A jockey who is thrown from a horse or falls while riding will need to be examined by a medical specialist for possible concussion symptoms prior to being allowed to return to riding under a protocol released on Thursday by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
Beginning in 2026, New York Racing Association will increase purses for maiden New York-bred 2-year-old races to be equal to that of open company maiden races, NYRA announced Wednesday.
While it is too early to define what the purse levels will be, a NYRA release noted that the 2023 summer meet at Saratoga, maiden races restricted to New York bred 2-year-old races offered purses of $88,000 compared to $105,000 for open company races.
The Horseracing Integrity and Wagering Unit has created a sub-category of its banned-substances list that includes drugs of human abuse such as cocaine and methamphetamine, a designation created to provide a layer of protection to trainers whose horses test positive for the substances from contamination.
Lieutenant Dan, a six-time stakes winner who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in 2021, was recently retired and sent to the central California ranch of owner-breeder Nick Alexander.
“He had an ankle that was causing problems,” Alexander said. “We didn’t want to push it.”
Lieutenant Dan, a 7-year-old gelding by Grazen, won 9 of 18 starts and earned $923,740. All six of the stakes wins were achieved in sprints in Southern California, including three stakes for statebreds in 2019 and 2020.
Winter Memories, who added to the legacy of a prominent Darby Dan Farm family both as a Grade 1 winner on the track and as a stakes producer at the farm, died this past spring. The El Prado mare was 15.
Winter Memories, whose death was first confirmed by the BloodHorse, was euthanized in May at her birthplace, as trouble with her hind suspensory ligaments made standing and walking painful for her, Darby Dan owner John Phillips said.
The California Horse Racing Board is seeking to automate a process that will allow the board to quickly determine whether trainers are in compliance with a rule requiring written confirmations that a horse has been examined by a veterinarian prior to a workout, the board announced on Wednesday.
Knockemdown, a son of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, was the champion of the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover following several days of competition at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington that awarded a total of $100,000 in prize money.
Maryland’s horsemen, breeders, and racetrack operators all appear to agree on one thing: Maryland can no longer afford two tracks. In the long-term, they say, racing needs to be consolidated at Pimlico Race Course, the home of the Preakness, with support provided by a new year-round training center.
But from there the differences widen, to a degree that seems unresolvable.
Larry Collmus will call the races at the 13-day Del Mar autumn meeting from Nov 10 to Dec. 3 for the fourth consecutive year, the track announced on Friday.
Trevor Denman calls the races during the summer, but has not worked an autumn meeting since 2019. Collmus was the announcer for the Del Mar summer meeting in 2020 when Denman opted not to work because of the coronavirus outbreak.
