ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Rick Violette, who has served as president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2008, will not seek re-election this fall.
Violette said he believes it’s time for a change for both he and the organization and cited a desire to spend more time doing his primary job, training horses including his recent Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Diversify. Violette asked the NYTHA board this week to remove his name from the ballots that go out on Oct. 24.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – It didn’t approach what happened this summer, but Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas set the Keeneland toteboard alight Thursday when Goats Town won the eighth race at a $66.60 mutuel, becoming the longest-priced winner for the opening five-day stretch of the fall meet.
Lukas had the longest-priced winner of the Saratoga meet when Perplexed returned a whopping $232.50 in the first race July 24.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run is the richest of four graded stakes to be run on consecutive days here next week. Valadorna, Tequilita, Faypien, and Pinch Hit are among the 3-year-old fillies expected for what is shaping up as a terrific renewal of the seven-furlong Raven Run, to be contested Saturday, Oct. 21.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Al Stall Jr. has been around long enough not to get too excited when a horse wins its first two races. His father and grandfather were prominent owners and breeders in their home state of Louisiana, and Stall, now 56, was working with horses even before he left the oil business shortly after graduating from Louisiana State University.
The gang will certainly all be on hand at Laurel Park next Saturday for the 32nd Jim McKay Maryland Million Day. A total of 213 pre-entries were taken Wednesday for the 11 Maryland Million races, which include seven stakes and four starter races.
The pre-entries will thin out noticeably on Wednesday when entries are taken, because the pre-entries include a number of horses who are cross-entered in more than one race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Highway Star worked a half-mile in 50 seconds Thursday over the Belmont Park training track, the second of four scheduled moves the New York-bred filly will have leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.
Jockey Angel Arroyo was aboard for the work, which Daily Racing Form timed in splits of 12.50, 24.64 for the quarter, and a final quarter in 25.36. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.08 over a track rated good.
MIAMI – Allowance races have been few and far between since the Gulfstream Park West meet began last week, but trainer Rodolfo Garcia made the most of his limited opportunities Wednesday when sending out his top 2-year-old filly prospect Lady Freedom to win the afternoon’s co-feature, decided under first-level optional-claiming conditions on the main track.
In a race where a couple of fringe players generally come out of the woodwork at the last moment, the nucleus for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint field is now set. A core group that is fast, talented, and well-matched is led by defending Sprint winner Drefong.
There were seven Breeders’ Cup Challenge races for the Sprint decided over the past three months, each won by a different horse.
The Beyer Speed Figures for Saturday’s Santa Anita Sprint Championship have been revised after two separate analyses raised questions about the official time for the race.
The official time for the six-furlong race is listed at 1:08.68, but employees of both the Beyer team and TimeformUS, which is owned by DRF, have said that an analysis of the race indicates that the time should have been approximately a half-second slower. The TimeformUS employee, Craig Milkowski, was the first to publicly raise questions about the timing.
Although the Win and You’re In Breeders’ Cup Challenge races have all been completed, the possibility exists for more horses to join the fray for the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar after running in Grade 1 stakes at Keeneland and Woodbine this weekend.
