JIM Goldie believes Icon Dream is capable of making his presence felt in the Betfred Ebor at York later this month.
The five-year-old ran an excellent race to finish third in the Northumberland Plate on his first start for the Scottish trainer, beaten just a length by Ile De Re and Goldie said: “He’s on target for the Ebor and he seems fine. It will be interesting to see what happens. He doesn’t need to improve much to take a hand in it.”
Steve Guerdat of Switzerland, riding Nino des Buissonnets, won the gold medal in individual show jumping at the London Olympics after jumping cleanly in Wednesday's final two rounds of competition.
Gerco Schroder of the Netherlands, riding London, and Cian O'Connor of Ireland, on Blue Loyd 12, jumped off for silver. Schroder took second place after O'Connor hit the top rail of the final fence and got the bronze.
Schroder had scored one time fault in the first round and O'Connor one time fault in the second.
"He can jump anything if I ride him good," Guerdat said of his horse after his clean first round. "He feels fresh, like he could jump five more rounds."
Schroder named his horse London because he deliberately planned to aim for the London Games after he purchased him.
"We bought him at age 5," Schroder said. "I had a great feeling."
O'Connor returns to the Olympic medals podium after finishing first in individual show jumping in Athens in 2004. However, his horse there tested positive for a banned substance and he had to return the medal and serve a three-month suspension.
Read more here: LONDON: Swiss rider wins Olympic show jumping gold | Horse Racing | Bradenton Herald
Santa Anita Park will host the 2013 Breeders' Cup, marking the fourth time in six years the California track has been chosen as the site for thoroughbred racing's version of a world championship.
The Breeders' Cup announced Thursday that the two-day event is set for Nov. 1-2, 2013. This year's Breeders' Cup also is at Santa Anita, on Nov. 2-3.
The event features 15 races with purses totaling more than $25 million, topped by the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic. The results often determine champions in each of the sport's many divisions.
Santa Anita previously hosted the Breeders' Cup in 1986, 1993, 2003 and 2008-09. Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., was the site of the Breeders' Cup in 2010-11.
Read More: 2013 Breeders' Cup to be held at Santa Anita | cup, held, horse - Horse Racing Capsules - Brownsville Herald
Kentucky Derby-winning jockey John Velazquez and trainer Roger Attfield were among six inductees into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame during a ceremony Friday across from storied Saratoga Race Course.
Also inducted in the contemporary category were the late trainer Robert Wheeler and champion horse Ghostzapper. Jockey Anthony Hamilton, who rode during the post-Civil War era, and the antebellum champion racehorse Planet were inducted under the historic review process.
Velazquez, a native of Puerto Rico, has won three national riding titles and two Eclipse Awards and rode 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.
He has won more than 4,800 races, including 733 stakes, and earned more than $263 million since he took Rodas to the winner’s circle at El Comandante in 1990. He was the nation’s top rider in 2004 and 2005 and has dominated in New York, leading all riders in wins from 2001 through 2004 and capturing 22 riding titles at the state’s three tracks, including a record 65-win season in 2004 at Saratoga.
Read More: HORSE RACING: Velazquez, Attfield added to Hall of Fame - Herkimer, NY - The Times
Horse racing has asked the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for help on how to deal with drugs in the sport.
Travis Tygart, the chief executive officer of the USADA, spoke Sunday at the annual Round Table of how horse racing can clean up its industry and image.
“In 1999, we put a stake in the ground and said clean athletes are going to have a chance to win,” Tygart said. “A win-at-all-costs culture has taken over the system, and if you stay stagnant, the cheaters will get ahead. Testing provides the necessary deterrent. Our experience since 1999 can be an example for you (horse racing) in order to bring the magic back to the sport."
Horse racing has a terrible perception problem with the public regarding both therapeutic drugs and illegal drugs, including a recent rash of positives with the powerful drug Dermorphin, which is 30-40 times more potent than morphine.
Read more: Horse racing turns to United States Anti-Doping Agency for help policing sport - NY Daily News
A SCANDAL involving fixing horse races has spread, with at least four top jockeys, professional punters and other racing identities across Australia now under investigation.
