A circuit court in Louisiana has upheld the fines and suspensions the state’s racing commission issued in two separate cases involving the painkiller dermorphin that had dated back to last year’s Thoroughbred meet at Evangeline Downs.
Trainers Anthony Agilar and Kyi Lormand were each suspended three years and fined $2,500 when horses in their care tested positive for the illegal painkiller in May 2012. Their suspensions were to have started Monday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park closed out its 2012-2013 winter meet with the first summer racing program in track history, handling $1,986,428 on an eight-race card here Tuesday.
Gulfstream needed to run one live program between the original closing date of its 2012-2013 meet on April 5 and the end of the fiscal year in south Florida on June 30 to become its own simulcast hub rather than be required to use Calder as its hub as in the past. Gulfstream will open its 2013 summer meeting on July 1.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When Horizon Sky starts in an allowance over 1 1/16 miles on turf in Thursday’s seventh race at Betfair Hollywood Park, he may finally race at his ideal distance.
The allowance could lead to appearances in stakes at Del Mar later this summer. For bettors, Horizon Sky could be a key runner on pick six tickets on a day when the bet starts with a carryover of $94,896.
The pool of new money could exceed $650,000.
Horizon Sky is part of a field of six 3-year-olds in Thursday’s seventh race, the smallest field in the pick six sequence.
MIAMI – Trainer Wesley Ward’s long list of stakes wins grew even more impressive within a 48-hour span last week with victories by No Nay Never at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Norfolk and the undefeated 2-year-old filly Sweetmarys Success here at Calder on Saturday in the $100,000 J J’sdream Stakes.
But the one thing still missing from that r é sum é is a Grade 1 victory, a gap Ward hopes to finally fill July 6 when he sends Judy the Beauty to Calder for the Princess Rooney Handicap.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Conceding the 128-pound assignment is acceptable, trainer Charlie LoPresti said Tuesday that Wise Dan is a very likely starter Saturday night in the Grade 2, $175,000 Firecracker Handicap at Churchill Downs.
With entries for the one-mile turf race due Wednesday, LoPresti said he does not necessarily agree with the weights, particularly as they portend for handicaps for the rest of the year for Wise Dan, the 2012 Horse of the Year. But he did say he is willing to “give it a try,” mostly because of how the Firecracker will set up Wise Dan for the rest of the year.
Andrew Leggio would be about 15 years into retirement by now had he taken a conventional career path. But instead, the 79-year-old trainer is operating the highest win-percentage stable at Louisiana Downs and preparing a handful of runners for the Louisiana Legends program of statebred stakes to be run next weekend at Evangeline Downs.
Spurred by huge increases in account wagering on its live races, Golden Gate Fields showed an 8.17 percent increase in all-sources handle for its 101-day meet that ended June 16. The figure was compared to the 2011-12 meet, which also consisted of 101 days.
The track reported a 1.52 percent increase in the all-sources handle on all races, including Southern California and out-of-state racing.
The increases came despite a mild 3.44 percent drop in ontrack attendance, from 252,968 to 244,267.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Whenever Steve Asmussen has an uncoupled entry in a given race – which is fairly often, considering how many horses he trains – he uses a standard policy when asked to comment publicly on which horse has the best chance to win.
“Keep your job,” he said with a laugh. “Remember you send the bill to both clients.”
That diplomacy came to the fore when Asmussen was asked whether he could choose between Awesome Bet and Sabercat, his uncoupled pair in one of the Thursday co-features at Churchill.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Mike Mitchell missed his stable’s biggest day of 2012.
When Camp Victory won the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on June 30, 2012, Mitchell was in a Southern California hospital, recovering from an operation for a brain tumor. He rooted home the winner in the company of his wife and two adult daughters, watching on a computer.
The happiest man at the Alameda County Fair last weekend was local Pleasanton trainer Jeff Bonde.
Bonde loves the fair and really loves winning in his hometown, and he had two impressive winners last weekend.
First-timer She’s a Tiger, a 2-year-old three-quarter-sister of multiple Grade 1-winning sprinter Smiling Tiger, popped the gate, had a four-length lead after the opening quarter, and won a five-furlong maiden race by nine lengths Saturday in 57.49 seconds.
