Funny Cide, the popular New York-bred gelding who gained fans during his 2003 Triple Crown bid, died Sunday morning at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington after complications from colic. He was 23.
Funny Cide had resided at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of Champions since 2008. That barn was to remain closed on Sunday following his passing.
The purse of the Kentucky Cup at Kentucky Downs has been raised to $1.7 million for 2023, while four other stakes at the European style course in south central Kentucky have been upped to $1 million from $750,000.
The four new million-dollar races all are for 3-year-olds; The Music City for fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs, the Gun Runner for 3-year-olds at a mile, and the Dueling Grounds Derby and Dueling Grounds Oaks, both at 1 5/16 miles.
David Vance, a horse trainer for nearly 50 years and a throwback to a different era of racing, announced his retirement on Wednesday, according to a press release from Ellis Park.
Vance, 82, retires from training with 3,193 officially credited wins. Others might not have been credited, the ones at unsanctioned Midwest bush tracks, now long gone. Vance won training titles at Oaklawn Park, Churchill Downs, and elsewhere.
A forecast of excessive heat this weekend has led to the cancellation of racing from Friday through Sunday at the Cal-Expo state fair in Sacramento, Calif., a fair official said on Tuesday.
High temperatures are expected to range from 103 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday to 106 on Sunday.
“We’re doing this as an abundance of caution for our athletes and our horses,” a Cal-Expo spokeswoman said.
The decision to cancel races this weekend was made on the advice of a veterinarian representing the California Horse Racing Board, the spokeswoman said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It came down to the last race of the 38-day meet, but Jose Ortiz held on to win the Belmont spring/summer riding title by one, 59-58, over his brother Irad Ortiz Jr.
On the strength of four-win days Friday and Saturday, Jose Ortiz held a 59-55 lead over his brother entering Sunday’s final program. Several of Jose Ortiz’s prime mounts were vet scratches, leaving him with five mounts on the card, and he went winless.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Off they go.
Several leading 3-year-olds based in California are bound for the nation’s top summertime stakes for that age group at Monmouth Park and Saratoga in coming weeks, including Reincarnate and Skinner, who were first and second in Saturday’s $125,000 Los Alamitos Derby.
Reincarnate, who was 13th in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6, and Skinner, third in the Santa Anita Derby on April 8, are candidates for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes, a $1.25 million race at 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga on Aug. 26.
ELMONT, N.Y. - For the winners of Saturday’s four graded stakes at Belmont Park, it’s on to Saratoga, where the races figure to be even more challenging.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said Grade 1 Belmont Derby winner Far Bridge and Grade 2 Suburban winner Charge It were scheduled to van to Saratoga on Monday. Far Bridge, who defeated European invader The Foxes by one length in the $750,000 Belmont Derby, will be aimed at the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational on Aug. 5.
Veteran California trainers Ruby Thomas and Kristin Mulhall have taken over training of horses previously trained by Jonathan Wong, who was provisionally suspended by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit earlier this month for a medication violation found in one of his runners at Horseshoe Indianapolis last month.
Thomas will care for a stable of approximately 40 horses Wong has at Cal-Expo in Sacramento, while Mulhall said she has 10 horses Wong had at Santa Anita.
Wonder Wheel, the 2022 Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly, has been retired from racing and will be sold as a broodmare prospect this fall.
Wonder Wheel, by leading sire Into Mischief, won four of five starts last year for D.J. Stable and trainer Mark Casse. After winning the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs in her second start, she was second in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga. She wrapped up the season with back-to-back Grade 1 wins at Keeneland to secure a divisional championship, taking the Alcibiades and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has dropped its provisional suspension of the trainer Ray Handal, which will allow him to continue to train while a positive in one of his horses is investigated further, according to officials involved in the case.
Handal was informed of the suspension on Friday, and his barn was searched at that time. The suspension was related to the detection of the substance Zeranol in one of his horses in a post-race test following a race on May 28.
