you're shutting down Harris farms.' 'Nope.' I don't know where they heard it. We're not shutting down Harris Farms. We're committed to being in this." Sitting at a table in Del Mar's backstretch cafeteria and presiding...
Now inside the three-month mark until the start of the upcoming 102-date meet, management at Turf Paradise is checking off projects on its list of off-season improvements prior to the arrival of horses in October for the Nov. 10-May 2 season. Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia said at Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting that Sept. 16 is the target date for the beginning of the annual main-track renovation. "It may take anywhere from 10 days to two weeks because we take all the old dirt off and then...
The 2024-2025 race meeting at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona, concluded on Kentucky Derby day May 3 with the lowest ever fatality rate in the 69-year history of the track, according to a release. For the entire meet, the track recorded a fatality rate of 0.73 per 1,000 starts and from the beginning of 2025 through the end of the meet, post a rate of just 0.24. The 2024 Jockey Club national average was 1.11/1,000, while the 2024 HISA national average was 0.90/1,000, the release stated. "Such accomplishments come about...
The two racetrack jobs that Crystal Conning currently has can be broken down simply. In one, her goal is to pick winners. In the other, it's to ride them. On Monday, her professional worlds will collide when the Monmouth Park paddock analyst rides Like a Saltshaker (Peace and Justice) in the second race at the Jersey Shore track in between TV appearances. "I think it's going to be cool to ride a race at Monmouth Park," said Conning, who hails from Melbourne, Australia. "I've been here three summers working and...
Trainer Marcus Vitali, who has not started a horse at a NYRA track since 2021, will make his return to the Big Apple Friday when he sends out Classy Lass (Classic Empire) in Friday's fifth race at the Belmont At The Big A meet. The race is a $17,500 claimer on the dirt. The Daily Racing Form's David Grening was first with the story. Vitali, who has numerous violations on his record, reached an accord with NYRA July 1, 2022 in which he agreed to a suspension. But NYRA was...