Horse Racing
“And they’re off!” Horse racing of all types is found in our racing section, including Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Harness, Steeplechase and Arabian racing.
Want to get lucky? Take a look at the Wagering to help guide you. Keep track of upcoming horse races and racing events in our Calendar of Events for Horse Racing.
Want to live the dream of owning a racehorse? Check out the Breeding, Partnerships, Sales & Bloodstocks sections where you can help yourself be a force in the Sport of Kings.
Need a place to train your baby and help develop his successful career? You will find both training facilities and professional racehorse trainers in our Training section. See you in the winners’ circle!
A Triple Crown winner -- and a local artist -- is adding new lustre to the jockeys now standing guard outside NYC's classic '21' Club.
Read the original article on the NY Post here...
On a 94-degree day this July, a heist appeared to happen in broad daylight on West 52nd Street.
One by one, 36 colorful iron lawn jockeys were yanked from their spots outside the iconic ‘21’ Club, where they guarded the doors to the dining room of the city’s cultural, political and business elite.
As six foremen spent four sweaty hours lugging the statues into a moving truck — the smallest jockeys on the stairs weigh 50 pounds, while the largest near the entrance top 200 — they attracted not only scores of passers-by, but the attention of New York’s Finest.
“The NYPD slowed down [to ask] the mover what the heck was going on,” Andrew Tedesco, 45, says.
The jockeys were headed to Tedesco’s home in Montclair, NJ, where the artist is currently putting the finishing touches on an eight-week, major refurbishment of them — marking the first time in the club’s 85-year history that the little iron men have been missing from its facade.
Read more: American Pharoah is now permanently hitched to the ‘21’ Club
American Pharoah edged by 16-1 long shot Keen Ice in Midsummer Derby
By Mark Singelais Updated 12:09 am, Sunday, August 30, 2015
Read the original article on Times Union here...
Saratoga Springs
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah walked down a dirt path back to his barn at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday afternoon, another beaten star at a track long known as the "Graveyard of Champions."
Eduardo Luna, his groom, held his lead shank and a pair of Saratoga Springs police officers followed behind. After a crowd of 50,000 cheered his every move before the Travers Stakes, now only a few onlookers on the backstretch snapped his picture and gave him a smattering of applause.
At 6:36 p.m., American Pharoah and his small entourage passed Barn 27. It's the summer home of trainer Dale Romans, who had just won his first Travers when a 16-1 long shot named Keen Ice passed a tiring American Pharoah in the final sixteenth to win by three-quarters of a length.
Inside his office, Romans slumped back in his leather swivel chair. The heavyset Kentucky trainer wore a white dress shirt that was soaked with sweat from the chest up. He hadn't shown up at the postrace news conference.
Read the original article on Times Union here.
NYRA trumpets appearance, reminds public event is sold out.
By Tim Wilkin Updated 6:37 pm, Sunday, August 23, 2015
American Pharoah is going to run in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday. Trainer Bob Baffert said as much Sunday morning after the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years worked six furlongs in a time of 1:10.98 (by Baffert's stopwatch) at Del Mar Race Track in San Diego.
"He went very well, a real positive move," Baffert said by cellphone as he was watching American Pharoah get his bath following the work. "I needed to see something like that. We have his bags packed (for Saratoga). Right now, everything is set in play. He had to 'wow' me and he did that. I've been looking for an excuse not to come (to the Travers) and I can't find one."
The official word won't come until Monday, after a physical examination shows the horse was not impacted by Sunday's workout. But it looks like it's all but official. The New York Racing Association officially announced the appearance already - along with a reminder that only pre-paid tickets, season ticket holders or those with table reservations will be able to get into the 50,000-plus event.
American Pharoah is scheduled to leave California and fly to Albany International Airport on Wednesday. Baffert said the only possible glitch would be if American Pharoah does not come out of the work in good shape, but he doesn't anticipate that happening.
"He is great today," Baffert said. "As long as he is great (Monday), things look good."
The Travers purse is currently $1.5 million. If American Pharoah is in the starting gate, the value of the race is $1.6 million. The New York Racing Association has put a cap on attendance at 50,000. All tickets for the event are sold out.
There will be no tickets available.
by Marion E. Altieri
Saratoga Race Course in the summer is searing, steamy, sweltering. Mop-your-brow hot. But the weather is merely a metaphor, the outward expression of the heat that’s generated by the power of the horses in residence during these six weeks. Of the fevered passion that those horses engender as they embrace their power to captivate the human soul.
