Garrett Gomez guided Vice Admiral to victory in Oak Tree’s $48,600 allowance feature at Santa Anita on Wednesday. Vice Admiral beat River Island by a nose, with Dawn’s Early Sky another nose back in the mile race for California-breds. The winner was finished in 1:35.58 and paid $7, $4 and $3. River Island returned $7.60 and $5, and Dawn’s Early Sky paid $6.40 to show.
The stud fees are in from Darley America: Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense will stand for $75,000, Hard Spun for $50,000. Street Sense closed out his career with a disappointing fourth-place finish in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup at Monmouth Park on Saturday, with Hard Spun finishing second behind Curlin.
William Condren, co-owner of Kentucky Derby winners Strike the Gold and Go for Gin, has died. He was 74. Condren died Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital, the hospital said. The cause of death was not released. Condren and Joseph Cornacchia won the 1991 Derby at Churchill Downs with Strike the Gold, and three years later Condren and co-owner B.
Half of a Churchill Downs barn that was put under quarantine last Friday had the restriction lifted Tuesday, allowing the horses to return to regular training. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture imposed the quarantine after a horse in Barn 47 was found to be infected with equine herpes virus. The 40-stall barn is divided by a firewall, the track said.
A $1 million endowed chair at Florida A&M law school could become central to the trial of three Kentucky lawyers on wire fraud charges that they bilked clients out of millions in a settlement over the diet drug fen-phen. Federal prosecutors said they may use evidence that attorney Shirley Cunningham Jr., a co-owner of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Curlin, used money taken from clients to endow the…
Curlin easily dismissed his toughest rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, beating Street Sense, Hard Spun and Lawyer Ron to virtually crown himself Horse of the Year. Of course, the Eclipse Award won’t be given out until January, but Curlin’s 4 1/2 -length victory left few doubters after he concluded his season in sensational fashion.
The Breeders’ Cup weekend ended in tragedy for the second consecutive year on Saturday when Irish raider George Washington was put down after breaking his leg.
Always A Virgin took advantage of starting on the rail and went wire to wire to win the $725,480 Messenger Stakes at Yonkers Raceway on Saturday night, its second win in the triple crown for pacers. Always A Virgin won the Cane Pace, the opening leg also run at Yonkers, and finished third to Tell All in the Little Brown Jug last month at Delaware, Ohio.
Barbaro’s owners endured more tragedy at the track when the colt they bred broke down Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup — the second year in a row thoroughbred racing’s big event was marred by a fatal accident. On a day when even casual fans tune in for the sport’s version of the Super Bowl, European star George Washington broke his leg in the stretch and was immediately euthanized.
