Nine members have been appointed to serve as the inaugural board of directors of the Maryland Jockey Club, the non-profit entity created to oversee Thoroughbred racing in the state, the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority announced Friday.
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Rodriguez, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial winner who was scratched from the Kentucky Derby due to a foot issue, will also miss the Preakness Stakes, trainer Bob Baffert said Friday.
Rodriguez will now be pointed to the Belmont Stakes on June 7 at Saratoga.
“He’ll be perfect for the Belmont,” Baffert said. “I couldn’t prep him like I wanted to [for the Preakness]. Once he had the foot issue, you got to let those things simmer down. I didn’t have enough time.”
Keeneland and Stable Recovery, a program that offers recovering addicts training to find employment in the Thoroughbred industry, are teaming to launch a “maintenance cohort” to provide specialized job training at the racetrack. It is the first program of its kind at a racetrack to work alongside Stable Recovery and the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority issued a provisional suspension to trainer Angel Sanchez Pinero on Thursday morning, citing violations of the authority’s “prohibited practices,” according to a notice of violation posted to HISA’s website later in the day.
Two horses trained by Sanchez Pinero on the Thursday card at Aqueduct were scratched in the morning, while another horse entered for Saturday has also been scratched.
Goal Oriented, a first-level allowance winner on the Kentucky Derby Day undercard at Churchill Downs, is now being pointed to the Preakness Stakes, Tom Ryan of SF Racing, which is part owner of the colt, said Thursday.
Goal Oriented will join Grade 2 Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez as trainer Bob Baffert’s Preakness horses. Baffert has won the Preakness a record eight times, most recently with National Treasure in 2023.
Dr. Allen Bonnell, the 81-year-old veterinarian based at Penn National who was accused of hiding hundreds of corticosteroid injections to horses at the track, has accepted a lifetime ban from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, according to an agreed order posted Thursday afternoon on the HISA website.
Maryland-bred multiple graded stakes winner Jaxon Traveler, who won at least one stakes race each year from ages 2 to 7, has been retired from racing.
Owner West Point Thoroughbreds reported in a release that the Munnings horse, whose last race was a fifth in an allowance race last month at Lone Star, retires sound, with a career mark of 37-13-8-5 and earnings of more than $1.1 million. Stud plans have not yet been finalized.
This year’s Preakness won’t have the Kentucky Derby winner, but it will have a rare European shipper.
On Tuesday, the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty announced their horse would skip the Preakness and point to the June 7 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. Trainer Bill Mott cited the two-week turnaround as the reason Sovereignty would be held out of the Preakness.
White Abarrio, one of a bevy of the stars in the handicap division currently pointing for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga on June 7, turned in his first serious work for that assignment, going five furlongs in 59.19 seconds over a fast but somewhat cuppy track Wednesday at Gulfstream Park.
When Sovereignty runs in the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 7, he will not be attempting to win the Triple Crown.
The connections of Sovereignty on Tuesday said they would skip the Preakness on May 17 and point to the Belmont, which for the second straight year will be run at Saratoga and at 1 1/4 miles, as opposed to its usual distance of 1 1/2 miles.
Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, said while the horse came out of the Kentucky Derby in good order, he believes the horse will benefit from more time between races.