Lexington’s Rood and Riddle equine hospital will buy the Saratoga Equine Veterinary Service in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., giving the firm a local foothold near the major New York summer racing center of Saratoga Racecourse.
There were no graded stakes scheduled at Belmont Park on Saturday but still plenty of quality racing, as members of one of the strongest state-bred programs in the nation took center stage in seven stakes races on New York Showcase Day.
Australian champion More Joyous has been retired and will ship to England to be bred to unbeaten champion Frankel on Southern Hemisphere time, her owner John Singleton has announced.
Priscilla Godsoe, a young show-jumping trainer and foxhunter in Pennsylvania, has a couple of special reasons to root for Kentucky Derby winner Orb if, as expected, he runs in the June 8 Belmont Stakes. Their names are Cause of Freedom and Well Well.
Oxbow’s May 18 Preakness Stakes win was the first classic win for his breeder, Richard Santulli. It also was a welcome payoff for Santulli’s 10-year investment in the broodmare Tizamazing, a $1 million yearling who never made it to the races.
Yeats, Europe’s champion stayer for four consecutive years, was represented by his first winner on Saturday, as his first starter, Dress Drive, won a 1,400-meter (about seven-furlong) maiden race at San Siro Racecourse in Milan.
Multiple Grade 1 winner and freshman sire Colonel John was represented by his first winner on Sunday when his son Cash Conversion captured a maiden special weight event at Presque Isle Downs.
Grade 1 winner Zensational had his first winner on the track with the first-time starter Sensational Nikki at Hollywood Park on Sunday.
I’ll Raise You One, a pensioned Ohio stallion and Grade 3-placed winner, was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age at Fair Winds Farm in Waynesville, Ohio. He was 29 years old.
No Fruit Degroote’s 1 1/2-length victory in a maiden special weight race on Saturday at Delaware Park made him the first winner for his sire, Grade 1 winner In Summation.
