Jason Beem has been hired as the full-time announcer for Louisiana Downs, the Bossier City track announced Monday. Beem currently is the announcer at Portland Meadows in Oregon, where he will continue to call races through Dec. 28. He begins his Louisiana Downs duties with the opening of the track’s Quarter Horse meet Jan. 10.
“I’m thrilled,” said Beem, a 34-year-old native of Renton, Wash. “For me, it’s a new challenge.”
TUCSON, Ariz. – The annual University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming opens on Tuesday at a mountainside resort in Tucson with the most pressing issue in racing first on the agenda – the need for racetracks around the world to begin cutting races to maintain field sizes that will be attractive to gamblers.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Opening day of the 2014-15 Gulfstream Park meet was a smashing success, with the overall handle of $10.06 million on the 10-race program up more than 10 percent over the $8.8 million wagered on opening day last year. Perfect weather and a huge crowd also helped produce a staggering 36 percent gain in on-track handle compared to opening day in 2013.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The New York stewards suspended jockeys C.C. Lopez and Manuel Franco both 15 days for careless riding as a result of a spill Friday at Aqueduct that left two horses dead.
Though he had not yet officially done so, Lopez said Saturday afternoon he plans to appeal his suspension. Franco said Saturday afternoon he had not yet decided if he would appeal.
“I think it’s unjust. What they’re doing is unfair,” Lopez said Saturday. “They don’t need to make me an example for what happened a few months back.”
Trainer David Banks collapsed at Evangeline Training Center in Carencro, La., early Saturday morning and later died at a local hospital, confirmed management at the facility and several horsemen. Banks had about 20 horses on the grounds. The 2-year-old filly Ideratherblucky, whom he trained for his sister, Virginia Lazenby, won Thursday at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
The racing community in Carencro was mourning the loss Saturday. Friends said Banks had moved there about five or six years ago after being based in Kentucky.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two horses died and a jockey sustained a season-ending injury Friday at Aqueduct as a result of a terrible spill during the eighth race.
Quick Money, a 7-year-old gelding, and Half Nelson, a 5-year-old gelding, suffered fatal injuries as the result of an incident that occurred in midstretch of the six-furlong race. Laila’s Jazz, a 4-year-old gelding, also went down but escaped serious injury.
With Gulfstream set to start its winter meet tomorrow, a simulcasting cooperative and Gulfstream’s parent company remained locked in a stalemate Friday night over the rights to simulcast signals, threatening the availability of Gulfstream’s races on its opening weekend at sites in a handful of states.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Friday asked a judge to stay a ruling that would require the commission to reinstate its former chief state steward, John Veitch, and additionally filed a notice that it intended to appeal the ruling.
The filings argued that a reinstatement of Veitch would cause “irreparable harm” to the commission and its current chief state steward, Barbara Borden, who was appointed shortly after Veitch was fired in November 2011.