When Tim Reid, chief executive at Northlands Park, announced plans for the future of the track on Wednesday, he said 2016 likely will be the last year of horse racing there.
“It is with mixed emotions that we talk about our partnership with horse racing,” said Reid. “[This year] will be our last year in the horse-racing business.”
A Florida Senate committee advanced two gambling bills on Wednesday that would permit most of the state’s parimutuel facilities to drop their live racing operations but would also create a purse pool for Thoroughbred racing subsidies estimated at $40 million a year.
Last Saturday’s fundraiser at Laurel Park for jockey Fray Martinez raised nearly $10,000. The silent auction of racing memorabilia raised more than $9,000, and another $1,000 came from donations and a raffle.
Additionally, an anonymous $10,000 donation was made by a reader of The Racing Biz through the website’s founder Frank Vespe.
XpressBet donated all revenue generated from Saturday’s wagers on Laurel, which totaled $6,280.
Another $10,349 has been raised on a GoFundMe site for Martinez, bringing the all-sources total to approximately $36,000.
Carolyn Rogers, a prominent Virginia-based owner, breeder, and consignor, died Sunday in Leesburg, Va. She was 88.
Rogers, along with her husband, Sam Rogers Jr., who died in October, owned White Oaks Farm in Leesburg, which has had a presence on the East Coast for six decades, with another farm in Ocala, Fla. Their operation tied for the longest continuous consignors to Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga yearling sales at 50 years.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment Group and the property development company Trinity Development Group have agreed to explore a partnership that will look at developing a 165,000-square-foot entertainment venue at Woodbine, which would seat up to 5,000.
WEG and Trinity will seek a third-party group to operate and manage the venue, which would not be part of an Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation modernization plan for Woodbine.
David M. Ingordo, a bloodstock agent, has been appointed to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to fill a commission seat vacated when the agency’s former chairman, Robert Beck, resigned late last year, according to the commission’s website.
Ingordo will be sworn in at a meeting scheduled for Friday, the first meeting of the KHRC since Dec. 1, when Beck resigned effective Dec. 7, the last day of the term of outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita stewards will conduct a hearing in coming weeks to determine whether China Girl Lover, the winner of the $43,170 Super Bowl Starter Handicap on Feb. 7, met the eligibility requirements of the restricted race.
The Super Bowl Starter Handicap was limited to horses that had started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less in 2015 or this year. China Girl Lover started in one claiming race during that time, a $16,000 race at a mile at Del Mar on Aug. 1, which the gelding won.
The mutuel field was a lukewarm favorite over Mohaymen when Pool 2 in the 2016 Kentucky Derby Future Wager closed Sunday.
The field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed at 5-2, followed closely by Mohaymen at 4-1. Then came Nyquist (7-1), Mor Spirit (12-1), Brody’s Cause (15-1), Airoforce (16-1), Smokey Image (19-1), and Exaggerator (22-1).
No individual wagering interest has ever been favored over the field in a February pool since Churchill Downs first began offering parimutuel futures in 1999.
Runhappy, the champion sprinter of 2015, is scheduled to be paraded at Sam Houston Race Park on Friday night, the track announced through its simulcast feed. Runhappy is being freshened at a farm in Texas. He races for Houston residents Jim and Linda McIngvale.
Runhappy will parade after the second or third race in details still being worked out, according to Sam Houston spokeswoman Jamie Nielsen. Nielsen said there will be a brief photo op in the winner's circle. Runhappy will then be moved to an appropriate area for a "meet and greet" with fans at Sam Houston.
After the first two days of betting, Mohaymen was a slight favorite over the mutuel field in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.
No individual wagering interest has ever been favored over the field in a February pool since Churchill Downs first began offering pari-mutuel futures in 1999.
