Quarter Horse trainer Alonso Orozco has been banned from running horses at Ruidoso Downs, effective this weekend, after one of his starters, Cartel Quick, died on Monday, a day after winning the $750,000 Ruidoso Futurity, track officials said.
Ruidoso's general manager, Shaun Hubbard, said on Thursday that Orozco will not be permitted to start horses pending an official state necropsy report on Cartel Quick. Owner Sergio Enriquez said earlier this week that Cartel Quick died of kidney failure.
Verrazano drew the rail and Itsmyluckyday has post 6 in the Grade 3, $150,000 Pegasus Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park.
The Pegasus is the first local stop on the road to the $1 million Haskell Invitational on July 28. It also is one of the strongest renewals in recent years of the Pegasus, a race that originated at the Meadowlands.
The first major 3-year-old stakes following the conclusion of the Triple Crown drew a field of seven with six betting interests going 1 1/16 miles.
Reporting Star and Kanturk Kid will be an entry for trainer Kathleen O’Connell.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In honor of its 75th season, Hollywood Park is offering 75-cent pricing for some concession and admission items Saturday.
General admission, programs, hot dogs and sodas will be available for 75 cents throughout the day, while beer will cost 75 cents for 75 minutes – from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. In the Turf Club, a fixed price three-course menu, with a glass of champagne in a commemorative 75th anniversary flute, has been priced at $75 per couple.
The program features three stakes, led by the $250,000 Vanity Handicap.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Game On Dude, the top older male in California, worked six furlongs in 1:13.40 at Santa Anita on Wednesday, preparing for a defense of his title in the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 6.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Game On Dude is unbeaten in three starts this year, including the Santa Anita Handicap in March and the Charles Town Classic in West Virginia on April 20.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Let Em Shine, who finished fourth in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park on June 8, is being given a break at a California farm through the end of June, but has a major race in New York as a late summer goal, trainer Adam Kitchingman said.
Kitchingman said that Let Em Shine will return to racetrack training at the start of July with the intent of the speedy 3-year-old running in the $500,000 King’s Bishop Stakes over seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 24.
Defending champions A Diehl and Frontside return to Indiana Downs on Saturday looking to regain their best form in a pair of $100,000, one-mile turf stakes on a card topped by the $200,000 Centaur.
The 8-year-old A Diehl will be looking to defend his title in the J. Kenneth Self Shelby County Boys and Girls Club, which goes as the fifth race Saturday.
Trained by Rusty Arnold, A Diehl won twice in 2012, both on the turf at Indiana Downs. He won an allowance and then the 2012 running of the Self last June 20.
AUBURN, Wash. – A couple of horses on their way up the class ladder will tackle a handful of runners headed in the other direction Saturday in the feature race at Emerald Downs. The one-mile feature, a $7,500 claimer, attracted eight entrants, and Our Eagle Boy, one of the class droppers, is likely to be the favorite. First post for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Jockey Tyler Baze was removed from his mounts at Betfair Hollywood Park on Thursday for violating the terms of his contract with the California Horse Racing Board pertaining to substance abuse testing, stewards said.
Baze, who missed more than a year of riding from August 2011 to October 2012 because of problems with alcoholism, met with track stewards Scott Chaney, Kim Sawyer and Tom Ward at lunchtime on Thursday after working horses earlier in the day.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Illinois breeding program has stagnated in the last decade, and there has been a decline in the quality of runners in many Illinois-bred stakes over the past couple of years. But a pair of emerging 4-year-olds, The Pizza Man and Coalport, are adding depth to the Illinois turf-stakes division, and the nine-horse field for Saturday’s $100,000 Black Tie Affair Handicap makes it the best-looking Illinois-bred grass stakes in recent memory.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A muddled cast of fillies and mares race for a $250,000 purse on Saturday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap offers a chance at redemption for two key starters.
More Chocolate and Lady of Fifty are among the favorites in the 1 1/8-mile Vanity, even though both enter off disappointing efforts.
More Chocolate completely misfired six weeks ago at Churchill Downs. She finished fifth of seven in the Grade 2 La Troienne. The lackadaisical effort still puzzles trainer John Sadler.
