Jerry Nicodemus, a revered Quarter Horse jockey who won three runnings of the All American Futurity, died Wednesday at his home in Ruidoso, N.M., according to a notice from Ruidoso Downs. He was 73.
Nicodemus is a member of the American Quarter Horse Association’s Hall of Fame.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Justify went away with the most impressive hardware, but it was Joe Harper, Sarai and Irad Ortiz Jr., and Weston Hamilton who made the biggest impressions at the 48th annual Eclipse Awards dinner Thursday night at Gulfstream Park.
Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner, was named Horse of the Year and was a unanimous choice for champion 3-year-old male. He received 191 first-place votes for Horse of the Year to 54 for runner-up Accelerate, who won a divisional title as champion older male on dirt.
Voters overwhelmingly chose the Belmont Stakes win by undefeated Justify as the 2018 Moment of the Year, according to the administrator of the contest, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
The Belmont win, which made Justify the 13th Triple Crown winner in U.S. racing history, was tabbed by 829 voters as the Moment of the Year among 11 other options. The NTRA received a total of 2,260 responses in the voting, which was tallied through Twitter likes and an online poll. Votes were limited to one per Twitter account.
In a stunning development, Chris Kay is out as president and CEO of the New York Racing Association, the company confirmed in a press release issued Wednesday.
The release noted the board of directors accepted Kay’s resignation, effective immediately, but did not give a reason.
According to multiple sources, however, the board asked for Kay’s resignation after it learned that Kay had used NYRA employees to do private work for him at the house he owns in Saratoga, considered a breach of company policy.
Chris Rosier, a onetime leading jockey in Louisiana, was arrested on Sunday and charged with two counts of domestic abuse, according to records from the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office.
Rosier, who rode Summer Bird to a sixth-place finish in the 2009 Kentucky Derby, remains in custody, according to the sheriff’s office, with bond set at $10,000. The charges include one count of aggravated assault and another count of strangulation, according to the arresting document.
Owners Ralph and Lauren Evans have selected Jonathan Thomas to succeed the late Rick Violette as the trainer for multiple Grade 1 winner Diversify.
Diversify has not started since finishing fifth in defense of his 2017 win in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 29. Plans for the horse, including a possible start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, were put on hold when Violette became seriously ill shortly after the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Violette, who trained Diversify throughout his career, died from complications of lung cancer on Oct. 21.
ARCADIA, Calif. – He’s won multiple training titles in Southern California over his 40-year career, and had trained an Eclipse Award winner, but John Sadler went to the next level over the past year based on the accomplishments of Accelerate, to whom he will bid a bittersweet farewell on Sunday morning after he makes his final start on Saturday in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dan Gatto, a retired San Diego accountant who had success in California racing in recent years with such stakes winners as Thegirlinthatsong, Point Piper, and Vasilika, died on Saturday of a heart attack, according to his son, Nick Gatto.
Dan Gatto was attending the PGA Desert Classic golf tournament in La Quinta, Calif., when he was stricken, his son said. Dan Gatto was 63.
The family’s Gatto Racing is part of the ownership group of Vasilika, a multiple stakes winner who was scheduled to run in Monday’s Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes at Santa Anita.
There have been five Triple Crown winners since the Eclipse Awards were inaugurated in 1971, and the previous four – Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, and American Pharoah – all were named Horse of the Year. Justify, last year’s Triple Crown winner, is favored to keep that streak intact on Thursday night when racing’s 2018 champions are announced at the 48th annual Eclipse Awards dinner at Gulfstream Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Former jockey Corey Black, who most recently worked as an exercise rider, was suspended indefinitely by Santa Anita's stewards on Saturday after failing to appear for a scheduled hearing on Friday to answer charges of being "engaged in the use of drugs," according to the ruling.
According to the stewards - Grant Baker, Luis Juaregui, and Kim Sawyer - Black, 50, failed to show for the hearing, which followed California Horse Racing Board investigators filing a complaint against Black.
Black is denied access to all CHRB premises, according to the ruling.
