Madeline Auerbach

In mid-April, trainer Bernie "Chip" Woolley, best known for winning the 2009 GI Kentucky Derby with Mine That Bird, issued a formal complaint with the Turf Paradise stewards, claiming that Victoria Lowe, an official veterinarian employed by the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG), had furnished him with the name of a potential kill buyer after scratching his 10-year-old race mare, Piper Rose (Whiskey Wisdom). And while an official ADG investigation absolved Lowe of any wrongdoing, the fallout from the incident highlights glaring holes that still exist in the industry's network...

Last year when facing a massive budget shortfall, the umbrella organization overseeing the fate of California's retired racehorses dodged a metaphorical projectile. "We were just so overwhelmed by the support we got for CARMAthon by the racing community," Lucinda Lovitt, executive director of the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), said of a fundraising event held last year at Del Mar on Pacific Classic day. "Everybody on the board--especially those on the event committee--was blown away." Due to the fact that CARMA is primarily funded from purse contributions by owners, trainers...

One day after the bombshell announcement that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York had filed indictments against 27 Thoroughbred veterinarians and trainers for an array of drug offenses, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) released its long-awaited report on the 23 equine catastrophic injuries that marred Santa Anita during the first few months of its 2018-2019 winter-spring meet. The resulting report provides not only an extremely detailed dive into the multi-factorial nature of the causes behind these catastrophic injuries, but a lengthy series of recommendations...