Hastings’ Weekly Round-Up
It’s the final weekend of Del Mar’s “Bing Crosby” Fall meet, as we also announce dates for the 2024 season at Hastings
More “Friday Night Lights” in 2024
Hastings’ “Friday Night Lights” program proved one of the high points of the 2023 season and, with 15 Friday evening cards scheduled, there will be more opportunities for revellers to kick-off the weekend in style in 2024.
Grade I Hollywood Derby Highlights Tripleheader
For its penultimate day of sport for the 2023 season, Del Mar will offer a stakes tripleheader topped by the 83rd edition of the Grade I Hollywood Derby. The nine-furlong grass special that starts at the top of the track’s unique infield chute carries a purse of $300,000 and has drawn a field of nine sophomores headed by several eastern invaders.
The Derby will be Race 7 on the Saturday nine-race card that has a 12:30 first post. The main event has a post time of approximately 3:30 p.m.
Also on the day’s agenda is the 33rd running of the $100,000, Grade III Jimmy Durante Stakes, which has lured a field of 11 2-year-old fillies for its mile on the turf. It goes as Race 5.
Lawson’s Legacy
By: Jennifer Morrison | December 1, 2023
Jim Lawson entered the board room at Woodbine racetrack for one of his first directors’ meetings as Chief Executive Officer of Woodbine Entertainment with a plan in hand. It was 2015 and horse racing in Ontario had been crushed just two years earlier when the provincial government shut down the slots-at-racetracks partnership program.
Lawson, who had joined the Woodbine board seven years earlier when called upon to assist with a stalled real estate deal, presented two ideas: Standardbred racing would move to Mohawk year-round (rather than splitting dates with Woodbine) and the inner harness track at Woodbine would be made into a second turf course.
“There was dead silence; no one said a word for about a minute,” remembered Lawson. “I said, ‘Well I guess that didn’t go over very well.’”
Justify Loses Legal Battle
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Keeneland Pledges $100K to Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation
Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation today announced that Keeneland Association has pledged $100,000 over the next four years as part of its continued commitment to support Grayson’s vital equine safety and welfare research.
“The best interest of the horse is the beginning and end of all we do at Keeneland,” said Shannon Arvin, president and CEO of Keeneland. “In furtherance of our mission, Keeneland has long championed the important work of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, which is a leader in equine safety, integrity, and research. Especially exciting is Grayson’s study of advancing technology and veterinary science and their roles in keeping our equine athletes safe.”
One project the funds will support is focused on comparing positron emission tomography (PET) to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for assessment of fetlock injuries in sport horses. The project is a one-year grant to Dr. Mathieu Spriet, University of California - Davis.
The use of PET scans and MRIs has been a focus in the Thoroughbred industry for several years. In 2015, Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation funded the first research project that performed PET scans on equine athletes, followed by additional research funding in 2019. This cutting-edge research assists veterinarians in identifying difficult to locate lameness. At least 10 of these PET scans will be installed throughout North America by the end of 2023.
“Although the PET project is geared toward sport horses, we think it resonates with a tangible topic being discussed in the Thoroughbred industry today,” said Dr. Stuart Brown, Keeneland’s vice president of equine safety. “Investment in furthering our understanding of the benefits of this new imaging modality and its application in the diagnosis and prevention of bone injury in our equine athletes remains an intense area of interest for interventional opportunities on behalf of the horse.”
“I can’t thank Keeneland enough for its support of Grayson’s invaluable research that helps so many of our horses,” said Dell Hancock, chair, Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. “I challenge other racing associations to show their commitment to the safety of our equine athletes by incorporating funds for Grayson into future business expenses.”
Keeneland is a long-standing partner in support and funding of Grayson’s research initiatives and has hosted its Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, which brings together breeding, racing, and veterinary communities to improve safety and soundness of racehorses.
More information on the PET project and other current research being funded by Grayson can be found here: bit.ly/graysoncurrent.
Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is traditionally the nation’s leading source of private funding for equine medical research. The projects it supports enhance the health and safety of horses of all breeds. Since 1940, the foundation has provided more than $40 million to fund more than 426 projects at 45 universities in North America and overseas. Additional information about the foundation is available at grayson.jockeyclub.org.
Daughter Of Oaks Winner Talent is Top Priced European Foal in 2023
The daughter of the Oaks winner TALENT became the highest priced foal sold in Europe and North America this year when knocked down to Jill Lamb for 575,000 guineas at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale on a day that also registered nine of the top ten foal prices in Britain or Ireland in 2023.
Newsells Park Stud Land Regally Bred Daughter of Oaks Winner Talent
The daughter of first season sire ST MARK'S BASILICA out of the Oaks winner TALENT looked one of the highlights of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale on paper and did not disappoint when selling for 575,000 guineas to Jill Lamb Bloodstock on behalf of Graham Smith-Bernal’s Newsells Park Stud. The half-sister to AMBITION, winner of the Group 2 Prix Corrida and second in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet, is the seventh foal out of the NEW APPROACH mare and was consigned by Ashbrittle Stud. Lamb secured the filly after seeing off the efforts of underbidder MV Magnier and Shadwell Estates’ Angus Gold.
"She is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her," said Lamb. "She is very athletic and has a wonderful page. She has been bought to race and to come back to Newsells Park Stud. She has two half-sisters by Dubawi and she ticked all the boxes for us. We are delighted to get her. I watched everyone going in for her and thought 'Oh my gosh!'"
Of the young sire, Lamb added: "St Mark's Basilica is the unknown quantity, but she is the nicest I have seen by him."
Ashbrittle’s stud manager Georgina Whales admitted she had a mixture of emotion seeing the filly sell, but reported that there is still plenty of the top class family at home with exciting mating plans:
"We have Ambition back on the farm, she had a Frankel foal this year and is in foal to Palace Pier, and Talent is in foal to New Bay. This filly speaks for herself, and she has been so well behaved here. She has been really busy and had ten vets, and it was just this morning that she got tired but she still marched around the sales ring. Jill came to see her several times."
The filly is from the first crop of ST MARK’S BASILICA, the five-time Group 1 winning son of SIYOUNI who won the Dewhurst Stakes as a two-year-old before an unbeaten three-year-old campaign that took in the French 2000 Guineas & Derby, the Eclipse Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes.