After losing partial cards (five of eight races Thursday, seven of eight races Friday) because of what were deemed unsafe track conditions, Hawthorne Race Course near Chicago on Friday night cancelled its entire Saturday card.
A winter storm Sunday night and Monday was followed by unseasonably cold air, but warming conditions beginning Thursday created problems with the track surface.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed as usual as a decisive favorite in Pool 1 of the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern after a four-day wagering window.
The star-crossed saga of I Want Revenge ended with a brutal turn of events when the stallion died Saturday in Indiana following a brief illness 12 days after being purchased at auction.
Jeff Jeans purchased I Want Revenge, who most recently stood at Millennium Farms in Lexington, Ky., for $10,000 out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Nov. 12. He shipped the horse to Indiana Stallion Station in Anderson, Ind., where he intended to stand him in 2019. However, the 12-year-old son of Stephen Got Even was ill after traveling.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fans betting into the first pool of the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager this Thursday-Sunday are being presented with the new option of “any filly” among the 24 betting choices.
Listed as No. 23, the “any filly” option is self-explanatory: any filly that happens to make the lineup for the Derby next May will be a live play.
“Any filly” is pegged at 30-1 on the morning line as released Monday by Churchill Downs. No filly has won the Derby since Winning Colors in 1988, and none has started since Devil May Care was 10th in 2010.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Longtime Churchill Downs spokesman John Asher, who died this summer at age 62, has been posthumously named the winner of the 2018 Big Sport of Turfdom, an award issued by the Turf Publicists of America annually to honor an individual or group who enhances Thoroughbred racing coverage.
Jerry Bozzo, the oldest Thoroughbred trainer to win a race in the history of the sport, died Sunday at the age of 98.
Bozzo surpassed the late Noble Threewitt as the oldest winning trainer when sending out Cotton Tooyah to win at Gulfstream Park on June 3, 2017, at the age of 96. He had already become the oldest trainer to win a stakes race when Flutterby won the Sea Lily at Gulfstream on May 30, 2015.
ARCADIA, Calif. – An emotional comeback is ahead for multiple stakes winner Heck Yeah, the California-bred 3-year-old whose owner-breeder Michael Pageler passed away Friday, Nov. 9 in Fort McDowell, Arizona. He was 63.
Heck Yeah has won 4 of 5 starts for Pageler, co-owners Michael Sigband and Bob Baedeker, and trainer Bob Baffert. The colt was sidelined following his third stakes victory at Santa Anita in April, after which Pageler was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Michael J. Muzio, a former trainer, jockey agent, and racing official, died Sunday at his home in Melbourne Beach, Fla., after a short battle with cancer. He was 64.
Muzio trained horses for 23 years, winning 121 races from 1,447 starters. His horses earned $1,063,606, according to Equibase statistics. Some of his top horses were Friday Knight, Heama Jac Mac, Bold Adonis, and Grab the Glory.
Luis Saez recorded his 2,000th career win by riding Y’allcomenow to victory in Friday's fourth race at Aqueduct.
Saez, 26, has long ranked among the top jockeys in Florida and New York, his principal bases, since arriving in the U.S. from his native Panama in 2009. His initial success came at Calder Race Course, where his achievements as a new rider resulted in him finishing second in Eclipse Award voting for champion apprentice.
