The five-time stakes winner Closing Remarks has been retired after two disappointing performances this winter at Santa Anita.
Closing Remarks finished sixth in the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes on Feb. 3 and the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes last Sunday, both one-mile turf races for fillies and mares.
She was sent to owner and breeder John Harris’s farm in Coalinga, Calif., earlier this week, trainer Carla Gaines said.
Leah Gyarmati is no longer licensed to train horses in New York, and the New York Racing Association has revoked her stalls at Belmont Park after separate incidents involving alcohol and alleged lack of attention to an injured horse.
According to the New York Gaming Commission website, Gyarmati voluntarily surrendered her license on March 1. Horses she had entered at Aqueduct last weekend were ordered scratched by the stewards. The 12 horses under her care have been transferred to trainer Marcelo Arenas, a former assistant of Gyarmati’s who has been on his own since 2021.
The big girl is back at the track.
Idiomatic, the gigantic 5-year-old Eclipse-winning mare who towered over the older female dirt-route division during 2023 to the extent she was a finalist for Horse of the Year, is stabled with trainer Brad Cox’s string at Fair Grounds following a winter break at the Kentucky property of her owner and breeder, Juddmonte Farms.
Idiomatic, in fact, has been back with Cox long enough that she had a very minor breeze last weekend, though the work was slow enough it didn’t make the official tab.
Woodbine has announced a 2024 stakes schedule that includes 38 graded events, four of which are Grade 1s. The schedule does not include the Canadian International, which has been shelved for the year.
The 165th running of the $1 million King’s Plate has been moved from a Sunday to a Saturday this year, on Aug. 17, and will launch the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown. The $400,000 Prince of Wales, a 1 3/16-mile dirt route, goes Sept. 10 at Fort Erie. The $400,000 Breeders’ over 1 1/2 miles on turf concludes the series on Sept. 29 at Woodbine.
Easter is a candidate for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 27, while Newgrange may start in the $12 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 30 after losses in major stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Newgrange, the winner of two Grade 2 stakes in December and January, finished sixth as the 3-1 favorite in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. Newgrange was as close as second on the turn before fading in the stretch under jockey Victor Espinoza.
A minor injury has ended the racing career of the multiple graded stakes winner Queen Goddess, days before an expected start in Saturday’s Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
Queen Goddess is being sent to Kentucky this week and will be bred to Into Mischief, according to Aron Wellman, the president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns the 6-year-old mare with Gary Barber.
The four-time stakes winner Ruby Nell is booked to have her first start in a Grade 1 since August in the $600,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland on April 13 after winning for the first time this year in Sunday’s Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita.
The Jenny Wiley Stakes, run at 1 1/16 miles on turf, is annually one of the toughest races of the spring for older fillies and mares on grass.
“We’ll try something better,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “She’s still progressing.”
Glengarry is gearing up for a return to the races. One of the most accomplished 3-year-olds in training at Oaklawn, he was given some time after his runner-up finish in the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in December.
“We’re just kind of getting back going,” trainer Doug Anderson said Saturday. “We worked him Friday. He worked good – just a nice, easy, first half-mile since he’d run. Our plans are kind of up in the air right now. We’ll see how he keeps progressing and go from there.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Midnight Rising’s connections had wanted to get the 4-year-old on dirt for nearly a year and after two big performances this meet at Oaklawn Park he’s unbeaten on the surface – and bound for stakes action.
Trainer Jordan Blair said Tuesday that Midnight Rising is scheduled to make his next start in the Grade 3, $500,000 Oaklawn Mile on March 30.
Louis Lee Haggin III, a longtime director and trustee of Keeneland whose family had deep roots at the track, died on Tuesday at the age of 88, according to his family.
Haggin, whose grandfather, Hal Price Headley, was one of the co-founders of Keeneland, was first appointed a director at Keeneland in 1970. In 1981, he was elevated to trustee, a position he held until his retirement in 2015.