In addition to the Smoking Aces affair - which involves fresh allegations that top jockey Danny Nikolic paid kickbacks to a third party to fix a race - authorities are also examining corruption allegations linked to several other horse races.
One of the allegations involves one of Australia's most famous jockeys, who bet thousands of dollars on a rival horse to win in a race in which he was riding.
Meanwhile, a source from the wagering company Betfair has confirmed a major investigation is being conducted into lay betting - in which a person backs a horse to lose - involving more than two dozen races and another leading jockey.
During the last session of the Maryland General Assembly, much attention had been, and is still being, given and a lot of money spent on the expansion of gaming in Maryland. With Penn National Gaming’s most recent acquisition of Rosecroft Raceway and other related activities, the gaming agenda and the horse racing agenda again have become intertwined.
Back in 2008, when the bill to allow casinos in Maryland passed, it had the support and endorsement of the horse community in Maryland. It was in some way partially on our backs that the door was open for casino interests to invest in racetracks as a means toward getting a foothold into the casino market in the state. In return for that support, the horse racing industry was guaranteed a percentage of the gaming revenue and the promise of improved racing.
That percentage was not a gift, as some seem to think; it was a way of ensuring that we would not be cast off if, or after, our usefulness in securing alternative gaming was over.
Read More: Gazette.Net: Gaming debate is trampling horse racing support
This weekend’s biggest graded stakes action is on tap for Chicago at the Arlington Million. The winner of the prestigious race for 3-year-olds and up earns an automatic spot in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. The field has swelled to 11 prospective runners, but they have only won a combined 10 races in 38 starts - two at the Grade or Group 1 level.
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As one of the premiere turf races of the year the Arlington Million always attracts a heavy European influx, and this year’s race is no exception. The five overseas entrants include Asfare, Colombian, Cracker Jack, Treasure Beach and Wigmore Hall.
Of that group it’s Cracker Jack that comes with a Grade 1 win over Asfare in the Premio Presidente della Republica in Italy last May, while Treasure Beach and Wigmore Hall are a combined 0-0-1 in 10 starts this season. Treasure Beach did win the 2011 Secretariat and finished fifth in the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes this past July, but he raced a week ago in Ireland where he finished fourth in the Group 3 Ballyroan Stakes.
The North American entries to consider include Little Mike, who posted the biggest win of 2012 among the American runners when he ran wire-to-wire on wet turf to take the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic. Willcox Inn was a one-mile allowance-race winner on July 22 at Arlington and last year he won the Arlington Classic and American Derby before coming in fourth in the Secretariat.
Other notable entries include Rahystrada and Boisterous, who finished 1-2 in the Arlington Handicap last month, and Cherokee Lord, who ran a respectable fifth last time out in the Arlington Handicap.
For seven weekends each summer, Gary Schaaf takes his place in a small, cream-colored shack perched on the roof high atop the grandstand at Platte County Agricultural Park.
The setup is difficult to see from the ground, making it unlikely that horse racing fans catch a glimpse of the O'Neill, Neb., native, but they've definitely heard his voice.
Armed with just a program, small television monitor and binoculars, Schaaf has called the Columbus Races since 2004.
However, his history with the city goes back further.
After graduating from Wayne State College and serving three years as the sports director at KBRX in his hometown of O'Neill, Schaaf moved to Columbus in August 1994 to take the sports director position at KLIR.
But it wasn't until after he left in late 2003 for radio opportunities in Omaha that Columbus horse racing called his name.
Two Platte County Agricultural Society board members bumped into Schaaf at Grand Island's Fonner Park in early 2004 and, familiar with his radio coverage of local sports while in Columbus, asked him to do the announcing here.
With a family background in horse training and longtime enjoyment of wagering on the sport, Schaaf said the only possible response was to accept.
He quickly found out, however, that voicing a horse race isn't the same as the college and high school sports play-by-play he continues to do on a freelance basis.
Read More: Columbus horse race announcer isn't in shack atop track for cash - Omaha-com
Five horses that survived a fire in south-west NSW that killed five others will most likely go on to race again, the veterinarian who treated them says.
A block of 10 stables was destroyed when a blaze broke out at Leeton Racecourse about 4am today. Griffith police said five horses died in the flames.
