Wed, 11/27/2019 - 21:11

Eight new cases of equine herpesvirus confirmed at Remington Park

There were eight new confirmed cases of equine herpesvirus at Remington Park in the latest round of Oklahoma Department of Agriculture tests returned Wednesday, but all of the cases were asymptomatic and the horses have been placed in a special isolation barn on the backstretch, according to Matt Vance, Remington’s vice president of racing operations.

Vance said the two horses who returned positive tests Nov. 21 tested negative for EHV-1 on Wednesday. He also said no horses in the first of the two barns quarantined since the initial case Nov. 14 tested positive Wednesday.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 19:18

Stidham wins 2,000th race

Tom Keyser
Trainer Mike Stidham sent out his 2,000th career winner on Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs.

Mike Stidham sent out the 2,000th winner of his training career when Lem Me Tel Ya rallied to victory in the eighth race Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldmar, Fla.

Stidham, a 61-year-old native of Neptune, N.J., began training in 1979, with his first winner coming in January 1980 at Florida Downs, which eventually was renamed Tampa. He has since won 42 graded stakes, with his most accomplished runners being Two Altazano, Willcox Inn, Upperline, Istanford, and Synchrony.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 16:57

Forecast for high winds prompts Aqueduct to cancel Thanksgiving Day card

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Aqueduct's Thanksgiving Day card has been canceled due to a forecast that calls for high winds, the New York Racing Association announced late Wednesday afternoon.

According to weather.com, the forecast for Thursday calls for winds from 15 to 25 miles per hour with occasional wind gusts over 40 miles per hour.

However, according to the weather service that NYRA uses, the forecast calls for winds from 42 to 44 miles per hour with gusts above 50 miles per hour.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 15:46

Liz Bracken, former NYRA director of simulcasting, dies at 52

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Liz Bracken, a former director of simulcasting for the New York Racing Association and a racetrack official at several other tracks, died Sunday at Hope Hospice & Palliative Care in Providence, R.I. She was 52.

Bracken was a graduate of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry program in Tucson. After leaving NYRA in 2013, she returned to the University of Arizona to become associate coordinator and instructor for the Race Track Industry Program until earlier this year.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 15:46

Eager to run, Whitmore joins cast for Cigar Mile

Barbara D. Livingston
Whitmore will make his first start since November in Saturday's Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Grade 1 winner Whitmore has joined what is becoming a crowded field for the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile, to be run here Dec. 7.

Whitmore, winner of the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga in 2018, is coming off a third-place finish behind winner Mitole in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.

Trainer Ron Moquett said Whitmore came out of the Breeders’ Cup too well to give him his customary year-end break before heading to Oaklawn Park for the winter.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 15:46

Tax should pull nice trip from rail in Discovery

Barbara D. Livingston
Tax works a bullet half-mile in 47.16 seconds at Saratoga on Friday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tax, who had post 12 in the Grade 1 Travers, will break from the rail in an eight-horse field entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct.

Tax had a wide trip throughout in the Travers when he finished seventh, 5 3/4 lengths behind winner Code of Honor. That shouldn’t be an issue Saturday when he returns to Aqueduct where he won the Grade 3 Withers from the rail in February.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 15:40

Motion has numbers edge in full Long Island field

Julie Wright
Si Que Es Buena and jockey Chris Landeros win the Grade 3 La Prevoyante Stakes by one length over Santa Monica.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Unsurprisingly, Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Long Island Stakes at Aqueduct, the last graded turf race of the year on this circuit, drew an overflow field when entries were taken and post positions assigned Wednesday.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 15:20

Cox barn will be well stocked at Fair Grounds

Coady Photography
Mr. Monomoy is being pointed to a first-level allowance race on Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds.

The 2018 Kentucky Oaks winner, her 2-year-old brother, and a couple fillies who could wind up being 2020 Oaks horses figure among a broad swath of talented stock trainer Brad Cox will have stabled at Fair Grounds in New Orleans this winter.

Cox, leading Fair Grounds trainer the last two seasons, still has plenty of horses in Kentucky for the end of the Churchill Downs meeting and as usual he’ll also run a division at Oaklawn Park, but his Fair Grounds barn should teem with talent.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 15:10

Search for new stars begins as Gulfstream Park opens Championship meet

Adam Coglianese/NYRA
Independence Hall is expected to spend his winter in South Florida as a 3-year-old.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – In the opening month of the 2018-19 Gulfstream Park Championship meet, Maximum Security was competing in a maiden-claiming race and Bricks and Mortar was running in an allowance race. At year’s end, the pair are among the leading contenders to win arguably the industry’s two most prestigious awards, the 3-year-old championship and Horse of the Year, respectively.

Wed, 11/27/2019 - 12:46

Garcia spending winter at Turfway

Michael Amoruso
Alan Garcia will be riding the inner-track meet at Aqueduct for the first time in five years.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Alan Garcia, a Woodbine mainstay in recent years, intends to ride this winter at Turfway Park, which opens Wednesday for nearly four months of action. Garcia will be represented by agent Jimmy McNerney, who also will book mounts for Albin Jimenez.

Among the major races won by Garcia, a 34-year-old Peru native, were the 2007 BC Filly and Mare Turf on Lahudood, the 2008 Belmont Stakes on Da’ Tara, and the 2013 Arlington Million on Real Solution.