california racing

On the day before racing at Santa Anita is scheduled to resume Friday with five turf races following an 11-day break that had been planned before recent grass-course drainage issues arose, staffers with the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) deemed the turf to be ready to handle horses. The last two dates that Santa Anita had raced, Apr. 8 and 9, a total of five turf races had to be swapped from the "firm" grass course to the "fast" main dirt track because of slippage problems on the far turn....

Last month, a lengthy Financial Times feature detailed the growing share of overall handle generated through Computer Assisted Wagering (CAW)--both in California and nationwide. CAW players are a small group of high-volume and largely anonymous gamblers with an outsized impact on the betting markets due in no small part to the sophisticated wagering tools at their disposal. Because of their high stakes play, they're offered inducements in the form of rebates and reduced takeout rates largely not available to the average punter. CAW proponents argue that these deep-pocketed players provide...

As weather woes continue to dog Southern California, officials at Santa Anita proactively cancelled Friday's eight-race program and have scheduled a make-up day of racing for Monday, Mar. 27. Heavy rain resulting in more than three inches of precipitation through Wednesday is expected to fall. Track officials consulted with the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), the Jockeys' Guild, and the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) in the decision. Entries will be taken on Thursday morning for Monday. "By running on Monday instead of Friday, we're...

Months of contentious jockeying over whether Ferndale (Humboldt County Fair) should run its second of two weeks of racing at the end of August un-overlapped with its Northern California compatriot, Golden Gate Fields (GGF), ended in defeat for the small rural track. In a 5-1 vote during Thursday's California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting, the board decided that during the week running Aug. 23 to Aug. 29, Humboldt and GGF would field simultaneous race meets. Ferndale will run the first of two scheduled weeks of racing this year, from Aug....

Ballet Dancing earned her first stakes victory in style, skipping clear to an authoritative victory in the GIII Santa Ana S. at Santa Anita Sunday. Stretching out to a 1 1/4 miles for the first time, the bay filly was away well and was in hand while stalking pacesetting longshot Annaghlasa (Ire) (Estidhkaar {Ire}) through fractions of :24.01, :47.22 and 1:12.07. Finally let loose into the far turn, she ricocheted to the lead off the turn and was quickly beyond the reach of all pursuers. Favored Australia Mia (Street Sense),...

Due to forecasted high winds and heavy rain in the Bay Area on Friday, Golden Gate Fields will  move the Friday, March 10 live race card to Thursday, March 9. Eight races are on the program for the now-Thursday card with first post time remaining at 12:45 PM.

The Golden State is the first jurisdiction in the country to sign a voluntary agreement with the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) to continue performing a host of vital roles when the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug control program goes into effect Mar. 27, according to a statement Friday by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). In another first among the nation's racing jurisdictions, the CHRB also agrees to pay HISA's 2023 fee assessment. The total figure for the state is more than $6.7 million. However, after...

Santa Anita has canceled Friday's card due to heavy rain forecast for the area beginning Thursday. Most of the races scheduled for Friday will be brought back as "extras" on Saturday, according to a notice from the racing office. "We're looking at a low end of probably two inches of rain between late Thursday and Friday with a high end closer to five inches," said Jason Egan, Santa Anita director of racing and racing secretary. Friday was originally scheduled to be a dark day at Santa Anita following Monday's special...

In an attempt to help shield California's backstretch veterinary community from possible further punitive actions by the Veterinary Medical Board (VMB), the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has issued proposed emergency regulations designed to clear up discord between these two agencies about the correct use of compounded medications across California's backstretches. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines the compounding of drugs as "the process of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient. Compounding includes the combining of two or...

A dispute that began in October over whether Ferndale (Humboldt County Fair) will once again have to run its second of two weeks of racing at the end of August against overlapping competition from the commercial licensee Golden Gate Fields (GGF) will now likely extend into March. There are multiple reasons for the impasse. But the two main sticking points that emerged at Thursday's California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) were: 1) The two tracks, plus stakeholders from the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF), Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), and...

Long before Shannon Arvin made headlines as the first female president and CEO of Keeneland and Jessica Paquette was named the first female full-time announcer at a major racetrack, Jenine Sahadi was breaking barriers as the first female trainer to win the Breeders' Cup. However, unlike the others, Sahadi made her mark and stepped away at the peak of her career. She now devotes herself to making a difference on the backstretch as the president of the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation. More than two decades into her time with the...

California's Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal--the nom de course of the Cohen family--lost the stable founder and the Cohen family patriarch, Jed Cohen, Sunday, Nov. 27. Cohen passed away in Del Mar at the age of 89 after battling health issues for the past few years. Among the top horses raced by the Cohens--sometimes in partnership--were GISWs Janet (GB) (Emperor Jones), River Boyne (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}), and Dr. Schivel (Violence). The stable most recently took the leading owner title at the 2022 Santa Anita fall and winter meets...