Trainer Phil Maguire lost three horses, while local trainer Wal John Kefford lost two horses, Harness Racing NSW said.
Harness Racing NSW chief executive Sam Nati said: "It's just a tragic set of circumstances and I feel incredibly sorry for those affected."
With more than 1,000 wins in his horse training career, Rapid City’s Ardell Sayler was still searching for one victory in particular at the 64th running of the Manitoba Lotteries Derby.
The search is over.
Sayler got that elusive victory on Aug. 6 when jockey Paul Nolan guided a stubborn but talented Balooga Bull to the nearly 10-length win at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Canada.
“It was quite an honor, winning that race,” Sayler said in a telephone interview from Winnipeg. “It’s the biggest race of the year up here.”
In terms of investment, Sayler and owner and Agar-native Paul Brandt’s purchase is paying off big-time. Brandt purchased the yearling for $2,000 and Balooga Bull is now 7-1 in his career.
“As a 2-year-old I started him four times and he won all four,” Sayler said. “Now he has won three races as a 3-year-old.”
It was that one non-win, a third-place finish a month ago at the Harry Jeffrey Stakes, that might have provided a little incentive for the impressive Manitoba Lotteries Derby triumph.
Sayler said that in his previous race at the Harry Jeffrey Stakes, it was the first time he had run that distance (one mile and a sixteenth), and they fought the horse a little bit and tried to slow the pace down.
Evidently, Balooga Bull is not a fan of pacing himself.
A recent state comptroller's audit of horse racing operations at New York's racinos (racetracks with video lottery terminals) is certain to cause much hand-wringing both in Albany and in horse paddocks across the state, thanks to its focus exclusively on attendance and wagering. Unfortunately, the reflexive analysis that VLTs aren't helping racing because attendance and live handle aren't increasing misses the point and ignores the big picture gains in both the equine and agricultural industries across New York.
The fact is that we can't honestly talk about the health of racing and its economic value to the state without first addressing the serious misconception that the number of fans in the grandstand or how much they wager only at the
on-track betting window is directly indicative of the economic viability of the sport. (This would be like doing an economic audit of the New York Yankees and looking only at ticket sales and concessions at Yankee Stadium, without broadcast revenues or licensing.)
Read more: N.Y. horse racing a good bet - Times Union
The highlight of Saratoga’s 2012 meeting will be run this Saturday when an estimated field of as many as 12 three-year-olds will race for a million dollars in the 143rd running of the Travers Stakes. Currently two horses - Hansen and Alpha - are getting most of the attention, but there are a couple of other probable entries that have had fast workouts.
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Hansen is coming off a disappointing fourth in the West Virginia Derby but won the Iowa Derby back in June. He will have his third rider change in his last three races, but will have two-time defending Travers Stakes champion Javier Castellano aboard on Saturday.
Alpha will be coming off a wire-to-wire win in the Jim Dandy Stakes following a long rest after a poor 12th–place finish in the Kentucky Derby. He will have his favorite jockey aboard in Ramon Dominguez, under whom he’s run 3-1-0 in four starts. He also has a pedigree edge with his sire Bernardini winning the 2006 Travers.
Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Nonios has never finished worse than second in five starts and fell short to Paynter at the Haskell Stakes in his first G1 race last month. He had a final breeze of :47.5 in California on August 18.
Street Life is coming off his first win in five races when he edged out Five Sixteen at the Curlin Stakes less than a month ago. The son of 2007 Travers winner Street Sense has shown improvement under the training of Chad Brown.
Another horse to consider for exotics, or to win, is Ian Wilkes-trained Neck n’ Neck. The son of 2005 Travers winner Flower Alley is 2-1-0 in his last three starts and seems to respond well to jockey L. Goncalves.
A spot in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and a $1 million purse will be up for grabs for 10 entrants in the Pacific Classic this Sunday at Del Mar. Morning lines are out and it’s the Bob Baffert-trained Game on Dude who came in as the 5/2 favorite. He will break from the No. 9 position, with usual jockey Chantal Sutherland riding. The five-year-old is coming off two straight wins including the Hollywood Gold Cup his last time out.
