Twenty prominent commercial breeding farms have signed on to support the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA) by donating a portion of stud fees to support Thoroughbred aftercare in 2015.
The day before entries were to be taken and post positions assigned for Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes, the race lost a marquee player as the connections of Ocean Knight decided to stay in Florida and run in Saturday’s Tampa Bay Derby the same day.
Social Inclusion, who holds the Gulfstream track record for 1 1/16 miles, was back on the work tab for the first time this winter, going an easy three furlongs in 39 seconds last week at Palm Meadows. Social Inclusion came out of his seventh-place finish last August in the Grade 1 Haskell with a tendon injury.
Trainer Shug McGaughey is hoping 2015 will be the breakout year for his talented but injury plagued Honor Code, who launches the season against Grade 1 winners Private Zone and Wicked Strong in Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.
Heavens Stairway packed considerable drama into the 6 1/2 furlongs of the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Jan. 24.
Trainer Richard Mandella will try to emulate his 1990s success with South American horses when the Brazilian 5-year-old Catch a Flight tries to upset heavily favored Shared Belief in Saturday’s Santa Anita Handicap.
The Grade 2, $400,000 Super Derby on Sept. 5 will once again be the most lucrative race during the 2015 Louisiana Downs meet for Thoroughbreds, which opens on May 1. The Bossier City, La., track will race 84 dates through Sept. 19.
Santa Anita has shown growth in all-sources handle and attendance well past the halfway point of the winter-spring meeting.
Jockeys at Parx racetrack near Philadelphia have been told that they will not be covered by the track’s new insurance policy as of March 19 if the riders do not sign an indemnity waiver acknowledging the risks of riding horses at the track, according to riders and copies of the letters distributed to the jockeys.
A potential life-changing score will motivate horseplayers to focus on an otherwise mundane Thursday card at Gulfstream Park, as a Rainbow 6 carryover of $437,934 is there for the taking.
