Horse Racing

It's been nearly a year-and-a-half since Chantal Sutherland last rode. Her career was sidelined May 6, 2023 after a freak accident at Gulfstream when she pulled her mount up when the horse was frightened by geese crossing the track. Sutherland was thrown from the saddle and suffered a very serious injury. She snapped the humerus bone right off the shoulder and with her arm hanging grotesquely it was no longer attached to any part of her body. At time, the 48-year old rider grew so despondent that she feared that...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has named 16 regulatory and private practice veterinarians from across the country to serve as members on its Veterinary Advisory Committee, according to a press release from the organization on Thursday morning. The committee will commence regular meetings in early 2025 to provide feedback to HISA's executive team and standing committees. Advisement on topics would include the implementation and evolution of HISA's rules and protocols related to veterinary care, medication, racetrack safety, equine research and other relevant issues. Committee members will serve staggered...

Horse Racing Alberta will add over $400,000 into the Breed Improvement pools bringing the total to $2,829,990 which signals a record level of support for the industry, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society said in Wednesday press release. The increase is part of a broader strategy to enhance the competitive edge of Alberta-bred horses both locally and on larger stages. For the first time in history, the Alberta Fall Classic races will see an increase in stakes purses from $50,000 to $60,000. Additionally, a new North American bonus will offer a...

1/ST, the ownership group behind Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park, is partnering with auction company Fasig-Tipton, who will be their title sponsor for the new Fasig-Tipton 3-Year-Old Filly Series, the company said in a press release on Wednesday. The collaboration will spotlight the GII Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Park Oaks and the GII Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita Oaks, which are the final preps at both tracks for the GI Kentucky Oaks. The new series will debut Jan. 1 at Gulfstream Park with the Fasig-Tipton Cash Run Stakes and will conclude with the...

Ocala Breeders' Sales Company (OBS) has catalogued 316 horses for its January Winter Mixed Sale to be held Jan. 28 and the OBSOnline January 2025 Sale is scheduled to begin Jan. 23, according to the auction company's Wednesday press release. The mixed single-session auction will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET. and features newly turned yearlings, broodmares, and broodmare prospects. Among the first-crop stallions represented with yearlings in the catalogue are OBS graduates Colonel Liam and Corniche, Early Voting, Epicenter, Golden Pal, Greatest Honour, Magic On Tap, Mandaloun, Mind Control, Mystic...

Mt. Brilliant Family Foundation has signed on for the third consecutive year as the presenting sponsor for the Thoroughbred Charities of America's (TCA) upcoming 35th Annual Stallion Season Auction to be held Wednesday, Jan. 8 through Sunday, Jan. 12, the organization said via a Wednesday press release. The largest fundraiser for the TCA opens with an online auction beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Jan. 8 and continues through 4:00 p.m. ET. on Friday, Jan. 10. The online auction will offer over 200 seasons to stallions standing in 13 states and...

Tim Layden, Ed Schuyler, Jr., and the late Edwin Pope have been selected to the National Museum of Racing's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor, the repository for racing's history said in a press release on Wednesday morning. The honor roll was established in 2010 to recognize individuals whose careers have been dedicated to, or substantially involved in, writing about Thoroughbred racing (non-fiction), and who distinguished themselves as journalists. Layden is a four-time Eclipse Award winner and the 2015 recipient of the Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf...

Dear Santa, As the clock ticks down on another year we can hopefully all agree that we have much to be grateful for. Racing in many ways seems to have recovered its footing from our headline fatality troubles and we just learned the fatality rate at HISA tracks continues to decline. Who can argue that we are not making progress and moving in the right and needed direction in making racing safer? I do have two requests for you, Santa. First, I would love to learn from the NHBPA an...

Tracy Reid needed a job. It was 2011 and she was back in her hometown of Miami after rupturing her Achilles tendon for the second time. Trying to put the pain and the disappointment behind her, it was tenacity driving her hope that she could return to the only career she ever had--playing the game of basketball. In the interim though, bills were stacking up, her savings account was moving towards the point of exhaustion and the reality of everyday life was coming to collect. Reid happened to see a...

If it's Louisiana Champions Day, that means it's Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) day and the 5-year-old did not disappoint in winning the Champions Day Classic for the third consecutive season. Drawn widest while facing four others, the gelding poked his head in front with a circuit to travel and lobbed them along through a half-mile in :49.48 while tracked along by Benoit (Closing Argument). Held together on the turn by Tim Thornton, he remained under a double hammerlock while opening at will into the final furlong and cruised home untouched. The...

6th-OP, $110K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 3:50 p.m. ET. AVERY'S MISCHIEF (Curlin) makes the races for Stonestreet and trainer Steve Asmussen. The homebred is the first foal for GI Humana Distaff Stakes heroine Mia Mischief (Into Mischief), who the farm made the fourth highest return--at $2.4 million--when they bid successfully during the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Earning over $1.2 million on the racetrack, this dam certainly took to Oaklawn's course, as she netted a pair of black-types there and never finished worse than second over six attempts. Also set for...

A six-time winner of the race in its days at Hollywood Park, including with future GI Kentucky Derby hero Real Quiet (Quiet American) in 1997, trainer Bob Baffert took the first seven runnings of the GII Los Alamitos Futurity after the relocation to Ocean County in 2014 and ran his overall total to 14 when Wnystock (Solomini) caused a 13-1 upset last year. Just five juvenile males have taken up the challenge this term, three of whom are trained by Baffert, and Gaming (Game Winner) is an all-the-way candidate at...