Fair Grounds

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association is hosting a claiming seminar Saturday, Dec. 2 at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Louisiana, the organization said in a release Thursday. Attendees will learn insights on different aspects of claiming Thoroughbreds from industry professionals like Jason M. Boulet, Senior Director of Racing at Fair Grounds to trainer Bret Calhoun. The clinic is open to the general public, with a special discount for TOBA members. The deadline to register is Tuesday, Nov. 28. Click here for more information.

When two members of Gulfstream Park's security team and a veterinarian descended on his barn on the morning of June 2, the 62-year-old trainer Jeff Poole didn't think he had anything to worry about. According to the Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings website, Poole, who has been training since 1989, had never had a violation of any kind. And his recent record--he had won 11 races combined since 2021--hardly suggested that he was a trainer who was taking an edge. Even when investigators found in his office a tube of...

Multiple stakes winner Pound for Pound (Redding Colliery--Buttercup's Song, by Unbridled's Song) has joined the stallion roster at Blue Star Racing in Scott, Louisiana. The 8-year-old stallion, who was named Louisiana's champion 2-year-old in 2017, was a three-time stakes winner at Fair Grounds. On the board in 20 of 29 starts--including 10 stakes races--he won nine times and earned $507,958. "We are thrilled to add a local Louisiana legend and Champions Day classic winner to our stallion roster," said Dex Comardelle of Blue Star Racing. "With new legislation raising purses...

Louisiana's Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots will host 73 black-type races worth a combined $9.7 million during the upcoming 76-day 2023-24 Thoroughbred meet, officials at the New Orleans oval announced Wednesday. The amount is up $1.2 million from last year, but does include $1 million in base purses offered Dec. 2 as Fair Grounds hosts the 25th annual Claiming Crown. That event returns to Fair Grounds for the first time since 2011 with purses ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Another $25,000 in each race will be available in purse...

No matter what age we live in, every chapter of life is a bittersweet, hard-fought existence counting successes and failures and in the end our mortal or animal flesh returns to the soil for the next generation to continue the struggle. In the infield of the Fair Grounds, near the finish line, stand two markers commemorating struggles we cannot fathom in our modern life. Both Pan Zareta and Black Gold are heroically immortal and long-forgotten Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame members and remind us of the transition of our country...

2nd-CD, $134K, OC, 3yo, f, 6f, 6:28 p.m. A pair of fillies will look to stay unbeaten in their third career starts at Churchill Downs on Friday evening. 'TDN Rising Star' SUNDAY SHOES (Pioneerof the Nile) came from off the pace breaking her maiden sprinting at Turfway Park Feb. 15, then got up by 3/4 of a length in Florence Apr. 1 in the Serena's Song S. over next-out stakes winner Jill Jitterbug (Cross Traffic). The $500,000 Keeneland September Yearling sale purchase trained by Wesley Ward counts among her female...

The 2023 Claiming Crown will be staged for the first time since 2011 at the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in New Orleans on Saturday, Dec. 2, the National HBPA and the TOBA said in a joint release early on Thursday. The event will feature eight races totaling $1 million in base purses, headlined by the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel. Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National HBPA said, "The Claiming Crown was designed to celebrate our hard-knocking, unsung heroes of the turf. What better place--especially for our 25th running--than...

3rd-Keeneland, $98,610, Msw, 4-27, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:27.71, ft, 11 lengths. ARDEN'S ASSAULT (f, 3, Violence--Can't Explain {SW & GSP, $219,809}, by Not For Love), debuted to be third when routing in a rained-off event Mar. 18 at the Fair Grounds, made the trek to Keeneland and entered the gate Thursday with added blinkers as the 2-1 choice in a tightly-bunched wagering field. Pushed for speed early by Luis Saez, she stormed to the front along the rail and was never challenged through a half in :46.04. In a one-horse...

The colt had been getting a little fractious in the gate and now he half sat down: too low for Jareth Loveberry to climb out, but not low enough to scramble underneath. "Get me out!" the jockey hollered. He was just trying to lift himself clear when his mount came back up and pinned a calf against the steel. The pain was excruciating. It was only five seconds or so before they got the gate open but that was enough, as they stretched him out, for the agony to be...

Godolphin homebred First Mission, coming off an impressive maiden-breaking score at Fair Grounds last month, made the jump to graded company with aplomb, striding home a determined victor of the GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. at Keeneland Saturday. Sent off at 2-1, the dark bay colt sat just off pacesetting Arabian Lion through fractions of :24.12 and :48.01. He cut the corner into the stretch as the pacesetter drifted out into the lane and gamely persevered as that foe drifted back in on him and he was inching clear late. "This...

On the surface, trainer Ron Faucheux could not have been doing any better. He came out of the Fair Grounds meet on Mar. 26 with his third straight training title at the New Orleans track, his 42 winners five more than Bret Calhoun and Brad Cox. He had a career best 81 winners in 2022 and his stable earned $2,066,757. But when Louisiana racing moved to Evangeline Downs last week, Faucheux was conspicuously absent from the entries. The latest horsemen to say it has simply become too difficult for a...

New Orleans native Ron Faucheux earned his third consecutive training title with 42 wins at the Fair Grounds meeting which concluded Sunday. The trainer's title went down to meet's last day as Bret Calhoun, the early leader who was in search of his first local crown, and four-time champ Brad Cox were both in striking range, but had to settle for a tie for second with 37 wins apiece. With 64 wins, Rey Gutierrez captured the first leading rider title of his young career. The 27-year-old's top moment came when...