The physical atmosphere is roasting, but the racing action is hotter, still. A haze of lazy hangs over the renowned venue on Union Avenue—the kind of heat that settles into the bones and takes your breath away. Only the horses are capable of moving at breakneck speed, as they run, not only toward immortality, but straight to the core of every human within eyeshot. This place may be managed by people, but make no mistake—total ownership belongs to the mighty equines who grace the stage of this, America’s oldest, most-photographed and surely most-treasured of race tracks.
Amanda Roxborough recently spent some time with Equine Info Exchange to share her fascinating journey from jockey to trainer and now an Award Winning video and television producer!
EIE: Amanda, please tell us how your love of horses began? Did you come from a horse loving family or was it your own passion?
AR: I fell in love with horses, and apparently donkeys, at the age of two, on a family outing to Blackpool beach in England [where I was born]. The story goes, that once upon the donkey, I refused to get off and the magical equine connection began. My parents did not have any connection to horses and from that day forward were hounded by my request for a pony.
EIE: How did you become a jockey?
AR: I finally achieved my dream at 11 yrs of age, when after 9 years of begging and many riding lessons, I got a pony. My passion [and obsession] was in full throttle, spending all waking hours at the barn where we boarded my pony.
Read more: International Horsewoman and Award Winning producer Amanda Roxborough
Courtesy of thehorse.com - Read the original article here... American Pharoah became Thoroughbred racing's 12th Triple Crown winner June 6 with a victory in the 2015 Belmont Stakes.
Photo: David Alcosser/NYRA
On an idyllic Saturday evening at Belmont Park, American Pharoah made it worth the 37-year wait.
Under a perfectly calculated ride by Victor Espinoza, the son of Pioneerof the Nile led the field from start to finish in the Grade 1 $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, drawing away in the stretch to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 and end a drought that had seen the hopes of 13 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winners end in disappointment.
"He's [American Pharoah] obviously the real deal. He's the best three-year-old at this point, but the reason they call this the Test of Champions. . .it's a mile and a half and it's always a test, and you know, there's some nice horses that will be testing him." - Steve Cauthen, Jockey on Affirmed
Article courtesy Thorofan
The thirty-seven year drought in Triple Crown winners raises many questions about racing, breeding and training. Most experts believe the drought has been caused by breeding practices where the market driven sport is more about speed than endurance. With the growth of partnerships, ownership has shifted from the wealthy to the average fan who hopes to make a profit or at least break even. That was not the goal of the wealthy owners who did it for the sport.
If we believe breeding is the culprit, we have to explain the strange pattern in Triple Crown winners. The 1930s had three --Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935) and War Admiral (1937). The 1940s has four -- Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946) and Citation (1948). Then came a two decade drought --1950-60s. The explanation of breeding and form of ownership doesn't easily explain this pattern.
Race in honor of America’s greatest war horse to be run for Black Eyed Susan Day
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Preakness weekend is almost here, and Marine war horse hero Sgt. Reckless is bursting onto the Triple Crown scene with a sponsored race for Black Eyed Susan Day, Friday, May 15th.
The race is the sixth race of the day at Pimlico Race Course -- The Sgt Reckless Memorial Dash. Robin Hutton, President of The Sgt Reckless Memorial Fund and author of the New York Times bestseller Sgt. Reckless: America’s War Horse, will be in the Winner’s Circle presenting the trophies to the winners. Hutton will also hold a book signing from 12-4 pm.
Sgt. Reckless, a small Mongolian mare, earned two Purple Hearts for her heroics in the Korean War and is the only animal to ever be officially promoted in the U.S. military. Sgt. Reckless is the first-ever full biography of the mare, revealing the complete story of how a young Korean boy’s horse became one of the greatest Marine wartime heroes of all time.
Read more: New Sgt. Reckless Race Comes to Pimlico for Preakness Week
Ilka Gansera-Leveque takes time out of her very busy schedule of her 7 day a week job of wife, mother, veterinarian and race horse trainer to speak with Equine Info Exchange.
Ilka's story is a unique one where her road less travelled spans the world. She is a native of Germany where she first apprenticed under European race horse trainer Bruno Schuetz. She then moved to California where she spent a year learning from Monty Roberts at Flag is Up Farms.
Afterwards, she moved to New York and worked primarily at Belmont Park but also in Florida and Kentucky where she was a freelance rider and assistant trainer. Ilka was then offered a full scholarship in Hannover Germany for Veterinary Medicine where she graduated in April 2009. Her experience also included a Diagnostic Imaging Internship at Rossdales Newmarket, UK Pferdeklinik Muenchen-Riem, an equine veterinary clinic in Germany.
Since September, 2011, she started her own company, Gansera-Leveque Equine Services, which offers the “full package” including vet work, sales work, training, and equine consulting.
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