OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Owners who have horses based in New York with trainers Jason Servis and Mike Tannuzzo will have to make arrangements to move their stock to other trainers in the wake of the indictments handed down Monday by the District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, accusing both horsemen with participating in a scheme to administer illegal medications to horses.
Bonifacio Rayas, a fixture on the backstretch at Emerald Downs, died on Feb. 18, an Emerald official said.
Rayas had a heart attack at Emerald in early February and was kept in a coma until his family could get to Washington. He was 80 years old.
The past 15 years, “Boni,” as he was known, has been the right-hand man for trainer Roy Lumm.
A native of Jalisco, Mexico, Rayas was a Quarter Horse jockey early in his career. In the 1960s he worked in Southern California for trainer Farrell Jones.
Trainer Tim McCanna brought him to the northwest in the 1990s.
Federal prosecutors in New York on Monday unsealed indictments accusing 27 individuals, including the high-percentage trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, of administering illegal medications to racehorses. One of the racehorses named in the indictment as receiving an illegal medication is Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old of 2019 and first under the line in last year’s Kentucky Derby.
The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed as a lukewarm favorite over Authentic and Tiz the Law after three days of betting into Pool 3 of the 2020 Kentucky Derby Future Wager. The pool opened Friday at noon Eastern and closed Sunday evening when coinciding with the only futures pool toward the 2020 Kentucky Oaks.
Winter handle in the United States has been surprisingly strong this year, despite substantial betting declines at Santa Anita Park in Southern California, according to an analysis of racing data conducted by Daily Racing Form.
The Department of Homeland Security has indicated that it will authorize an additional 35,000 H-2B visas for the summer season, according to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, a decision that could ease some strain on trainers facing labor shortages.
According to the NTRA, the department communicated its intent to issue the additional visas to congressional leaders on Thursday morning. The first batch of 20,000 supplemental visas will be issued for workers starting April 1, and a second batch of 15,000 visas will be issued for start dates beginning May 15.
Todd Pletcher will take over many U.S.-based horses for Sheik Hamdan's Shadwell Farm following Kiaran McLaughlin’s upcoming exit from the training ranks.
McLaughlin said this week that he will give up training horses and will take over as agent for jockey Luis Saez beginning with the Keeneland meeting, which opens April 2. Richard DePass has been Saez's agent for eight years and is retiring.
Tim Ritvo, a long-serving executive at The Stronach Group, is leaving the company as its chief operating officer “to pursue other opportunities,” the company said in a release on Monday afternoon.
Ritvo, who was first hired by the company as the general manager of its Gulfstream Park in South Florida in 2011, was elevated to chief operating officer in 2012. Since then, he has maintained offices at many of the company’s racetracks, including Santa Anita Park in Southern California, Gulfstream, and Laurel Park in Maryland.
Veteran rider Luis M. Quinones is the 2020 winner of the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, given to a rider by his peers for his career in the saddle and his personal character, it was announced Thursday morning by Santa Anita, where the award has been presented each year since 1950.
Quinones, 41, beat out a strong group that included Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, as well as Tyler Baze, Chris Emigh, and James Graham.
