Laurel Park

Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association CEO Alan Foreman joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk about the MATCH Series schedule, which kicks off in April at Laurel Park, and give the latest updates on the much-discussed renovation of Pimlico Race Course.

Let's hear for mature females running the show--and running in the show! They work hard for the breed, especially when they race past their first youth. Was Walt Whitman maybe thinking a little about older mares when he wrote: "The female contains all qualities and tempers them, she is in her place and moves with perfect balance"? And also: "She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as daughters"? HEAVENLY PRIZE INVITATIONAL S., $121,250, Aqueduct, 3-6, 4yo/up, f/m, 1m, 1:39.51, ft. 1--BANK STING, 120, m,...

The Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships Series (MATCH) returns for a 9th season with a $2.2 million stakes schedule that spans April 16 through Oct. 3 and more than $400,000 in bonus money for owners, trainers and breeders. The Series, a competition among horses in four divisions, is designed to identify the best horses, and their owners and trainers, in the Mid-Atlantic region. It will be contested this year at Laurel Park, Hollywood at Penn Gaming, Colonial Downs and Parx, with Parx hosting this year's Championship Day. Horses competing in MATCH earn...

The chart of the GII Risen Star S. run Saturday at the Fair Grounds will show you that the race was won by Epicenter (Not This Time) and that runner-up Smile Happy (Runhappy) was never a serious threat to win. It's just that there is a lot more to this story. Expectations were high for Smile Happy coming into the Risen Star. He was 2-for-2 last year and his win in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. came at the expense of Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) and White Abarrio (Race...

At first glance, it looks like a movie you've probably seen already. A horse-crazy girl leads her family into racing and, against all odds, they end up in the winner's circle after a big race. Only, for Gaylene Smith and her family, it's no movie. It's real life after Smith's 8-year-old granddaughter London asked for a racehorse early last year. Less than a year into operation, Smith's Willow's Green Stable won its first stakes race with Timeless Bounty (Elusive Hour), a $15,000 claim who took the family to Santa Anita...

Rainy conditions caused by Winter Storm Landon forced the cancellation of the live racing card at Laurel Park Friday afternoon following the third race. The first three races on the program were run over a sloppy and sealed main track. The weekly Stronach 5 wager, which was to begin with the eighth race at Laurel followed by races at Gulfstream, Santa Anita and Golden Gate, was also canceled. The wager will retirn next Friday, Feb. 11. Laurel is scheduled to conduct live racing Saturday with first post at 12:25 p.m....

Laurel Park, which hasn't hosted racing since Jan. 2 and was closed for 18 days in late autumn over safety and weather-related woes that have plagued its new multi-million-dollar dirt surface, is now scheduled to next card racing for Sunday, Jan. 16--but only if Mother Nature cooperates. The Maryland racing community and Laurel executives traded updates and opinions on the controversial, work-in-progress track restoration project Tuesday afternoon in a 30-minute videoconference. But when Mike Rogers, the president of the racing division for The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns Laurel's corporate...

Laurel Park cancelled live racing again Friday, Jan. 7, due to winter weather that disrupted the area and later added that racing would be cancelled through the weekend, according to a press release from the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC). A Monday snowstorm had resulted in the cancellation of training earlier in the week and the Maryland track also cancelled live racing Thursday. A fresh storm was sweeping through the area Thursday night and Friday morning, with Aqueduct also cancelling Friday's card. Laurel will remain open for simulcasting, as will Pimlico,...

Laurel Park, the Maryland track with a new dirt surface that was hit by winter weather this week, cancelled the Jan. 6 nine-race card due to the continuing effects of the winter storm, announced the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) Thursday. The storm brought sleet, freezing rain, and snowfall to the area. Laurel, as well as Pimlico, Rosecroft, and the MJC OTB Network, will remain open for simulcasting. Live racing at Laurel is scheduled to resume Friday, Jan. 7. First post is 12:25 p.m.

Last week, Puerto Rican jockey Jorge A. Vargas, Jr. won one of the biggest races of his young career aboard Geno (Big Brown) in the $500,000 NYSSS Great White Way S. at Aqueduct. The victory, more than happiness and a nice check, brought relief and a breath of fresh air going into a new year after a tough 2021. "I was a little down because I was working hard, I'm riding almost every day and you want to see the results and nothing was happening," said Vargas during a recent...

Amid glowing opinions from stakeholders that the work-in-progress new dirt surface at Laurel Park has improved dramatically after eight equine fatalities from main-track fractures there this autumn, racing has been greenlighted to proceed as scheduled Dec. 16 for the first time in 18 days. The Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) determined during a Tuesday tele-meeting that it didn't technically need to take a vote for racing to resume, but the board made sure to solicit ample feedback from jockeys, trainers, track executives, track surface consultants and veterinarians before issuing a verbal...

The Maryland Jockey Club confirmed the cancellation of live racing at Laurel Park through Sunday, Dec. 5 as work continues to complete repairs to the track and to analyze recent equine injuries. While racing is suspended, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and the Maryland Jockey Club are working with industry experts to analyze surface composition and maintenance procedures directed at the safest possible racing surface. According to a MJC press release: "Until now, and through collaborative measures among industry participants, Maryland racing has experienced the lowest fatality rate in its...