Horse racing – Key Kentucky Derby prep race off at Santa Anita

0
667

Reuters) – A huge weekend of racing together with a take a look at for Kentucky Derby hopefuls will not take region at famed Santa Anita on Saturday as officials seek to discover what led to the deaths of 21 horses on the Southern California tune in the last months.

The San Felipe Stakes for 3-12 months-antique Kentucky Derby contenders and the Santa Anita Handicap for older horses have been suspended after Santa Anita was known as off horse racing indefinitely on Tuesday.

Horse Racing

Unbeaten -12 months-antique champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner changed into anticipated to make his 2019 debut in the San Felipe Stakes alongside stablemate Improbable.

Since past due December, 21 horses had been euthanized after struggling catastrophic injuries at Santa Anita’s foremost dirt song at the same time as both racing or training.

First opened to racing in 1934, the tune has played a crucial position in U.S. Thoroughbred horse racing, frequently website hosting first races, which include the Breeders’ Cup.

Meanwhile, Santa Anita’s six-furlongs (three-quarters of a mile) internal exercise song reopened on Friday after being inspected using veteran trackman Dennis Moore and Mick Peterson from the University of Kentucky’s Racing Surfaces Testing Lab. No deaths have passed off at the workout tune, and Moore stated he became “glad about it,” the racetrack said.

Only galloping or walking may be authorized.

“Like all athletes, horses want to stay lively, so this is a great decision for his or her typical health because it permits our horses to get out in their stalls and keeps them moving to resource their digestion,” Hall of Fame teacher Bob Baffert said in a statement.

More intense, however nonetheless, confined workout routines may also start at the schooling track on Monday, with strolling and galloping probable additionally being authorized on the original music beginning on Monday, Tim Ritvo, a chief working officer of music proprietor The Stronach Group, instructed Daily Racing Form on Friday.

He said regular exercises might be elevated to the main song by next weekend. Depending on the final results of the inspection and weather, racing could doubtlessly resume on the tune on March 21, he said.

(Reporting via Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Additional reporting via Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by way of Ken Ferris)