Approximately 230 horses from the San Luis Rey Downs training center in northern San Diego County were temporarily relocated to Del Mar early Tuesday after evacuation orders were issued due to a wildfire in Bonsall, Calif.
The evacuation orders were lifted later on Tuesday, and horses were beginning to leave Del Mar to return to San Luis Rey Downs on Wednesday, according to Tom Robbins, Del Mar's executive vice president of racing.
Most racetrack souvenirs do not require a multi-state delivery via flatbed truck and installation by a team of five men.
Then again, what former Northern California horse owner Maureen Richardson took home from a Golden Gate Fields memorabilia auction last year, a few months after the track’s permanent closure in June, is far from the norm.
Richardson bought the sixteenth pole – the marker that indicated there was 110 yards to the finish. She had it extracted from its trackside position and shipped 10 hours to her home in Sandy, Utah.
Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky has canceled its Wednesday night card and rescheduled the races for Sunday due to anticipated sub-freezing conditions in the area, the track announced on Tuesday morning. The Sunday card will begin at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
The National Weather Service has forecasted temperatures in the low 20s and high teens for Wednesday night, not including wind chill. The latest arctic system to hit the Midwest has followed a remarkable string of cold weather in central Kentucky beginning early in the year.
The 2025 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, one of the most significant prep races for the Kentucky Derby, will be worth $1.25 million, Keeneland announced on Tuesday along with a handful of other purse increases for its spring meet.
The Blue Grass, scheduled this year for April 5, four weeks before the Derby, had a purse of $1 million from 2015 to 2019, before it was reduced to $800,000 during the height of the pandemic. The purse was restored to $1 million in 2022.
Fair Grounds on Monday moved the racecard card scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23, to Monday, January 27.
The card will be run as already drawn, the rescheduling made necessary by a spell of unusually harsh wintry weather descending this week on New Orleans.
As much as six inches of snow was forecast to fall in the city on Tuesday, with the low temperature Tuesday night forecast to drop to 23 degrees, radically low for the region.
The low temperature Wednesday night is forecast to be 30 degrees before Thursday begins a shift toward more seasonable temperatures.
Recharge, winner of last year’s Sunland Park Oaks, drew the rail in a field of nine for the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic that runs Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park.
Recharge is 2 for 2 over the main track at Sam Houston, where she won an allowance ahead of the Sunland Park Oaks and won an allowance in her most recent start Jan. 3.
The complete Houston Ladies Classic field from the rail is: Recharge, Our Pretty Woman, Our Davina, Alpine Princess, Hoosier Philly, Free Like a Girl, Miss Code West, Flashy Lass, and Kara.
Corrina Corrina, the all-time richest New Mexico-bred Thoroughbred, did not come out of the starting gate in the Bold Ego on Friday at Sunland Park, but emerged from the incident in good order and is scheduled to run back in the track’s $90,000 La Coneja, trainer Gary Cross said Saturday.
“She’s okay,” he said. “She reared up when they kicked it and didn’t leave the gates.”
The La Coneja is a six-furlong race for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares. It will be run Jan. 31 at Sunland.
While the focus of his older male turf division centers on Integration and Battle of Normandy, entered in this Saturday’s Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf, trainer Shug McGaughey appears to have an up-and-comer in the division in Deuteronomy.
Olivia Twist, a half-sister to $3 million earner Skippylongstocking, has been retired, trainer Todd Fincher said last week. The 5-year-old by Mshawish races for a partnership and in her last start Nov. 26 was second in the Zia Park Distaff.
Olivia Twist was a two-time stakes winner during her career and overall compiled a career record of six wins from 15 starts for earnings of $321,572.
“She’s a nice filly, been very good to us,” Fincher said.
Olivia Twist is likely to be bred to Curlin.
The unbeaten Take Charge Tom is on pace to make his next start in the $400,000 Sunland Park Derby on Feb. 16 after winning the local prep last Friday in New Mexico.
Take Charge Tom tracked the pace en route to a length win over favorite Smash It in the $100,000 Riley Allison Derby. For the effort, Take Charge Tom earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 77.
“I thought he ran quite well, first time going two turns – and that Smash It is no slouch,” Robertino Diodoro, who trains Take Charge Tom, said Saturday.
