Harness racing will cease at Cal-Expo in Sacramento, Calif., after the current season ends on May 2. The board of directors of the state fair grounds voted on Friday to terminate a lease agreement with the operators of the race meeting, according to a statement released by Cal-Expo.
The statement indicated the board of directors acted on the recommendation of its staff. The current meeting began last December. A fall meeting was scheduled to begin in November.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Saturday, April 26
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature: 56
Track: Sloppy/Good/Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A drying-out surface had several trainers with Kentucky Derby and Oaks contenders handicapping the condition of the racetrack as the morning progressed before deciding if and when to send their respective horses out to work Saturday at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Having worked around Kentucky Derby winners Unbridled and Street Sense as well as race participants Vicar and McCraken, trainer Ian Wilkes knows there’s little margin for error to get to the world’s most famous horse race.
“You can’t have things go wrong, you have to keep the timing right,” Wilkes said.
With a week to go before Kentucky Derby 151, Wilkes believes the timing is right for Burnham Square to run his best race.
“He’s right where I want him,” Wilkes said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tappan Street, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner and major player for the Kentucky Derby, suffered a condylar fracture to his right foreleg as the result of a workout Saturday morning at Churchill Downs and will miss the race, his connections said Saturday.
The injury is not considered life threatening or career ending. Tappan Street was scheduled to undergo surgery Sunday at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Friday, April 25
Weather: Showery
Temperature: 62
Track: Sealed/Good
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mother Nature was the main story Friday at Churchill Downs, where rain that began the previous afternoon and continued into the morning hours altered training plans for many barns, most notably those with horses pointing to next Friday’s Kentucky Oaks.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Owner Mike Repole is fond of saying that pressure is a privilege. For the last two years, Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher have had the privilege of having the favorite for the Kentucky Derby.
In 2023, Forte, the morning-line favorite, was scratched the morning of the race due to a foot issue. Last year, Fierceness finished 15th in the Derby.
This year, Repole and Pletcher are back in the Derby with Grande, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial runner-up who will likely be a mid-range price in the 20-horse Derby field on May 3.
In the late winter of 1993, California trainer Wally Dollase walked to Don Warren’s barn at Santa Anita to inspect a 5-year-old gelding who had amassed six wins.
A private deal was reached for $50,000, the same value as the gelding’s latest claiming race. With that, Journalism wound up with owner Rick Stephen and Dollase.
This winter, another horse named Journalism has developed into the nation’s leading 3-year-old, winning three consecutive graded stakes since mid-December at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita in the buildup to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3.
An arbitrator has dismissed a controlled-medication charge against trainer Christophe Clement, citing “some doubt about the scientific reliability of the testing” of a sample that indicated an overage of flunixin, a regulated painkiller.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Top sprinter Patches O’Houlihan was voted Horse of the Year and Kevin Attard finally won for outstanding trainer during the 50th Sovereign Awards ceremony, which honored the 2024 Canadian champions on Thursday evening in suburban Toronto.
