Monmouth Park

That the figures recently released by the Jockey Club from its Equine Injury Database showed another significant drop in the number of fatalities was good news, but hardly surprising news. The numbers seem to get better every year. But dig deeper into the data presented by the Jockey Club and there is a number that is quite surprising and encouraging. In 2024, dirt tracks were almost as safe as synthetic tracks. There were 1.18 fatalities per 1,000 starts on the dirt, which came very close to the number in the...

7th-Colonial Downs, $100,000, (R), Hcp, 3-14, 4yo/up, 7f, 1:20.03, ft, 2 1/2 lengths. BOOK'EM DANNO (g, 4, Bucchero--Adorabella, by Ghostzapper) was clearly the showstopper here as the field scratched down to just three from 11 horses, and he made his 2025 bow a winning one. Last seen running fifth in a salty GII Cigar Mile Handicap Dec. 7, he'd been winless since claiming the Listed Jersey Shore Stakes by a nose in mid-July at Monmouth Park. He'd hit the board in the GIII Perryville and GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial...

Fifty days since his last mount, when he was suspended by HISA for striking a horse in a malicious manner following a race at Parx, Paco Lopez will return Saturday at Laurel, where he will have three rides. They include the mount on Hawkstone (Catalina Cruiser) in the Spectacular Bid Stakes. "I'm feeling good and I've been working very hard to be ready for my comeback," he said. Lopez was aboard National Law (Constitution) in a maiden special weight race at Parx for trainer Jorge Duarte Jr. The horse bore...

Led by the Grade I, $1 million NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes, Monmouth Park is set to offer $7.8 million in stakes races when its 80th season kicks off on Saturday, May 10, the track said in a release on Friday morning. The 2025 race meet, which runs through Sept. 14, will feature 51 total stakes, including nine graded events, and 11 stakes restricted to New Jersey-bred horses. In addition to the Haskell, the track's premier card will host the $600,000 GII United Nations Stakes; $500,000 GIII Molly Pitcher Stakes; $400,000...

It's been nearly a year-and-a-half since Chantal Sutherland last rode. Her career was sidelined May 6, 2023 after a freak accident at Gulfstream when she pulled her mount up when the horse was frightened by geese crossing the track. Sutherland was thrown from the saddle and suffered a very serious injury. She snapped the humerus bone right off the shoulder and with her arm hanging grotesquely it was no longer attached to any part of her body. At time, the 48-year old rider grew so despondent that she feared that...

Owner Mike Repole believes he might have the best 4-year-old in the country in his barn at the start of the new year, and that horse isn't necessarily Fierceness (City of Light). Mindframe (Constitution) has been out of sight, out of mind since finishing second in the July 20 GI Haskell S. at Monmouth. In his prior start, he was second in the GI Belmont S. While he didn't win either race, he overcame the fact that he had only two lifetime starts before the Belmont and was an inexperienced,...

Bill Knauf, a long-time executive at Monmouth Park, has been named the president and general manager of the non-profit entity the Maryland Jockey Club Inc. that is set to take control of Maryland's two major Thoroughbred tracks starting Jan. 1. The announcement of his hiring was made by the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Authority (MTRA), a non-profit group modeled after the New York Racing Association, which operates racing at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga. The Maryland tracks were transferred to the MTRA by The Stronach Group, which donated them to the state...

For the past two weeks, we have been telling you how some of racing's biggest names fell in love with the sport. Now it's our turn. Here are some of the stories behind the bylines you see every day in the TDN. Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind was my hook. My dog-eared copy of the acclaimed children's novel about the Godolphin Arabian made my young imagination run wild. As an adult, I can still see Wesley Dennis's vibrant illustrations in my mind's eye. If reading King of the Wind...

How did we get hooked on this sport? We all have stories about how our love affair developed and blossomed. The TDN reached out to numerous notable people in the industry to get their stories to find out how they got hooked and stayed hooked on the sport. Rocco Landesman, Broadway Producer and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts I've always been an excitement junkie. I love the risk, love the adrenaline you get from that. I've had a career in the Broadway Theater and there's nothing...

The John Forbes Memorial, a two-mile flat race to be run Saturday at the Far Hills, New Jersey hunt meet isn't for every horse. The horse needs to be able to handle the grueling distance of two miles and carry as much as 148 pounds. But there are plenty of trainers who believe their horses can handle the test. A race that is getting better every year, the $150,000 race attracted 14 entries, including Thoroughbreds from the stables of Mike Maker, Christophe Clement, Graham Motion and Peter Eurton. The Forbes...

Bright Future (Curlin), the winner of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at the Spa, has been retired to Claiborne Farm with a stud fee of $12,500 LFSN for the 2025 breeding season, the farm said via a press release on Wednesday. Currently available for inspection at Claiborne, the 5-year-old son of Curlin won five of 11 career starts and earned $947,940 for owners Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables. The Todd Pletcher trainee won the Gold Cup at four and took home the GIII Salvator Mile Stakes at Monmouth...

Jairo Rendon was enjoying one of the best years of his career. He finished the Monmouth meet with 66 winners, just 10 winners behind perennial Monmouth riding champion Paco Lopez. He stuck around a few more days to ride some at the all-turf meet at the Meadowlands, but after riding there Sept. 21, he was ready to go home. After the short Meadowlands meet ended, Rendon would have no problem heading to Aqueduct or maybe Gulfstream Park, two places where he could make a lot of money and ride a...