James W. King, a jockey turned trainer who was based at Louisiana Downs, died recently due to complications from diabetes, son Gorden King said through turf publicist Jennie Rees. He was 77.
King won the 1954 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs as a jockey aboard Bay Bloom. As a trainer, King competed in Detroit and at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs. His survivors include Gorden King, an exercise rider based at Churchill.
There are no problems with the main track at Indiana Grand, director of racing Kevin Greely said Wednesday, despite the Shelbyville, Ind., track having to abandon a card Tuesday for the second time in a week.
The Tuesday card was called off following heavy rain after one race had been run. The previous Tuesday, racing was halted after two races when another storm blew through the area. But the track surface, Greely said, is draining fine, and Indiana Grand was only the victim of ill fortune.
FRANKFORT, Ky. – A Kentucky circuit court judge said on Wednesday that he is likely to issue a temporary restraining order that would prevent the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from enforcing a 10-year ban on the owner-trainer Otabek Umarov, citing his concern that Umarov will be unable to earn a living as he awaits a full appeal of the sanction.
Officials at Keeneland Race Course on Monday released their stakes schedule for the 2016 fall meet with no substantive changes from the status quo.
The 17-day meet will run Oct. 7-29 and will be front-loaded, as usual, with major preps for the Breeders’ Cup being held on the opening FallStars Weekend, Oct. 7-9. In all, 17 stakes with $5,275,000 in purses will be run at the Lexington, Ky., track.
Remington Park has expanded the stakes offerings on its Oklahoma Derby card Sept. 25 to 10, the track announced Friday. The races will be worth a cumulative $1.3 million.
Last year, Remington had seven stakes on Oklahoma Derby Day. The races were worth $1 million.
The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at 1 1/8 miles will again anchor the meet’s richest program. The most notable addition to the card will be the $175,000 Governor's Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up. It had been run in August.
Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., who was suspended a total of 21 days for five different riding infractions during the recent meet at Oaklawn Park, is in discussions with the Arkansas Racing Commission to reduce the length of the suspension, according to a commission attorney. The matter was discussed at the agency’s meeting on Thursday.
Jockeys Jose Ortiz and Taylor Rice are engaged to be married.
Ortiz, the leading rider in New York this year, proposed to Rice last Friday, the eve of the Belmont Stakes. Rice, who is riding at Presque Isle Downs in western Pennsylvania, was in New York because Presque Isle does not race on Fridays or Saturdays.
“This was a big weekend with the Belmont Stakes, and I wanted to propose,” said Ortiz. “We are very happy.”
Russell Baze’s decision to retire after the Golden Gate Fields card on Sunday – final day of the meeting – caught many by surprise. Some members of his family didn’t know he planned to retire until the night before, and he didn’t even tell his agent, Ray Harris, until he dismounted from the final Thoroughbred he would ride, Wahine Warrior, who finished in a dead heat for second in the 10th race.
But Baze had thought out the decision, and he retired in typical low-key Baze fashion.
