The 2004 Maryland Million will be moved to Pimlico Race Course because of construction delays at its sister track, Laurel Park, the owner of the two tracks announced Friday.
Pimlico was scheduled to close Oct. 3, with racing moving to Laurel, but Pimlico's meet will be extended to Oct. 11, Maryland Jockey Club officials said. The Maryland Million card, made up of 12 races for Maryland-breds, is scheduled for Oct. 9.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Steven Duncker, the co-chief operating officer of the New York Racing Association, was continuing his search for a new chief executive last month, he wanted advice from someone familiar with leadership qualities.
So Duncker called Tim Smith, the commissioner and chief executive officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
Duncker wanted to know what kind of person would be right for NYRA, which has been embroiled in political, financial, and criminal controversies for the past year. Smith replied, "That sounds like an interesting job."
Valors Gold, the Texas Challenge Championship winner, looks for his third straight victory when he heads the $40,000 TQHA Classic Stakes, the main event of three stakes for Texas-breds during the Texas Showdown at Sam Houston Race Park on Friday night.
Valors Gold won the Grade 1 Texas Challenge in his most recent start when he defeated multiple stakes winner Gone Celebrating by one length. He won his trial to the Texas Classic by 1 1/4 lengths over multiple derby winner Frostys Money Man.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Tim Smith, the commissioner and chief executive officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, announced his resignation Tuesday in order to pursue the top job at the embattled New York Racing Association.
Smith, 56, made the announcement at an NTRA board meeting. His resignation, which had been widely speculated upon, is effective Sept. 1.
Smarty Jones is likely to run again, but trainer John Servis on Tuesday conceded there's a possibility the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes may not.
Smarty Jones on Monday was declared out of the Sept. 6 Pennsylvania Derby because of a bruise to his left front hoof. Servis, in a national teleconference on Tuesday, detailed the extent of the injury, and said Smarty Jones was still being pointed for the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 30 at Lone Star Park, but said the calendar and the hovering presence of stud duty were factors to be weighed.
A Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association board member, Dell Hancock, updated the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority on Monday about the planned "supertesting" protocol for American graded stakes. The protocol, which would create standardized increased drug testing on graded stakes, had been set to begin July 1 but was delayed because not all jurisdictions were ready to implement the testing regimen. Hancock said the American Graded Stakes Committee would meet in mid-August to set a new start date. The state racing authority voted to consider the protocol at its Aug. 16 meeting.
Bowman's Band, a multiple stakes winner with earnings of more than $1.1 million, will be retired at the end of the 2004 racing season and stand at the Maryland Stallion Station's new facility, scheduled to open in December. The stud fee has yet to be determined. . . . Seven-year-old Exciting Story, Canada's champion 2-year-old in 1999 and most recently a stallion at Lane's End Texas, was euthanized earlier this month as the result of a "degenerating joint condition," the farm announced Monday. . . .
DEL MAR, Calif. - A dispute over whether Santa Anita will conclude its upcoming winter-spring meeting on April 17 or 24, 2005, was not resolved at Friday's dates committee meeting of the California Horse Racing Board but is expected to be addressed by the full board next month.
The dates committee will report its recommendations in August to the full board, which will finalize the racing dates for 2005.