Former New York Racing Association official Mike Lakow has accepted the chief executive position at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the charity announced late Wednesday.
Lakow joined the TRF’s board last month. He has worked in the Thoroughbred business since 1977 and has held a variety of positions in racing and breeding, including serving as general manager of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Lexington.
Shahrastani, winner of the 1986 Epsom and Irish Derbies, died Tuesday in England at age 28, the Racing Post has reported. He was euthanized because of the infirmities of old age.
Bred and raced by the Aga Khan, Shahrastani, a Nijinsky II horse, was pensioned earlier this year at Walton Fields Stud in Leicestershire, England, after a stallion career that also included stints in Japan and Ireland and at Three Chimneys in Kentucky.
TUCSON, Ariz. - The next generation of handicappers is not likely to hone its skills the old-fashioned way - at the racetrack - but will instead learn the intricacies of the game from a crop of new interactive and educational websites and Internet programs, officials of the sites said on Tuesday during a panel on the opening day of the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Royal Delta, winner of the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, has returned to the barn of trainer Bill Mott and is being pointed to the $10 million Dubai World Cup next year, Mott said on Monday.
Royal Delta was purchased by Benjamin Leon's Besilu Stable for $8.5 million at the Keeneland November sales four days after her victory in the Ladies' Classic. She is training at Payson Park.
Handle on races at U.S. racetracks continued to decline in November when compared with the same month last year, while both purses and race days showed significant gains, according to figures released on Sunday by Equibase.
New York politics seem a poor joke in today's world
Steven Crist's Nov. 27 column, "New York's Sunday bans defy belief" was very logical, yet with one major mistake. Crist was attempting to use logic with illogical people, i.e., politicians and religious zealots.
Haynesfield, a two-time New York-bred horse of the year and a Grade 1 winner, has been retired from racing, it was announced Friday afternoon.
Haynesfield, a son of Speightstown owned by Harvey Weinstein’s Turtle Bird Stable, won 10 of 19 career starts and earned $1,319,481. He won a stakes race each year that he raced from 2 to 5, highlighted by the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in 2010, defeating Blame by four lengths.
The Illinois Racing Board on Thursday deferred the approval of 2012 licenses for account-wagering companies operating in the state after hearing testimony from representatives of the Jockeys’ Guild about the decision by Churchill Downs Inc. to let an agreement providing payments to the Guild to expire.
The American Graded Stakes Committee awarded grades to 465 races for 2012, a 1.8 percent decline from the grades awarded by the committee last year, at a time when race dates at U.S. racetracks are contracting at a nearly 5 percent annual pace.
