A $14-million racetrack/amphitheater has been announced for Amarillo, Texas. Construction on the facility, along Interstate 40 near the famous Cadillac Ranch art display, is expected to begin this summer. It will provide more than 400 jobs upon completion. The 275-acre track-amphitheater complex is being built by Yellow Rose Entertainment Inc., along with strategic managing partner Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie.
The pace for the 126th Preakness Stakes just got a bit faster with the announcement that Gotham and Withers winner Richly Blended definitely will run. The son of Rizzi has won four of his five career starts, all on the front end. His only defeat came in the Wood Memorial, when he finished third to Congaree and Monarchos. Jockey Rick Wilson said the colt's saddled slipped in the race.
As of noon today (May 9), the University of Kentucky's Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center stated that a total of 371 aborted/stillborn fetuses had been submitted for diagnostic testing/evaluation since April 28, 2001. The total includes 25 submitted by noon on May 9, and 28 submitted May 8.
After spending the past weekend in Kentucky, Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. will travel to Singapore this weekend to pilot Lazy Lode in the Singapore Cup.
David and Jill Heerensperger's Millennium Wind, 11th in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I), may make his next start in the $500,000 Swaps Stakes (gr. I), according to trainer David Hofmans.
On Tuesday, May 8, notices were sent to each state veterinarian "to make sure they got factual information" about the current foal loss problems, said Rusty Ford, Equine Programs Manager with the Kentucky State Veterinarian's Office.
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has hired Tony Matos as his new agent, his fourth in eight months since he returned riding full time last October.
The Keeneland Association announced Wednesday that Thursday's inforamtional meeting concerning later term abortions and early fetal deaths will be offered on its Website. The meeting, organized by the Kentucky Farm Managers' Club and the Kentucky Association of Equine Practitioners, begins at 5 p.m. (ET) in Keeneland's sales pavilion.
Raymond Dweck's Richly Blended, who won the mile Withers Stakes (gr. III) by 4 1/4 lengths at Aqueduct on May 5, is being pointed toward the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), according to trainer Ben Perkins Jr.
John C. Oxley's Monarchos, winner of the 127th running of the Kentucky Derby, left Churchill Downs late Wednesday morning on a journey that will take him to Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course and the Preakness, the second jewel in the Visa Triple Crown.
A new umbrella organization for ex-racehorse adoption and retirement services has sanctioned its first five groups.
Keeneland has taken legal action against Bernice Givens Sykes, who never paid for the 59 horses that she purchased for $267,700 at last November's breeding stock sale. A lawsuit was filed in early April in the Fayette Circuit Court in Lexington, claiming that Sykes still owes Keeneland $232,740.81. Keeneland recovered some of the amount owed by repossessing the horses and selling nearly all of them privately.
A veterinarian in Morgan County, Ohio, suspects that five cases of red bag delivery within the past week--plus 10 pregnant mares that are now empty--could be the same syndrome that horse owners and veterinarians in Kentucky are dealing with, according to Grant Frazer, BVSc, MS, Associate Professor at The Ohio State University.
Veterinary and diagnostic professionals in Kentucky are working feverishly to identify the cause of the recent abortion and early fetal loss syndromes. One of the most probable causes is mycotoxins in pastures. If that is the case, then a mycotoxin binder used for other animals--and now being produced locally as a feed additive for horses--could offer the first preventative treatment for the current situation.
In its early stages, the foal loss syndrome appeared to be contained to Kentucky.
The effects of the current crisis resulting from mares aborting or having late-term stillborn foals are being felt on the equine insurance business. According to insurance professionals, underwriters are not accepting any policies written for barrenness or prospective foal insurance in Central Kentucky.
David Parrish III, DVM, was president of the Kentucky Association of Equine Practitioners in 1980 when a mystery problem occurred that caused abortions in mares during early pregnancy. While both involved abortions and were mysteries, the differences in the severity of the two problems are as wide as the decades that separate them.
The highest number of foals/fetal samples taken to the Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center in Lexington, Ky., during the current problem with late-term abortions and early embryonic loss occurred on Derby Day, May 5, according to the Center's Director, Lenn Harrison, VMD, Dipl. ACVP. On that day, 73 foals/fetuses were brought in for examination. Word from at least two veterinarians is that while early pregnancy mares might still be at risk for losing their pregnancies, the loss of these late-term foals is slowing.
The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine offers the following recommendations for mares currently in Kentucky and due to be shipped back to Florida in the near future...
In the wake of the outbreak of late-term fetal/foal deaths and near-term abortions in mares in Central Kentucky, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has issued guidelines for the equine industry on horses from Kentucky entering Florida. The guidelines require a permit to be obtained prior to shipment by veterinarians who issue Official Certificates of Veterinary Inspection. It also recommends to Florida farms that mares from Kentucky be kept isolated from other horses and their health be closely monitored. There has been no ban issued on shipment of horses from Kentucky to Florida.
Almutawakel, winner of the 1999 Dubai World Cup (UAE-I), will shuttle from Sheikh Hamdan's Derrinstown Stud in Ireland to New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere breeding season.
