Santa Anita has suspended turf workouts for the start of the winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26, racing officials said on Thursday.
Rick Hammerle, Santa Anita’s vice president of racing, said the use of the turf course for workouts “will be evaluated as we go.”
After a two-month search, Paul Espinosa has been named the new announcer at Charles Town.
Espinosa, a 26-year-old native of Charles Town, W.Va., will take over as the full-time announcer when the track begins its 2016 season Jan. 7. The current season ends next Wednesday.
Espinosa is one of several announcers who have filled in since Jeff Cernik and Charles Town parted ways following the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics card on Oct. 10. Cernik had been the announcer at Charles Town since 1999.
CYPRESS, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board approved licenses for winter-spring meetings at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita at its monthly meeting at Los Alamitos Racecourse on Thursday after the racetracks and horsemen organizations recently finalized agreements for off-track stabling in 2016.
Off-track stabling in Northern and Southern California will be similar to recent years after discussions on costs took place in the last month between the parties, but a change is likely in Northern California next fall.
Kirk Ziadie, the Florida trainer who is facing a potential six-year suspension for medication violations, will contest a hearing officer’s recommendation of the penalty by claiming that evidence in the case was inadmissible, his attorney said on Thursday.
Kirk Ziadie, a Florida-based trainer who led the Gulfstream Park spring meeting with 22 wins from 45 starts, has been suspended six years and fined $18,000 for what state regulators said were 18 violations of medication rules over the past four years, according to a copy of the ruling.
The Ohio Derby will return to 1 1/8 miles when it is contested for the 82nd time in 2016.
ThistleDown announced Wednesday that Ohio’s richest race for 3-year-olds will retain its $500,000 purse and be run on Saturday, June 25, two weeks after the Belmont Stakes.
The Ohio Derby was a nine-furlong race during most of its history, from 1924 to 1959 and from 1965 to 2009. It was contested at 1 1/2 miles from 1876 to 1883 and was run at 1 1/16 miles each of the past five years.
Horse owners may continue to use a three-year depreciation schedule for racehorses under a provision that has been included in a federal tax and budget bill negotiated between Republicans and Democrats, according to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which conducts federal lobbying efforts on behalf of racing.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Strict medication regulations contributed to a decline in the purse for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity for Quarter Horses this year, but track officials expect growth in 2016 and 2017, according to a letter released to horsemen on Tuesday.
Track owner Ed Allred said in a statement that futurity nomination payments for the Los Alamitos Two Million for the next two years from owners outside of California have increased over this year, when the race had a purse of $1,908,175.
