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Longtime Finger Lakes Clerk of Scales Jack Keller will be inducted into the track's Hall of Fame this Friday, the gaming establishment said in a press release on Wednesday.

When Keller arrived at Finger Lakes outside of Farmington, New York in 1967, he figured he would spend a year working as a valet and then move on to another track for his next adventure in the world of racing.

One year, however, became 59.

“As it turned out, I never left,” said Keller, who is in his 39th season as the track's Clerk of Scales.

Keller grew up in Ohio and fell in love with racing when he was going to the track with his father. He then landed a job on the backstretch in 1950, becoming a hotwalker at Ascot Park near Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

He also rode at Ohio fairs but was too heavy to make weight at parimutuel tracks so transitioned to becoming an outrider and then assistant starter across Ohio, working at Ascot Park, Thistledown, Randall Park and Cranwood Racecourse.

His racing career includes stops at 17 different racetracks, including a winter in the 1960s as an exercise rider at Hialeah Park for the famous Darby Dan Farm.

Keller came to Finger Lakes in 1967 and worked as a valet for twenty years, when he transitioned to the race office. He has been Clerk of Scales for 39 years. The Jockey's Room was named in his honor last year.

“Jack has been an institution here at Finger Lakes,” said President and General Manager of Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack Chris Riegle. “His dedication and knowledge of the sport have allowed him to excel at every one of the many positions he has held here throughout the years.”

Keller's induction into the Hall of Fame will take place at Friday's annual HBPA meeting and awards banquet.

The post Clerk Of Scales Jack Keller To Be Inducted Into Finger Lakes Hall Of Fame appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Chad Brown seeks a fifth win in the Eatontown Stakes (G3T) at Monmouth Park June 14 with a pair of runners, Maggie Go and Whiskey Decision, that make their barn and year debuts.

Natural Rise toyed with the opposition in the June 11 Tokyo Derby at Oi Racecourse before winning with ease and moving within one win of sweeping Japan's Dirt Triple Crown.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association announced June 11 that bluegrass music and award-winning Dan Tyminski Band will perform live at the TOBA National Awards Sept. 6 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington.

The International Conference for the Health, Safety, and Welfare of Jockeys will take place Dec. 11-12 in Hong Kong.

The star of her division last fall, 2-year-old champion filly Immersive is finally set to make her 3-year-old debut June 14 at Churchill Downs in the $175,000 Monomoy Girl Overnight Stakes.

United States trainer Wesley Ward will not saddle any runners at Royal Ascot for the first time since 2012 after pulling plans at the last minute to send over a juvenile team headed by the unbeaten Outfielder.

The Equine Veterinary Journal's new collection on racehorse safety, sponsored by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, provides free access to science-based, data-driven research. 

Snitzel, Australia's four-time champion stallion, sire of 23 group 1 winners and 160 stakes winners to date, was euthanized June 11 at age 22 owing to age-related issues, chiefly a deterioration in the liver.

BetMakers Technology Group is pleased to announce a new partnership with Total Performance Data (TPD), delivering dynamic, in-the-run horse racing odds to operators via BetMakers' industry-leading technology platforms.

Following the first loss of her career, trainer Brad Cox is uncertain where Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Good Cheer will start next.

Carl Spackler impressed in his gallop under Jamie Spencer, with the 5-year-old set to make his debut for Australian handler Ciaron Maher in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1).

After months of speculation, James Cummings, one of Australia's best trainers, confirmed June 11 that he will join the Hong Kong training ranks next year.

Velazquez won a total of six stakes including three designated grade 1 and one grade 3 for a total of nine wins for the week. The panel of racing experts voted the Hall of Famer Jockey of the Week for June 2-8.

The National Thoroughbred League is getting involved in the resurgence of trading cards as it recently unveiled its first set made by Leaf, which will be released this fall.

