The Delaware Horse Racing Commission has reached a five-year deal with Truesdail Laboratory in California to perform the state’s drug testing, according to the executive director of the commission.
An unfortunate byproduct of so many tracks turning major stakes days into big event days loaded with stakes is that now, not every Saturday card can be a knockout. Even at top tracks. And that is the case Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Los Alamitos and Santa Anita are trying to settle a conflict over which track will host racing on the last weekend of September.
Alan Sherman, the son and main assistant of trainer Art Sherman, traveled with California Chrome to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, to Baltimore for the Preakness, and to Long Island, N.Y., for the Belmont Stakes. The three Triple Crown stops all have their particular charms and quirks. But none would have prepared him for his latest trip with the 2014 Horse of the Year – to Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. “It’s different, I’ll say that,” Sherman said by phone Friday morning from Dubai.
Trainer Henry Dominguez will attack the Sunland Derby Day program at his home track in New Mexico on Sunday with 15 horses in the entries, including the barn’s flagship runner, Isn’t He Clever.
A couple weeks ago, Gary Stevens and Catch a Flight were galloping back alongside Tyler Baze and Bronzo, gabbing about what had just transpired in the Santa Anita Handicap when all of a sudden, the bottom fell out.
Handle at California tracks showed a slight gain for the year through February, according to figures compiled by the California Horse Racing Board.
There may be only five horses entered in Sunday’s $100,000 Stymie Stakes but it’s not an easy race to handicap.
Masochistic, a four-time winner who was recently transferred from trainer A.C. Avila to Ron Ellis, will make his 2015 stakes debut in the $200,000 Kona Gold Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on April 11, Ellis said.
Richard Hessee’s purchase of Brahms to stand at stud in Arkansas a few seasons ago could not have come at a better time. Sunbean was on the cusp of developing into one of the stallion’s leading earners, just starting to build a name for himself in his native Louisiana. At the same juncture, Hessee brought Brahms to his Trophy Club Training Center in Royal, Ark.
