Blood-Horse

The 2024 season at Woodbine will consist of 129 race dates and runs through Dec. 15. ​The first two weeks of the meet will have racing held on Saturday and Sunday.

Del Mar is projecting more than $26.6 million in total purses over the course of the eight-week meeting, the seaside track's 85th summer session. The seaside track will offer $7.875 million in stakes purses, including six grade 1 stakes.

Long known for his skill in training turf horses, Phil D'Amato is making the most of an opportunity with the 3-year-old dirt horse Stronghold, winner of the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and pointed to the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 4 at Churchill Downs.

A pair of 2-year-old fillies, fresh off their debuts at Keeneland, have been supplemented into Keeneland's April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale that begins at 6:30 p.m. ET April 26, closing day of the spring meet.

Mo'unga, the first multiple group 1-winning son of New Zealand's eight-time champion sire Savabeel, has been retired to stud and will join the Newhaven Park stallion ranks for 2024; Benbatl's fee set at AU$22,000 in first Southern Hemisphere season.

Juliet Kagno will serve as The Jockey Club steward for the remainder of Aqueduct spring meet and for the Belmont at the Big A spring/summer meet while Dr. Ted Hill will assume the steward position during the Saratoga summer meet.

It will be a bittersweet day at Golden Gate Fields April 27 as the $175,000 San Francisco Mile Stakes (G3T) is slated to be the last stakes race ever held at the track that opened in 1941.

Ribble Farms, Michael Eiserman, Earl Silver, Kenneth Fishbein, and Dave Fishbein's Honor Marie drilled an eye-catching five-furlong bullet in :59 1/5 at Churchill Downs April 25, his final work before the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1).

Jevian Toledo, four-time leading rider at Laurel Park, had minor surgery to repair a dislocated collarbone suffered during a spill April 21.

Kentucky Derby (G1) favorites Fierceness and Sierra Leone will open as the second and third choices behind Muth in the Preakness Future Wager when the final pool opens April 26.

Star router Next and the speedy No Nay Mets are among the top contenders in two of Churchill Downs' featured stakes races May 1 leading up to Kentucky Derby (G1) weekend.

Mensa is stabled at Churchill Downs and will train each day at 9:10 am in a special saddle cloth. Prospective buyers can follow him back to Barn 36 post-training to inspect him.

Officials with Churchill Downs Inc. April 25 sounded a bit like a gift giver looking forward to the receiver's reaction as they discussed changes, centered on a $200 million new paddock, that await fans arriving Kentucky Derby week this year.

When Emerald Downs begins its 2024 season on Saturday, May 4, a familiar voice returns to the announcer's booth high atop the grandstand: Tom Harris.

A BH Daily letter to the editor for the week of April 24.

The biggest clash of the Goffs Doncaster Breeze-Up Sale boiled down to Anthony Stroud and Jason Kelly. Stroud who emerged victorious, with a bid of £420,000 (US$525,000, £1 = US$1.25) for the sale-topping filly by Havana Grey.

A judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals denied an emergency motion to allow Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Muth into the Kentucky Derby (G1) in an order described on the court's online docket after regular office hours April 24.

Trainer Phil D'Amato has captured two of the last three runnings of Santa Anita Park's Royal Heroine Stakes (G3T). This year, the conditioner will look to take yet another rendition when he saddles not one but three live contenders.

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Thoroughbred class of 2024 is confirmed, with Glen Todd, Starship Jubilee, Patrick Husbands, Channel Maker, Danny Vella, and Richard Grubb to be inducted this summer.

Behind the continued success of historical horse racing operations in both Kentucky and Virginia, Churchill Downs Inc. April 24 reported record first quarter net revenue and adjusted earnings.