A week after losing three programs to massive wildfires in a local forested area, Ruidoso Downs in southern New Mexico canceled the final two races on Saturday and postponed Sunday’s program to Monday after a flash flood inundated part of the track on Saturday afternoon.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Parenting, the runaway winner of the Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita on June 9, will have his first start in a graded stakes in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 20, trainer Bob Baffert said on Saturday.
Baffert said Parenting will take the place of Muth, who has not raced since a win in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on March 30. Muth was scratched in the days prior to the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 18 because of illness.
The July itinerary has changed for Stronghold, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in April.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said on Sunday that the Grade 3 Indiana Derby at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Saturday is preferred over the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 20 because of timing. The Haskell had been a consideration for Stronghold in several weeks.
Stronghold worked five furlongs in 59 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday, and worked the same distance at Santa Anita in 59.80 on June 24.
The New York Gaming Commission on Monday adopted new rules involving claiming horses that were proposed 10 months ago but tabled last month due to safety concerns expressed by one of the commission members.
The new rules will change claiming eligibility to allow an owner who has started a horse within 120 days on any circuit to claim at New York tracks. Under the current rules, only owners who participated at the preceding race meeting at a New York Racing Association race meet were eligible to claim.
Three horses trained by Librado Barocio were ordered scratched by Los Alamitos stewards on Saturday and Sunday over concern that one of them, Dick Best, who was entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando Stakes, was administered an illegal substance before he was scheduled to race.
Barocio strongly denied any wrongdoing in a phone interview on Sunday and said that the scratch stemmed from a misunderstanding between a groom that works for his stable and a security officer in the test barn on Saturday.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Veteran jockey Tyler Baze is sidelined after sustaining a hand injury before the third race at Los Alamitos on Saturday afternoon.
Baze said on Sunday morning that he plans to see a specialist on Monday to learn the extent of the injury. The incident occurred when the 2-year-old filly Swift Harmony behaved erratically before a maiden race.
“She was being a 2-year-old that’s never been to Los Al,” he said. “She was being silly. She jammed my hand in the wrong way. She propped a little bit and got me just right.
The California Horse Racing Board adopted a budget for its 2024-2025 fiscal year that will require greater contributions from a majority of tracks, but lower fees for Santa Anita.
The board was forced to reach a decision at its monthly meeting on Thursday in advance of the start of the fiscal year on July 1.
The budget was finalized less than two weeks after the closure of Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif., which contributed approximately 12 percent of the regulatory agency’s funding for the current fiscal year.
Toby Sheets, a former assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen, was found dead on Sunday afternoon on the Greek island of Mathraki, according to reports. Sheets was 55.
Sheets was reported missing on Thursday. His body was found by a tourist on a beach near the old port in Mathraki, according to ABC News. Mathraki is a sparsely populated island near Corfu, a tourist destination off the northwest coast of Greece.
The death was first reported by Thoroughbred Daily News.
ARCADIA, Calif. - At 73, Richard Mandella was the second-oldest member of the 20 leading trainers at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that ended on Sunday.
Only Hector Palma, who turns 87 on July 4, can claim greater seniority.
“It surprises me I’m still here at my age,” Mandella said in his stable office at Santa Anita on Sunday. “A lot of older trainers are forgotten about.”
Mandella reflected on that statement for a moment before continuing.
“I guess I’m not that old yet.”
The New York State Gaming Commission will consider revoking the trainer’s license of Steve Asmussen during a hearing scheduled to begin Sept. 18, the commission said Thursday in a notice citing several investigations by state and federal labor regulators into his business practices.
