Arrogate and Winx share the title of best racehorse in the world, according to the first 2017 edition of the World’s Best Thoroughbred Rankings, compiled by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.
The two horses both are rated 127. Arrogate has started once this year, scoring a geared-down victory in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park. The Australian mare Winx has raced twice, winning the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes and the Group 2 Star Apollo Stakes.
Ben's Cat has rejoined the Laurel Park stable of Hall of Fame trainer King Leatherbury and is scheduled to race this year as an 11-year-old.
Leatherbury said Thursday that Ben's Cat has been in training for about two weeks and has already breezed a slow quarter-mile. Leatherbury said he plans to breeze Ben's Cat "an easy three-eighths of a mile" at Laurel on Saturday, which could be his first timed work of the season.
Remington Park in Oklahoma City will open a 50-date meet for Quarter Horses on Friday night. The season will run through June 3. The meet will feature 40 stakes races worth more than $5.6 million.
The highlight of the season is the Grade 1, $1 million Heritage Place Futurity on a card of eight major stakes June 3. The program also includes the Grade 1, $250,000 Remington Park Championship.
Other stakes include the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Futurity on March 25 and the Grade 2, $950,000 Remington Park Futurity on April 22.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It has been nearly 12 years since John Shirreffs won the Kentucky Derby in 2005 with Giacomo, and in that time, he’s still never watched a replay of the race.
“It was just too good,” said Shirreffs, who said he only wants to remember the race from his perspective, not have it altered by watching a pan-camera angle. His memory includes not only what he saw while standing near the outer rail, about a sixteenth of a mile from the finish, but how he felt.
Jockeys Javier Castellano and Robby Albarado and trainers Mark Casse and John Shirreffs will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame announced Wednesday.
Gun Runner, one of North America’s best older horses, will make his next start in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 25 at Meydan Racecourse.
Trainer Steve Asmussen on Sunday confirmed the trip to Dubai is on following a Saturday workout at Fair Grounds from Gun Runner.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine has cut the purses for an array of stakes this year, most notably the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile and the Grade 1 Canadian International.
The purses for the Mile and International have been reduced to $800,000 from $1 million, leaving the Queen’s Plate as the lone $1 million event on the calendar. The purse for the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Breeders’ Stakes, has been chopped from $500,000 to $400,000. Numerous other stakes received $25,000 decreases.
The reductions were made to offset a shortfall in the purse account.
It was not a good year for trainer Alice Cohn in 2016, and it has not been a good winter at Fair Grounds.
Cohn, who has run a small string on the Kentucky and New Orleans circuits and steadily won her share of races during a long career, has seen her stable shrink in recent seasons. That number dwindled even further in December when one of Cohn’s horses was stricken with the neurologic strain of the equine herpesvirus and had to be euthanized.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – The curious odyssey of Classic Empire took another detour on Friday morning here at the Palm Meadows training center when he refused to break off for a potential workout, was taken off the track by jockey Julien Leparoux, and showed signs of favoring his back upon returning to trainer Mark Casse’s barn.
