Top trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis entered not guilty pleas to charges related to administering illegal substances to racehorses during an arraignment conducted telephonically Thursday afternoon by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Golden Gate Fields has been ordered closed by Alameda County officials because of the coronavirus pandemic, track executives said on Thursday.
The three tracks that host the Triple Crown have agreed to postpone the late nomination period for those races, which would have closed Monday, owing to the postponement of the Kentucky Derby because of the coronavirus pandemic and its potential impact on the Preakness and Belmont Stake.
The disqualification of a horse trained by Graham Motion in the 2015 Bewitch Stakes at Keeneland Racecourse became official this week when the state’s Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal of an aspect of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s handling of the case.
Jockey Javier Castellano, who last rode on March 15 at Gulfstream Park in Florida, has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a message posted on Twitter by his agent on Thursday.
Two days of hearings scheduled this week by the New York State Gaming Commission to discuss the possibility of revoking or suspending the license of trainer Linda Rice have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
An arraignment scheduled for Monday afternoon for many of the defendants in indictments unsealed two weeks ago alleging a wide-ranging conspiracy to dope racehorses has been canceled due to coronavirus and has not been rescheduled, according to documents in the case.
Robert Manfuso, a mainstay of the Maryland racing and breeding industry who at one time held an ownership stake in the state’s tracks, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 82.
The Louisiana State Racing Commission on Friday ordered Evangeline Downs in Opelousas and all other racetracks in the state to continue to allow horses to be stabled on their backstretches for at least the next 30 days.
Laurel Park in Maryland on Thursday closed its backstretch to all shippers other than horses stabled at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore and will scratch all horses that are stabled at other tracks for the race cards scheduled for Friday and Saturday, the state’s horsemen group said in an alert to its members.