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Richard’s Kid is a two-time winner of the Pacific Classic and is the second choice to win his third at 7/2. He’s coming off a win in the G3 Cougar II Handicap and ran second to Game on Dude in the Hollywood Gold Cup. He gets the No. 3 post and will have Victor Espinoza aboard. With 35 starts and 11 wins, this horse likes this track at this time of year.
Co-third choices are Amani and Suggestive Boy at 5/1. Amani is a four-year-old filly with a record of 10-1-1 in twelve starts. She could surprise the field and should be at least a consideration to win or as a part of any exotic option. Suggestive Boy is coming off a win at the Wickerr S. and has gone 4-1-0 in his last five starts. He could be a good option if he can handle the distance.
The entire field, listed from the rail post out with jockey, is Rail Trip, Jose Valdivia Jr., 10-1; Amani, Garrett Gomez, 5-1; Richard’s Kid, Victor Espinoza, 7-2; Where’s Sterling, Paco Lopez, 15-1; Dullahan, Joel Rosario, 6-1; Akkadian, Martin Garcia, 20-1; Jaycito, Rafael Bejarano, 12-1; Suggestive Boy, Joe Talamo, 5-1; Game On Dude, Chantal Sutherland, 5-2; and Riveting Reason, David Flores, 30-1.
Track announcer Tom Durkin couldn’t pick the winner of the $1 million Travers Stakes, and neither could anyone else when Alpha and Golden Ticket flashed across the finish line Saturday at absolutely the same time.
The photo finish sign went up immediately on the infield toteboard at Saratoga Race Course, and a few minutes later, the race was declared an official dead heat — the first time the Travers wound up with two winners in 143 runnings dating to 1864.
‘‘I thought we were beat at first, then I thought we won,’’ said an ecstatic Ken McPeek, who trains 33-1 long shot Golden Ticket. ‘‘I couldn’t tell. I’m thrilled we finished in a dead heat.’’
It appeared Golden Ticket would be alone in the winner’s circle as the field of 11 3-year-olds rounded the final turn and headed down the stretch on a hot and humid day. With David Cohen aboard, Golden Ticket moved inside and grabbed the advantage. But jockey Ramon Dominguez kept urging on 2-1 favorite Alpha, and the game colt trained by Kiaran McLaughlin caught his rival in the final stride.
The crowd of 46,528 roared, while McLaughlin and McPeek smiled and high-fived each other in the grandstand when the result was official.
‘‘It’s a dead heat but it goes in the ‘W’ column,’’ said McLaughlin, who added a Travers win to his Alabama score last week with 3-year-old filly Questing. ‘‘It doesn’t happen very often in a Grade 1, $1 million race, but we’re all happy it happened today.’’
The 1874 Travers also ended in a dead heat, but Attila was declared the official winner after a runoff with Acrobat.
Read More: Alpha, Golden Ticket a dead heat at Travers - Horse Racing - Boston-com
WILLING FOE may have earned himself a trip to the Melbourne Cup after giving Frankie Dettori his first win in the Betfred Ebor.
The winner was having just his second run of the season and lumped 9st 2lb to victory under the Italian, who was understandably delighted.
He had to survive a stewards’ inquiry and picked up six days of suspension in the process, two days (September 9 and 10) for careless riding and four (September 11-14) for using his whip above the permitted level.
The suspensions mean he is set to miss all but the final day of Doncaster’s St Leger meeting.
Read More www-walesonline-co-uk/sports/sports-news-round-up/2012/08/27/horse-racing-willing-foe-could-get-melbourne-cup-mission-91466-31703136/#ixzz24jEbn6lS
RICHARD HUGHES displayed his expertise at Goodwood once again to notch a Group Three success on Producer in the feature Greene King Supreme Stakes yesterday.
Richard Hannon’s colt has been seen to best effect at Epsom so far, the scene of all his four previous wins, but the different cambers of Sussex brought about a similar level of performance.
The 11-4 favourite The Cheka, dropping down in class after some sterling efforts in Group One company, was ridden positively on his return to seven furlongs but a delayed challenge from Hughes saw Producer (7-2) score quite cosily by half a length.
