ARCADIA, Calif. – Flightline, the brilliant and undefeated Grade 1 winner who won his first three starts by a combined margin of more than 37 lengths, will be sidelined for an undetermined period of time, trainer John Sadler said Saturday afternoon.
Sadler said Flightline’s gait this week was “not perfectly normal,” adding that it was a hind leg.” Sadler said X-rays were negative; the preliminary diagnosis is he strained his right hock.
Officials who conducted the necropsy of Medina Spirit, the late 2021 Kentucky Derby winner who tested positive for a regulated medication following the race, have not been able to identify a conclusive cause of death for the horse after he collapsed on Dec. 6 just after finishing a workout at Santa Anita Park in Southern California, according to a report released on Friday by the California Horse Racing Board.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Winners from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Japan, and Korea all remarked Thursday night at the 51st annual Eclipse Awards how winning a championship was either a dream come true, a significant milestone for their country of birth, or both.
Joel Rosario, who’s on the path to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and finally got an overdue first Eclipse Award as champion rider, said he “never thought coming from the Dominican Republic I’d be an Eclipse Award-winning rider.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Last Sunday began and ended at Santa Anita as so many race days have this winter for Hall of Fame trainer John Velazquez.
In the morning, Velazquez, riding in California on a temporary basis, arrived at trainer Bob Baffert’s stable to work a horse. In the afternoon, Velazquez climbed off two exciting Baffert-trained runners in the winner’s circle.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Mighty Heart and perennial champion sprinter Pink Lloyd are among the 2021 Sovereign Award finalists announced by The Jockey Club of Canada.
The one-eyed Mighty Heart, who won two legs of the 2020 Canadian Triple Crown, had another satisfying season last year, winning 3 of 8 starts, including the Grade 2 Autumn and Grade 3 Dominion Day.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Knicks Go went right to the front in his races, and as he did in races like the Breeders’ Cup Classic he led his rivals on another futile chase in the Eclipse Awards on Thursday night at Santa Anita. He romped to clear-cut victories as 2021 Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male while bringing his jockey and trainer along for the ride.
Joel Rosario, who rode Knicks Go, at long last won his first Eclipse Award, and Brad Cox, Knicks Go’s trainer, repeated as champion trainer after getting his first title in 2020.
The two wins by Japanese-based horses at last year’s Breeders’ Cup event has been voted the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year, the NTRA announced on Thursday.
A plurality of votes among the approximately 3,000 tallied by Feb. 2 chose the two wins, according to the NTRA. Japanese-based horses had run in 13 Breeders’ Cup races without a victory prior to registering the two wins last year, touching off emotional celebrations from the horses’ connections.
Jordan Fishman, one of more than two dozen individuals connected to horse racing who were indicted last year on charges of misbranding and adulterating drugs, was sentenced on Monday to 15 months in prison by a federal judge, according to court documents.
Fishman, 64, acknowledged during an earlier hearing that he manufactured products for MediVet Equine, a animal-products company owned by Seth Fishman, who was found guilty in a jury trial last week of two felony charges of conspiring to adulterate and misbrand drugs. The two Fishmans are not related.
The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the third of five pools in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager. Pool 3 opens Friday at noon Eastern and runs through Sunday at 6 p.m.
