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    Ray Norton : Obituary

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    Change of roles for Hollis

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    The Box Seat – May 13

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    ROY BOY!

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    News Briefs : May 12, 2021

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    Addington Weekly – May 12

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    Charles Road retired

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    • Brian Spearman, who has served as chairman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners since 2015, has decided to step away from his day-to-day role with the company at the end of this year. View the full article
    • A year-and-a-half after being told he only had about five months to live because of cancer, Bryan Bushey made the journey to Churchill Downs to support Point Dume in the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel Nov. 15.View the full article
    • Dave Smyth, a financial planner and horseplayer from Lexington, KY, saved his best for last at the 2025 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC), parlaying an $8,000 Daily Double on the final two legs into a record $607,800 payday. “As a financial planner, I put puzzles together,” he said. Smyth did the bulk of his damage in the second half of the Saturday program. “I absolutely loved Forever Young,” he recalled of the eventual GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic winner. “He had tactical speed and was ready to fire.” In addition to betting Forever Young across the board, Smyth went big on a Forever Young exacta box with defending champion Sierra Leone, which grossed $17,150. Smyth finished with a total score of 144,800 points and combined those earnings with his first-place prize of $463,000 for the $607,800 total. Ken McMahan of La Quinta, CA, finished second with 139,930 points, and combined with a second prize of $308,600, his total earnings were $448,530. McMahan also played a second entry and finished in eighth place with 82,950 points, and adding a prize pool of $51,400 gave him a second-entry total of $134,350 and total tournament earnings of $582,880. Michael Martinelli finished in third place with 105,000 points. Adding the third-place prize money of $167,200, his total grand total reached $272,200. “As a handicapper, this was a thrill of a lifetime and a dream come true, and I never imagined I would win the BCBC when my grandmother first took me to Keeneland for a day of fun with friends,” said Smyth. “To be live at Del Mar is a moment that I'll never forget. I love the horse industry, and I try to make sure, as a player and a fan, that I can help future generations enjoy the sport even more.” As a commitment to the future of the sport, Smyth is donating 5% of the first-place prize to Amplify Horse Racing. The organization fosters Thoroughbred industry education, mentorship, and career opportunities with horse programs for youth and young adults. The tournament players generated a record $8,902,863 in wagering handle. Breeders' Cup tournament wagering at Del Mar totaled 22% of the on-track handle. In the 2025 BCBC, each player was required to fund a $2,500 buy-in and a $7,500 betting bankroll ($10,000 total). All buy-in monies were applied to the prize pool, making a record total prize pool of $1,607,500. Players made real wagers (win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and daily double) with their $7,500 bankroll over the two days (22 races) and kept all monies earned from their wagering. Click here for the full BCBC results. The post Smyth ‘Solves Puzzle’, Wins 2025 BCBC appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • Actually I used to have that opinion of Gary but before I worked out who he was I twigged to his sense of humour.  Then I saw more of the humour in his posts.  I daresay not many got it.  If you watch his cameo appearances on his son's show and other comedy appearances you get an understanding of his dry and  self deprecating wit.
    • Emerald Downs on Friday was approved to race 51 dates in 2026, the same number of programs that the suburban Seattle track was granted in 2025. Back in March, Emerald's president, Phil Ziegler, had said that the '26 race meet at the lone remaining commercial track in the Pacific Northwest could be in jeopardy because the fees imposed by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) were expected to be nearly doubling under a new assessment methodology. Although the track's assessment for '26 did go up, Emerald had a better-than-expected 2025 season that resulted in increases to average daily handle (49%), average daily on-track handle (18%), average attendance (“about 10%”) and average number of starters per race (up 0.9% to 7.35). While there was no talk of abandoning or curtailing the '26 racing season during Friday's Washington Horse Racing Commission (WHRC) meeting, at which commissioners unanimously approved Emerald's status-quo request, there was still plenty of discussion about the daunting HISA assessment and what could be done to mitigate it. WHRC executive secretary Amanda Benton read into the record that Emerald's gross assessment for '26 is $1,302,706, but that potential credits for sample collection and drug testing could reduce the net fee to $1,015,000. That's still $642,132 more than '25, Benton said. But additional credits are still in the negotiation phase, and the track and horsemen are brainstorming ideas to lighten the financial hit even further, several stakeholders said during the meeting. Benton also cited an email from HISA's chief executive officer, Lisa Lazarus, that outlined “potential additional credits towards the assessment fee if Emerald Downs agrees to various items listed in the email.” Benton said that, “Those items, according to [Lazarus], could offer potential credits of $350,000, bringing the total assessment fee to $604,000. Some of the items on the list would result in a cost for Emerald Downs, but that credit would be greater than the costs.” Pat LePley, the president of the Washington Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said that even with the known reductions, the money that horsemen and the track must pay to HISA and the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) is still concerning to everyone involved in Washington racing. “The costs that are imposed by HISA and HIWU, if we don't get some help along the way, some type of relief, either additional revenue or some type of a help from state government or local government, we're going to continue to be in serious trouble and in more serious trouble than we have been,” LePley said. “The owners of the horses that we have here, we don't run for enough money in terms of purses to be able to sustain the kind of expenses that HISA and HIWU want to impose upon us,” LePley said. “If we were required to pay $1.3 million in regulatory fees, I don't see how the racetrack can stay in business.” Emerald will open May 2 in '26, coinciding with the simulcast of the GI Kentucky Derby. With the exception of several tweaks because of the way the calendar falls, the season will largely feature racing on Saturdays and Sundays in May, with Friday night cards added to make three-day racing weeks June through August. The meet will close Labor Day Monday, Sept. 7. “Not many differences to [the '25] season,” Ziegler said. “A couple of minor changes. We did open a week earlier [in '25]. Our staff kind of likes getting a race day in before Derby day, when everybody shows up. But it was just too tough on the horsemen to be ready for that last weekend in April. “Derby day is the one day [of] overlap we have with Turf Paradise,” Ziegler noted. “So their meet ends on Derby day, and then we get [a number out outfits that] come up here [from Arizona]. We had very short fields and only a few races on opening weekend last year, so we went back to opening on Derby day.” Ziegler said Emerald's stakes and promotion schedules will be announced in the near future, and that the stable area is expected to open sometime in late February or early March. The post Emerald A ‘Go’ For 51 Dates In ’26, But HISA Fees Still Considered An Existential Threat appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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