SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - For sure, trainer Gary Sciacca knows the score. He is well aware and very proud of the fact that he is closing in on a personal milestone: 1,000 career victories. A month shy of 40 years since he saddled his first runner at Belmont Park, Sciacca is sitting on 997 wins. Five Alarm Robin (Fed Biz) moved the 61-year-old New York stalwart a step closer with her victory at 11-1 on the opening day of Saratoga season. Leaning against a rail at the barn that has...
Classic-winning jockey Eric Eldin passed away at 89 on Sunday, Racing Post reported. Apprenticed to Ryan Jarvis, Eldin rode his first winner, Penfair (GB) (Fair Trial {GB}), in 1950, and his greatest win as a reinsman was aboard Front Row (Ire) (Epaulette {GB}), in the Irish 1000 Guineas. The Yorkshireman was also in the saddle for Lucasland (GB) (Lucero {Ire})'s wins in the 1966 July Cup and Diadem S. Abroad, Eldin also rode Derby winners in India and the Netherlands. All told, Eldin celebrated about 1,200 winners before hanging up...
She's still only 28, and it isn't three years since she started training. Yet a first graded stakes success for Anna Meah last weekend was welcomed with a depth of perspective extending both forward and back. On the one hand, she has always been a woman in a hurry: however crammed the automobile she drove south from Washington in December 2012, her heart set on finding a backstretch job in California, the years since have been no less packed with experience. Indeed, the veteran trainer of a small string at...
A New York court has granted Linda Rice a temporary injunction that allows her to resume training while she pursues a legal appeal of the three-year license revocation and $50,000 fine for "improper and corrupt conduct" levied against her by the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC). The ban went into effect Monday. Later on June 7, Rice's legal team filed a complaint in the Schenectady County Supreme Court alleging that the penalty is "unduly harsh." Daily Racing Form first reported the June 9 granting of the injunction. TDN could...
It's a rare feat to get to the winner's circle on one of the biggest weekends in racing with a horse bred, owned and trained by the same connection, but Elizabeth Merryman did just that when her speedy filly Caravel (Mizzen Mast) gave a gutsy performance at Pimlico to take The Very One S. by a nose on Preakness weekend. Many would consider the juggling act between the foaling barn and the training center to be an impossibility, but Liz Merryman says for her, it's the best way to produce...
Trainer Wesley Ward, known particularly for his prowess with 2-year-olds and his success when shipping to Royal Ascot, recorded his 2,000th win as a trainer Thursday when Gold for Kitten (Kitten's Joy) won the sixth race at Churchill Downs. Among Ward's top horses as a trainer have been English highweight and MG1SW Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy); French highweight and G1SW No Nay Never (Scat Daddy); Eclipse champion and Breeders' Cup winner Judy the Beauty (Ghostzapper); and additional Breeders' Cup winners Hootenanny (Quality Road), Four Wheel Drive (American Pharoah), and Golden...
Nobody was paying a great deal of attention to him back then, either. But before ceding the weekend headlines to those storied Oaklawn handicaps, the GI Apple Blossom and GII Oaklawn, perhaps we can all take a step back and pay an overdue tribute to a novice who came to Hot Springs in the winter of 1977. Charlie LoPresti had just turned 20 and, learning the ropes under trainer Joe Cantey, was able to count Cox's Ridge and Miss Raja among the first Thoroughbreds to stimulate the skill and devotion...
Neil French, a licensed trainer since 1971 who was based in Southern California, passed away from heart failure Saturday, Apr. 10, at Arcadia Methodist Hospital near Santa Anita. He was 68. French grew up with a father who was a farrier at Los Alamitos before switching to training, first Quarter Horses and eventually Thoroughbreds. French rode his father's horses in the mornings and then became a trainer on his own as a teenager. Among French's top horses were SW Pencil Point (Ire) (Sharpen Up), SW & GSP June's Reward (Hail...
Trainer Rebecca Bastiman passed away following a long illness according to her Facebook page, Rebecca Bastiman Racing. The trainer was 40. A statement on Bastiman's Facebook page read, "It comes with extreme sadness and heartache that I'm posting this, but sadly Rebecca Bastiman has peacefully passed away after a long illness. "Being a trainer was her dream her life, her everything, she put 110% into the love and care of her four-legged friends. "Rebecca was a dedicated trainer and a hard worker, she was first on the yard and last...
Leading National Hunt trainer Gordon Elliott, the subject of a firestorm this weekend after a photo of him sitting on a dead horse was circulated over the weekend, admitted that the photo was genuine. Hours after saying he would cooperate with investigators without specifically addressing the validity of the photo, he relented and said that the photo was real. The photo shows Elliott sitting astride a stricken horse on the ground. In it, the trainer is making a peace sign. Some versions circulated have the caption "New work rider." His...
On Feb. 6, the Oxford-born Dan Blacker celebrated his first graded stakes win as a trainer when Hit The Road (More Than Ready) took Santa Anita's GIII Thunder Road S., unleashing a powerful turn of foot inside the final furlong to win by an eye-catching 3 3/4 lengths. The progressive 4-year-old now has his sights set on Grade I glory in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile over the same course and distance as the Thunder Road on Mar. 6, and a victory there would epitomize everything Blacker has been working...
Paul D'Arcy, who trained Indian Haven (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) to win the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas in 2003, will saddle his final runner at Kempton on Wednesday. The soon-to-be 65-year-old will leg up John Egan on Knight of Kings (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) in the first race, a seven-furlong maiden over the all-weather. Egan was also aboard Indian Haven for his Classic score. A jockey prior to turning his hand to training, D'Arcy began training in 1993. "I've no regrets, I turn 65 in February and always planned to...
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