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Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland horse racing bill would use $400M to rebuild Pimlico, training facility

Sports / Horse Racing /

BALTIMORE — With less than a month left in the Maryland General Assembly’s 2024 session, legislators will consider a horse racing bill that aims to install a new day-to-day operator, rebuild Pimlico Race Course and construct a training facility using $400 million in state bonds.

The plan — a much-amended version of a 2020 blueprint — is...Read more

Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Kenneth K. Lam

Preakness Stakes purse will increase to $2 million in 2024

Sports / Horse Racing /

BALTIMORE — The purse for the Preakness Stakes will increase to $2 million, up from $1.5 million in 2023, and it will become part of a new three-leg series with a potential bonus payout of $5 million, 1/ST Racing said Friday in a move designed to increase the appeal of Maryland’s signature race.

Despite its status as the second jewel in the...Read more

Michael Reaves/Getty Images North America/TNS

2024 Kentucky Derby Watch: Get to know the early contenders for the 150th Run for the Roses

Sports / Horse Racing /

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Just over two months remain until one of the biggest events in horse racing history.

The 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby — which now carries a $5 million purse — will leave the starting gate on May 4 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, which means less than three months remain until the much-anticipated event.

And the ...Read more

Michael Reaves/Getty Images North America/TNS

Still looking for a ticket to the 150th Kentucky Derby? It won't come cheap.

Sports / Horse Racing /

LEXINGTON, Ky. — If you have not already secured a ticket to the Kentucky Derby on May 4 and are still planning to attend the 150th edition of the Run for the Roses, be ready for a major hit to your pocketbook.

Citing “unprecedented demand” for tickets due to the historic anniversary, Churchill Downs reported this week only limited ...Read more

Trainer Dan Blacker suspended 90 days after 527 violations, already appeals

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES — Trainer Dan Blacker was suspended 90 days and fined $15,000 for 527 violations of the California Horse Racing Board rule that says a horse must be inspected by a veterinarian no more than 72 hours before conducting a workout.

Since the suspension was more than 60 days, Blacker must move all of his horses to other trainers and ...Read more

Rob Carr/Getty Images North America/TNS

John Clay: A petty feud is likely to keep the best 3-year-old out of the 2024 Kentucky Derby

Sports / Horse Racing /

LEXINGTON, Ky. — No doubt Churchill Downs wanted the lead-up to this year’s Kentucky Derby to be all about the milestone 150th running of the nation’s most famous race.

Looks like that’s going to be a scratch.

As soon as the brilliant 3-year-old Nysos hit the wire 7 1/2 lengths in front of his competition last Saturday in the Grade 3 ...Read more

James Gilbert/Getty Images North America/TNS

Future of rebuilt race track in Fontana remains up in the air

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES -- The history of the auto racing track located some 50 miles east of Los Angeles, known colloquially as just Fontana, is rich with the biggest names in stock car racing having competed there. And some may remember its frequent appearances in movies, most recently it pretended to be the Daytona International Speedway in the 2019 film...Read more

Rob Carr/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bob Baffert will not transfer any horses to other trainers for Kentucky Derby

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES — Bob Baffert and his owners have elected not to transfer any of their promising 3-year-olds to other trainers in order to make them eligible for this year's Kentucky Derby. So, it's not just Baffert who will be missing from the most well-known horse race in the world, there also won't be any Baffert horses.

"Nobody is going to ...Read more

Rob Carr/Getty Images North America/TNS

National Treasure delivers another Pegasus World Cup win for Bob Baffert

Sports / Horse Racing /

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — National Treasure came up a nose short in his previous race, finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile to Cody's Wish at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. But on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, at a distance an eighth of a mile longer, he had plenty left and won the $3 million Pegasus World Cup.

It was third time trainer Bob ...Read more

LEANDRO LOZADA/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Cody's Wish named horse of the year at Eclipse Awards

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES — Horse racing's feel-good story of the last two years reached its inevitable climax on Thursday night when Cody's Wish was named horse of the year at the 53rd Eclipse Awards, held in Palm Beach, Fla. The retired 6-year-old also won the award for older dirt male.

The horse was named after Cody Dorman, a teenager with Wolf-...Read more

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Analysis: Grim predictions as California horse racing remains at a crossroads

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES — The California Horse Racing Board was facing what could be its most consequential decision in its almost 90 years of existence. Will it try to save Northern California racing at lower odds for success and possibly putting Southern California in further peril with an outside chance it could work out for both? Or will it follow ...Read more

Kenneth K. Lam/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

Stronach Group to contract racing operations at Pimlico, turn track over to state

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES — The Stronach Group, owner of Santa Anita Park, is getting smaller as a racetrack operator after it was announced that an agreement in principle has been reached to turn over Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore to the state of Maryland for much-needed renovation and rebuilding. The track would then be leased to a new set of operators...Read more

Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS

New plan calls for state-created nonprofit to run Preakness, operate Maryland's racing industry

Sports / Horse Racing /

BALTIMORE — After years of stalled plans and impeded progress, a report filed Friday proposes sweeping changes and a new path forward for Maryland’s racing industry.

The 16-page document — the product of a legislature-mandated report by the recently formed Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority — recommends to the General ...Read more

Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images North America/TNS

Santa Anita opens signature meeting amid worries over FedEx horse shipping shutdown

Sports / Horse Racing /

LOS ANGELES — Near the end of the 1999 movie "Runaway Bride," Julia Roberts, hops on the back of a FedEx truck fleeing yet another potential marriage.

Those in attendance are dumbfounded but not surprised. The character played by Rita Wilson, the potential groom's ex-wife, asks her husband, and the groom's editor, played by Hector Elizondo: "...Read more