A cache of hypodermic needles and injectable substances found in the Monmouth Park barn of the now-suspended trainer Aparna Battula was placed there by a disgruntled employee who had been fired the day prior to the discovery, the attorney for the trainer said on Tuesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saying that the sport of racing is facing an “existential crisis,” Bill Lear, the vice chairman of The Jockey Club, said on Sunday that the entire industry needs to join together behind his organization’s support of a federal bill that would create a national policy-making body for the sport.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar and Santa Anita intend to run four days a week during their fall meetings even though the population of Thoroughbreds in Southern California has declined by approximately 24 percent in the last year, racing and track officials said at Saturday’s annual meeting of the Thoroughbred Owners of California.
Sunland Park in New Mexico plans to donate a total of $100,000 to two foundations assisting families following the mass shooting in neighboring El Paso, Texas, the track announced late Friday.
Sunland also is planning a benefit for the families on a future day. The track operates a casino and opens for live racing in December.
Many on the New Mexico circuit and in the racing community at large have longstanding ties to El Paso because of its close proximity to Sunland, which opened in 1959.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Drug Testing and Standards Committee of the Association of Racing Commissioners International has approved recommendations that would ban the administration of a class of painkilling drugs within 48 hours of a race and the administration of anti-inflammatory drugs known as corticosteroids within 14 days of a race, the organization said on Friday.
Santa Anita will not run races on its hillside turf course at the autumn meeting, which begins on Sept. 27, and will run turf sprints at 5 and 5 1/2 furlongs during the six-week season.
This will be the first season Santa Anita will run turf sprints at 5 1/2 furlongs. Track maintenance crews have been constructing a backstretch chute this summer to accommodate races at the distance. The races will start on the main track for a few strides before joining the main turf oval.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Despite losing a Saturday card due to heat and the majority of another card due to rain, all-sources handle for the first half of the 2019 Saratoga meet is up over the first half of last year’s meet, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association on Thursday.
All-sources handle was $320,684,715 on 193 races conducted over 19 race cards from July 11 through Wednesday. That figure is up 2.3 percent over the $313,518,382 handled on 199 races run from July 20 through Aug. 11 last year.
Steve Koch, the executive director of a racing-industry safety and welfare accreditation program, has accepted a position with The Stronach Group as a senior vice president of racing, the company announced on Thursday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jockey Mickey Walls and trainer Josie Carroll were among the 2019 inductees into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Mississauga Convention Center on Wednesday night.
The $50,000 Robert Dupret Derby at Santa Rosa did not attract enough horses to be run as scheduled on Saturday and has been rescheduled for Sunday.
Racing secretary Bob Moreno said he will be contacting several Southern California-based trainers in hopes of attracting enough horses to run the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for 3-year-olds.
There is a Quarter Horse stakes race on Saturday's card at Santa Rosa, the $8,000 PCQHRA Handicap at 350 yards. Snowy Cornitas, who has won a stakes at Pleasanton and one at Sacramento in his last two starts, may be the favorite.
