Steve Asmussen reached 7,000 training wins in North America on Wednesday, when Drama Coach won the second race at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. Asmussen entered the day needing two wins to reach the milestone, and he swept the first two races on the card.
Asmussen ranks as the second all-time leading trainer in North America. He trails only the late Dale Baird, who won 9,445 races.
Anthony Bonomo has been named the new chairman of the New York Racing Association’s Reorganization Board, a spokesman for the company confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
Bonomo replaces Dr. David Skorton, who resigned his position effective Jan. 1. Later this year, Skorton will take over as head of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Absolutely nothing could put a damper on this weekend in Lexington. Yes, it’s supposed to rain, but with Keeneland opening its 15-day spring meet Friday and the Kentucky Wildcats poised to make basketball history the following night, this town is ready to unloose its party jones in a fearsome way, precipitation or no.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The first time Cliff Sise Jr. sat on a horse, it flipped over on him. Sise was 6. The horse was a Shetland pony. The second time Sise sat on a horse, in a neighbor’s backyard one year later, he rode right into a clothesline and was knocked off.
Representatives of Massachusetts horsemen plan to meet with officials from Suffolk Downs over the next several weeks to hammer out a plan for live racing this year after the state legislature passed a bill on Tuesday protecting the track’s racing license and simulcasting operations through 2016.
California Chrome has taken up residence in the Newmarket yard of trainer Rae Guest, will get a break from serious training, and could make his next start May 16 in the J.T. Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, where he would meet Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Karakontie.
Though the realization of a lifelong dream for Larry Collmus begins on April Fool’s Day, it’s no joke. He is the new voice of the New York Racing Association.
“It’s actually real,” Collmus said. “It’s April Fool’s Day, but this is me, and I’m here.”
On Wednesday, Collmus walks into the announcer’s booth at Aqueduct as the new racetrack announcer for NYRA, replacing the legendary Tom Durkin, who retired last August following 24 years in New York and 43 years in the business.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Bob Baffert duo of American Pharoah and Dortmund are the favorites atop the fourth and final pool in the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager that closed Sunday.
