Dark clouds are gathering over Tampa Bay Downs. A purses contract with horsemen remains in dispute with negotiations deadlocked, Thursday's purses have been cut around 40%, and a legal battle over simulcasting is brewing.
Multiple stakes winner Burbank, who earned $746,126 in five years of racing, has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Tom Barrett's Champion Horse Park near Oklahoma City, Okla.
Zaha, winner of the Coronation Futurity (Can-IR) in 1998, will join the stallion roster at Collin Stud near Newmarket, England, for 2001.
Magna Entertainment chairman and interim president Frank Stronach is taking racing by storm, and nowhere is his presence more visible than in California. His company owns Santa Anita Park and both of the major tracks in Northern California. He is proposing a new, state-of-the-art track on 225 acres in Dixon, Calif. to replace Bay Meadows. According to the Sacramento <i>Bee, </i> Stronach's California moves and attempt to influence the country's racing industry have drawn both praise and criticism.
Proximal suspensory desmitis is a common injury in equine athletes. It can affect both the front limbs and the hindlimbs, but it is most often seen in the front legs of Thoroughbred racehorses, according to Dr. Rick Arthur, a veterinarian who practices at Southern California tracks.
<i>By Dancy Fu</i> -- This sport, this cycle of dreams won or lost, offers an infinite hope and depth that is unattainable, unparalleled, and underestimated everywhere else.
The National Racing Compact, which has facilitated a national license for racing participants, is on schedule to issue licenses in January 2001, and it expects that 16 states will recognize the license by next summer. Louisiana racing commissioner Jon McKinnie, executive director of the National Racing Compact, said the process of educating horsemen and horse owners has begun. Currently, members of the compact are Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, and West Virginia.
<i>By Ray Paulick</i> -- Without Jay Hickey's tireless efforts to round up and coordinate support for horse racing, this industry might be as endangered as the sea lions off Alaska.
California-based trainer Ben Cecil has been fined HK$50,000 (about US$6,410) by Hong Kong Jockey Club stewards as a result of Falcon Flight testing positive for a prohibited substance prior to Sunday's Hong Kong International Cup. HKJC stewards will also reportedly review the circumstances surrounding the impressive victory by Sunline in the Hong Kong Mile. Greg Childs, who rode Sunline, said that he and another jockey discussed strategy prior to the race.
