Rocky Gulch, the all-time richest New Mexico-bred Thoroughbred, was officially retired earlier this month during the New Mexico Cup card at Zia Park. He made an appearance at the track, which named a stakes in his honor.
Rocky Gulch, a 7-year-old gelding, won 18 of 38 races during his career, and earned $1,151,725.
"He's officially retired," said Larry Teague, who bred and raced Rocky Gulch.
Trainer Steve Manley is poised to win his first career training title as he leads all Hoosier Park trainers by 11 wins going into the final week of the meet.
Manley, 45, comes from a Quarter Horse background.
"My dad trained Quarter Horses, starting with barrel horses, and we had horses ever since I can remember," he said. "I started training Quarter Horses and then moved to Thoroughbreds."
Manley took out his trainer's license in 1987 at Fairmount Park. Manley was born and raised in St Louis and still calls Fairmount Park home.
Bret Calhoun, who is the fifth leading trainer by wins in North America, said he plans to have a division of horses based this winter at Oaklawn Park, which opens its meet on Jan. 16. He will join an established list of trainers that includes Larry Jones, who said Wednesday that 22 horses from his operation were scheduled to arrive in Hot Springs, Ark., on Saturday.
Calhoun could have as many as 30 horses at Oaklawn, where he had a small division in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It didn't take long for Legal Move to get back to Ontario after the 4-year-old colt sold for $245,000 at Keeneland last Saturday.
And now Legal Move will be looking to pick up where he left off when he goes postward for new owner Bruno Schickedanz and new trainer Mark Fournier in Saturday's $150,000 Kennedy Road.
Legal Move won the six-furlong allowance prep for the Kennedy Road here Nov. 1, bringing his career earnings to $832,089 in what turned out to be his last start for trainer Mark Casse and Bill Farish's Woodford Racing LLC.
M J's Enchanteur withstood early pressure from So So and survived a claim of foul to secure his third stakes victory of the season in Tuesday night's $75,000 Sophomore Sprint Championship at Mountaineer Racetrack.
Sent to the front by jockey Josue Arce in a field reduced to four by three scratches, M J's Enchanteur ($3) dueled with Charles Town shipper So So through a half-mile in 45.27 seconds, edged clear entering the stretch, and finished 6 1/4 lengths in front of runner-up Perfectly Played.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The year 2008 has been a watershed year in the career of jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva.
Da Silva, 33, began his career in his native Brazil and then rode in Macao for five years before moving his tack to Woodbine in 2004.
Da Silva caught on quickly here, and last year he won 83 races, including six stakes, and had mount earnings of more than $3.6 million.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Ahmed Zayat has not campaigned horses regularly in California since summer 2007, but the owner's West Coast return this fall already has created a welcome disturbance in an otherwise sleepy 2-year-old division.
Pioneerof the Nile, the Zayat colt who finished a close fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, is returning to California. Even before touching down, he has knocked Chocolate Candy off his perch as favorite for the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 20 at Hollywood Park, and forced Chocolate Candy to find a new jockey.
STICKNEY, Ill. - No news, the saying goes, is good news, but when it comes to Hawthorne Race Course this fall, any news seems to be bad news. In September, the Illinois Racing Board pulled the plug on harness racing at Hawthorne for 2009, declining to award the track the summer harness meet it had hosted the previous several seasons. Last week, Hawthorne's bid to acquire a vacant Illinois casino license was rebuffed by the Illinois Gaming Board.
Total handle from all sources declined 4 percent from 2007 for the Meadowlands Racetrack meet that ended Saturday night.
On the up side, average attendance, which includes all daytime simulcast patrons, rose 13 percent.
The average all-sources handle on the Meadowlands races was $1,406,433 while attendance averaged 3,556.
The comparisons are skewed by differences in the schedules for the last two meets.
MIAMI - With 1,997 victories on her resume, jockey Rosemary Homeister Jr. is just three wins shy of a career milestone. And what better place to get memorable number 2,000 than at her old stomping grounds, Calder Race Course?
Homeister, who was practically born and raised at Calder, won the majority of her races at her home course before looking for new worlds to conquer a couple of years ago. She won the Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice while riding here in 1992.