Parx Racing has canceled its Sunday and Monday cards dues to cold weather.
Temperatures are expected to top out at 21 degrees in Bensalem, Pa., on Sunday with 17 mile-per-hour winds, according to AccuWeather. Similar conditions are forecast for Monday, although the wind is expected to decrease.
Parx was able to complete its Saturday card while Aqueduct canceled its final five races and Laurel canceled its last three.
Racing is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Laurel Park canceled its Sunday card early in the morning due to cold weather. Late Sunday afternoon, management called off Monday racing too.
Laurel will be open for simulcast wagering Monday, beginning at 11 a.m.
Temperatures were in the teens Sunday morning and expected to reach only the low 20s in the afternoon. Winds of 15 miles per hour were forecast. On Sunday night, the mercury was forecast to fall into the single digits.
Live racing Sunday and Monday at Aqueduct has been canceled due to extreme cold, the New York Racing Association announced Sunday morning.
Training on Monday at both Aqueduct and Belmont Park is also canceled. Both tracks were open for training on Sunday.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures on Sunday and Monday were forecast in the mid-to-high teens, but the wind chill on Sunday was between zero and 5 degrees. On Monday it is expected between minus-10 and zero degrees.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The final five races of Saturday’s card at Aqueduct were canceled after the jockeys refused to ride, citing a concern over the condition of the main track.
According to Kendrick Carmouche, the jockeys notified Glen Kozak, NYRA’s director of racing surfaces, about the track being uneven in spots on Friday. The jockeys rode all nine races without incident Friday.
Light snow fell early Saturday and throughout the first four races of the card. The riders again felt the track was uneven in spots and horses were bobbling.
Services for Jack Van Berg, the Hall of Fame trainer who died Wednesday, will be held Jan. 8 in Hot Springs, Ark., according to his son, Tom Van Berg.
The service will be at 2 p.m. Central at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Jack Van Berg died in a Little Rock, Ark., hospital. He had his stable set up at Oaklawn Park, the Hot Springs track that starts its meet Jan. 12.
There will be a visitation at the Caruth-Hale Funeral Home in Hot Springs from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 8.
The morning after Gun Runner had won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, trainer Steve Asmussen stood just a few yards from his stall, watching him with equal parts pride and admiration. Gun Runner in 2017 had raced or trained at Fair Grounds, Oaklawn Park, Meydan, Churchill Downs, Saratoga, Santa Anita, and Del Mar, had traveled halfway around the world and back, yet as the year progressed he got better and better, culminating with the best performance of his career when it counted most.
“From January to today, he just shows up,” Asmussen remarked.
Kendrick Carmouche, who ruled the roost at Parx for years before moving on to New York in 2015, returned to his old stomping grounds Tuesday and rode his 3,000th Thoroughbred winner.
Carmouche reached the milestone aboard Good Save in race 4, a restricted $12,500 claiming race. Good Save is trained by Kate DeMasi, for whom Carmouche has won 105 races over the years.
"Kate has supported me throughout my career," Carmouche said. "I am so happy she could be a part of this."
CYPRESS, Calif. - Trainer Ron Ellis has been fined $10,000 and suspended 60 days after Masochistic tested positive for the steroid stanozolol following a second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in November 2016.
Ellis said Sunday afternoon that he is considering an appeal, pending a conversation with his attorney, Steve Schwartz. He described the penalty as “egregious.”
“I’ll meet with my lawyer and explore an appeal,” he said. “I want to explore my options.”
