The trainer Ron Ellis will not be allowed to enter any horses in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup under a formal adoption of a sanction by Breeders’ Cup on Tuesday regarding a positive test for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid after the Ellis-trained Masochistic finished second in the 2016 Sprint.
Sheldon Robbins, who was part of the ownership team that was honored with a Special Eclipse Award for its effort to put on the Arlington Million less than four weeks following a fire that destroyed the track’s grandstand, died on Monday of cancer. Robbins was 78.
Total handle on races at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course in Maryland last year was up 19.7 percent from 2015, while in-state handle for the year jumped 18.4 percent, according to figures released Monday by the owner of the tracks.
Two more horses at Fair Grounds tested positive for equine herpesvirus Saturday. The horses are housed in barn 36 and are trained by Mike Stidham. These were the second and third horses in barn 36 to test positive for the EHV-1 wild-type.
Stewards in Kentucky have issued a ruling rescinding a 40-day suspension handed down last year to trainer Mike Maker for a post-race positive of dextrorphan, the metabolite of a once-common ingredient in cough syrup, according to a copy of the ruling and racing officials.
Tourist came into 2016 still seeking the first Grade 1 win of his career. He got that in August, when he won the Fourstardave at Saratoga, and he wound up his 5-year-old season – and career – with two Grade 1 wins, a Breeders' Cup trophy, and as a finalist for an Eclipse award as the champion older male turf horse of 2016.
Trainer Chad Brown's stable already was loaded with high-class turf horses when Prince Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms told Brown early in 2016 they were sending him another star. Flintshire's world travels twice had brought him to the United Sates for single races. Now, he would be spending the entire 2016 season with Brown.
Highland Reel's performance in winning the Breeders' Cup Turf in his only U.S. start was enough to give him a spot as one of three finalists for the Eclipse Award in the older male turf division.
The Sunshine Millions has been a favorite of fans and horsemen alike each January since its inception in 2003. But the popular series of races, which once again serve as a lead-in to the Eclipse Award ceremonies here at Gulfstream Park later this month, will take a bit of a hit this winter with the announcement that purses have been cut from the $900,000 originally earmarked for the five races on the schedule to only $600,000.
If you want an idea of the regard trainer Chad Brown has for New Money Honey, his quote after he sent out his filly to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf speaks volumes. “I think the sky is the limit,” Brown said of New Money Honey. “A mile [the distance of the Juvenile Fillies Turf] is as short as she wants to run. I think this filly has an unbelievable future.
