The California Horse Racing Board on Wednesday granted dates for a five-month daytime harness racing meeting at the Fresno fair tentatively scheduled from December 2026 to early May 2027.
No harness racing has been held in California since early May of this year at Cal-Expo in Sacramento after the board of directors at that state fair property terminated a lease agreement with the meeting's operators, Watch and Wager LLC.
Juddmonte homebred Mizzen Mast, a Grade 1 winner who went on to a long and successful stallion career for that outfit, was euthanized in late summer due to the cumulative effects of old age. The Cozzene horse, who had been pensioned following the 2021 breeding season, was 27.
“It wasn’t any [one thing], it was just more of an amalgamation of a bunch of things,” Juddmonte manager Garrett O’Rourke said. “They’re never easy decisions, but they’re easier when the horse is telling you, ‘Look, I’m ready.’”
The turf-route filly Ground Support, a good third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, will have a winter respite and point to stakes races in the spring, trainer Kelsey Danner said Sunday.
Ground Support debuted at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 30 and won a maiden route at odds of 100-1.
“Apparently, none of my employees talked to anybody,” Danner said. “She’d been breezing really nice.”
Sure, there’s an appealing allowance feature on the Churchill Downs Thursday card, but top billing goes to an appearance by North America’s best-known maiden.
And the remarkable thing is that Publisher actually runs in a maiden race.
Those not attuned to the lexicon of skiers, snowboarders, and surfers have no idea what “shred the gnar” means, but anyone tuned into the Chilukki Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs could see that the filly named Shred the Gnar meant business.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine canceled live racing after the third race on Sunday due to high winds.
The two stakes on Sunday’s card - the $100,000 Lake Ontario and $100,000 Ashbridges Bay - have been rescheduled for Friday.
The other seven canceled races from Sunday are listed as carryovers for Friday and will be re-opened for entries. All original carryovers for Friday may be brought back at a later date.
Racing resumes with an eight-race program on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with a card that was drawn last Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The final seven races of Sunday’s nine-race Aqueduct card were canceled when the jockeys expressed concerns about high winds.
The winds at nearby JFK Airport were around 25 miles per hour with gusts as high as 45 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s very windy, a lot of people felt it’s not safe,” said jockey Jose Lezcano, who rode the first two races.
Jockey Manny Franco said “we all agreed” it was too windy to continue.
Jockey Dylan Davis was listed in stable condition at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., early Saturday afternoon with multiple injuries suffered in a spill Friday at Aqueduct.
Due to a pending rainstorm, Del Mar has canceled racing Saturday and postponed the scheduled $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes. The seven-furlong stakes for 2-year-old fillies is moved to Sunday. It would be run as a co-feature with the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes open to 2-year-old males.
As of Thursday morning, Del Mar still planned to race Friday. Post time Friday was moved up a half-hour to noon. The storm, expected to arrive late Thursday or early Friday, is forecast to dump as much as six inches of rain on Southern California.