Maiden Watch: Week of June 2-June 8

The Blue Sapphire crew sent out Hip 45, a filly by Combatant who worked a quarter mile in :20 4/5, the fastest time at the distance on the day at the first session of the OBS June Sale under tack show June 10.

Porter on Pedigrees

A filly by Frosted (hip 279)–the first horse on the track Wednesday morning–turned in the co-fastest :9 4/5 furlong time so far at the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale and that mark was equaled later in the session by fillies by Honest Mischief (hip 180); Midshipman (hip 327); and Higher Power (hip 340). Through two of five sessions of the June under-tack show, seven juveniles have now hit the :9 4/5 mark.

The gray filly by Frosted is out of graded winner Dixie Serenade (Uptowncharlybrown) and is a half-sister to stakes winner Dixieland Belle (More Than Ready). She is consigned by Robbie Harris's Harris Training Center.

“A :9 4/5 surprises everybody, but we knew she was a fast filly,” said Harris. “We actually had her in [OBS] April [sale], but we never even got a chance to prep her or breeze her. She came up with a little thing with her foot, so we just gave her time and she rewarded us for it. An old man told me once, you take care of the horse and he will take care of you. And I'm a firm believer in that.”

Harris, along with longtime farm manager Carlos Garcia, purchased the Pennsylvania-bred filly for $30,000 at last year's OBS October sale.

“I just loved her,” Harris said of the filly's appeal last fall. “She is a real pretty filly with good balance. I own her with my farm manager, Carlos, who has been with me a long, long time. I am excited for him.”

Harris sent out four horses to work over the synthetic surface at OBS Wednesday and the consignor said conditions seemed fairly consistent throughout the session.

“I thought it was pretty solid all the way through,” Harris said. “We went all the way through from :9 4/5, :10 flat, :10 1/5, :10 2/5. And that's kind of how those horses came into it. No shockers. The last page kind of hurts some guys when it gets hot at the end. But I think it was pretty fair all morning.”

Casey Seaman's Crystal Eclipse Stable sent out a New York-bred filly by Honest Mischief to share the furlong bullet Wednesday. Bred by Sequel Stallions NY and Scott Miller, the dark bay filly is out of Blue Hen Madness (Any Given Saturday).

McKathan Bros. Sales sent a filly by Midshipman out for her :9 4/5 work shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday. The bay juvenile is out of multiple stakes-placed Freedom Come (Lit de Justice) and is a half-sister to graded winner Harlem Rocker (Macho Uno). Purchased by Heather Maytham for $7,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale, the filly RNA'd for $40,000 following a :10 flat work at the OBS March sale.

The next horse on the track, a filly by Higher Power, set the bullet mark for Angel Hernandez's Hernandez Stables. The New York-bred bay is out of the unraced Gold Anklet (Lemon Drop Kid) and is a half-sister to stakes-placed Little Daddy (Scat Daddy) and to the dam of graded winner and Grade I-placed Mo Plex (Complexity). She was purchased as a weanling for $10,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Mixed sale in 2023.

A day after sending out bullet workers at a furlong and a quarter-mile, Blue Sapphire Stables had another quarter-mile bullet when a filly by Caravaggio (hip 252) covered the distance in :20 4/5. The gray is out of Curl the Pearl (Curlin), a half-sister to graded winners Chitu (Henny Hughes) and Beautiful Gift (Medaglia d'Oro). Purchased for $6,500 at Keeneland last September, she RNA'd for $9,000 the following month at OBS.

Also sharing the :20 4/5 quarter-mile bullet Wednesday was a filly by Cloud Computing (hip 229) consigned by Omar Ramirez Bloodstock. Bred by Green Lantern Stables, the dark bay is out of stakes winner Clever Beauty (Indian Charlie) and RNA'd for $18,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July sale.

The under-tack show continues through Saturday with sessions beginning each day at 7:30 a.m. The June sale will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday. Bidding begins both days at 10 a.m.

