The stallion Deerhound was among 12 horses who died in an early-morning barn fire at Benton Training Center in Benton, La., on Thursday morning. There was no loss of human life, according to J.T. Wallace, the fire chief in Benton.
The training center, which is also home to various stallions and breeding stock, is located about 20 minutes from Louisiana Downs.
The final three stakes of the meet highlight the penultimate day of racing at the 101-day Presque Isle Downs meet. The stakes are worth $100,000 each and all three attracted full fields of 12.
The seventh race on the card is the HBPA, a mile and 70-yard race for fillies and mares. Leah's Secret, who is coming off an even fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga, will be the favorite in the HBPA if she starts. Trainer Todd Pletcher has also entered her in Saturday's Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park.
The zero-tolerance policy at Suffolk Downs that rules off horsemen who send runners at the end of their careers to slaughter has been tested for the first time, with an unidentified horse owner no longer allowed on Suffolk's property following the discovery of two horses at a known slaughter auction in New Jersey.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Saturday's Avowal is a new overnight stakes offering this year and obviously has been well received.
In fact, the $100,000 turf race for 3-year-old fillies was so popular that two of the 16 entrants had to be placed on an also-eligible list when the field was drawn on Wednesday.
First preference was given to topweights under the weight-for-age guidelines of the allowance conditions but, with a host of the older entrants getting in with the minimum 117 pounds, lifetime earnings became the tiebreaker.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Finding winners in the pick six on Wednesdays opening day at Santa Anita was too much for bettors. There is a carryover of $100,373 for Thursdays eight-race program.
The program begins at 1 p.m., with the first pick six race, the third, due off at 2:03 p.m.
Thursdays pick six races include one turf race and five races on the main track, three of which are sprints. There were only a few changes at Wednesdays scratch time. In the fifth race, Just For Us is scratched from a maiden claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs, leaving a field of 10.
STICKNEY, Ill. - On Tuesday, Hawthorne stakes coordinator Debbie Lindsay was washing out over the prospect of a sadly short field in Saturday's Hawthorne Gold Cup, but when entries closed Wednesday, Hawthorne's signature race had drawn seven horses. That number is more than respectable given the current state of the handicap division and the fact that the Gold Cup goes up against three other races in the division: the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Kentucky Cup Classic, and the Goodwood Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Albertus Maximus needed 13 races to win his first stakes, finally doing so in the $91,400 Windy Sands Handicap at Del Mar on Labor Day. It was far from the most lucrative race of that meeting for older horses, but the win did impress trainer Vladimir Cerin.
"There were three Grade 1 winners in the race," Cerin said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The last time a horse had a chance to eclipse Cigar's North American earnings record in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens was there to prevent it from happening.
It was in 1998 when the Jerkens-trained Wagon Limit, a 34-1 shot, splashed his way to a 5 1/2-length victory in the slop in the then-$1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup while Skip Away, who was seeking to win his second straight Gold Cup and surpass Cigar's record, finished third at 1-5.
Fair Grounds Race Course released its 2008-2009 stakes schedule on Wednesday comprising 63 stakes worth more than $6.6 million. The schedule makes no major changes from last year, but had to be slightly reconstituted to accommodate Fair Grounds' earlier opening this year.
The meet climaxes this season on March 14, Louisiana Derby Day. Besides the $600,000 Louisiana Derby, the March 14 card will include the Fair Grounds Oaks, the New Orleans Handicap, and the Mervin Muniz, all Grade 2 races, plus two additional stakes.