Churchill Downs lifts suspension of trainer Bob Baffert following Medina Spirit’s failed drug test

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Churchill Downs has rescinded its extended suspension of Bob Baffert, allowing the Hall of Fame trainer to resume racing his horses at the historic track and partner facilities after more than three years of banishment for a failed drug test of ultimately disqualified 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit. The stunning announcement came Friday after Baffert issued a statement in which he took responsibility for now-deceased colt Medina Spirit’s failed drug test after crossing the finish line in the 147th Kentucky Derby in May 2021. Kentucky racing stewards disqualified Medina Spirit the following winter, and Churchill […]

Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch returns for the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park

OCEANPORT, N.J. (AP) — Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch and runner-up Mindframe are set to renew their rivalry when they return to racing for the $1 million Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday. Mindframe, who finished a half-length behind Dornoch in the final leg of the Triple Crown on June 8, has been made the 9-5 favorite for the centerpiece of the Monmouth meet. Danny Gargan-trained Dornoch is the 5-2 second choice despite his exciting win at Saratoga Race Course. The Belmont was held at Saratoga because Belmont is undergoing renovations. FILE - Jockey Luis Saez congratulates Dornoch (6) after […]

No Show No Call dominates at Assiniboia Downs, eyes Manitoba Derby

A Manitoba-bred monster in the making made an appearance at Assiniboia Downs this week, and Godzilla and Super Girl weren’t far behind. Neither was their Amazon girlfriend.

The monster was No Show No Call, a pretty and fast chestnut gelding who romped in the 37th running of the $40,000 Frank Arnason Sire Stakes for Manitoba sired colts and geldings on Wednesday evening, winning the six-furlong race by 12 lengths under jockey Ronald Ali for trainer Mike Taphorn and ownership partners Staffmax Stable and Club 3 D Stable. The $17,000 Manitoba 2022 CTHS Yearling Sale purchase overwhelmed his field on the turn, opened up into the stretch, and galloped away from his competition.

Bred by Cam Ziprick and Charles Fouillard, the three-year-old gelding by Kentucky Bear-She’s Regal by Tiznow has some pedigree to back up his impressive run, but not to the degree he showed on Wednesday. He was the easiest winner we’ve seen this year and maybe in the past five years. He’s now earned more than $50,000 and could be headed for the $125,000 Manitoba Derby on Monday, Aug. 5th.

An exciting horse to watch, if No Show No Call decides to enter the Manitoba Derby he’ll likely meet Godzilla there in the form of McEwen, a three-year-old Florida-bred gelding that defeated a field of older allowance foes in the sixth race on Monday. Trained by Shelley Brown for All For One Stable, Bette Holtman, Olsen S. Belle, and Tom Payne, the $7,000 buy drew off to win the 7 ½-furlong race by 5 ¾-lengths under jockey Antonio Whitehall, and he might have scored the perfect prep for the Manitoba Derby.

Badaloo rides 54-1 longshot to first victory at Assiniboia Down

An explosion of thunder, lightning and rain forced the cancellation of the last two races on Monday’s card at Assiniboia Downs but the Canada Day fireworks still lit up the sky that evening, and an explosion of a different kind blew up the tote board in the final race on Wednesday.

It was wheelbarrow time for the winners when Captive Kitten won the seventh race Wednesday at odds of 54-1 for trainer Victoria Morse and Hearthstone Stable, paying a whopping $110.70 to win for a $2 ticket. The longest-priced winner of the race meeting to date also triggered some huge exotic prices. The $1 Pick 4 paid $6,237.70, a $1 Daily Double paid $245.65, the $1 Exactor paid $378.20, the 20-cent Triactor paid $257.83, and a 20-cent Superfecta paid $895.17.

The longshot winner was the first at Assiniboia Downs for 45-year-old Jamaican jockey Douglas Badaloo, and his second career win in North America. Badaloo is now one-for-five and winning at a 20-per cent clip this year. Badaloo’s career stats since arriving in Canada three years ago are only 2-4-9 from 58 starts and purse earnings of $22,156, but his ride on Captive Kitten was a masterpiece.

Trailing the field to the stretch, the Official Equibase charts say Captive Kitten was nine lengths behind the leaders with an eighth of a mile to go, but it looked like he was a sixteenth of a mile behind in the late turn. Then the afterburners kicked in.

Trainer puts up incredible numbers

Mr. Stang pulled out his stinger in the final strides to win the 64th running of the $50,000 Free Press Stakes on Wednesday by a head, and his trainer was a long, long way from home. Carlos Moreno, who grew up in Tijuana Mexico and now calls Seattle home, saddled the 6-year-old gelding to win the Free Press Stakes for his wife Maria. As he walked to the winner’s circle with his arm around his partner of 36 years, their smiles couldn’t have been more genuine. Moreno has put up incredible numbers since arriving from Turf Paradise with his small […]

Downs trainer suspended indefinitely

Five-time season-winning Assiniboia Downs trainer Jerry Gourneau has been suspended indefinitely after three horses in his care tested positive for an anti-inflammatory that exceeded the allowable threshold. The three positive tests were for the legal corticosteroid dexamethasone, which is a commonly used medication in horse racing, but the levels found in the horses’ systems after recent races were outside the acceptable range. Gourneau declined to comment, preferring to wait until he has his official hearing. The dominoes began to fall for Gourneau when Golden Diversion tested positive following the 3-year-old gelding’s third-place finish in a race on June 12. That […]

Supreme Court rejects challenge to new horse racing anti-doping rules

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge from Republican-controlled states to a horse racing safety law that has led to national medication and anti-doping rules.

The justices left in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the law and rejected claims that Congress gave too much power to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the private entity that administers the rules.

