Horse Racing News

Twenty years ago the San Luis Rey was worth twice as much and offered a Grade 1 credential. Now, with a purse of $150,000, it is clinging to its Grade 2 for dear life.

Unrivaled Belle appears to prefer dirt, a surface she returns to on Saturday when she heads an eight-horse field entered in the Grade 3, $150,000 Rampart Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

Camarero Race Track in Puerto Rico paid out $4.94 million to a single winner of its Poolpote, a pick six-type bet, on Monday.

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. admitted to being nervous before he ran D' Funnybone as the even-money favorite in last month's Grade 2 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Charles John "Chick" Lang, the longtime head of Pimlico Race Course who helped make the Preakness a must-watch for sports fans around the country, has died. He was 83.

Rule, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, will break from post 7 in a field of 11 3-year-olds entered for Saturday's $750,000 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.

Bambara, the Venezuelan filly who is nominated to the April 9 Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park, will make her U.S. debut Saturday in Gulfstream's Rampart Stakes, trainer Pablo Andrade said Wednesday.

In a news release Tuesday, the Maryland Jockey Club announced the Grade 1 Pimlico Special and the Grade 2 Allaire duPont Distaff have been put on hiatus due to a purse shortage.

Aside from boosting its overnight purses to projected record levels, Monmouth Park also will increase the gross payout in New Jersey stakes purses in 2010, officials at the Oceanport, N.J., track announced Tuesday.

The complexion of Saturday's Grade 1 Florida Derby took a dramatic turn late Tuesday afternoon when owner Ahmed Zayat said Eskendereya would not run in the race and instead would be pointed to the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 3.