ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine is offering bonuses to horse people who acquire racehorses from outside Ontario and race them early at next year’s meet.
According to a letter from Jonathan Zammit, Woodbine’s vice president of Thoroughbred racing operations, the bonuses apply to Woodbine horse people that were stabled at the track during the 2019 meet for at least three consecutive months and have submitted a stall application for the 2020 season
CYPRESS, Calif. – California racing officials recorded 144 fatalities at state racetracks in the fiscal year ending June 30, the second-lowest figure since necropsy recordkeeping began in 1990, according to California equine medical director Rick Arthur.
The lowest number of fatalities since 1990 – 138 – occurred in the 2017-18 fiscal year, ending June 30, 2018.
After months of discussion, the racing calendar for Northern California was finalized at the California Horse Racing Board’s monthly meeting on Thursday, with a majority of the dates at Golden Gate Fields in Albany.
The Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, the northernmost racing meeting in the state, will race for one week without competition from Golden Gate Fields in late August, providing a much-needed revenue boost for the small venue.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board approved a rule on Thursday that will severely curtail the number of times a jockey can use the whip in a race and restrict use to an underhanded motion.
The rule is months from being implemented. The language will be open for a 45-day public comment period in the near future before the issue appears before the racing board at another monthly meeting in early 2020 for potential changes or ratification.
If there are amendments at an upcoming racing board meeting, implementation of the rule will be further delayed.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The New York-bred Tiz the Law won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes, arguably the most prestigious race for 2-year-olds on the New York Racing Association circuit. While Saturday’s Great White Way Stakes at Aqueduct does not carry the same cachet as the Champagne, it does carry the same $500,000 purse.
And a New York-bred is guaranteed to win that race, too.
Kiaran McLaughlin has been part of New York racing since 1986. He worked as an assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, was a jockey agent for Chris Antley, and ultimately opened up his own stable. Among his long list of accomplishments was campaigning 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor.
McLaughlin, 59, is one of the most respected and well-liked horsemen on the backstretch, a mentor and sounding board to a younger generation of trainers seeking to attain some of his accomplishments.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Benefiting from good weather which led to additional turf racing, all-sources handle during Aqueduct’s 2019 fall meet was up 49.6 percent over the fall of 2018.
All-sources handle on 233 races over 25 race days was $205,249,710 compared to $137,213,915 wagered on 198 races over 22 programs in 2018. Average daily all-sources handle was $8,209,988, a 31.6 perent increase over the 2018 average daily handle of $6,236,996.
Ontrack handle on Aqueduct’s races was $20,712,645, a 28.1 percent increase over last year’s $16,168,219.
Silver Dust, who turns 6 on Jan. 1, and By My Standards, who will be a 4-year-old next year, are gearing up at Fair Grounds.
Silver Dust, who was second in the New Orleans Handicap (now called the New Orleans Classic) last March, won the Grade 3 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes in August and was second in the Grade 3 Lukas Classic in September, his most recent race. He’s logged three Fair Grounds works following a freshening, but won’t be ready to start until January, trainer Bret Calhoun said.
Belmont Stakes winner to Woodchopper Stakes starter – that’s not a route Triple Crown race winners typically travel, but that’s what’s on the agenda for Sir Winston.
Sir Winston won the Belmont by one length on June 8 and hasn’t started since, but he worked steadily at Casse Farm in Florida in October, November, and on Dec. 1, and posted a half-mile drill in 47.60 Dec. 8 at Fair Grounds, fastest of 94 works at the distance that morning.
