John Dooley has been named track announcer at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racing and Casino, the racetrack formerly called Indiana Downs and, more recently, Indiana Grand.  

The position became available when longtime race-caller Bill Downes left the track after the 2021 racing season. Dooley is available because his usual summer place of employment, Arlington International Racecourse, won’t host a race meet in 2022, if ever again. Dooley is the longtime race commentator at Fair Grounds, where he currently is calling. 

Pity the Fair Grounds clocking crew.

An extended spell of cold, wet weather last week backed up workout schedules and led to a deluge of breezes after the Fair Grounds dirt track had dried Sunday and Monday. A total of 142 horses posted workouts Monday, which was nothing compared to Sunday, when 295 workers made the Fair Grounds tab. Track officials and local observers speculated that Sunday was the busiest work day in modern Fair Grounds history.

Call Me Midnight worked a half-mile in 50.20 seconds Feb. 5 at Fair Grounds, his first breeze since upsetting the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 22, but it’s far from certain this was a work toward the Feb. 19 Risen Star Stakes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Giant Game was scheduled to undergo what trainer Dale Romans described as a minor throat procedure Tuesday after the colt, he said, “displaced his palate pretty bad” when a distant eighth Saturday in the Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park.

“It’s a very common procedure that’s done right in the horse’s stall,” Romans said. “Hopefully, this will correct whatever he’s got troubling him and we’ll have him back in training before the weekend.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Attendance for this year’s Belmont Stakes will be capped at 50,000, due in large part to reduced space in the backyard after the construction of UBS Arena, the New York Racing Association announced Monday. Belmont Day is June 11.

In 26 of 33 runnings of the Belmont from 1985-2019, the crowd was announced as more than 50,000. The last time the crowd was less than 50,000 was In 2013, when it was 47,567. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no fans were allowed for the 2020 running, and last year the crowd was capped at 11,000.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If Geno wins only one dirt race, he won the right one – the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series last Dec. 18.

Saturday, Geno will get a second chance to affirm his affinity for the dirt when he runs in the $100,000 Gander Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds going a mile.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Morello, who earned an 84 Beyer Speed Figure for his five-length victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes, will point to the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham on March 5, trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday.

Morello, a son of Classic Empire, was a three-wide stalking presence in the Winkfield, took over in upper stretch and drew away nicely under Jose Lezcano. He covered seven furlongs in 1:23.30 in what was race 4 on a nine-race card over a track that got faster as the day progressed.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Drafted, who earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure for his victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes, could make his next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap here on April 9, trainer David Duggan said Sunday.

“We’ll nominate and look,” Duggan said. “It’s nice to even be thinking about it. If he got beat 10 lengths we’re back in an allowance race. That’s the reality of it.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Going Global, a six-time stakes winner in 2021, recently resumed training with Phil D’Amato at Santa Anita after a brief rest in January.

Going Global, 4, may have her 2022 debut in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf on April 9.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jose Ontiveros, a longtime morning outrider who worked as a pony person in the afternoon at Southern California tracks, died on Feb. 2 of COVID-19, according to his son Edgar.

Jose Ontiveros, 60, was hospitalized at Arcadia Methodist at the time of his death. Ontiveros had been troubled by a cough since late December, according to his son.

“It would not go away,” Edgar Ontiveros said.