Sam Boulmetis Sr., whose Hall of Fame riding career was followed by a lengthy tenure as a highly respected racing official in New Jersey, died Sunday evening in Red Bank, N.J., following a lengthy illness. He was 94.
Boulmetis’s daughter Kim said her father died peacefully at River View Hospital, not far from his home in Rumson, shortly after being transported there earlier in the day. He had suffered from dementia in recent years.
ELMONT, N.Y. – At Belmont Park, France Go de Ina, seventh in the Preakness Stakes, blew out over a sloppy main track Saturday morning in advance of a more serious workout scheduled for Wednesday morning.
With lime traffic cones, known as dogs, keeping horses at least six paths off the rail, France Go de Ina was timed for a half-mile in 53.29 seconds from the quarter pole to a quarter-mile past the wire by Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch. It will not be recorded as an official workout by the track clockers.
BELMONT PARK
Weather: Sunny
Temp. 55
Track: Fast
By Mike Welsch
ELMONT, N.Y – A foreboding local forecast for potentially heavy rain beginning late Friday afternoon and continuing throughout the night forced many a trainer based at Belmont Park to alter their workout schedule for the weekend. That group included Michael McCarthy, who trains Preakness winner Rombauer, and his former boss Todd Pletcher, both of whom pushed final Belmont Stakes works up 24 hours to avoid the likelihood of a very wet track here Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – This year’s Triple Crown is such that jockey John Velazquez may ultimately learn he no longer was on the Kentucky Derby winner, but heading into next Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, he’ll find himself on the Preakness winner.
Velazquez guided Medina Spirit to a one-length victory in the May 1 Kentucky Derby. However, that victory is in jeopardy following a first positive test for the medication betamethasone. Should a second test confirm the presence of that drug, it is likely Medina Spirit will be disqualified from the Derby victory.
Calvin Borel, the Hall of Fame jockey who has ridden intermittently over the past year, was arrested on Wednesday night in Hot Springs, Ark., and charged with driving while intoxicated, according to police records.
Borel, 54, was booked early on Wednesday evening and released on a $1,000 bond, according to the records. Borel was in Arkansas visiting horses he owns with his wife at Pleasant Hills training center, according to a person close to the jockey.
Investigators with the Pennsylvania Racing Commission uncovered a “significant amount of contraband” during recent searches of barns at Parx racetrack outside Philadelphia, according to Tom Chuckas, the director of Thoroughbred racing at the commission.
Five days after this year’s Kentucky Derby, the stewards at Churchill Downs placed a call to the barn of Bob Baffert to notify him that his Derby winner, Medina Spirit, tested positive for betamethasone, a regulated corticosteroid, according to the trainer.
The positive test is not considered a violation until a split of the original blood sample confirms the result, and that has not happened yet. That has left a number of observers wondering, What is taking so long?
ELMONT, N.Y. – Rombauer was a sight for Michael McCarthy’s bleary eyes Monday morning as the trainer, after taking a red-eye flight from Southern California to New York, watched the colt train for the first time since his Preakness victory on May 15.
Rombauer, who arrived at Belmont Park on May 17, had an easy 1 3/8-mile gallop over the main track on Monday as he prepares for a start in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 5. It was Rombauer’s first day on the main track after jogging and galloping last week over the training track.
At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., trainer Steve Asmussen confirmed early Monday that Preakness runner-up Midnight Bourbon will not run in the Belmont.
“I just wanted to freshen him up a little bit,” said Asmussen. “It’ll probably be a couple more weeks before he works back. We’ll either target the Jim Dandy or Haskell with no race in between.”
