trainer

On Feb. 6, the Oxford-born Dan Blacker celebrated his first graded stakes win as a trainer when Hit The Road (More Than Ready) took Santa Anita's GIII Thunder Road S., unleashing a powerful turn of foot inside the final furlong to win by an eye-catching 3 3/4 lengths. The progressive 4-year-old now has his sights set on Grade I glory in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile over the same course and distance as the Thunder Road on Mar. 6, and a victory there would epitomize everything Blacker has been working...

Paul D'Arcy, who trained Indian Haven (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) to win the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas in 2003, will saddle his final runner at Kempton on Wednesday. The soon-to-be 65-year-old will leg up John Egan on Knight of Kings (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) in the first race, a seven-furlong maiden over the all-weather. Egan was also aboard Indian Haven for his Classic score. A jockey prior to turning his hand to training, D'Arcy began training in 1993. "I've no regrets, I turn 65 in February and always planned to...

Retired trainer Ralph Biszantz passed away Tuesday in Ocala, Florida after a brief battle with melanoma. Biszantz was 78. His death was confirmed by his brother, owner and breeder Gary Biszantz. "He was living in Ocala and he had a couple of ex-race horses that he took care of," Gary Biszantz said. "The cancer came on him pretty quickly. It only took about three months and the melanoma spread through his lungs. It was a sad way to go, but he wasn't in a lot of pain. It was a...

Now 87, trainer King Leatherbury likes to tell a joke, the one about his destiny and his family's burial plot. "I feel perfectly good and healthy but when I visit my family plot down there, where my whole family has been buried, there's this little sign. It says, 'King Leatherbury, coming soon.'" In the meantime, Leatherbury is not done yet or ready to walk away from a career that has earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame and fifth place on the list of all-time winningest trainers with...

Jack Carava, who saddled better than 1,100 winners in a career dating back to 1986, has announced he is trading in his stopwatch in exchange for a condition book, as he will book mounts on behalf of Tyler Baze beginning with the Santa Anita fall meet Sept. 19. Baze is returning to California following an eight-month absence. "The time is right," said Carava, 54, who has operated both a public and private stable in Southern California for the past 33 years. "I've had a lot of success with Tyler over...

David Lanigan has recently joined Four Star Sales as bloodstock advisor, emphasizing on the private purchase of horses in-training and racing management. Lanigan closed his Newmarket training operation this spring to prepare for his family's planned return to Lexington. Training under Sir Henry Cecil for five years before going out on his own 13 years ago, he retired from training with over 200 winners including top stakes horses, Main Sequence, Meeznah, Interception and Worth Waiting. Prior to working for Cecil, he worked with Four Star Sales' Kerry Cauthen at John...

When working on a plan for a new business 12 months ago, few would have set out contingencies for a global pandemic. Fortunately for George Boughey, who this month celebrates his first anniversary as a Newmarket trainer, the shutdown of racing between mid-March and the beginning of June brought only a brief hiatus to the promising start made from when he saddled his first winner on Aug. 13. That footnote in history belongs to Three C's (Ire), a Kodiac (GB) gelding who has won twice in the year before joining...

Akiko Gothard, who trained K One King (Apalachee) to an eighth-place effort in the 1999 GI Kentucky Derby and a victory in the 2000 GI Oaklawn H., passed away July 6 in Lexington, the Blood-Horse reported. She was 89 years old. Born Akiko Ozeki, she was married to Don McVarish, an American soldier, in her native Japan, relocating to the United States in 1956. Gothard served as a liaison in helping Japanese buyers at Keeneland. She became a trainer in the 1990s, saddling 347 winners from 2,008 starters for earnings...

Milton Wolfson, a popular South Florida-based trainer and multiple graded-stakes winning conditioner, passed away Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale. He was 87. A native of Philadelphia, Wolfson was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1959 with a Bachelor in Animal Science and later graduated from Temple University in 1972 with a Master of Education. He also was the founder and owner of Neshaminy Turf Supply in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida. Wolfson saddled 548 winners in his career and was a...

One thing that the French trainers seem to have in common at present is their opinion that racing will not resume in mid-April. Claude Beniada spoke to Pascal Bary and he was adamant that the wait for racing action will be a lot longer than that. CB: How have the recent measures affected your daily schedule? PB: "They haven't really. We can continue to train the horses and in that regard not much has changed. The staff is there, no one is missing, the tracks are very well maintained and...

Harness trainer Richard Banca has become the 28th person identified in the horse doping scandal that yielded indictments against some of the biggest names in Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing. Banca's name was not among those listed when indictments were announced Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He was arrested Monday and released after posting a $200,000 personal recognizance bond. That another name has surfaced fuels speculation that the investigation launched by the FBI and the Department of Justice will yield more names, perhaps...

Woodbine Entertainment and the Canadian horse racing industry are mourning the loss of longtime Thoroughbred trainer Laurie Silvera, who passed away Mar. 2 (click here for obituary). Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Silvera became a licensed Thoroughbred trainer in Canada in 1975. The graded stakes-winning conditioner earned more than 1,000 wins and nearly $26 million in purses throughout his career in North America. "A true gentleman, Laurie was a longtime fixture on the Woodbine backstretch and highly respected among the local racing community for his horsemanship and willingness to help others....