Fonner Park

The Race Track Chaplaincy of America (RTCA), which ministers to the needs of those in the racing industry, honored WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden and outrider Bo Butler with the 22nd annual White Horse and Community Service Awards during the RTCA's "Night of Faith, Hope & Love" held during Breeders' Cup week. The awards are meant to recognize "selfless servants" throughout the industry. Walden, who has served as the RTCA National President for six of the last seven years, was named the RTCA 2024 Community Service Award recipient. Among his other...

North America's winningest Thoroughbred in terms of victories this year will have 10 wins, but the final weekend of 2023 will determine if the Midwest-based gelding Fayette Warrior (Exchange Rate) ends up alone atop the leaderboard or if he has to share the honor with two nine-win rivals in the mid-Atlantic who could tie the mark either Dec. 30 or 31. The 7-year-old Fayette Warrior, who sports a lifetime record of 19-11-7 from 71 starts with $241,772 in earnings, has topped the continent since his last victory at Columbus against...

Jockey Ken Shino, who won 2,542 races during a career that began in 1987, has been sentenced to six years in prison after a jury found that he struck and injured a pedestrian in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 2021 and then left the scene of the accident. According to the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record, the jury deliberated for about an hour before finding Shino, 56, who listed Des Moines, Iowa as his address, guilty of leaving the scene of an accident involving personal injury or death, and deliberated for another hour...

The same set of four Nebraska-bred Thoroughbreds competing in one-furlong races on back-to-back days at Horsemen's Atokad Downs finished 1-2-3-4 on both Saturday and Sunday. The odd result was the product of the South Sioux City track's ownership, Ho-Chunk, Inc., needing to conduct at least one day of live racing to maintain Nebraska licensure as an active racetrack. That status as a licensed racetrack is required for conducting simulcasting and the eventual development of a racino in a different location within that city. As in recent years, the abbreviated one-furlong...

Todd Scherer, who had worked as an assistant trainer and a groom in recent years on the Nebraska racing circuit, was found dead Thursday morning on the backstretch of Fonner Park, the victim of a shooting. He was 62. Scherer trained from 1981 through 1994 and won 60 races in his career. Two individuals have been arrested for their alleged role in the murder. Logan Hunts Horse, 20 of Wounded Knee, S.D., has been charged with first degree murder and two counts of use of a deadly weapon to commit...

With uncertainties regarding the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) still swirling, Fonner Park management announced Friday that it will not simulcast its races to locations outside of Nebraska. The meet is set to begin Feb. 10 and run through May 6. Fonner will become the second track not sending out its signal due to questions over HISA. Last year, the Texas Racing Commission ordered its tracks to cut off simulcasting because of HISA, only to reverse the decision earlier this month after the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of...

Dustyn Stortzum, a Nebraska native, has been named the new track announcer to begin the 2023 Thoroughbred racing season at Fonner Park. Stortzum replaces Grand Island native Steve Anderson, who called races for 19 years at Fonner Park but passed away in 2022 after a battle with cancer. "I would like to thank my mentors, my parents and my sister for supporting me through all the ups and downs in my early broadcasting career," said Stortzum. "Without their support, I wouldn't be in this position today."

Despite coming off a record-handle season, Canterbury Park is proposing a 10-day schedule slice and a $45,000 average daily purse cut for 2023. The reductions were made public this week as the Minnesota track faced a Nov. 15 racing commission deadline to apply for next year's dates at the same time it is trying to extend or renegotiate an expiring agreement with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Since 2012, that deal has provided purse funding in exchange for the track and horsemen not pursuing additional forms of gambling, and it...

The National HBPA Foundation, the world's largest Thoroughbred horsemen's organization, is coming to the assistance of Nebraska horsemen whose horses have been quarantined since March 10 following an outbreak of Equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) by making a per-horse monetary donation to every owner and trainer impacted by the lockdown in two barns at Fonner Park. The Nebraska HBPA also is providing the impacted owners and trainers a per-horse amount of money to use toward expenses that continue to accrue while their horses are prevented from racing. About 110 horses, which includes...

Officials at Lone Star Park have announced that horses stabled at Fonner Park in Nebraska and Parx Racing, each of which is being impacted by EHV-1 positives, will not be allowed to participate at the Dallas-area oval until further notice. Additionally, the track is continuing to require that all horses admitted to the stable area have a current (i.e. within 90 days) FDA-approved EHV-1 vaccine or booster. Vaccine information must be noted on the certificate for admittance. Horsepeople are encouraged to contact the Lone Star racing office for further information.

Barn R on the backstretch at Nebraska's Fonner Park has been placed under a 21-day quarantine after a pair of horses tested postive for equine herpes virus (EHV-1). Both horses were subsequently euthanized. On Wednesday, Mar. 9, a horse residing in Barn R had a high temperature and was displaying mobility issues. A first round of testing at NVLS in Ames, Iowa, returned results that were inconclusive, requiring an additional sample to be drawn. A second horse began displaying similar symptoms the same day. On the evening of Mar. 11,...

Conquest Big E (Tapit), an 8-year-old with a win in the 2018 GII Gulfstream Park Mile S. on his record, was acquired privately Friday by his breeder, Gainesway Farm, with the expressed intent of retiring the gelding. A day earlier, Conquest Big E's story was making the rounds on social media, with many worried that his well-being was in jeopardy. He was entered in a $3,500 claimer Friday at Fonner Park, which was to be his first start since he failed to complete the course in a June 19, 2020...