Sun, 03/17/2024 - 09:30

Taxed may target Apple Blossom as next start

By Mary Rampellini
Coady photo
Taxed was making her first start since September in a second-level allowance sprint at Oaklawn on Saturday.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Taxed could move back to both graded stakes company and two turns for her next start after a powerful 4-year-old debut Saturday at Oaklawn Park.

The winner of last year’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan was making her first start since September in a second-level allowance sprint. She let the speed go and closed like a freight train under jockey Cristian Torres. Taxed won by 3 1/2 lengths while covering six furlongs on a fast track in 1:10.53.

“She ran to the way she’s been training,” trainer Randy Morse said.

Sat, 03/16/2024 - 18:18

Track Phantom draws post 12 in field of 12 for Louisiana Derby

By Marcus Hersh
Hodges Photography / Lou Hodges Jr.
Track Phantom got a 90 Beyer Speed Figure for winning the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds on Jan. 20.

A dozen 3-year-olds, headed, nominally, by Track Phantom, one of seven horses trained by Steve Asmussen, Todd Pletcher, and Kenny McPeek, were entered Saturday in the $1 million Louisiana Derby, the featured race at Fair Grounds on March 23, the most important card in a long meeting that ends the next day. 

Sat, 03/16/2024 - 15:53

Mike Prunetti, longtime NYRA employee, dies at 77

By David Grening
NYRA Photo
Mike Prunetti worked at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky and for The Jockey Club and had served four years in the Air Force before joining NYRA in 1971.

Mike Prunetti, who worked in many capacities as an official at the New York Racing Association over four decades, died Friday due to the effects of pulmonary fibrosis, according to former NYRA racing secretary Bruce Lombardi.

Prunetti, a resident of Boca Raton, Fla., was 77.

Sat, 03/16/2024 - 13:27

Uncle Heavy begins prep for Wood Memorial

By David Grening
Susie Raisher
Uncle Heavy was part of a quarantine at Belmont Park due to a case of equine herpesvirus.

Uncle Heavy, the Grade 3 Withers Stakes winner at Aqueduct on Feb. 3, had his first work since that race on Saturday, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.09 at Parx as he prepares for a start in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 6.

Sat, 03/16/2024 - 12:51

Dornoch returns to work, next start undecided

By David Grening
Barbara D. Livingston
Dornoch has won a pair of Grade 2 races, the Remsen at Aqueduct and Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream.

Dornoch, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth winner, returned to the work tab Saturday morning at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida, breezing a half-mile in 49.95 seconds.

Trainer Danny Gargan said he started Dornoch two or three lengths behind another horse to give him a target in the work.

“Not looking for anything special, we know he’s fit, we know he’s fast,” Gargan said.

Fri, 03/15/2024 - 14:49

New York budget proposal would fund scanning technology at Belmont

By Matt Hegarty

Assessments on out-of-state account-wagering companies would be used to fund the ongoing operations of “advanced imaging technology” purchased by the New York Racing Association and located at a clinic adjacent to Belmont Park under language inserted into the budget proposal from the New York State Assembly.

Thu, 03/14/2024 - 16:07

Legislation to restructure Maryland racing introduced to general assembly

By Matt Hegarty
Barbara D. Livingston
The bill introduced Thursday would authorize the state to issue $400 million in bonds to rebulid Pimlico Race Couse and a new training center. In exchange 1/ST Racing would deed the track to the state.

Legislation that would pave the way for the reconstruction of Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore and for other recommendations from a state task force was introduced on Thursday to the Maryland General Assembly.

Thu, 03/14/2024 - 14:00

Hall of Fame jockey Walter Blum dies at 89

By Matt Hegarty
Barbara Livingston/Jim Raftery Collection
Walter Blum, in a photo dated 1957, retired as the fifth-leading rider all time by wins, with 4,382 victories.

Walter Blum, the Hall of Fame jockey who posted a prodigious number of wins before retiring from the saddle and serving for decades as a steward in Florida, died early Thursday in Hallandale Beach, Fla., of complications of lung disease, according to family members. Blum was 89.

Blum, who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1987, led the United States in wins in both 1963 and 1964. He rode primarily in New York and New Jersey, though he traveled out-of-state for high-profile rides.

Thu, 03/14/2024 - 11:10

Trainer Milton Pineda given 15-year ban for multiple diisopropylamine positives

By Matt Hegarty

Milton Pineda, a trainer based in Southern California, has been issued a ban of 15 years for multiple positives of a banned vasodilator and violations of his provisional suspension while his case was being adjudicated, according to a decision by an arbitrator hearing his case.

The 15-year ban is the largest punishment handed out so far under the Anti-Doping and Medication Program that is enforced by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, which took over drug enforcement in most U.S. racing jurisdictions in May 2023.

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