Mike Ziegler, who has been the head of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Safety and Integrity Alliance since its formation in 2009, has been hired for the newly created position of executive director of racing at Churchill Downs Inc., the company announced on Friday.
Wise Dan, the Horse of the Year in 2012 and 2013, has continued to recover from a cannon bone fracture discovered in his right front ankle in October, leaving trainer Charlie LoPresti optimistic that he can resume light training next month with continued progress.
Bayern, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November, was jogged Friday with a bar shoe protecting a foot made tender by a recent abscess, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Fiftyshadesofgold, a Grade 3 winner last spring at Churchill Downs, has been retired and is to be bred Tapit, said Ken Carson, a representative of the horse’s owner, Doug Scharbauer. Fiftyshadesofgold, whose most prestigious win came in the Eight Belles last May, is now based at Hidden Brook Farm in Paris, Ky.
My Sweet Addiction was entered in the $75,000 Paseana Stakes over a mile last Sunday until trainer Marty Jones took a look at the Santa Anita main track early in the day.
A supplemental offering of 37 horses has been added to the Barretts January mixed sale, bringing the total number of horses cataloged to 371.
Grade 1 winner Monba will relocate to Nicks Farm in Sellersburg, Ind. for the 2015 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $2,000.
Thirty-eight stakes worth a total of $2.4 million have been scheduled for the 2015 Hastings meet that begins April 25. There were no major changes to last year’s schedule.
DRF Breeding’s Joe Nevills makes his selections for the 2014 Eclipse Awards in the form of haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven and five.
With five runners nominated to next Saturday's Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin would appear to have a hammerlock on the race, but he said on Friday that he will try and divide and conquer with his bevy of 3-year-olds, splitting the quintet among different spots while reserving the Holy Bull for the highly regarded Frosted, who finished second in the Remsen Stakes in his final start at age 2.
