Morning:
* Handicapping notebooks from Dave Litfin at Aqueduct, Byron King at Keeneland, Brad Free at Santa Anita, and Ron Gierkink at Woodbine. Closer looks at the upcoming card, a review of the previous day’s racing, and horses to watch.
Noon:
* Saturday’s racing schedule is highlighted by Blue Grass Day at Keeneland and Arkansas Derby Day at Oaklawn Park.
Ramon Dominguez, a three-time Eclipse Award winner as outstanding jockey, will receive the Special Award of Merit during a Preakness media awards ceremony next month at Pimlico.
Dominguez, who retired last June following a severe head injury sustained in a fall at Aqueduct, will be honored along with writer Sean Clancy, photographer Patrick Smith, WJZ-TV sports director Mark Viviano, and HRTV executive producer and senior vice president Amy Zimmerman at the May 15 Alibi Breakfast in Pimlico’s Terrace dining room.
LEXINGTON – Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear signed two bills on Thursday and Friday dealing with racing issues, including a bill establishing a 0.5 percent tax on bets made by residents through account-wagering companies.
The bills were passed by the Kentucky legislature with widespread support.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, is scheduled to have his first workout since January at Golden Gate Fields on Tuesday, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Friday.
Shared Belief has not raced since winning the $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December. He was in training at Santa Anita in January when sidelined with a quarter crack.
In early February, Hollendorfer moved Shared Belief from Santa Anita to Golden Gate Fields to train the gelding over the Tapeta Footings synthetic surface. Santa Anita has a dirt surface.
GROVE CITY, Ohio – Unfortunate as it might be that Beulah Park is closing, there is life on the other side – the northeast side of Ohio, that is.
An Indiana court has upheld a 6 1/2-year suspension levied by the state’s racing commission against a trainer for neglecting a horse.
Judge Timothy Spahr of the Miami County Trial Court wrote that the commission’s staff “not only met, but exceeded, its burden of proof” of its claims against the trainer, Janey Adams. Spahr also wrote in his ruling that the length of the suspension was appropriate and “in the public interest to maintain proper control over horse racing meetings and pari-mutuel wagering.”
AUBURN, Wash. – After winning the Emerald Downs training title in his first year in the Pacific Northwest, Jeff Metz will try to get a quick jump on a repeat when Emerald kicks off its 75-day meeting Saturday at 2 p.m. Pacific.
Metz stuffed the entry box Wednesday and will send out nine horses to compete on the 10-race card. Metz has 27 horses at Emerald Downs, many in sharp form after starts this spring in Arizona or California, so, as the trainer put it, “I figure we might as well strike while the iron is semi-lukewarm. We’ve got a third of the barn in on opening day.”
Barbara LaCroix, who operated Meadowbrook Farm in Florida with her family, died Monday, according to her son, David LaCroix.
Barbara LaCroix was 82 and died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease, David LaCroix said.
Born in Portland, Ore., LaCroix developed Meadowbrook Farm with her late husband, Joseph, in the early 1950s. The farm was sold in 2006.
Joe Aquilino, a former New York City fireman who trained horses for more than three decades on the New York Racing Association circuit, died Wednesday after a long battle with congestive heart failure. He was 76.
According to Equibase, Aquilino trained 477 winners from 5,577 starters and his horses earned $15,245,214 from 1978 through Wednesday, when the last horse that ran under his name, Charming Eyes, finished fourth in the third race at Aqueduct. According to the NYRA media guide, Aquilino saddled his first winner, Amberdias, at Atlantic City Racecourse in 1977.
