Jockey Cindy Murphy, who established herself as one of the most successful female riders in racing, has retired. She will continue to work horses for the racing stable operation that she shares with her husband, trainer Travis Murphy.
“People are still going to see me out there in the mornings,” Murphy, 61, said Thursday. “I’ll still help gallop and work horses.”
Jockeys Keith James Asmussen and Erik Asmussen were both named on horses Saturday at Oaklawn – and they’re not the first members of their family to ride on the same card.
Back in the 1980s, their father, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, and their uncle, France’s five-time champion jockey Cash Asmussen, had mounts in the same race at Aqueduct.
Jockeys Tyler Gaffalione, Flavien Prat, and Luis Saez are among the riders who will be at Remington Park in Oklahoma City next Friday night for the $300,000 Springboard Mile.
The race for 2-year-olds awards eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby. The first five finishers will earn them on a scale of 10-5-3-2-1.
Gaffalione has the mount on Otto the Conqueror, who will break from post 8 in the nine-horse Springboard Mile. Prat has been named on Gettysburg Address, who starts from post 3. Saez will team from Glengarry from post 5.
There are 47 scheduled days of racing at Aqueduct’s upcoming winter meet -- two more than the previous winter -- as the New York Racing Association released part of its 2024 racing calendar on Friday.
The winter meet will run from Jan. 1-March 30, with the New Year’s Day program capping a five-day week beginning Dec. 28. From Jan. 4-21, racing will be conducted four days a week (Thursdays through Sundays). From Jan. 26-March 3, racing will be conducted three days a week (Fridays through Sundays), though a Presidents’ Day Monday card will be held on Feb. 19.
Los Alamitos will seed the $2 pick six on Saturday and on Dec. 16 with $10,000, provided the bet does not have a carryover from the preceding day.
The promotion has been in place in recent years for the track’s evening meeting of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds.
Los Alamitos offers a conventional $2 pick six.
Interest in the pick six has grown in Southern California in recent months after Santa Anita and Del Mar abandoned a 20-cent Rainbow pick six in which the entire pool was paid to a single winning ticket or on a day with a mandatory payout.
Luis Contreras, currently tied for 10th in the standings at Woodbine Racecourse near Toronto, will spend the winter at Santa Anita, according to his California agent Mike Ciani.
Contreras, 37, is expected to begin riding in California on Dec. 26, opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Contreras rode at Santa Anita last winter for the first time since the 2016-2017 season. He won 14 races from 99 mounts. His best result in four mounts in stakes was a third aboard Stella Noir in the Desert Stormer Stakes, a sprint for fillies and mares.
Alexander Chavez, the runaway leading rider at the current Golden Gate Fields autumn meeting, has been suspended eight racing days beginning on Friday for two recent riding infractions for careless riding.
Chavez was suspended three days – Friday through Sunday – for his ride on Speed Grazy on Nov. 26. Speed Grazy was demoted from first to third for causing interference in the stretch.
Five riders who have combined to win 14,508 races through Tuesday have been nominated for the 2024 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award presented by Santa Anita, the track announced on Wednesday.
Junior Alvarado (who has won 2,082 races), Alex Birzer (3,826), Julien Leparoux (2,956), Edwin Maldonado (1,532), and Rodney Prescott (4,112) have been selected as finalists.
Led by the stakes winners Chatalas and Nothing Like You, the Grade 2 Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Los Alamitos on Saturday is projected to have a small field.
The $200,000 Starlet Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and is the final graded stakes of the year for the division in Southern California.
Chatalas won the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 7, but was only ninth of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 for trainer Mark Glatt.
