Following a partial sale, the promising 3-year-old Diamond King has been transferred to trainer John Servis and sent to the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida.
A son of Quality Road, Diamond King was purchased last May for $235,000 by Chuck Zacney and Glenn Bennett at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale at Timonium. He has since been based at Parx Racing with trainer Butch Reid Jr.
Dreaming of Anna, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2006, has died, according to Wayne Catalano, who trained the filly for her breeder, Frank Calabrese. She was 14.
Catalano said he was told Dreaming of Anna died last week in Kentucky.
“We’re very sad,” Catalano said. “Mr. Calabrese and I had a lot of fun with her.”
Dreaming of Anna won nine stakes during her career, topped by the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in wire-to-wire fashion in 2006 at Churchill Downs. Overall, she won 10 races from 17 starts for earnings of $2,204, 550.
Mike Hargrave, who was known to thousands of horsemen in Kentucky and beyond for his role as the longtime stall superintendent at Churchill Downs, died Saturday morning at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., following a three-week bout with acute pancreatitis. He was 69.
Hargrave, as the Churchill “stall man” from 1980 until his retirement in 2010, oversaw the allotment of stalls to local horsemen and to those visiting for such major events as the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup. His son, Steve, succeeded his father in the role.
The three slots held by The Stronach Group granting berths in the company’s own Pegasus World Cup later this month at Gulfstream Park have been marketed to potential entrants without any costs attached and with provisions that may allow the other nine slot holders to share in purse earnings, according to slot holders and company officials.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The final seven races of Friday’s Aqueduct card were canceled due to heavy fog that made it nearly impossible for the stewards to see the races.
Without the ability to clearly see the races, the stewards could not adjudicate any issues that might arise during a race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After having to cancel six consecutive cards at Aqueduct due to the extreme cold, the New York Racing Association had to cancel Thursday’s card in part because it was too warm.
Temperatures that soared into the low 50s Thursday caused parts of Aqueduct’s main track to become too wet, while others were considered fast. The uneven nature of the surface is why the card was canceled.
Aqueduct has not raced since Dec. 30, when racing was canceled following the fourth race after the jockeys complained about uneven spots on the main track.
San Luis Rey Downs, the Bonsall, Calif., training center partially destroyed Dec. 7 in a wildfire, is expected to reopen for limited training by Feb. 1 and for full training for more than 400 horses by the spring.
Tim Ritvo, the chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita and San Luis Rey Downs, said on Sunday that demolition crews are expected to begin removing debris from the burned stables and cleaning up the property this month.
When Drew Brees leads the New Orleans Saints against the Carolina Panthers in an NFL playoff game on Sunday, among those watching closely from the heart of Kentucky horse country will be Dr. Christopher Johnson, who operates his Equine Surgical Services out of Versailles.
“I went to high school in New Orleans, so I have been a Saints fan as long as I've been alive,” Johnson said.
Charles Colgan, a longtime executive vice president of the National Steeplechase Association, died Jan. 2 following a brief illness, according to notices posted in Delaware newspapers. Colgan was 76.
Colgan was associated with the National Steeplechase Association and its predecessor, the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, for nearly 30 years. He joined the organization in 1971, became the executive secretary in 1976, and retired from the organization in 2000, while still remaining heavily involved in the sport.
Longtime Maryland horseman Eddie Gaudet died Thursday afternoon at his Upper Marlboro home from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87.
Gaudet grew up in Leominster, Mass., and began riding horses at the county fairs at age 11. He rode in Florida in the 1950s before moving to Maryland and turning to training in 1959. Gaudet went on to win 1,735 races.
He is survived by his wife, respected horsewoman Linda Gaudet, and daughters Lacey, 29, and Gabby, 26.
