Jockeys Calvin Borel and Emanuel Nieves avoided serious injuries in a two-horse spill Saturday at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La.
Nieves was transported to a local hospital and was diagnosed with a broken arm, according to an official with Louisiana Downs. Borel was examined by the track’s medical team and has been cleared to ride, the official said Saturday.
Stewards at Belterra Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday disqualified a horse from the pari-mutuel pools after penalizing the horse’s rider for excessive use of the whip in an apparent misapplication of new national rules regarding penalties for whip infractions.
NEW YORK – Dr. Seth Fishman, the Florida veterinarian snared in the federal government’s sweeping investigation into racing, was sentenced Monday to an 11-year prison sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The sentence is the longest meted out so far in a case that has led to charges against 31 individuals, including prominent trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis. Fishman is the 11th to be sentenced, which includes Navarro. Most of the others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Servis faces trial next year.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Irad Ortiz Jr. won three races on Sunday’s closing-day card to overtake Dylan Davis and finish the Belmont Park spring/summer meet as leading rider with 48 wins, one more than Davis.
Ortiz, who rode 111 fewer mounts than Davis, sealed the meet title when he rallied Queen of Bourbon to a narrow victory in a turf allowance race that was third-to-last of the meet. It was his sixth win over the final two days and 16th from his last 53 mounts. Davis won Sunday’s nightcap aboard Dream of a Day for his 47th win of the meet.
Emmanuel was scratched from Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Derby because it was determined he had received three doses of an non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) within seven days of the race, a violation of state rules, according to Dr. Scott Palmer, equine medical director of the New York State Gaming Commission.
The scratch resulted in the Gaming Commission fining trainer Todd Pletcher $1,000 for “failing to follow procedures listed in the horsemen’s conditions signed prior to the running of the race,” according to a ruling put out Sunday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer George Weaver reported Sunday that his wife, Cindy Hutter, remained in stable condition but was still in a coma in the aftermath of a training incident that occurred last Sunday on the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. Hutter was injured when the horse she was riding, Vindatude, collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack, pinning her underneath.
Weaver said Hutter is expected to be moved from the ICU at the Albany Medical Center to a rehabilitation center within the next couple of days.
The $135,000 Wilton Stakes, the first race to be run out of the rebuilt Wilson Chute at Saratoga, drew a field of nine 3-year-old fillies for Thursday’s opening-day card.
There are still some logistics to work out over the placement of the starting gate for the Wilson Chute, as jockeys have expressed safety concerns to the stewards and management over the number of horses permitted to run in those one-mile races. There was some discrepancy whether the fields for races that start in the chute should be limited to eight or 10 starters. For now, the limit is 10 horses.
Trainer Richard Baltas, who has not been allowed to start horses in California since early May by track and regulatory officials, will meet with Del Mar stewards on Aug. 3 regarding a complaint that horses in his care were allegedly administered unpermitted substances in the spring.
The hearing was scheduled for July 1 until attorney Darrell Vienna, representing Baltas, asked for a 30-day continuance to research the case.
An era of racing gone by will be brought back to life next Thursday with the opening of a new exhibition at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame entitled “Jim Raftery: A Turfotos Retrospective (from the collection of Barbara D. Livingston.)”
The showcase of 60 images from the 1940s through 1980s coincides with the opening of the meet at neighboring Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The exhibit will be housed in the von Stade Gallery.
Trainer Juan Vazquez was suspended until January 2025 and fined $5,000 by the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission for actions it deemed “grossly negligent, cruel and abusive” as it relates to the horse Shining Colors, who had to be euthanized in January due to a severe case of laminitis.
According to the ruling, posted on Thursday on the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission website, the suspension begins on July 18 and extends through the term of any Pennsylvania license he currently holds, which is Jan. 26, 2025. Vazquez also holds an owner’s license.
