Gilbert Ciavaglia, a trainer for more than 45 years, died Tuesday night at a Houston hospital due to complications from leukemia, according to his wife, Nancy. He was 73. Ciavaglia had battled leukemia the past four years, but had been active at Lone Star this meet and won with his final starter as a trainer, Seeking West, on May 25. Overall, Ciavaglia was 5 for 12 this meet at Lone Star.
A turf sprint Friday night at Lone Star Park could produce two leading contenders for an upcoming dirt stakes at Evangeline Downs.
My Star Runner and Tortuga Straits, a pair of Louisiana-breds who have won 11 stakes races between them, could advance to the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Sprint at Evangeline on June 30 depending on their performance in the seventh race at Lone Star.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Whether they ran last weekend, are starting this Saturday, or are being prepared for late season comebacks, trainer Peter Eurton has a strong team of fillies and mares for 2012 with She’s Cheeky, My Gi Gi, and Weemissfrankie.
She’s Cheeky was third in the Grade 2 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont Park last Saturday, the ninth time she has been second or third in a stakes.
She is a candidate for the $200,000 A Gleam Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on July 14.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Leading trainer Troy Taylor’s options with Taylor Said improved considerably when the 4-year-old B.C.-bred gelding scored a convincing two-length win in the $50,000 Sir Winston Churchill at Hastings last Sunday.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Stately Victor rubbed shoulders with some of the big names in the sport last year. Winners of his last five starts include Wise Dan, St. Nicholas Abbey, and Acclamation, and excepting a dud in the Clark Handicap, Stately Victor did not embarrass himself against the high-end competition.
What he did not do, however, is win. Stately Victor’s last victory came in September 2010, and though he looks competitive in the featured fifth race Friday at Arlington, there are good reasons to wonder whether Stately Victor’s losing skein will drag on.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The show will go on uninterrupted.
A threatened strike by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 that could have threatened the running of Saturday’s Belmont Stakes was averted Wednesday when the two sides reached a tentative three-year agreement that runs through Feb. 28, 2014.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Right One already had three races under his belt when he rallied to a popular head victory over Yield Bogey in the 2011 edition of the $150,000 Jaipur at Belmont Park. But when Right One returns to defend his title Friday in the Grade 3 Jaipur, he’ll come into the race having run just once since November, a fact that is of some concern to his trainer, Christophe Clement.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – Mark Guidry is back having fun again.
After winning more than 5,000 races over a career spanning three decades, Guidry decided to hang up his tack in the fall of 2007. A native of Lafayette, La., 48 at the time, Guidry cited the physical grind of his profession as the reason the enjoyment of riding had left him.
Fast-forward to 2012 and Guidry has not only come out of retirement, but is enjoying a truly fulfilling renaissance to a career that began when he was in his teens.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Richard’s Kid was at the top of the California older male division when he was sent to Dubai in the fall of 2010.
Getting back to that level of racing is the goal for the second half of 2012, a campaign that begins in the $70,000 Prove It Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday evening.
Owned by Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed al Maktoum’s Zabeel Racing International, Richard’s Kid rejoins trainer Bob Baffert’s stable for his latest American campaign. Richard’s Kid was trained in Dubai by Satish Seemar.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Like many other trainers at Churchill Downs, Steve Margolis is rooting for I’ll Have Another to win the Belmont Stakes in the belief that “it would be good for the game” to have a Triple Crown winner.
“The horse has certainly done everything right, and Doug O’Neill is a real nice guy,” said Margolis.
