Monmouth

6th-Monmouth, $56,925, Msw, 6-18, 2yo, 5f, :59.60, ft, 3 3/4 lengths. MAJOR DUDE (c, 2, Bolt d'Oro--Mary Rita {SP}, by Distorted Humor) shipped down to the Jersey Shore following a series of drills at Todd Pletcher's Saratoga base, including a five-furlong bullet in 1:01 1/5 (1/5) over the Oklahoma training track June 3. He wasn't off to the sharpest of beginnings on debut and was scrubbed on early by John Velazquez. The 3-5 favorite chased from an inside fourth and was stuck in some traffic entering the far turn. Johnny...

Trainer Cody Axmaker has been handed two consecutive one-year suspensions and fined $5,000 by the New Jersey Racing Commission after a horse he trained named Wishful (Storm Wolf) died on or about May 9 at Monmouth Park due to an apparent overdose of Clenbuterol. He was suspended one year for possessing a prohibited substance in Clenbuterol and a second year for failing "in his duty as trainer to protect and guard the horse Wishful against the administration of the prohibited substance." The suspension is set to begin May 7, 2022...

Numerous horseplayers received an email Thursday from a touting service promising pari-mutuel riches that purported to be authored by trainer Wayne Potts. But Potts told the TDN that he was in no way affiliated with the service, which includes the website wayne-potts.com. "It's not me," he said. "It's not my phone number. I have already reached out to somebody. I don't want to get into it anymore. I have already made phone calls." The email includes a number in the 410 area code and the website lists a number in...

New Jersey native Bill Denver is today's subject in TDN's rotating series profiling racetrack photographers. We ask about memorable horses, races, and people they've viewed through the lens, and also talk about how the craft of equine imagery has evolved. Denver, 60, is the founder of Equi-Photo, which currently shoots the races and provides winner's circle photographs at Monmouth Park, the Meadowlands Thoroughbred meet, Parx, and Penn National. Separate from his work at East Coast tracks, Denver has previously freelanced for college athletic departments and numerous newspapers, including the New...

Monmouth Park is moving its first race post time to 3 p.m. for the next two Fridays of live racing, starting with the 10-race card Friday, Aug. 27. The new Friday post time will also be in effect for the Sept. 3 program that kicks off the four-day Labor Day weekend of racing. The following three Fridays in September--Sept. 10, 17 and 24--will then shift to a 12:15 p.m. first race post time. Prior to the change, Friday post time had been 5 p.m. First race post time remains at...

So the big question is whether the out-of-town jocks, in the heat of a $1-million battle for the GI TVG.com Haskell S., can master the instinct to reach for the whip? If any lifelong flagellants are anxious of their self-discipline, then they need only play back the 1988 running and remind themselves how Laffit Pincay, Jr. coaxed Forty Niner home, in withering heat, by a nose from Seeking the Gold. The whip is unsheathed, for sure, but so seamlessly with the horse's own efforts that the overall effect is like...

Easily the most accomplished runner in the field with earnings of over $2.75 million--more than his nine opponents combined--7-year-old stalwart Arklow (Arch) will try to make amends for running fourth as a heavy favorite in last year's GI United Nations S. in Saturday's renewal of the 1 3/8-mile test on the Monmouth turf. Picking up his first stakes win as a 3-year-old in the GII American Turf S. back in 2017, the bay has since added five more black-type scores, including his lone Grade I success thus far in the...

The runners-up in all three Triple Crown races—though one of them may be promoted to winner at a later date—will clash along with a very intriguing stretch-out sprinter Saturday at Monmouth in a quality renewal of the GI TVG.com Haskell S., a "Win and You're In" qualifier for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Pegged as the 6-5 morning-line favorite is Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who ran the best race of the three Triple Crown returnees when finishing a hard-luck second to division leader Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GI...

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) and Monmouth Park will partner for an all-graded $0.20 Pick 6 Saturday, July 17. The wager will feature 15% takeout and mandatory payout. Saturday's included races are Saratoga's GI Diana S. and GIII Sanford S., in addition to Monmouth's GI TVG.com Haskell S., GI United Nations S., GIII Monmouth Cup S., and GIII Molly Pitcher S. NYRA is also offering a cross-breed Cross Country Pick 5 Saturday in partnership with the Meadowlands, New Jersey's harness track.

TVG will introduce two familiar faces to its broadcast team this summer, the network announced today. Larry Collmus, best known as the voice of the Triple Crown on NBC, will join the TVG broadcast team for select days at Monmouth Park, and NBC Sports broadcast personality and international racing expert Nick Luck, a staple of horse racing coverage in both the UK and US, will be part of the TVG's special coverage of the iconic Royal Ascot meet from June 15-18. "We are very excited to have both Larry and...

For decades, Tom Durkin was the singular voice of Thoroughbred racing, not just from his perch in the announcer's booths at New York Racing Association tracks, but also on nationally-televised broadcasts, where he brought colorful life to so many of the iconic memories etched in racing fans' minds the world over. He has been less visible since stepping down from racecaller duties in 2014, but is still involved in the game, and he joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by JPMorgan Private Bank Wednesday morning as the Green Group Guest...

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley We will need a bigger sample size before being able to fully evaluate how Monmouth's experiment with whip-free racing has fared. But this much is certain: Three days in and after hysterical fomenting from the pro-whip side of the argument, the whip-less races amounted to a big nothingburger. That is to say there were no incidents, no major form reversals, no mass boycotts from the horseplayers, etc. Perhaps this was just round one in what figures to be a long, drawn-out battle that...