OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Liz Bracken, a former director of simulcasting for the New York Racing Association and a racetrack official at several other tracks, died Sunday at Hope Hospice & Palliative Care in Providence, R.I. She was 52.
Bracken was a graduate of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry program in Tucson. After leaving NYRA in 2013, she returned to the University of Arizona to become associate coordinator and instructor for the Race Track Industry Program until earlier this year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Grade 1 winner Whitmore has joined what is becoming a crowded field for the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile, to be run here Dec. 7.
Whitmore, winner of the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga in 2018, is coming off a third-place finish behind winner Mitole in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
Trainer Ron Moquett said Whitmore came out of the Breeders’ Cup too well to give him his customary year-end break before heading to Oaklawn Park for the winter.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tax, who had post 12 in the Grade 1 Travers, will break from the rail in an eight-horse field entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct.
Tax had a wide trip throughout in the Travers when he finished seventh, 5 3/4 lengths behind winner Code of Honor. That shouldn’t be an issue Saturday when he returns to Aqueduct where he won the Grade 3 Withers from the rail in February.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Unsurprisingly, Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Long Island Stakes at Aqueduct, the last graded turf race of the year on this circuit, drew an overflow field when entries were taken and post positions assigned Wednesday.
The 2018 Kentucky Oaks winner, her 2-year-old brother, and a couple fillies who could wind up being 2020 Oaks horses figure among a broad swath of talented stock trainer Brad Cox will have stabled at Fair Grounds in New Orleans this winter.
Cox, leading Fair Grounds trainer the last two seasons, still has plenty of horses in Kentucky for the end of the Churchill Downs meeting and as usual he’ll also run a division at Oaklawn Park, but his Fair Grounds barn should teem with talent.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In the opening month of the 2018-19 Gulfstream Park Championship meet, Maximum Security was competing in a maiden-claiming race and Bricks and Mortar was running in an allowance race. At year’s end, the pair are among the leading contenders to win arguably the industry’s two most prestigious awards, the 3-year-old championship and Horse of the Year, respectively.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Alan Garcia, a Woodbine mainstay in recent years, intends to ride this winter at Turfway Park, which opens Wednesday for nearly four months of action. Garcia will be represented by agent Jimmy McNerney, who also will book mounts for Albin Jimenez.
Among the major races won by Garcia, a 34-year-old Peru native, were the 2007 BC Filly and Mare Turf on Lahudood, the 2008 Belmont Stakes on Da’ Tara, and the 2013 Arlington Million on Real Solution.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tiz the Law, the unbeaten 2-year-old whose chances of earning a divisional Eclipse Award depend heavily on how he runs here Saturday in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, got his first feel for the track with an easy jog Wednesday morning over a sloppy Churchill oval. Exercise rider Heather Smullen was up, with trainer Barclay Tagg alongside aboard a pony. The colt also gate-schooled.
“He surprises us every day with what he has,” Tagg said. “It’s what we look for and hope for.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Tommy Massis has gained notoriety as a successful contest player, but the outspoken professional gambler has made his mark as an owner this year with several productive claimed runners trained by Norm McKnight.
Last Friday, Massis won a $40,000 event going seven furlongs with the erratic Nashville Knight, who was moving up off a $25,000 claim. The speedy Nashville Knight grabbed an uncontested lead and never looked back to prevail with an 88 Beyer Speed Figure, the third highest of his career.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. -- The New York Racing Association has scheduled 47 cards of racing at Aqueduct through the first quarter of 2020, and the stakes program will virtually mirror that of the first quarter of 2019.
The January-through-March schedule is part of a 59-day 2019-20 Aqueduct winter meet that officially begins on Dec. 12. The December dates were announced earlier this year.