Meanwhile, Ollie Olga could have a Group One assignment ahead of her after collecting her first Pattern race in the Whiteley Clinic Prestige Stakes at Goodwood’s meeting on Saturday.
Read More www-walesonline-co-uk/sports/sports-news-round-up/2012/08/27/horse-racing-producer-scores-at-goodwood-91466-31703138/#ixzz24oq0XdNd
When it comes to Illinois politics, you might be better served pounding your head against a cement mixer than trying to figure out how our elected officials make their decisions.
Still, we try.
But it’s worth admitting that there is no way to guess anymore why Gov. Pat Quinn has handled the gambling legislation the way he’s handled it the last two years.
It defies logic and forces you to make wild assumptions and ponder the absurd.
It took 20 years to get the General Assembly to pass a gambling bill last year, and Quinn said he would never sign it because the bill included slots at the racetracks, which he viewed as gambling expansion.
Perhaps he was merely trying to placate those who are against growth in gaming, but Quinn was never opposed to adding five new casinos.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like gambling expansion to me.
The state also recently brought the Illinois Lottery online so people can gamble from the comfort of their homes and in front of their computers.
Gambling expansion?
This year another bill passed and suddenly “too much” expansion wasn’t the problem.
Read More: Quinn’s gambling bill kill bad news for horse racing - DailyHerald-com
He show spokesperson Geoffrey Pheko said although in the past 20 years there was no horse racing, they decided to introduce it to add flair to the event.
He said changing the venue of the show from the old fairgrounds to the new one in Sebele made it possible to include the races. "In the past years, we did not have enough space to host the horse racing events," said Pheko.He also said the private sector and banks have started showing confidence in the agricultural sector, considering the number of sponsors that are associated with the show this year.
"This time the public will come and view solely agricultural products unlike at the consumer fair, where our display was a smaller segment of the whole event," said Pheko. According to Pheko, farmers have also shown commendable interest in the show by registering to be part of the activities. He said in the past, there were fewer exhibitors from the northern part of Botswana but this year some of the winners in the cattle industry are from there.
"The other significant difference is that in the past winners in the crop production were not given medals, but this year we are giving them," said Pheko. However, the show which has brought together different businesses in the agricultural sector has so far experienced a low turn out, compared to the previous years.
Mmegi Online :: Horse racing included in National Agricultural Show fanfare
This Saturday will mark the end of the Saratoga summer session and that means the $750k Woodward Stakes. A field of seven is confirmed, and a familiar name is the odds-on favorite. The 1 1/8 mile weight-for-age G1 race has been won by a long list of legendary horses that includes Rachel Alexandra, Curlin, Easy Goer, Alysheba, Affirmed and Seattle Slew.
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2011 Kentucky Derby third-place runner Mucho Macho Man will be the morning favorite for the 2012 Woodward Stakes at odds of 8/5. The former Triple Crown threat seems to finally be reaching the potential that Katherine Ritvo saw in him last year, going 4-0-1 in his last five starts. He will be looking for the first G-1 win of his career coming off a dominant 2.5-length win in the Suburban Handicap.
Next off is the 2/1 Bill Mott trained To Honor and Serve. He comes off a disappointing fourth-place performance in the Suburban Handicap but is 4-0-1 in his last seven starts. It’s no secret that he likes the shorter races, but if the pace isn’t too fast he should challenge down the stretch in the Woodward.
Another familiar name in the field on Saturday is Todd Pletcher trained Stay Thirsty. Last year’s Travers and Jim Dandy winner finished fifth in the Suburban and ran second in the Vanlandingham in May. At 5/1 he might be a good exotic addition.
The pace of the 2012 Woodward Stakes will likely belong to Richard Duthrow trained Trickmeister. With only one win in 2012 he was chased down by four horses in the Whitney and by Mucho Macho Man in the Suburban. He will have morning odds of 6/1 and will need a big performance to pay out with a win.
The five-year-old ran an excellent race to finish third in the Northumberland Plate on his first start for the Scottish trainer, beaten just a length by Ile De Re and Goldie said: “He’s on target for the Ebor and he seems fine. It will be interesting to see what happens. He doesn’t need to improve much to take a hand in it.”