Kenny Troutt's WinStar Farm has accomplished more in the past 16 years than operations several times older achieve over the span of their existence. Last year was one of the best yet for the Versailles, Ky., farm, highlighted by a pair of Breeders' Cup winners and the most wins and earnings by a North American breeder.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum has a presence in nearly every corner of the global Thoroughbred industry, and the North American wing of his Darley breeding operation once again proved to be among the best on the continent in 2016.
The past four years have produced breakthrough after breakthrough for the Cleary family's Clearsky Farms, all from a broodmare band much smaller than most of its contemporaries.
Total handle on U.S. races in 2016 was nominally equal to the figure from 2015, according to figures released by Equibase on Thursday, with wagering growing 0.6 percent to $10.74 billion.
Arrogate and California Chrome battled it out in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and are the leading contenders for Horse of the Year after they were named as two of the three finalists for the year’s top honor – along with the 3-year-old filly Songbird.
Parx Racing averaged $1.46 million a day in handle during 2016, an increase of 5 percent over the average of $1.39 million in 2015, according to Sam Elliott, the track’s director of racing.
Trainer Mary Eppler and jockey Jevian Toledo topped the standings at the Laurel Park fall meet, which began Sept. 9 and concluded Saturday. The title was the first of Eppler’s career and the third for Toledo, who won the title at last summer’s Laurel meet and at the fall meet a year ago.
Veteran trainer Frank Kirby was handed a one-year suspension after one of his runners tested positive for methamphetamine, but Kirby claims the contamination was environmental and has appealed the ruling.
Average daily all-sources handle at Hawthorne Race Course's 2016 fall-winter meet fell 7 percent compared with last year, but that drop came mainly because fewer races were run this season.
A horse at Fair Grounds returned a positive test Tuesday for the so-called “wild” strain of the equine herpesvirus, or EHV-1. That marks the fifth EHV-1 positive at Fair Grounds since a horse housed in barn 14 who had been euthanized after becoming neurologic tested positive for the virus Dec. 26. Another horse in barn 14 tested positive Dec. 31 after getting sick. Both of the horses in barn 14 were positive for the neuropathogenic strain of EHV-1, which far more often results in neurologic symptoms, severe illness, and fatalities than the milder wild-type strain.
