Santa Anita

Santa Anita Could Use Tapeta Training Track For Races In '25

The nearly 6 1/2-furlong Tapeta training track at Santa Anita Park is being considered for racing in 2025 as an off-the-grass or wet-weather option. Nate Newby, the track's general manager, disclosed the work-in-progress plan after being prompted for an update on the nearly six-month-old surface by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) during Thursday's monthly meeting. "Horsemen have been working over it for a couple months," Newby said. "Feedback is really strong. As Tapeta personnel would tell us, those tracks need a little bit to break in. But feedback has...

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Preakness Champ Rombauer Will Shuttle To Chile

In a deal brokered by Matt Bowling of Bowling Bloodstock and J.P. Sullivan of Sullivan Bloodstock, GI Preakness winner Rombauer (by Twirling Candy), who stood his first season this year at War Horse Place in Lexington, Kentucky, will be shuttling to Chile, according to a press release from Bowling Bloodstock on Friday. The John Fradkin homebred broke his maiden at first asking at Del Mar during the summer of 2020 and was the runner-up in the GI American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in late September. As a 3-year-old, Rombauer...

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Inaugural California Crown Day Highlights Santa Anita Autumn Meet

Highlighted by the inaugural California Crown Day, featuring five stakes worth $2.8 million, Santa Anita's 16-day Autumn Meet will include 22 stakes races. The first-ever California Crown Day at Santa Anita will be presented Sept. 28. Formally announced Mar. 1, the event is a new racing and entertainment concept inspired by Pegasus World Cup Day at Gulfstream Park and created to bring together world-class Thoroughbred racing and the excitement of live performances, interactive experiences, and cutting-edge technology. The event's namesake race, the $1-million GI California Crown, is for 3-year-olds and...

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Katie Goodman Named HRWS Summit Keynote Speaker

Katie Goodman will be the keynote speaker at the Horse Racing Women's Summit, which will be held Sept. 25-27 in Arcadia, California. "I cannot wait to engage the HRWS community at this year's summit," said Goodman, an award-winning comedian, author and international speaker. "In a world that combines top athletes--both human and horse--with wagering and premier events across the country, chaos is pretty much a guarantee. Harnessing the tools to navigate change and volatility with confidence will help members of the HRWS handle absolutely anything that comes their way." Goodman's...

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Post-Entry Screening: Like Handicapping a Race Card

Tim Grande, the California Horse Racing Board's (CHRB) chief official veterinarian, remembers sitting among the first panel of experts charged with screening horses for elevated risk of injury even before they could be entered to race. "If an entry came across the racing office's desk, we had to give it approval before it could be accepted," said Grande, of the then new addition to the regulatory furniture mandated by the California Governor's office in the wake of the 2019 Santa Anita welfare crisis. "It wasn't particularly practical with just the...

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Report: David Hofmans Passes Away at 81

According to a report by Kevin Modesti in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, trainer David Hofmans died Wednesday at his home near Santa Anita. He was 81. Hofmans's wife, Linda Murray Hofmans, confirmed the news to Modesti. She added that the Arcadia Police Department are investigating and an autopsy was pending. "We're devastated," Hofmans's widow told Modesti, requesting privacy for the family. The cause of death was not immediately known. According to Equibase, Hofmans began his career in 1974 and won 1,085 races for career earnings of $53,335,405. His biggest...

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International Show Jumping Tour to Make Santa Anita Stop

Lugano Diamonds Split Rock Jumping Tour, an international show jumping tour, will make a stop at Santa Anita this November, with the Los Angeles National to be held Nov. 13-17,  followed by the inaugural CSI5*-W featuring the $400,000 Longines  FEI Jumping World Cup™ Los Angeles CSI5*-W qualifying event presented by Lugano Diamonds Santa Anita CS to be held Nov. 20-24. In addition to world-class show jumping, the Santa Anita CSI5*-W event week from Nov. 20-24, 1/ST will offer elevated hospitality and entertainment experiences at the Arcadia racetrack. "There is a...

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Letter to the Editor: Horse Racing Has Come a Long Way Towards Addressing Safety

The just-concluded Santa Anita/Hollywood winter/spring meet with a 99.97% safety record from 6,678 horses racing over the dirt and or turf is truly remarkable. Combine this result with the additional data released by HISA of a fatality rate of .83 per 1000 starts nationally for the first quarter of 2024 and something extraordinary is starting to occur. Thoroughbred racing can and, importantly is, becoming safe with regard to horse fatalities. One would have been hard-pressed to make such a statement in 2019 with the many horse fatalities at Santa Anita....

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Hernandez, D'Amato, Reddam Secure Hollywood Meet Titles

Jockey Juan Hernandez, trainer Phil D'Amato and owner Paul and Zilla Reddam's Reddam Racing emerged victorious in their respective divisions during the 29-day Hollywood Meet at Santa Anita, which closed Sunday, June 16. Hernandez, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, was celebrating a sixth riding title at Santa Anita, having ridden 36 winners from 176 mounts (20.5%), one clear of Antonio Fresu, who joined the local riding colony just over 14 months ago. The Italian had one last chance to dead-heat with Hernandez, but fell just short in Sunday's 12th and...

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Santa Anita Concludes Winter-Spring Season With 99.97% Safety Record

Santa Anita Park concluded the six-month 2023-24 Winter-Spring season on June 16 which, when combined with the six-week Autumn Meet from 2023, produced a 99.97% safety record, making the 1/ST Racing facility the safest track in North America among those with a comparable volume of racing and training according to a release from the track Monday. Since the Opening Day of the Autumn meet on Sept. 29, 2023, through the Closing Day of the Hollywood Meet on June 17, 2024, 6,678 horses ran in races over Santa Anita's main track...

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Shancelot's Midland Money A New 'TDN Rising Star'

The third 'Rising Star' to come out of the freshman sire class in just 24 hours, Midland Money (Shancelot--Magnolias In Bloom, by Flatter) became his sire's (by Shanghai Bobby) second overall winner Friday with a gate to wire win at Santa Anita. A $650,000 OBS March buy for CSLR Racing Partners LLC, the colt worked a quick furlong in :9.4 in Ocala to become the most expensive 2-year-old buy from his sire's first crop. He'd already shown his propensity to be quick in the mornings, putting up back to back...

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OBS March Sales Topper Nooni A 'Rising Star' For Win Win Win

Florida-based stallion Win Win Win (by Hat Trick {Jpn}) could not have kicked his second career off any better, earning a first winner and first 'TDN Rising Star' Thursday as Nooni (Win Win Win--Unanimity, by Union Rags) lived up her billing in a winning debut at Santa Anita. After blitzing a quarter-mile in :20.1 at OBS March, Nooni caught the eye of Zedan Racing Stables and trainer Bob Baffert who went to a sales-topping $1,800,000 to secure the filly from her sire's first crop. Hammered down to 1-5 in the...

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