Skip to:

Feed aggregator

T.I.P. Championships at Stable View Return Oct. 24

Blood-Horse - Thu, 2024-10-24 19:35
The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.) Championships return Oct. 24, after being postponed because of Hurricane Helene.

Using History to Handicap Breeders' Cup Distaff

Blood-Horse - Thu, 2024-10-24 19:35
Handicapping the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) isn't an easy task. The 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares annually draws a deep field, packed with proven grade 1 winners.

Into Mischief Leads Sires in Breeders' Cup Pre-Entries

Blood-Horse - Thu, 2024-10-24 19:35
With eight horses pre-entered in the 2024 Breeders' Cup, five-time leading sire Into Mischief, who currently sits atop the current general sires list, will be well positioned to add to his earnings total at the World Championships.

Stay Hot Could Fire in Twilight Derby

Blood-Horse - Thu, 2024-10-24 19:35
Trained by Peter Eurton, Stay Hot has won four stakes on turf, the best record of the seven entered in the Twilight Derby (G2T).

Curlin Filly Tops Day 3 at Fasig-Tipton October at 500k

Blood-Horse - Thu, 2024-10-24 19:35
Gross sales totaled $14,139,500, with an average of $49,095. The median was $20,000, with an 15.8% RNA rate.

Gerry Dilger Equine Foundation Awards Pair Of Scholarships

Thoroughbred Daily News - Thu, 2024-10-24 18:34

The Gerry Dilger Equine Scholarship Foundation awarded two recipients the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Experience Scholarship, the program announced Thursday.

The award, open to graduates of Irish equine programs, grants one year placements at leading Kentucky farms to provide the next generation of young people with an opportunity to further develop their horse skills.

For 2025, the board selected Ciaran Phelan who will work with Springhouse Farm in Lexington and Lola Queck who will work with Hunter Valley Farm in Versailles.

Ciaran worked at Coolmore Stud and Lodge Park Stud, graduated from the Irish National Stud and was previously awarded the Jonathan Fitzpatrick Business Internship in the nominations office at the stud where he benefitted greatly from exposure to the business side of a commercial stallion farm.

“Ultimately my goal is to breed horses capable of competing at the highest echelons of racing,” said Phelan.

Lola is also a graduate of the Irish National Stud program and gained experience having left her native Germany to travel to Australia and work for trainer Brett Cavanaugh and Vinery Stud. She has also worked on the advertising and social media side of the business and recognizes their importance to sustain the bloodstock and breeding industry. Lola would like to start some pinhooking in the future and has enjoyed yearling prep, an area which she would like to further develop into a career.

“It is essential to truly love what you are doing and always treat [the horses] with good intentions,” said Queck. “There is always more to learn and it is very important to experience as many different cultures and ways of doing things–especially in this industry”

The post Gerry Dilger Equine Foundation Awards Pair Of Scholarships appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Doug Cowans Confirms Next For Breeders’ Cup Classic

Thoroughbred Daily News - Thu, 2024-10-24 17:40

Long-distance specialist Next (Not This Time) has been confirmed for next week's GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic by his trainer Doug Cowans in a story first reported by the Daily Racing Form's David Grening. The 6-year-old gelding was listed on the pre-entry list for the Classic with second preference given to the GI Breeders' Cup Turf.

“I had to choose one or the other, the Turf or the Classic,” Cowans told the TDN. “The jock and I have sat down and talked after the breezes he's had since winning the Greenwood Cup and we feel like the dirt will give us more answers at this moment in time. If we would have gone turf, we might have walked away not knowing much. This will tell us to stay in our own lane or we can learn that he can run in some mile-and-a-quarter dirt races next year.”

Next worked five furlongs Thursday over the Tapeta at Turfway Park, going in 1:01 flat (2/6) with jockey Luan Machado aboard. He rides a seven-race win streak of distances from 1 3/8 to 1 3/4 miles dating back to June 2023 into the Classic which is contested at 1 1/4 miles.

Cowans continued: “I think the pace will be a much faster tempo than the races he has been in but my game plan is to play the same game I do when he runs at a mile and a half. That is not worry about where he is positioned. More so, I'll worry about getting him in his rhythm, and once gets into his rhythm, let him do his thing. We'll hope for the best and hope this plays into his hands. I am sure excited about it. I took the process whereby we let the horse tell us what to do. We've looked for every answer not to go. He's given us no signals that not going is the thing to do. He's on top of his game right now.”

The post Doug Cowans Confirms Next For Breeders’ Cup Classic appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Colonial Aims For 50 Dates In ’26, ‘Would Love More’ If Virginia Raises Gaming Cap

Thoroughbred Daily News - Thu, 2024-10-24 14:52

In an era when most racetracks in the mid-Atlantic region are paring race dates from their yearly schedules to reflect the declining number of available horses to fill races, Colonial Downs is an outlier.

Under the ownership of the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the Virginia track announced in August that it plans to increase its race dates to 44 in 2025 after racing 27 programs this year.

On Thursday, by Bill Carstanjen, CDI's chief executive officer, said during a quarterly earnings conference call that he expects the number of race dates at turf-centric Colonial to rise to 50 in 2026.

The reasoning behind the drastic increase in race dates on a circuit that has long struggled with scheduling conflicts has more to do with CDI maximizing its gaming-revenue opportunities than a purely bullish outlook on hosting live racing.

By Virginia law, CDI, which acquired Colonial in 2022, is required to run one race date for every 100 historical horse racing machines (HRMs) that it operates in the state, up to a statutory cap of 5,000 HRMs.

During the Oct. 24 call with investors, Carstanjen said during prepared opening remarks that CDI plans to hit that max cap number by the end of next year, thus the anticipated increase to 50 race dates by 2026.

“By the end of 2025, after we have completed this expansion, we will have 5,000 HRMs deployed, the maximum permitted under the law of Virginia, up from approximately 4,450 machines that we have deployed today,” Carstanjen said.

But it was only at the very end of Thursday's earnings call, when prompted by a question from an investment analyst, that Carstanjen hinted CDI might have an appetite for adding even more race dates-tied to even more HRMs-if the state's legislators saw fit to rewrite the law that caps the gaming machines.

“We do think it's a model that works, and if the state has interest and willingness, we hope to talk to them about more,” Carstanjen said.

“We think from a racing perspective we'd love to see more days run in Virginia over time, and consequently we'd like to see more HRMs deployed over time in order to support that,” Carstanjen said.

“We serve at the discretion of the state,” Carstanjen continued. “Our franchise is a discretionary right given to us by the state and we hope to talk to them about it.

“But right now our focus is on delivering on the promises we've made them so far, and delivering for the people of Virginia and for the state,” Carstanjen said.

“And hopefully, if we prove the value of that model, they'll be willing listeners to talking about improving and doing more in the state. But it's hard to talk about things we don't control, and I don't want to make promises we can't keep,” Carstanjen said.

Colonial's potential increase to 50 dates by 2026 shouldn't come as a sudden surprise.

Carstanjen had disclosed that move in July 2022, also during a quarterly earnings call, when he first outlined publicly that it would be CDI's intent to nearly double its racing dates in Virginia by 2026.

The post Colonial Aims For 50 Dates In ’26, ‘Would Love More’ If Virginia Raises Gaming Cap appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Pages

Subscribe to Thoroughbred OwnerView – Thoroughbred Owners, Thoroughbred Trainers, Thoroughbred Partnerships, Thoroughbred Retirement aggregator