Penn National Race Course lost its fourth consecutive live racing card when Wednesday night's program was canceled due to poor track conditions.
It was the sixth program this month and the fourth time since last Friday that the track has been unale to race.
The track hopes to resume live racing on Thursday with first race post time at 6:45 p.m Eastern.
Superior Storm gave her rivals in Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day Ladies a chance. The filly had injured her hoof in a sprint prep race for Champions Day and had missed training time leading to Saturday's race. But she still won the Ladies by two lengths while earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 91. The victory was her seventh straight in Louisiana-bred stakes competition, and Superior Storm - superior, indeed - has won nine races while compiling earnings of almost $426,000.
Live racing was canceled at Penn National Race Course on Tuesday night due to ice and winter weather conditions.
It was the fifth program this month and the third time since last Friday that the track has been unale to race.
The track hopes to resume live racing on Wednesday with first race post time at 6:45 p.m Eastern.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law Monday legislation requiring the four highest-earning casinos in the state to pay 3 percent of their adjusted gross revenue to the Illinois horse racing industry.
The legislation extends for three years a law that previously existed for two years, but expired in May 2008. Legislators crafted the law to compensate horse racing for business that was lost to the casino industry.
MIAMI - Smooth Air has returned to his home base at Calder and has already started gearing up for a 4-year-old campaign that could begin next month in Gulfstream Park's $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic.
Smooth Air was given a month off in Ocala following his seventh-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He had his first official work since the Breeders' Cup here Sunday morning, going an easy five furlongs in 1:02 under regular exercise rider Jody Gelb.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite two inches of rain pummeling Santa Anita the previous day and a half, it was pretty much business as usual here on Tuesday morning, with horses galloping and working out over a synthetic Pro-Ride surface that trainers said passed its first major test of wet weather.
"In the past, we wouldn't even be training today," trainer Eoin Harty said. "They would have had to seal it."
OLDSMAR Fla. - It's not often a horse comes directly from the Breeders' Cup to a race at Tampa Bay Downs, but it happened on opening day last weekend when Dream Rush, who last raced in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, returned with an impressive victory over a solid field of allowance runners going six furlongs.
After losing part of the last two Friday cards because of winter weather, Hawthorne canceled its entire Sunday program because of unseasonable warmth.
Temperatures in the mid-50s made mush of Hawthorne's track surface, which two days earlier had been frozen. The decision to scrap racing Sunday came as a mutual decision between track management and jockeys, according to parties in both camps.
ockey Eddie Razo said the track looked usable at 11:30 Sunday morning, but quickly deteriorated.
Nordic Gaming Corp., the owner and operator of Fort Erie Race Track, told employees at a meeting Monday that it appears the racetrack will not be able to continue live racing next year.
Darryl Wells, Fort Erie's director of media communications, said a total of 190 people involved with the horse racing side of the Fort Erie operation were told their employment would be terminated as of March 31, 2009.
"Notice was needed, and we had to come up with a date, to meet with labor regulatory rules," Wells said of the Monday announcement.
Joe Allen and trainer Joel Marr are still leaning toward retiring the undefeated Peppers Pride after a two-hour meeting Monday morning, but the career performance she turned in while winning her 19th consecutive race Sunday at Sunland Park has given them reason to pause.
"I think we're probably going with our original plan," Marr said, but "it sure has had an affect on the decision for a little while here. We'll cool off in a day or two."
"Just when you think you're ready to make decisions, and then, golly, things change," quipped Allen, who bred and owns Peppers Pride.
