NEW ORLEANS – After routing nonwinners-of-two optional-claiming company at a mile Dec. 19, the 2-year-old colt Another Lemon Drop is headed to the Lecomte for his stakes debut, trainer Phil Bauer said.
The Lecomte, a Grade 3 race Jan. 17 at a mile and 70 yards, is the first stakes prep for the Louisiana Derby.
“The timing’s perfect,” said Bauer, who trains Another Lemon Drop for Richard and Tammy Rigney’s Rigney Racing. “We’re excited about this horse.”
Beginning Jan. 1, Laurel Park will change its first-race post time from 12:35 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“It was done to get away from Gulfstream, which starts at 12:35,” said Sal Sinatra, general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club.
The Laurel betting menu also will offer new options, including more superfectas and rolling daily doubles and pick threes. A third pick four will also be added and begin on race 4.
Daily purse distribution at Emerald Downs will increase approximately 20 percent for the 2015 season, according to a release from the track. Pending approval by the Washington Horse Racing Commission, the meeting will run April 18 through Sept. 27.
The increase is made possible by ongoing purseenhancements from the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, which has provided Emerald Downs with $11,954,825 in purse supplements since 2004, the release said.
In an attempt to attract the best older horses in the nation to its signature event, Charles Town will tie a number of bonuses to its Grade 2 Classic in 2015. The announcement of the bonus system comes two weeks after the racino announced that the Charles Town Classic card on April 18 will be run during the day for the first time next year.
Simmering acrimony between a prominent trainer and top jockey erupted into fisticuffs on Sunday at Los Alamitos, where trainer Richard Baltas and jockey Martin Pedroza scuffled briefly before being separated by a security guard.
Baltas emerged from the scrap with a swollen nose after Pedroza struck him in the face with his helmet. Baltas claimed that Pedroza instigated the incident; Pedroza said it was Baltas who started the fight.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – When you’ve been training for over 50 years and have won more than 3,300 Thoroughbred races where does the motivation come from to get up at 4:30 a.m. every morning and head to the track?
“It’s the young horses that keep the fires burning,” says trainer Gerry Bennett.
Embarrassed by the fact one of his horses tested positive for a banned substance, owner-breeder Barry Ostrager has terminated his relationship with trainer David Cannizzo.
Ostrager was the owner of Ave’s Halo, one of three horses trained by Cannizzo that tested positive for the presence of the drug propoxyphene, a painkiller also known as Darvon, in its system following a race. Ave’s Halo tested positive after winning a claiming race Sept. 24 at Belmont Park. The horse was claimed out of that race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Happy holidays – settle in and get comfortable.
There is a holiday for Southern California racing fans in late December – the opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Friday.
Few days in American racing are as highly anticipated as opening day at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. The track may have only concluded its autumn meeting on Nov. 2, but the day after Christmas is one celebrated by racing fans.
ARCADIA, Calif. – One season after California Chrome emerged from the winter preps at Santa Anita to capture both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, it appears the current crop of locally based runners for the 2015 Kentucky Derby is both strong and deep.
At Santa Anita right now, you could walk through the stable area and encounter the likes of American Pharoah, Dortmund, and Texas Red, who among them won the Del Mar Futurity, FrontRunner Stakes, Los Alamitos Futurity, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
ARCADIA, Calif. – On Nov. 3, two days after Goldencents won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile for the second consecutive year, the 4-year-old colt was vanned from Santa Anita to Ontario airport for a flight to Kentucky.
Earlier that afternoon, owners Glenn Sorgenstein and Josh Kaplan hosted a going-away party for Goldencents at trainer Doug O’Neill’s stable in the Santa Anita barns. The get-together had one notable absentee, O’Neill, who was in the midst of a suspension for a medication violation in New York in 2012 and was not permitted in the barn area.
