Bahnah is being freshened and likely will focus on sprinting when she returns to action next year at 3, trainer Bret Calhoun said. The dead-heat winner of the Grade 3 Schuylerville at Saratoga in July, Bahnah closed out her 2-year-old season with a runner-up finish in the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess on Nov. 23.
“She came back good, and we sent her to the farm to give her two, three months off, let her rest,” said Calhoun, who trains Bahnah for Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch.
Carol Hoffman Thompson, a well-accomplished equestrian rider and trainer, died Wednesday. She was the wife of long-time New Jersey-based Thoroughbred trainer J. Willard Thompson and the stepmother of trainer Glenn Thompson.
Carol Hoffman Thompson was a member of the United States Equestrian Team of show jumpers from 1963 to 1973, and was part of the U.S. Olympic team in 1968. She operated Quiet Winter Farm in Colts Neck, N.J. Among the national champion horses she bred and trained were River Pilot, Better Than Most, Ariel, Follow Me, and West Street.
The two biggest races during Laurel Park’s winter meet received significant purse boosts for 2014.
The Barbara Fritchie Handicap, a Grade 2 event for fillies and mares, was raised $100,000 to $300,000, while the Grade 3 General George Handicap got a $50,000 bump to $250,000 as part of a winter stakes schedule announced by the Maryland Jockey Club on Friday.
The Barbara Fritchie and General George, both seven-furlong events, headline a four-stakes package on Presidents Day weekend, Feb. 15 and Feb. 17.
Margaret “Maggie” Robbins, the matriarch of one of California’s most noted racing families, died on Thursday night in her Rancho Santa Fe home with her husband, Dr. Jack Robbins, at her side after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 91.
Born Margaret Miller in Philadelphia, Pa., Maggie Robbins was a student at the University of Pennsylvania when she met an ambitious young man from California who was attending the veterinary school of medicine. Jack Robbins was working in the kitchen of the young Miss Miller’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house at the time.
When you see CHARM THE MAKER at 5-1 on the morning-line in a 10-horse field, you know you are not looking at an especially strong Grade 2 race. To these eyes, the G2 Bayakoa in great part looks like a glorified open $50K claiming race.
The American Graded Stakes Committee assigned grades to 455 races scheduled for 2014, two fewer than for 2013, after meeting to review the grades earlier this week, the committee said on Friday.
One race, the La Troienne at Churchill Downs for older fillies and mares, was elevated from Grade 2 to Grade 1. Two races, the Prioress Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga and the Princess Rooney Stakes for older fillies and mares at Calder Race Course, were downgraded from Grade 1 to Grade 2.
After leaving the organization in the fall of 2012 to take a position at Hollywood Casino at Penn National, Dan Silver is returning to the New York Racing Association as its director of television and interactive platforms, it was announced Friday.
The job is a newly created position that is designed to better coordinate NYRA’s television, website and, to a degree, its advance deposit wagering platforms, according to David O’Rourke, NYRA’s vice president of corporate development who said Silver’s re-hire was “a specific recruitment by me.”
The winter storm that has gripped the Midwest and is moving eastward has forced cancellations at Remington Park in Oklahoma City and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., the tracks announced on Friday.
Remington has canceled racing for both Friday and Saturday night, said track spokesman Dale Day. The decision comes a day after the track was forced to cancel Thursday night’s card due to inclement weather. The temperature in Oklahoma City, which has been hit with several inches of snow, was 19 degrees on Friday morning.
“The wind chill is brutal,” said Day.
Following a two-day carryover of $77,053, Thursday’s pick six at Aqueduct paid $55,154. There were four winning tickets.
Thursday’s pick-six winners, on races 4 to 9, were Midnightinpositano ($11.40), Majestic Jess ($10.60), Tiz So Sweet ($12.20), Miss Da Point ($16.60), Mississippi Duel ($7.70), and Mi Hijo ($5.20).
NEW YORK - Though several board members balked at the idea, the New York Racing Association Board of Directors on Wednesday passed a 2014 budget that includes a raise in admission fees at Belmont Park and Saratoga.
However, NYRA management was asked to do more research into the potential negative impact on business for raising such fees and will re-visit the topic at the next board meeting in March.
