SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Coming off a terrific 2014 – which included 50 wins, 10 in stakes, and a personal record for purse money won – trainer Mike Hushion was very much looking forward to 2015.
Hushion had horses in his stable such as Grade 1 winner Artemis Agrotera, 2-year-old graded stakes winner Jacaranda, the stakes-winning New York-breds Princess Violet and Captain Serious, and a promising unraced 3-year-old colt named Japan.
Life was very simple for Irad Ortiz Jr. in 2011, when the then-18-year-old jockey first came to the U.S. Ride races in the afternoon. Watch replays and evaluate his performance and/or play video games at night and on dark days. It was even more fun when his brother, Jose, came to live with him a few months later.
DEL MAR, Calif. – After staying off the track for an extra day to let the track dry out, American Pharoah had a strong gallop Tuesday with exercise rider Jorge Alvarez, his first time on the track since a workout Saturday.
American Pharoah walked – per usual the day after a work – on Sunday, and he did the same Monday because the main track was still drying out from weekend rain. But the track was in much better shape Tuesday; it had improved so much that clockers rated it fast.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Halljoy won the very first race she ran in this country right here on the Del Mar turf, going a flat mile last summer, but that was practically a sprint for her. Though winless in three starts since, she has performed admirably against better stock at longer distances, and that’s one reason why she’s going to travel 1 3/8 miles in the featured seventh race Thursday.
A Cleveland-area scrapyard owner who prosecutors alleged was once a member of the Gambino crime family has been arrested on suspicion of several crimes related to drugging racehorses, according to reports surrounding the arrest last week of Carmine Agnello.
Colin Wick, the longtime agent for Hall of Fame rider Sandy Hawley, died July 13 at age 86.
Wick, nicknamed “Wicksy”, was the agent for many other Ontario-based jockeys, including Mickey Walls and Robbie King.
Friends of Wick are invited to the Ward Funeral Home at 2035 Weston Road in Toronto at 1 p.m. Tuesday. A service will follow there at 1:30 p.m.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Kristin Mulhall was standing in the breezeway of her stable at about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday when a bolt of lightning from a brief storm struck a palm tree about 50 yards from her barn.
“It scared the crap out of me,” she said. “At first, I thought it was a power line.”
Mulhall knew the lightning had struck the palm tree when the top of the tree caught fire. “I called the fire department,” she said.
When another crack of lightning lit the sky, Mulhall was on the move. “I jumped in here,” she said, motioning toward her stable office.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Bob Baffert wanted to get a strong workout into Triple Crown winner American Pharoah on Saturday at Del Mar, and he got what he desired, with a six-furlong drill officially timed in 1:11.40 that came on a morning when training was delayed owing to lightning strikes in the area.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board moved closer to altering rules for disqualifications at its monthly meeting on Friday.
The racing board introduced new terms for riding rules with the intent of clarifying incidents of interference and to give stewards the ability to penalize jockeys repeatedly cited for careless riding.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Winners Foundation, which provides substance-abuse counseling for California racetrack and backstretch employees, is running low on funding, the California Horse Racing Board was told on Friday.
The organization, founded in 1984, might face staff cuts as early as August, according to executive director Bob Fletcher. The Winners Foundation has an annual budget of $360,000 but has drawn on reserves in recent years to make up for a lack of funding, Fletcher said.
