Racing News

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Freehold Raceway will be the scene of a special race featuring drivers of Irish heritage on Saturday (March 15).

The winner of the race, which will be sponsored by Mary and Peter Grandich, of Freehold, N.J., will receive a blanket and a trophy. The presentation will be made by Irish-American boxing great Gerry Cooney.

“As a harness owner and racing fan, I’m honored to be sponsoring the St. Paddy Pace,” said Grandich. “My wife, Mary, was born and raised in Ireland and we were married there, so I have a deep connection to the Irish people and culture. I’m looking forward to this 'green' day at the races.”

Her last engagement resulted in a second place finish in the $42,250 Madison County Stake at Hoosier Park on Oct. 26, but Petticoat Affair, the Bluegrass State’s 2-year-old trotting filly champion, is still enjoying her winter vacation.

This situation, however, is not the result of a setback in her training for this year’s campaign, rather it is because of it.

“She isn’t even in the barn yet,” said Bobby Brower, the filly’s conditioner and co-owner. “We are not going to start with her until around July 1 in a race at Hoosier Park. Our goal is the Kentucky program since she was so dominant there last year. Also, she did have kind of an issue with her ankles in the fall, so we did some work on them when we were in Lexington, like going in and cleaning them up to make sure she didn’t have any problems in the future.”

 Ron Pierce, as quoted by Teddy Roosevelt..."Speak softly and carry a big stick."

The 57-year-old Pierce has maintained that mantra throughout a Hall of Fame career, which, through the beginning of this week, included more than 9,000 wins and $204 million in purses.

However, for all of his success, he's never had anything more than a Yonkers Raceway's visitor's pass.

Until recently.

Sylvain Filion, the 2013 O’Brien Award winner as Canada’s top driver, will be the guest on Woodbine Racing Live's pre-game show this Saturday, February 15, beginning at 6:45 p.m.

Filion, a resident of Milton, finished as the leading money-winning driver on the WEG circuit in 2013 with over C$5 million in purse earnings. The talented reinsman also led all drivers in the nation in purse earnings with $6.1 million.

Driver Jim Pantaleano, who has notched over 6,000 career victories, scored a driving triple on Thursday night at Miami Valley Raceway.  The native Ohioan has raced the best part of the last two decades at Yonkers and Freehold, but returned recently to take part in the exciting racing renaissance taking place in the Buckeye state. 

The 51-year-old reinsman’s  wins came behind the trotters Claim Jumper and Cashahallic and the pacer Big City. 

South Florida owner/breeder Carlo Vaccarezza got his first win as a trainer Feb. 9 when first-time starter Little Alexis won a $47,000 maiden special weight event at Gulfstream Park.

Vaccarezza is the breeder of Little Mike, Florida's 2012 horse of the year and winner of four grade I stakes including the Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park. The 7-year-old gelding runs in the name of Priscilla Vaccarezza, Carlo's wife, and is trained by Dale Romans.

The 3-year-old daughter of Mr. Greeley out of the Giant's Causeway  mare Dream Child is owned by Little Dreams Racing, a partnership stable formed by Vaccarezza, Romans, and John Williams in April 2013. The partners retain 20% collectively in each horse in the stable and allow partners to buy in for as little as 1% of a horse's purchase price.

Trainer Bill Mott’s decision to give Lea one more opportunity against top-caliber competition on dirt paid big dividends Sunday, when the latest rising star in the handicap division set a track record en route to a 1 1/2-length victory over Eclipse Award winner Will Take Charge in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 1 Donn Handicap.

Lea was transferred to Mott’s barn by his owners Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm late last fall, and his original inclination was to point the son of First Samurai to one of the early turf races on the 2014 Gulfstream stakes schedule. But after taking a closer look at Lea’s main-track form, Mott decided to give him one more shot on dirt early in the year to help formulate plans for the remainder of the season.

Kim Hammond became the first female trainer in North America to win 2,000 Thoroughbred races when Big Smooth took the fourth race at Turfway Park Saturday.

Hammond, 56, nearing her 35th year as a trainer, is the winningest female trainer in the sport, ahead of such notable trainers as Christine Janks, Kathleen O’Connell, Stephanie Beattie, and Linda Rice.

