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1 week ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
River Thames (Macleans's Music), who was most recently third in the GI Blue Grass Stakes, will not go in the GI Kentucky Derby and will instead use the extra two weeks off to prepare for the GI Preakness Stakes. The story was first reported by the Daily Racing Form's David Grening. “We just felt like the Preakness gave him a little more time and it felt like that was a better spot,” said Elliott Walden, the president of WinStar Farm, which co-owns the colt along with the China Horse Club.
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1 week ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
By The connections of Baeza (McKinzie) have had a change of heart and will ship him to Churchill Downs after all. Though some believe Baeza, the runner-up in the GI Santa Anita Derby, is among the best 3-year-olds in the sport, he has only 37 1/5 Derby points. That puts him at 23rd on the list. Only 20 horses can start in the race. Had this been last year, Baeza would have made it in no problem.
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1 week ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
By The connections of Baeza (McKinzie) have had a change of heart and will ship him to Churchill Downs after all. Though some believe Baeza, the runner-up in the GI Santa Anita Derby, is among the best 3-year-olds in the sport, he has only 37 1/5 Derby points. That puts him at 23rd on the list. Only 20 horses can start in the race. Had this been last year, Baeza would have made it in no problem.
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1 week ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
Joining New Jersey and Colorado, West Virginia has become the third state to legalize fixed odds wagering on horse racing. The legislation was fully completed Saturday and the state's racetracks, sports book and gambling apps can begin accepting the bets whenever they are ready to go. The Legislature passed the bill by a 55-43 count. “I am the general counsel and lobbyist for the Charles Town HBPA, and so that was the impetus for me trying to get this started,” said lobbyist Philip Reale.
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1 week ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
Trevor McCarthy is only 30 and a winner of 1,871 races, which suggests he had many good years left in the saddle. Instead, McCarthy, who last rode on Aug. 15 at Colonial Downs, has retired and has gone into the real estate business. It was his way of escaping a job that was not only making him unhappy but bringing about mental health issues that he knew he had to find a way to get under control.
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2 weeks ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
Prep season is over, and now it's time to get down to business. A deep field will line up for the GI Kentucky Oaks, led by the undefeated Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro). In most years, she'd be 4-5 or lower, but there are enough quality fillies lining up for the race that you might see 2-1 on her. Since the last installment, La Cara (Street Sense) moved up the charts with a win in the GI Ashland S., Ballerina d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) nosed out Early On (Union Rags) to win a slowly run GIII Gazelle S.
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2 weeks ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
It's one sentence among tens of thousands encompassing 900 pages, but when it comes to the future of and welfare of the nation's wild horses and burros, it is frightening and to be taken seriously. “Congress must enact laws permitting the BLM to dispose humanely of these animals.”The “BLM” is the Bureau of Land Management and “these animals” are the estimated 73,000 wild horses and burros under BLM control. The sentence appears in Project 2025.
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2 weeks ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
The goal of the Kentucky Derby points system should be to make sure the 20 best 3-year olds in the sport make it into the field. Churchill Downs has tweaked the system a couple of times over the years and the changes, for the most part, have been well received. It's a different story this year. Churchill has tweaked the system so that in any race with five horses or fewer the horses receive fewer points than races with six or more horses.
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3 weeks ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
The last week of preps for the GI Kentucky Oaks is upon us. The GI Ashland S. will be run Friday at Keeneland on opening day and Aqueduct will offer the GIII Gazelle S. the next day. The Gazelle came up predictably weak, but the Ashland has some intriguing contenders that could crack the top three or four come Friday. Last week, Quietside (Malibu Moon) was a convincing winner of the GII Fantasy S. at Oaklawn and Five G (Vekoma) never looked back to win the GII Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Park Oaks.
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3 weeks ago | 
thoroughbreddailynews.com | Bill Finley
After having to cancel Sunday's card at Aqueduct due to concerns that excessive noise from an event at the adjoining Resorts World Casino created unsafe racing conditions, the New York Racing Association has asked the casino company to pay them back. “NYRA will seek reimbursement from Resorts World on behalf of the people impacted by the cancellation, most notably the horsemen and women who were deprived of racing opportunities on Sunday,” said NYRA Vice President, Communications Pat McKenna.