The post Fillies Dominate at OBS Wednesday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

It's been a magical year so far for jockey Junior Alvarado, who rode Sovereignty (Into Mischief) to victories in the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Belmont S. They were the first wins in the Triple Crown series for the 39-year-old native of Venezuela, but they surely won't be the last. Alvarado now rides regularly for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, whose stable is loaded with talent.

But Alvarado almost missed the Derby assignment. He fractured his shoulder blade in a Mar. 23 spill at Gulfstream. He would definitely miss the GI Florida Derby and doctors warned him he might not be ready to ride in the Derby. Alvarado would hear nothing of that and worked overtime to be ready for the first leg of the Triple Crown.

What was it like to think you might have the best 3-year-old in the country but wouldn't be able to ride him in the Derby? That was one of many questions our team asked Alvarado on this week's Thoroughbred Daily News Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. Alvarado was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.

“I remember laying in the bed right there with my agent next to me,” Alvarado said. “I kept telling my agent, 'I think I may have a fracture. I can handle pain. I've been through a lot of injuries and I knew that this one was worse than normal. Then the doctor told us I had a fractured scapula. I asked if I could come back in a week a they said, no, no, no. You have a completely fractured scapula. You will have to probably be out between six to eight weeks. So like right there, just, I remember looking at my agent and I'm like shaking my hand. I thought 'why does this have to happen to me?' Like why these things keep happening to me?  Like, God, why? Like, why?”

He went to see a doctor who had treated him before in Saratoga for a second opinion and got a much different diagnosis. This doctor said that if he followed his instructions he would be back well before the Derby. It worked as Alvarado returned on Apr. 16, just 23 days after the accident.

The combination of Bill Mott and Alvarado has worked out nicely for both individuals.

“When I moved to New York, I had Mike Sellitto as my agent,” Alvarado said. “He's a very good, close friend to Bill Mott. That's how we started it. I will say probably six, seven, eight years ago now, I used to ride all those nice horses in the morning. Then, the mount in the afternoon would go to guys like Mike Smith or Joel Rosario. I remember my agent telling me, just keep working, keep working. You're going to have your time and when you have your time, then you'll take. By working a lot of his horses in the morning,  I came to understand what Bill really likes to do with his horses, with the babies, how he develops the horses. Every trainer has a different mentality and different way to approach their training method. I just fit pretty well with what Bill was doing and I like the way he does it. I started getting more chances and more opportunities from him. I was able to perform well in the afternoon and that's how more opportunities kept coming my way.”

Alvarado has won 421 races for Mott, 65 graded stakes and $51.5 million in purse money.

Sovereignty isn't the first good horse Alvarado has ridden for Mott. No one will ever forget the story of Cody's Wish (Curlin) and Cody Dorman. Alvarado said he was never more nervous than when he was aboard Cody's Wish.

“That was very special, he said. “It was completely different than riding Sovereignty. With Sovereignty I was always calm. Riding  Cody's Wish, I felt lot of pressure every single time I was riding him. I didn't want to be the one who made a mistake and be the villain of the beautiful story of that was happening. That was always in my mind, like I cannot make mistakes, I can't do anything wrong, can't overdo it. I can't do anything to get that horse beat because all the eyes are on me and I'm going to look like the bad guy if he got beat. But every time we won I felt so much happiness.”

In our “Fastest Horse of the Week,” segment, which is sponsored by WinStar, we went over the many reasons there are breed to the WinStar stallion Cogburn. The fastest horse of the week was Ways and Means (Practical Joke), who got a 111 Beyer for winning the GII Bed o'Roses S. The 111 was the highest Beyer number assigned to any horse this year.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the KTOB, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, 1/ST Racing and 1/ST TV, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley went over not just the Belmont but all the Grade I stakes action over the weekend at Saratoga. The question was asked, “Would Sovereignty have swept the Triple Crown if he had run in the Preakness?” The consensus was yes.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

The post Junior Alvarado Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast, Presented by Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.