Blood-Horse

Effective this weekend, 1/ST Racing will discontinue selling the simulcast signal from Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park to Hipódromo Camarero in Puerto Rico to address increasing concerns regarding horse welfare and safety at that racetrack.

In 2020, amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, jockey Abel Lezcano was diagnosed with non-functioning kidneys. Now, he's healthy again and riding at Del Mar - after his wife Maria donated one of her two kidneys to him.

Making her first start in the United States for celebrity chef Bobby Flay, no small detail has been overlooked by trainer Miguel Clement as Go Go Boots prepares for the $500,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 9.

The connections of Florida-based first-crop sire Chance It celebrated his first winner Aug. 7, when the filly Tosca captured the fifth race at Colonial Downs.

Multiple graded stakes winner and sire Officer died Aug. 1 at age 26 in Korea, according to the Korean Studbook. Officer was one of the top juveniles in 2001, winning the Champagne Stakes (G1) and the Del Mar Futurity (G2).

Sweetwater Downs will offer the highest purses for horsemen in the track's history for its 2025 race meet starting on Saturday, Aug. 16. The $1.9 million in purses is a 40% increase over 2024.

A stakes schedule packed with $3.575 million in purses will headline this year's 14-day September meet at Churchill Downs, featuring 11 black-type events over three weekends.

George Weaver-trained stablemates Governor Sam and Ortley Avenue, the 1-2 finishers of last month's Quick Call Stakes (G3T), return for the $175,000 Mahony Stakes (G3T) Aug. 10 at Saratoga Race Course.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert bids for his fourth straight victory and 12th overall win in the Aug. 9 Best Pal Stakes (G3) at Del Mar with impressive maiden winner Desert Gate and St. Petersburg, a $700,000 son of Constitution. 

Speaking Aug. 7 during a KTDF committee meeting, Keeneland vice president of racing Gatewood Bell said the track's winner's circle area for stakes competitors will move to what had previously been the paddock walking ring area.

Keeneland announced Aug. 7 that four horses—fillies by Flightline, Gun Runner and Into Mischief, plus a colt by Golden Pal—have been supplemented to Book 1 of the September Yearling Sale Sept. 8-9.

Arqana's chief executive Freddy Powell is hoping the market forces in effect at Fasig-Tipton will continue in Deauville for the company's flagship August Yearling Sale Aug. 16-18.

Trainer Phil D'Amato has half the field in Del Mar's Yellow Ribbon Handicap (G2T), which gets a shipper from the Graham Motion barn in Heredia.

Letters to the Editor for the Aug. 7 issue of BloodHorse Daily

After failing to convince Florida legislators earlier this year to decouple its horse racing business from its right to offer slot machine gambling, Gulfstream Park filed a lawsuit that, if successful, would satisfy its goals via court order.

There is a lot of alliteration surrounding the co-feature event at Colonial Downs Aug. 9. Because while Be Your Best brings the credentials to be the likely favorite, Beach Bomb boasts the brilliance to beware of in the Beverly D. Stakes (G2T). 

Coming off a victorious run in the Penn Mile Stakes (G3T), Dream On will try to make it four wins from five starts this year in the $500,000 Secretariat Stakes (G2T) at Colonial Downs Aug. 9.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association announced Aug. 6 the election of David O'Farrell as chairman of its board of trustees.

David Scanlon and his wife, Blair King, purchase the former Eddie Woods Training Center near Ocala, Fla.

After arriving at Colonial Downs Aug. 3, Refai Alghraiban's classy globetrotter Cairo was on the track Aug. 6 ahead of his run in the Arlington Million (G1T) Aug. 9. Trainer Alice Haynes was on hand for the Irish-bred's move over the turf course.