Charles Scheeler, chairman of HISA's board of directors, cited a 38% decline in equine fatalities for the first three months of this year in applauding the court's decision.

“HISA’s uniform standards are having a material, positive impact on the health and well-being of horses,” he said in a statement.

Five-win week boosts apprentice jockey into third in standings at Assiniboia Downs

Hot apprentice jockey Rachaad Knights led all riders at the Downs last week with five wins from only nine mounts and vaulted himself into a tie for third in the standings. Not bad for a guy who only won 26 races in eight years in Barbados and learned how to ride on a donkey. He certainly wasn’t riding any donkeys this week, even though one of his winners was 15-1. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and in jockeyland that’s a big deal. The hotter you are, the more live mounts you get, and Knights is getting some good ones. With […]

Assiniboia Downs under precautionary quarantine due to EIA virus

Assiniboia Downs has placed all horses under a 45-day precautionary quarantine after a rare virus was recently detected at the racetrack.

Argentina offers insight into Team Canada

As anticipation has built for the 48th Copa América, which begins next week in the United States, some worthwhile analysis of the Canadian men’s soccer team has turned up in the Argentine press.

This is hardly surprising, as on any given day one can find in the sports sections and pages of tabloid daily Olé such minutiae as as Arturo Vidal’s Twitch account, Robinho’s lukewarm enjoyment of the post-secondary course he’s taking while in prison, and the rising cost of stickers for the Copa’s Panini album.

The appetite for futbol content in the land of the World Cup winners is insatiable, and with Argentina set to face Canada in the 2024 Copa América opener on Thursday (7:00 p.m., TSN), La Nacion’s website has posted a highlight reel of Canuck ‘keeper Maxime Crépeau’s saves in a recent friendly against the French.

Crépeau, whose performance likely displaced Dayne St. Clair as the starter to stare down Lionel Messi & Co. in Atlanta, is now “the Canadian figure who withstood the attacks of Mbappé and all of France.”

Danelson back in the winner’s circle

Trainer Jerry Gourneau opened a big lead in the standings this week, apprentice jockey Rachaad Knights got hot, and the leading trainer of all time at Assiniboia Downs, 86-year-old Gary Danelson, finally got his first winner of the meeting with Kate’s Princess.

Kate got the break from the gate she needed in the second race on Wednesday, thanks to new jockey Damario Bynoe, and smoked her opposition by seven lengths. Favoured in both her previous starts at the Downs this year, she’d had poor starts and her races were over before they started.

“It felt pretty good,” said Danelson. “Having five starts and going 0-0-0 was no fun at all.” Last year’s leading percentage trainer, Danelson won at a 35 per cent clip in 2023, compiling a record of 9-7-1 from 26 starts. Zeros are unfamiliar territory for the master horseman from Scobey, Mont.

Danelson has been racing at Assiniboia Downs since 1959, winning his first race here on Aug. 29 that year with Coherence, a $400 purchase that went on to win 24 races for the then 22-year-old trainer. Since then, Danelson has built an impressive resume that includes three trainer titles at the Downs, and more wins than any other trainer in the track’s history with 1251.

Explosive lives up to his name

“You take care of your horses and they’ll take care of you.”

The foreman for Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens said that to me in 1978 while working at Belmont Park in New York, and it certainly rang true Wednesday night when Explosive went off at 30-1 and ran to his name.

The seven-year-old grey gelding won the $25,200 Rangatira Overnight Stakes Wednesday for trainer Lise Pruitt and owner Arnason Farms and became the longest-priced winner of the meet so far, paying $62.20, $21.10, $9.20 across the board

Owner Barry Arnason usually bets $30 across the board (win-place-show) on his horses when they run, or $20 across if he’s not quite sure about their chances. Explosive wasn’t given much of a shot in the race so he would have likely attracted Arnason’s $20 across for a total outlay of $60. That play would have returned $622.00 to win, $210.10 to place, and $92.00 to show for a total of $924.20. There was only one problem.

Badrie races to top of rider standings at Assiniboia Downs

Prayven Badrie is back on top of the jockey standings at Assiniboia Downs, and your cheering might just keep him there.

Badrie won the leading rider title at the Downs in 2018, but was tied for top spot with three-time leading rider Antonio Whitehall. It’s been a long journey back, with a few major injuries along the way, but he’s alone on the lead right now after scoring a natural hat trick on Tuesday night.

The 34-year-old from Trinidad won the second race with Diane’s Wish ($7.70) for trainer Mike Nault, the third with Exacting ($2.50) for Steve Keplin, Jr. and the fourth race with JJ’s American Dream ($12.80) for trainer Jerry Gourneau, to improve his record to 6-3-2 from 18 starts, which is two more wins than fellow Trinidadian jockey Ronald Ali, who also won three races on Monday and Tuesday.

Ali has improved substantially since arriving from Trinidad in 2022. He won 12 races in his first year here and finished twelfth in the standings. Last year he vaulted to sixth in the standings with 27 wins, just one behind Badrie, and that’s where he is again in 2024, with a record of 5-0-3 from 15 starts. Interestingly, it was Badrie who recommended that Ali come to Assiniboia Downs.

Historic Saratoga takes its place at center of horse racing world when Belmont Stakes comes to town

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — Health, history and horses are the three H’s carved into the welcome sign when travelers venturing into New York's Adirondack Mountains reach Saratoga Springs.

Horses have always been the main event here, where the oldest active sporting venue in the country, the Saratoga Race Course, stands at the heart of the town of 30,000.

Saratoga has seen upsets since opening before the end of the Civil War, including Upset defeating decorated Man o’ War and Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh slipping up against Keen Ice in the Travers.

For the first time, the Saratoga Race Course will have the best 3-year-olds in the world duke it out in a Triple Crown race when the venerable track hosts the Belmont Stakes on June 8.