Tue, 01/27/2026 - 16:00

Oaklawn cancels three cards, reschedules for next week

Coady Photography
Oaklawn will run four programs next week, including an added card on Super Bowl Sunday.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled racing for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday because of a forecast for freezing temperatures, the track announced Tuesday.

The three cards are already drawn and will be moved, as drawn, to next week. The 12-race Southwest Stakes Day card featuring points races for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks was to have been run Saturday, but is being moved to a Friday card, Feb. 6.

Tue, 01/27/2026 - 13:23

Hawthorne's Standardbred license suspended, putting Thoroughbred racing in jeopardy

Two Emmys 6-25-2022
Four-Footed Fotos
Due to financial concerns, Standardbred racing at Hawthorne has been canceled several times in recent weeks. Thoroughbred racing is scheduled to return to Hawthorne in late March and run through November.

CHICAGO – The Illinois Racing Board on Monday, citing continuing unresolved financial concerns, suspended the state-issued license permitting Suburban Downs in near-suburban Chicago to operate a racetrack.

Suburban Downs is the name Hawthorne Race Course uses to operate the Standardbred side of the track’s racing operations, and Monday’s action imperils Hawthorne’s Thoroughbred season, scheduled to span 63 racing days from late March through November.

Sun, 01/25/2026 - 18:33

Longtime trainer Polanco may have winning players this year

Barbara D. Livingston
Marcelo Polanco has not had more than five winners in a year since 2016, when he won 9 races from 52 runners.

ARCADIA, Calif. - California trainer Marcelo Polanco needed slightly more than 24 hours at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday to equal his win total for 2025.

On Friday, Gran Oriente, a Group 1 winner in Chile last May, won for the first time in the United States in an allowance race at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course. Gran Oriente paid $19.80 to win.

On Saturday, Queen Sienna, a minor stakes winner in Peru in 2024 and 2025, won an allowance race for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf, her third start in this country. She paid $24.60.

Sun, 01/25/2026 - 17:56

Quarter Horse jockey Mendez has spinal surgery after Saturday spill

Benoit
Jockey Cruz Mendez has ranked among the leading riders at Los Alamitos for the last 15 years, winning five Quarter Horse riding titles.

Veteran Quarter Horse jockey Cruz Mendez sustained a spinal cord injury in a spill at Los Alamitos on Saturday, and was undergoing surgery at a nearby hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to two of his friends.

There is concern that Mendez has sustained paralysis in his legs, they said.

Mendez was aboard Imm Relentless in the fifth race on Saturday evening when the filly sustained an injury and fell nearing the finish of a 400-yard time trial. Imm Relentless was euthanized because of an apparent back injury, according to a racing official.

Sun, 01/25/2026 - 15:45

Rescheduled Southwest Stakes draws large field; will now be run Feb. 6

Coady
Mark Casse has entered Smarty Jones winner Strategic Risk (above) and Silent Tactic in the $1 million Southwest Stakes.

The stakes winners Litmus Test and Strategic Risk will lead a competitive field of 14 in the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes, which has been moved to next Friday, Feb. 6, after Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., announced Tuesday that racing this weekend has been canceled due to freezing temperatures.

The track called off its Friday, Saturday, and Sunday cards.

The Southwest, which was originally scheduled for Saturday, is a Kentucky Derby points race (20-10-6-4-2) and will be showcased on a 12-race card that has a special morning post of 11:30 a.m. Central.

Sun, 01/25/2026 - 14:25

Rispoli, leading rider at Santa Anita, has ankle surgery after spill at Gulfstream

Barbara D. Livingston
Jockey Umberto Rispoli (far left) was unseated from Unconquerable Keen, who clipped heels in the stretch of the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Saturday.

Umberto Rispoli, the leading rider at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, underwent surgery on Sunday morning to stabilize a broken ankle sustained when he was unseated in a race at Gulfstream Park on Saturday, according to his agent Matt Nakatani.

Rispoli was aboard Unconquerable Keen, who clipped heels in the stretch of the $175,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint. Rispoli fell from the left side of Unconquerable Keen and suffered a fractured ankle, tibia and fibula.

Sun, 01/25/2026 - 14:05

Skippylongstocking, White Abarrio unlikely to meet again this year, Joseph says

Barbara D. Livingston
White Abarrio, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. talk after Saturday's Pegasus World Cup.

HALLANDALE, Fla. - Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. had one word to describe his feelings the morning after sending out Skippylongstocking and White Abarrio to finish first and second respectively in Saturday’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational. 

“Relief!”

Sun, 01/25/2026 - 12:15

Test Score's next target, after Pegasus Turf win, could be Turf Classic, Motion says

Barbara D. Livingston
Test Score earned a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure for his Pegasus World Cup Turf victory. 

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Graham Motion will look to keep Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf winner Test Score at 1 1/8 miles for future races, and one of the mid-season targets could be the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day. 

“That would be logical timing-wise, and he’s run well there, too,” said Motion, in a reference to Test Score running a solid second in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill last Derby Day. 

Fri, 01/23/2026 - 18:23

Ness pondering races for Law School's 3-year-old debut

Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO
After a dominant 14 1/4-length allowance score on Dec. 7, Law School returned three weeks later and romped home by seven lengths in the $75,000 Parx Future Stars filly division.

Consistently poor weather has impacted Law School’s training regimen at Parx Racing, but trainer Jamie Ness remains confident that the 3-year-old filly can make some noise in New York or Maryland in the near future.

“We really think a lot of her,” Ness said this week. “She's a young filly getting better. Once we stretched her out, she just turned the corner, which I knew she would. I think we haven't seen the best of her yet.”

Fri, 01/23/2026 - 13:52

Eclipse Awards: Divisional winners set to return en masse in 2026

Debra A. Roma
Forever Young, the champion older dirt male, will run in the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup and may try to defend his title in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.

PALM BEACH, Fla. – Led by Sovereignty, the Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male, 10 of the 11 Eclipse Award- winning horses from 2025 are being pointed to campaigns in 2026.

The only champion not returning in 2026 is Thorpedo Anna, the older dirt female Eclipse winner and 2024 Horse of the Year, who has been retired. She will be bred to Gun Runner.

The Eclipse Awards were announced Thursday night at a rapidly moving ceremony held at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla.