Delta Downs

A casino is supposed to be on the way, but in the meantime these are tough times for racing in Chicago and its only remaining racetrack, Hawthorne. They still don't have any outside revenue from a casino, their purses are meager and their simulcast signal gets lost on days like Saturday, when they went up against the likes of Aqueduct, Gulfstream, Keeneland, Oaklawn and Santa Anita. The handle Saturday was $1,019,178. It should have been three times that. We've seen a lot of tracks experiment with lower takeouts. The latest...

Vicente Del Cid finished atop the rider standings, while Karl Broberg retained his grip on the leading trainer crown and End Zone Athletics, Inc. won another leading owner title as results from the 2023-2024 Thoroughbred season at Delta Downs mirrored last year's results at the Louisiana track. The Thoroughbred season concluded Saturday. Del Cid won his second consecutive title as leading rider with 116 wins from 438 mounts and $2,624,265 in mount earnings. The Guatemala native's first career win came at Delta Downs on Oct. 21, 2021, and he finished...

Trainer Sarah Delany was scheduled to be released from a Houston, Texas hospital Tuesday after undergoing spinal surgery due to an injury suffered at Delta Downs Wednesday morning. Delany, who trains alongside her husband Benny Martinez, was injured Wednesday morning at Delta Downs when she was kicked by a horse in the back of her neck, according to family friend and client Brian Poppenberg. The local Lake Charles hospital sent her via CareFlight to Houston, where she underwent emergency surgery. "This morning I spoke with her husband Benny, and she...

Sarah Delany, who trains along with her husband Benny Martinez, was injured Wednesday morning at Delta Downs when she was kicked by a horse in the back of her neck, according to family friend and client Brian Poppenberg. The local Lake Charles hospital sent her via CareFlight to Houston, where she underwent emergency surgery. "She was kicked in the back of the neck, and had spinal surgery as well as fusion," said Poppenberg, "and luckily enough she has feeling in all extremities but recovery will be lengthy. "Let me express...

Delta Downs Racetrack Casino & Hotel will lower the takeout rate on all Pick 4 and Pick 5 wagering pools from 25% to 12% beginning Wednesday, Dec. 13, according to a press release from the track. The new rate will be in effect through Feb. 24, when the season ends. The track offers an Early Pick 5 beginning with the first race each night and a Late Pick 5, which covers the final five races. The Early Pick 4 starts on the second race and the Late Pick 4 covers...

Henry B. Johnson saddled the 1,000th winner of his career when City Ghost won the seventh race at Delta Downs Friday. The 82-year-old has been training Thoroughbreds since 1983. "It's nice to get it out of the way, because it was a long time getting it done," said Johnson. Breeder and owner Russell Welch and his wife, Janis, were at Delta Downs for the win by their filly by Shaman Ghost. Welch has trusted Johnson with his Texas and Louisiana-breds for the past seven years. "He was sort of humbled...

Trainer Karl Broberg took his 11th consecutive Delta Downs leading trainer title; Broberg and Matt Johansen's End Zone Athletics, Inc. won their seventh straight leading owner title and 10th in the last 11 years; and Broberg's go-to local rider Tim Thornton sat atop the jockey standings for the fourth year in a row as the Vinton, LA bullring's 2021-2022 meet concluded Mar. 5. The Broberg barn saddled 105 winners and racked up $1,928,820 in earnings, coming close to matching its 107 wins and $2,017,120 during the 2018-2019 season. A total...

A new lighting system at Delta Downs that was only operational for three races on the first night of the season back in October and has been repeatedly tweaked since then might not end up being deemed safe or usable for racing by the time the current Thoroughbred meet ends Mar. 5. Ironically, after more than three months of debate over alleged shadows and perceived inconsistencies with how the patterns fall on the racing surface, the lighting installer and a consulting firm retained by Delta are now trying to rectify...

The character Leo Brock in the movie "Jockey" has been through a lot, the years of riding, reducing and accidents leaving him worn down. But Leo's spirit remains in tact and he pushes on, always hoping for a better tomorrow. Logan Cormier was a natural to play the role. He, too, is a survivor. The last thing on Cormier's mind when he showed up on opening day for the 2020 meet at Turf Paradise was that he would be cast in a movie. He was coming off a year in...

Strenuous safety-related objections from Delta Downs jockeys about the allegedly inconsistent lighting from a new system that has been installed and tweaked over the course of several months kept the Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) from approving a return to night racing when regulators met for an emergency session to address that one item Monday morning. Mindy Coleman, an attorney representing The Jockeys' Guild, told commissioners on the Dec. 13 Zoom call that while the Delta-based riders recognize and appreciate the efforts track management has made to try to improve...

A two-phase fix to the allegedly unsafe new lighting system at Delta Downs is underway that could allow the Louisiana track to switch back from afternoon programs to traditional weekend night cards by Nov. 12. The recently installed light-emitting diode (LED) system, which was necessitated by the old lights getting wrecked by a hurricane in August 2020, was only operational for three races on the first night program of the season Oct. 15 before a horse fell at the top of the stretch. Fueled by complaints from some jockeys and...

Delta Downs Racetrack Casino & Hotel will offer 26 stakes races during an 84-day season that runs from Oct. 13 through Mar. 5. The stakes schedule includes $2.275 million in total purse money. The richest race day of the season will happen on Saturday, Feb. 5 when Delta Downs hosts another edition of Louisiana Premier Night, which will offer a total of $895,000 in purse money for Louisiana-bred horses. The highlight of the evening will come in the $150,000 Louisiana Premier Night Championship for older horses. After Delta Downs' opening...