Turf Paradise

The closer the clock ticks down to Nov. 4, when Turf Paradise's latest 130-day meet is scheduled to launch, the louder will the questions resound about the facility's historically checkered approach to equine welfare and safety. Near the midway point during last year's Turf Paradise meet, its equine fatality rate was more than 2.8 deaths per 1,000 starts. This compares to the national equine fatality rate of 1.39 per 1,000 starts last year. Between Oct. 10, 2021, and May 7, 2022, 11 horses were fatally injured during morning training at...

For nearly three years, a frayed cardboard box has hidden in the corner of a small apartment in the Westside of Los Angeles, buried from view by wooly blankets, a tennis racket with broken strings, worn clothes long earmarked for the thrift store and an old jacket with a broken zipper and patched leather sleeves. The box is filled mostly with creaky photo albums stuffed full of old newspaper clippings pasted onto faded paper, laminated win pictures--the plastic as brittle as sheet-ice--and handwritten letters. There are magazines and an old...

Spendthrift Farm's freshman sire Bolt d'Oro, a MGISW by Medaglia d'Oro, sired his first winner from his first starter Wednesday when his son Pop d'Oro captured a trial race at Turf Paradise in front-running fashion. He won by a length while stopping the clock in :52.03 seconds for 4 1/2 furlongs. Owned and trained by Jose Luna Silva, the dark bay colt was bred in Arizona by H & E Ranch and is out of the Unbridled's Song mare Just Like Pop.

Following an incident in which a 1-20 shot he trained and owned was pulled up and eased shortly after the start of a March 10 maiden claimer at Turf Paradise, stewards at that track have hit trainer Juan Silva with a 180-day suspension and a $2,625 fine. The stewards have forwarded the ruling to the Director of the Arizona Department of Racing with a recommendation that further action be taken "up to and including revocation of Silva's license." Silva was charged with "conducting business in a manner detrimental to the...

If there's a main takeaway from Tuesday's Arizona Racing Commission Meeting, it's an acknowledgement from officials and track management that the racing industry is monitoring Turf Paradise closely. "We've got to do a better job at coming up with answers and coming up with solutions," said commissioner Rory Goree, arguably the most outspoken member of the commission about Turf Paradise's poor equine safety record. "I'm hopeful that here, in the near future, we as a commission will be able to talk about some of the solutions and ideas and make...

During the most recent "Let's Talk" Podcast put on by the TDN, Eclipse Award winning trainer Brad Cox stated, "I think there's a lot of negativity around the game and if we want to draw new people in, we should probably try to kill it with the negativity, if we could, and promote the game." I completely agree with this sentiment, and I do think most racing publications do try to promote and showcase the good of the sport along with the bad. I know at ThoroFan we try to...

At a special Arizona Racing Commission Meeting Wednesday, Turf Paradise's equine safety record was once again a serious bone of contention, with commissioner Rory Goree calling the track's equine fatality numbers "deplorable." In her routine track safety report, Sue Gale, the Arizona Department of Gaming's chief veterinarian, explained that 22 horses have died at Turf Paradise since the start of the meet, on Nov. 5 of last year--nine racing-related fatalities, five during training, and eight due to illness. The racing-related catastrophic injury rate works out to 2.8 fatalities per 1000...

The character Leo Brock in the movie "Jockey" has been through a lot, the years of riding, reducing and accidents leaving him worn down. But Leo's spirit remains in tact and he pushes on, always hoping for a better tomorrow. Logan Cormier was a natural to play the role. He, too, is a survivor. The last thing on Cormier's mind when he showed up on opening day for the 2020 meet at Turf Paradise was that he would be cast in a movie. He was coming off a year in...

At the start of 2021, Rob Rosette was a Thoroughbred owner without much of a racing stable. His horses went 0-for-2 in all of 2019, and although his only two runners won three races from 10 combined starts in 2020, the prolonged pandemic shutdown of racing in his home state of Arizona made it difficult to stay in the game he had pursued as a hobby for a decade. But still, back on Jan. 13, Rosette had a brain spark he thought might generate some enjoyment. Although probably not, as...

Time has not been kind to jockey Jackson Silva. He's reached middle-age, has been beaten up physically by his many years in the saddle and has wound up on the sport's bottom rung at Turf Paradise. But he still has dreams, ones that could yet be realized. Trainer Ruth Wilkes, who has stuck by Silva, has come up with a once-in-a-lifetime horse in the filly Dido's Lament and the filly represents Silva's one last chance at glory. It's not a glamorous story, but the movie "Jockey," set to debut in...

Once again, issues of horse and rider safety at Turf Paradise were a bone of contention during the latest Arizona Racing Commission meeting Thursday, due to a shortage of attending veterinarians at the track and concerns over the overall state of the facility. The upcoming Turf Paradise meet is scheduled to start on Nov. 5 and run through May 7 next year. There are roughly between 664 and 700 horses currently stabled and training there, with around 1,500 eventually anticipated. But according to Sue Gale, the Arizona Department of Gaming's...

In a special meeting Monday morning, the Arizona Racing Commission formally approved the proposed 2021-2022 race dates for Turf Paradise--Nov. 5 through May 7--but hard practical questions remain over what participation at that meet could look like due to an ongoing standoff between the Arizona horsemen and Turf Paradise management. As a result of welfare concerns springing from a 2020-2021 Turf Paradise race meet marred by a high number of equine fatalities, the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) have stated they will not sign any race-meet contract until...