OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Linda Rice may be one of the few people in racing sad to see 2023 come to an end.
Rice capped a memorable year Sunday at Aqueduct by setting a New York Racing Association record for wins in a single year when she captured her 165th triumph. The victory by George’s Vice in Sunday’s second race, for $16,000 claimers, enabled Rice to break the previous record of 164 set by David Jacobson in 2013.
Forestry, the sire of 2011 Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford, died on Dec. 27 at Haras Sao Jose da Serra in Parana, Brazil, due to “health problems associated with old age,” according to the Brazilian Association of Racehorse Breeders and Owners. Forestry was 27.
Forestry has stood exclusively in South America since he was purchased by a partnership in Brazil in 2015. Previously, he had stood at Taylor Made Farms in Central Kentucky, and he began shuttling to South America in 2010.
A New York State Supreme Court Judge granted the connections of Forte a temporary restraining order against the New York State Gaming Commission from enforcing penalties associated with the positive test for a banned substance in the horse’s post-race sample following his victory in the 2022 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, attorney Drew Mollica said Thursday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The connections of two horses involved in Saturday’s $500,000 Great White Way Stakes at Aqueduct have filed appeals with the New York State Gaming Commission over decisions made - and not made - by the track stewards.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Jockey Kyle Frey has a Christmas dilemma. He has less than a week to find a unicorn for his young daughter.
“She’s been making requests all month,” Frey said on Sunday morning in the jockeys' room at Los Alamitos. “Can Santa get me this?”
Acquiring a unicorn will be impossible, but Christmas will be plentiful for Frey and his family this year - and not just because of the gift list.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though impressive debut-winning 2-year-old El Capi returned to the work tab over the weekend, he will not make his next start in the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 6, trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said Sunday. In fact, Dutrow didn’t even nominate El Capi to the Jerome, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds that offers qualifying points to the May 4 Kentucky Derby.
Five Grade 1 races scheduled to be run next year have been downgraded to Grade 2 by the American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, with one Grade 2 being elevated to a Grade 1, according to a listing of graded races that the committee released Saturday.
Kentucky state Sen. Damon Thayer, a Republican from Georgetown with close ties to the racing industry who has served as the Senate Majority Leader for the past 11 years, will not run for re-election next year, Thayer announced Wednesday.
The winners of four graded turf stakes scheduled for Kentucky Derby week at Churchill Downs next year will receive automatic entries and travel incentives for races at Royal Ascot and Epsom Downs, the tracks announced on Tuesday.
Under the partnership, the winner of the Grade 1 Turf Classic on Derby day, May 4, will receive an automatic berth to either the Group 1, one-mile Queen Anne Stakes on June 18 at Royal Ascot or the Group 1, 1 1/4-mile Prince of Wales’s Stakes on June 19.
