Dan Sanner, who trained a small stable of horses in Kentucky for nearly 30 years, died Sunday in Louisville from stomach cancer. He was 61.
Sanner, originally from Pennsylvania, began his training career in Kentucky in 1993 while he and his late wife, Debbie, raised their son, Brandon. Sanner also operated an insurance agency for most of those years. His best horses included Queen Hazel and Discovered, both stakes-placed on turf, and Gabriel’s Cat.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Avery Whisman, a promising jockey who spent most of his riding career in Maryland and Arizona, died Jan. 11 in Versailles, Ky., according to his family. Whisman was 23.
No cause of death was provided by the family. Friends of the family said this week that the death was not horse-related but declined to comment further.
Greg Ferraro has been reappointed to the California Horse Racing Board by Governor Gavin Newsom, according to an announcement released earlier this month.
Ferraro joined the racing board in June 2019 at a time in which racing in the state was under increased scrutiny over a series of equine fatalities in training and racing at Santa Anita. Ferraro was named chairman in November of that year and said at that time that part of his mandate would be the elimination of medication in racehorses.
Jay Privman, the national correspondent for Daily Racing Form for nearly 25 years prior to his retirement last fall, will receive a Special Eclipse Award for Career Excellence when the awards are handed out on Jan. 26, the administrators of the awards announced on Thursday.
Noted owner and breeder Virginia Kraft Payson, also a pioneering sportswriter with wide-ranging outdoor interests, died Monday at her Payson Stud in Lexington, Ky. She was 92.
Payson and her second husband, the late Charles Shipman Payson, entered Thoroughbred ownership in the 1970s. They found success campaigning European Horse of the Year St. Jovite as a homebred and also purchased and campaigned Travers Stakes winner Carr de Naskra.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The three-time stakes winner Beyond Brilliant has been turned out after he was recently diagnosed with an injury, trainer John Shirreffs said Sunday.
Beyond Brilliant will not race again until the second half of 2023.
“He’ll need a little time,” Shirreffs said. “It’s nothing too serious.”
Shirreffs did not disclose the nature of the injury.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Taiba, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding 3-year-old male of 2022, will make his next start in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 25.
A three-time Grade 1 winner in 2022, Taiba joins the 6-year-old Country Grammer in the Saudi Cup for trainer Bob Baffert and owner Amr Zedan of Saudi Arabia.
Country Grammer was second in the 2022 Saudi Cup and won the $12 million Dubai World Cup last March.
Taiba and Country Grammer won graded stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Trainer Robertino Diodoro reached a milestone of 3,000 wins on Saturday when Arthurian led throughout to capture the second race at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.
Arthurian was the first starter on the day for Diodoro, a 47-year-old native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who also is racing at Turf Paradise, Delta Downs and Sam Houston Race Park. He won his first race on Aug. 2, 1995 at Northlands Park, according to records from Daily Racing Form.
The Mid-Atlantic-based trainer Kieron Magee will serve a 10-day suspension for the finding of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory Phenylbutazone in the post-race sample of Dat Dares Gold, who finished second in the third race at Aqueduct on Nov. 17.
Bute, as the medication is known, is frequently used for lameness due to a soft-tissue issue, muscle soreness or bone and joint issues.
Magee, who waived his right of appeal, will serve the suspension from Jan. 13-22. He was also fined $1,000.
The influence of Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm was all over the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, one of the most exciting races of the championship weekend. Malathaat, last year’s Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly, won by a pair of noses over Blue Stripe and Clairiere. Malathaat and Clairiere, both daughters of former Stonestreet colorbearer Curlin, were raised in the same barn, and the outfit sold Malathaat as a yearling, while it campaigns multiple Grade 1 winner Clairiere as a homebred.
