ARCADIA, Calif. – Steve Knapp, who ranked fifth in the trainer’s standings at the current Santa Anita meeting through Sunday, has been suspended 15 days from April 1 through 15 after one of the horses in his care did not undergo a mandatory soundness examination before its first workout last fall.
The decision was published by Santa Anita stewards on Sunday.
Beginning with his first career appearance at Turfway Park on Saturday, California-based jockey Frankie Dettori will travel extensively in the coming weeks to ride major races in Dubai, Santa Anita, and Keeneland.
Dettori has nine mounts at Turfway Park, including Dancing Groom in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks, an important prep for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 4. Next week, Dettori is scheduled to travel to the United Arab Emirates where he will be aboard Newgate in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30.
With the exception of the shuffling of a few dates, the 2024 Saratoga stakes program will virtually mirror that of last year, according to the schedule released Friday afternoon by the New York Racing Association.
In total, 71 stakes worth $20.75 million will be offered during the 40-day meet that runs from July 11 through Sept. 2. The same number of stakes worth $20.8 million were offered in 2023. The Prioress, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies, downgraded to a Grade 3, incurred a $50,000 cut to $200,000.
George A. Bryant, a horseplayer who became a trainer after battling back from cancer, died Wednesday night at his home in Fort Worth, Texas, confirmed longtime friend Bradley White. Bryant was 42.
Bryant’s most recent starter, Fire Vision, won a first-level allowance on March 17 at Sam Houston Race Park. Bryant took out his trainer’s license in 2022. He vowed to realize that childhood goal following a 12-hour surgery in November 2021 to address stage 4 oral cancer. He was declared cancer-free in January 2022.
Jockey Joel Rosario, currently tied for 11th in the jockey standings at Santa Anita, has left Southern California and will ride in Louisiana and Gulfstream Park in coming weeks, according to his agent, Ron Anderson.
Rosario is booked to ride at Fair Grounds on Friday and Saturday, and will ride at Gulfstream Park the following weekend before relocating to Kentucky for the start of the Keeneland meeting on April 5.
Later this spring, Rosario will ride in New York, Anderson said.
The bonuses paid to California-bred that win maiden races will be cut from $17,500 to $15,000 at the Santa Anita spring meeting that begins on April 19, according to a statement released by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association earlier this week.
The bonuses are paid only to maiden winners in open company or statebred races at races of 4 1/2 furlongs or more, and are not available to the winners of claiming races for maidens.
Jockey Gerard Melancon will close out a 40-year riding career during which he won more than 5,000 races on Sunday’s closing-day card at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Melancon, 56, said his final mount will come in 13th race, when he rides Good N Sassy. She will cap a journey that began Feb. 1, 1984, the date of his first mount. It was at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
“My first win came Feb. 9,” Melancon said of the milestone victory at Delta.
Santa Anita will slash purses in the near future, and could be the subject of closure, if the California Horse Racing Board approves racing dates for a proposed 10-week meeting at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton later this year, according to a letter a top track executive recently sent to the racing board.
The racing board is scheduled to address the Pleasanton proposal at its monthly meeting in Sacramento on Thursday. The proposed race meeting would begin in mid-October.
Win, place, and show bets at Hawthorne Race Course outside of Chicago will continue to have the lowest takeout rate in the country when the track opens its meet on Saturday with a nine-race card.
Takeout for straight bets will continue to be 12 percent, Hawthorne officials said this week. The track first lowered the takeout to 12 percent for its 2023 season. Typically, straight bets have takeouts ranging from 16-19 percent at most major tracks.
Jockey Jose Ortiz, a regular on the New York Racing Association circuit since 2012, plans to relocate to Kentucky starting this spring.
Following the conclusion of the Gulfstream Park winter meet on March 31, Ortiz will ride the meet at Keeneland – save April 6 when he will be at Aqueduct – and then remain in Kentucky to ride the Churchill Downs spring meet. Ortiz plans to ride the summer at Saratoga before returning to Kentucky for the fall.
