The New York Racing Association is conducting 17 stakes races over three days at Belmont Park, perhaps none more competitive than Thursday’s $150,000 Intercontinental Stakes for older fillies and mares scheduled for seven furlongs over the Widener Turf course.
The new Twilight Thursday concept at the Churchill Downs spring meet has been embraced by local fans to the extent that track officials are quietly contemplating doing the same for Fridays at future meets.Horsemen might object, of course, to the exhausting demands of such a drawn-out schedule, but that’s something to be hashed out at a later date. In the meantime, younger folks with a penchant for food trucks and $1 beer will be back Thursday for another eight-race card, one with a pair of allowances on opposite ends. The richest of those is a $54,000, second-level turf sprint carded as the second race. Ready for Summer, entered for a $62,500 claiming option that’s part of the race conditions, figures as perhaps the top contender in a field that will max out at six, assuming the race stays on the grass.
Walt Robertson will retire from his day-to-day duties as Keeneland’s vice president of sales on June 30 but will remain with the company as part of its auctioneer team as the lead on the annual Sporting Art Auction and assisting in special projects.
An attorney representing a plaintiff in a suit alleging that American Pharoah owner Ahmed Zayat reneged on a gambling debt has sued Zayat for libel.
Three of the five stakes that were lost last Saturday when heavy rains washed out the Evangeline Turf Sprint program have been rescheduled for this Saturday.
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Wednesday 6/3 card at Northfield Park.
When American Pharoah seeks to complete a sweep of the Triple Crown at Belmont Park Saturday, racing fans will hope to see a great race and perhaps a definitive confirmation that the winner has earned a lofty place in the sport’s history. Based on recent history, it won’t happen.
Gierkink's Woodbine Horses to Watch
Jeff Burch, the vice president of advertising for Daily Racing Form, has been hired as senior vice president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s group-purchasing plan.
Rosie Napravnik, who retired as a jockey after last fall’s Breeders Cup to raise a family with her husband, trainer Joe Sharp, gave birth to a healthy baby boy early Monday morning.