Morton Fink's two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan got back to work Feb. 24 at Keeneland, recording his first published breeze of 2014 under regular rider Damien Rock.

The six-time Eclipse Award winner skipped three furlongs over the Polytrack surface in :36 flat for trainer Charlie LoPresti, handling his return to the racetrack with typical ease.

Stonestreet's Teen Pauline seeks her first graded-stakes score and third straight stakes win March 1 at Aqueduct Racetrack, when she takes on a small but salty field of fillies and mares in the $200,000 Top Flight Handicap (gr. II).

The 4-year-old daughter of Tapit   will shoulder co-highweight of 123 pounds including jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. from post 2 in her third start of 2014. Her past two performances this season have been dominant—a wire-to-wire victory by 4 3/4 lengths going 1 1/16 miles in the Jan. 1 Affectionately Stakes, and a smashing gate-to-wire encore in the Jan. 25 Ladies Handicap by 10 3/4 lengths at 1 1/8 miles. She is 9-5 second choice on the morning line.

Multiple Group One-winning jockey Johnny Murtagh has announced he is to retire from race-riding to concentrate on his training career.

Crowned Irish champion jockey on five occasions, the 43-year-old is widely regarded as one of the greatest riders of the modern era and partnered countless big-race winners in all corners of the globe.

Murtagh told Press Association Sport: "The training side of things is getting bigger all the time and I wasn't happy giving the riding 50 per cent and the training 50 per cent.

Ryan Stahl isn’t racing quite so often this winter, but the Seneca County horseman is busier than ever and still setting career marks on the racetrack.

The 35-year-old trainer-driver from Republic, Ohio passed the $10 million mark in earnings on Feb. 13 while racing at Northfield Park. He has won more than 3,200 races in a career that began with a matinee victory at Mt. Gilead in 1992 when he was just 14 years old. He learned to train and drive horses while working with his father, veteran horseman Russell “Lee” Stahl, who died in 2008.

Six months ago, trainer Bret Calhoun thought he had a Breeders' Cup contender in his barn. A big gray filly, Fiftyshadesofgold turned heads whenever she stepped onto the racetrack. She was a rarity, speedy but willing to submit her talent to the cues of her rider. She won her first two outings by a total of 18 lengths, including the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs by eight. And in those performances, she was so dominant, so promising, that she even put some jauntiness in the step of her 88-year-old owner, Clarence Scharbauer Jr. of Alysheba fame.

But just as the sport can fill aspirations with lofty dreams, it also can shatter expectations with rare suddenness. And the expectations for Fiftyshadesofgold crumbled in an instant at Saratoga. Or rather they had to be dramatically revised.

In early January Monticello Raceway lost a few race cards due to inclement weather and non-racing dates were added to the winter schedule.

One non-race date that was added is Monday, February 17 and as usual it will be an afternoon card with a 12:25 pm post time. The featured race on that Presidents Day afternoon program will be the “Not-Quite” Presidential Pace, a race for drivers whose names are the same as any of the former United States Presidents.

The drivers already confirmed include brothers Cedric and Dennis “George” Washington, Howard “Zachary” Taylor, Don “Herbert” Hoover, Scott “Zachary” Taylor, Allan “Lyndon” Johnson and George “James K.” Polk, Jr.

Two-time champion Groupie Dollprovided a satisfying conclusion to her stellar career with an eye-catching last-to-first romp in the $200,000 Hurricane Bertie Stakes (gr. III) (VIDEO) Feb. 9 atGulfstream Park.

Slow to find stride from her rail post for her longtime rider jockey Rajiv Maragh, 2-5 favorite Groupie Doll trailed the seven-horse field up the backstretch. But Maragh never panicked, knowing he was on the best horse, and brought Groupie Doll five wide around her opponents to take control in upper stretch.

Standardbred Canada has announced the winners of the 2013 O’Brien Awards, which honour Canada’s best in harness racing over the past season. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the event, the annual Black Tie Gala was held in Charlottetown, PEI, at the Delta Prince Edward Hotel and PEI Convention Centre.

The awards are named in honour of the late Joe O’Brien, an outstanding horseman and member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. O’Brien was born in Alberton, PEI.

Bee A Magician who was perfect in her 2013 season, was the unanimous choice in the Three-Year -Old Trotting Filly division and was also voted Canada’s Horse of The Year.