The winner of the Grade 2, $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup will receive an automatic berth into the Group 1 Melbourne Cup, the New York Racing Association and Victoria Racing Club announced jointly on Friday.
The Belmont Gold Cup, a two-mile turf race, is scheduled for June 6 at Saratoga. The Melbourne Cup, a two-mile race at Flemington Racecourse in Victoria, Australia is scheduled for Nov. 5. The purse of the Melbourne translates to $5.6 million in U.S. currency.
Racegoers at Saturday’s Preakness Stakes in Baltimore will be the last to see the race conducted in front of the historic Pimlico grandstand and clubhouse.
For nearly all of those witnesses, that won’t be a bad thing.
Scheduled to be torn down as early as this winter, the Pimlico grandstand has as much character as an old shoebox, with fewer nooks and crannies. The open-air section was condemned by the city five years ago. The clubhouse section hasn’t received an upgrade other than a wet slap of new paint in decades.
Nominations for the American edition of the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards opened May 8, with the nomination period running through July 15. After multiple stages of judging to determine finalists and then select winners, the honorees will be recognized in a ceremony Oct. 15 at Keeneland.
Total wagering during the month of April on Thoroughbred races run in the U.S. dropped 11.4 percent compared to the same month last year, according to figures distributed by Equibase on Monday, but the decline was mitigated somewhat by two fewer weekend race dates this year and a 4.5 percent decline in the number of races held.
April of last year had 10 weekend dates, compared to eight this year. Wagering on weekend dates is typically far higher than on weekdays.
Churchill Downs Inc. and NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC Sports, have reached an extension on the network’s Kentucky Derby broadcast rights that will keep the race on the company’s broadcasting platforms until 2032, the two companies announced on Saturday.
The extension includes “multi-platform rights” to the Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the supporting cards for both races, according to the companies. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports, the Peacock streaming service, the USA Network, and several other broadcasting platforms.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There have been a lot of long miles on the dark highway for Eric Foster. The trainer prefers to haul his horses to the races himself, when possible, in addition to accompanying them to the track for morning training, putting the tack on, or even waiting at the rail with a bucket and a shank. From his farm in rural Utica, Ky., it’s about 3 1/2 hours to Turfway Park, where he was the leading trainer this past meet; 2 1/2 hours to Keeneland, where the meet just concluded; or about two hours to Churchill Downs, in focus this week.
Samantha Randazzo, The Jockey Club steward at the New York Racing Association tracks since late 2022, is no longer serving in that capacity, according to The Jockey Club, effective immediately.
In a brief phone interview, Randazzo, who had previously worked as a steward at Finger Lakes Racetrack, declined to comment.
Juliet Kagno, who is NYRA’s safety steward, will fill the vacancy at the Aqueduct spring meet and for the Belmont at Aqueduct meet running from May 2 to July 7, The Jockey Club said, while the organization conducts an “international search for candidates.”
The veterinary team at Churchill Downs that is responsible for pre-race inspections has been provided with a new data-analytics tool that will generate risk-factor scores for horses that are entered in races at the track, according to officials of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
The owner of Kentucky Downs and a partner have reached an agreement to purchase Wyoming Downs and all of its off-track betting parlors, the parties announced on Monday. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
ECL Entertainment, a company headed by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone that owns Kentucky Downs and its associated casinos, is making the acquisition with the Clairvest Group, a Toronto-based private equity company. The partners previously acquired a charitable gaming facility in New Hampshire last year.
