Month: July 2022

Twilight Gleaming Zips To Daisycutter Score For Wesley Ward

It was an old-fashioned throw down between two extra fast Thoroughbreds Friday at Del Mar – the gray mare Leggs Galore and the young bay filly Twilight Gleaming. They hooked up out of the gate in the five-furlong turf test and ding-donged it all the way around the bend until the 3-year-old began to inch clear in the straight before going on to a half-length victory in the $104,100 Daisycutter Handicap.

The winner, a 3-year-old Irish-bred by National Defense owned by Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Stables of Lexington, Ky., was winning her fifth race in her eighth start (she was second in her other three) and earned $60,000 in the process to fatten her bankroll to $781,867. The extra quick miss had won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at the same five-furlong distance at Del Mar last November.

Twilight Gleaming is trained by Wesley Ward, who shipped her in from Saratoga for the race, then deputized west coaster Blake Heap to saddle her. She was ridden by Del Mar's leading rider, Juan Hernandez, who won another race on the card and now has nine first through the first five days of the session.

Twilight Gleaming's chief rival in the Daisycutter, William Sims' Leggs Galore, hung on gamely through the stretch but was outnodded for second at the wire by the 29-1 shot Xmas Surprise, who is owned by Marsha Naify.

The fractions in the heat were  :21.90, :44.91 and :56.90.

Twilight Gleaming paid $4.80, $3.60 and $2.40 across the board. Xmas Surprise returned $12.80 and $4.80 and Leggs Galore, who actually went favored in the dash at 13-10, paid $2.40 to show.

The track's Pick 6 Single Ticket Jackpot Wager carried over for the fifth consecutive day and its pool will start with $284,651 in the pot Saturday.

First post for the Saturday program, which features two excellent stakes in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby and the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap, is 2 p.m.

JUAN HERNANDEZ (Twilight Gleaming, winner) — “She broke a step slow, but she's got speed. I kept her outside a little bit away from that speed horse inside us (Leggs Galore). But when we started to go for home, she was pulling on me; she wanted to go. She changed leads at the quarter pole and she really ran. She's a good one.”

BLAKE HEAP, assistant trainer to WESLEY WARD (Twilight Gleaming, winner) — “I was hoping they (would) break slow. But we're on the outside, doing what we have to do, and she's a runner. ”

The stakes win was the third of the meet for rider Hernandez, but his first in the Daisycutter. He now has 18 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meet for trainer Ward and his third in the Daisycutter. He now has 12 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The post Twilight Gleaming Zips To Daisycutter Score For Wesley Ward appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Florida Vet Garcia Wants Plea Change to Avoid Doping Trial

Erica Garcia, a Florida-based veterinarian, broke off her longstanding business relationship with the now-imprisoned trainer Jorge Navarro in early 2019. But she remained in contact with other conspirators of the Thoroughbred doping scheme that Navarro-and numerous other racetrackers-would later admit to.

So when federal investigators began compiling evidence that led to a nationwide series of arrests in a widespread racehorse drugging crackdown in March 2020, Garcia was considered fair game for her alleged role in the pipeline of purportedly performance-enhancing drugs.

Charged with two felony counts involving conspiracies to commit drug alteration and misbranding and defrauding the United States government, in Garcia tried in 2021 to get a federal judge to suppress the evidence obtained from searches of her car and phone. It didn't work.

Now Garcia, 43, wants to join many of the 30 other defendants in the case who have either already changed their pleas or been found guilty by trial. On July 29 she requested a hearing before the judge to do explain why she wants to flip from “not guilty,” and that request was swiftly accommodated with an Aug. 1 court date.

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil will preside over the hearing. She's the same judge who wrote the order that denied the suppression of evidence.

“Garcia argues that the physical search of her car, pursuant to a search warrant, was invalid because the application for the warrant contained 'stale' evidence,” Vyskocil wrote last year. “The Court rejects this argument because the affidavit for the warrant presented evidence that Garcia was long involved in an ongoing conspiracy.”

“The affidavit in support of the warrant for Garcia's car detailed her long-term relationship with Navarro and ongoing involvement with members of his doping scheme. It described at least six instances over the span of four months in which Garcia discussed with Navarro administering prohibited substances to racehorses,” Vyskocil wrote.

“The affidavit acknowledged that Garcia's relationship with Navarro deteriorated in early 2019,” Vyskocil wrote. “It explained that, nevertheless, Garcia remained in touch with other members of Navarro's network, including his assistant trainer.

“In the light of the evidence of Garcia's longstanding and continuing involvement in a doping operation, there was probable cause to search her vehicle, notwithstanding her personal break with Navarro,” Vyskocil wrote.

The post Florida Vet Garcia Wants Plea Change to Avoid Doping Trial appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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