Parx

Louis Albertrani, a retired Thoroughbred trainer who grew up in Brooklyn and was best known for conditioning the 1999 Eclipse Award champion sprinter Artax, died July 13 at his home in Delaware after collapsing from an apparent heart attack. He was 67. Albertrani's passing was confirmed to TDN Monday by his one-year-younger brother, Tom Albertrani, who himself had just retired from training earlier this spring. Lou Albertrani was licensed between 1992 and 2021, according to Equibase. His trainees won $5.2 million in purses from 1,654 starts with a 133-161-191 win-place-show...

The Boiling Springs Stakes at Monmouth, scheduled to be run Sunday, is contested annually at a mile-and-one-sixteenth on the turf and is for 3-year-old fillies. With those conditions, it should be an easy race to fill. Not this year. The racing office did not get enough entries and the race was scrapped. Not that any of this should come as a surprise. There is a glut of racing in the Mid-Atlantic states. When Colonial Downs opens on July 11, there will be eight Mid-Atlantic tracks running within a range of...

7th-Parx Racing, $52,480, Msw, 6-24, 2yo, 4 1/2f, :54.18, ft, 4 lengths. BABY DUKES (c, 2, Maximus Mischief--Flatter's Secret, by Flatter), a $130,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling, was hammered into 2-5 while debuting for the same connections that raced this GII Remsen Stakes-winning sire. Under a hustling ride from Mychel Sanchez from the bell, the Pennysylvania-bred dueled outside a rival into the turn, was asked for his best on the swing for home and was just being shown the whip through the final sixteenth of a mile en route to a...

3rd-Parx Racing, $45,760, Msw, 6-24, 2yo, f, 4 1/2f, :55.65, ft, neck. HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY (f, 2, Honor A. P.--America's Friend {SW, $284,244}, by Unusual Heat) became the second debut winner and third overall for her freshman sire (by Honor Code) with a determined effort in the season's first baby race in suburban Philly. Off at odds of 10-1, the bay was void of early speed despite being asked for it and raced in fifth of the six runners into the turn. Improving her position inside approaching the quarter pole, Hollywood...

Trainer Butch Reid, Jr. has three sophomores aiming for stakes on Aqueduct's Apr. 6 Wood Memorial card. Michael Milam's Uncle Heavy (Social Inclusion), aiming for the GII Wood Memorial, worked five furlongs in 1:02.09 (3/15) Saturday at Parx. It was the colt's first official work since winning the Feb. 3 GIII Withers S. "The work went very well, we couldn't be any happier. He did it well and came out of it great this morning, ate up everything last night," said Reid. "We had a horse in front of him...

Parx-based trainer Monte Gelrod has been notified by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) that a horse he trains named Ratified (Constitution) tested positive for Cobalt after racing Feb. 19 at Parx. His suspension has been put on hold while HIWU awaits the results of a B sample test. If the B sample also shows the presence of Cobalt, Gelrod faces a suspension of up to two years. Gelrod's positive was the second recorded at Parx in a short period of time. On Feb. 6, the Patricia Farro-trained Deplane...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Carlos Mancilla has been suspended for 15 days for a post-race Gabapentin positive from Sept. 10, and fined $1,000. Gabapentin, a Class B controlled medication, is an anti-seizure medicine for humans that is also used to treat complications from shingles. According to the final ruling by an internal adjudication panel, Mancilla said that the positive probably came about because of the horse, Cara...

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association has named the 2023 PA-Bred Award finalists. Winners will be announced during the annual Iroquois Awards held Friday, May 10. Finalists are listed in alphabetical order: Horse of the Year: Angel of Empire (Classic Empire), Caravel (Mizzen Mast), Nimitz Class (Munnings), Neecie Marie (Cross Traffic), Roses For Debra (Liam's Map) and Twisted Ride (Great Notion). Broodmare of the Year: Armony's Angel (To Honor and Serve), Diva's Gold (Tenpins), Essential Rose (Bernardini), Five Diamonds (Flatter), Home Ice (Iam the Iceman), Katarica Disco (Disco Rico) and Zeezee...

Edited Press Release The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association will run 23 stakes at Pennsylvania tracks throughout 2024, including five for PA-Sired, PA-Bred runners. 2-year-olds will have added opportunities, as the PA-Sired, PA-Bred Stallion Series returns in its third year with four stakes worth $400,000. The Series will continue into 2025 with races for 3-year-olds, with a $50,000 breeder bonus paid out to the top three point-earning horses after the third leg. The first of 23 stakes with purses of $100,000 will be run April 22 at Parx Racing: the Unique...

With a winter storm bearing down on the Philadelphia area, Parx was forced to cancel its live race card Tuesday. It was the sixth time the Pennsylvania oval has canceled racing due to weather this year.

Pennsylvania-bred Uncle Heavy (Social Inclusion) shipped up from his base at Parx for an outfit capable of pulling a surprise on this circuit and did just that, nailing El Grande O (Take Charge Indy) right on the wire by a nose to earn 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in Saturday's $250,000 GIII Withers S. at Aqueduct. Drawn one from the outside over a rain-affected strip that was putting a demand on stamina, the hulking bay, off at 9-1, raced in the four path, but with cover...

Winter weather conditions on the East Coast and the Midwest continue to impact racing operations at a variety of racetracks. Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia cancelled Monday's scheduled live program in the morning hours and by mid-afternoon, word was circulating that the live card for Tuesday was also called off. Temperatures well-below freezing prompted weekend cancellations at Aqueduct and Laurel and although temperatures in the region flirted with the 40-degree mark on Monday, the thawing and re-freezing of racing surfaces is surely causing nightmares for track superintendents. Temperatures had once...