Month: February 2023

Waqas Ahmed has been named deputy executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC).

Ahmed was detailed to the role after Jamie Eads was promoted to executive director; now, he continues in the role.

“I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of the team to maintain the highest standards of safety, health, and welfare for both the horses and the public, while fostering a culture of honesty and integrity in all aspects of horse racing,” he said.

“I'm excited that Waqas will continue in the role of deputy director,” said Director Eads. “The commission benefits greatly from his data driven approach to his work and management.”

Ahmed joined the Commission in 2019 as an analyst and obtained database management and application development training to realize more than $100,000 in implementation cost-savings for the agency.

In 2020, Ahmed was appointed director of Pari-mutuel Wagering and Compliance. He oversaw the licensing of racing associations, advance deposit account wagering, and totalizator providers. While in this position, wagering increased from $1.6 billion to more than $8 billion, resulting in the monitoring of tax receipts of over $100 million per year.

Ahmed earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Kentucky, and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Austin Peay State University. He currently serves as a committee member on various industry boards, including the Wagering Integrity Committee and Association of Racing Commissioners International.

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Yuichi Fukunaga, one of Japan's premier jockeys, will be making a final farewell from the saddle when he competes at Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Saturday.

The 46-year-old had his final rides on the JRA circuits at Tokyo Racecourse on Feb. 19 after a long career following in the footsteps of his father Yoichi, regarded as a genius of a rider.

Beginning in 1996, Yuichi would be crowned best newcomer jockey and claimed wins in the likes of the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) a few years later before finally landing the Japanese Derby on Wagnerian in 2018.

On Saudi Cup Day, Fukunaga has been booked to ride 4-year-old colt Remake (JPN) in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint and Ecoro Ares (USA) in The Saudi Derby.

The veteran pilot will turn his attention to being a trainer from next month.

“It was just I have found other things I really want to do as my job,” he explained. “I never felt I did not like being a jockey. The attraction of becoming a trainer outweighed the motivation to continue my riding career because I have had enough as a jockey. As a trainer, I can be more deeply involved with horses.”

Fukunaga will retire with a spectacular list of achievements. As an established rider, he has collected 45 Grade 1 wins which include 34 at JRA, six at NAR (National Association of Racing) level and five overseas.

Those were the American Oaks on Cesario in 2005, three times in Hong Kong on Eishin Preston and the Dubai Duty Free on Just A Way in 2014. In 2022, he won the Grade 1 February Stakes on Cafe Pharoah and Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) on Geoglyph, having helped Contrail land the Japanese Triple Crown a year ago.

“I'd like to thank all the racing fans for supporting and cheering the horse racing in Japan, I never thought I wanted to quit as a jockey in these 27 years,” he added.

“I am very grateful to all the people involved in my jockey life. I will go to the next stage as a trainer, and I do hope I can train horses that many people want to cheer.

“I want to express my gratitude to the connections for the chances to ride in Saudi Arabia for my final rides. Hopefully I can show their best runs and bring the best results to all the fans in Japan.”

The post Japan’s Triple Crown-Winning Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga Prepares For Emotional New Chapter appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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In July last year, 480 horses trained at the La Teste-de-Buch Racecourse in the south-west of France had to be evacuated at the last minute after a change of wind brought raging wildfires within meters of the tracks.

The Christophe Ferland-trained Big Call (USA), a starter in Saudi Arabia's Longines Red Sea Turf Handicap and the Elisabeth Bernard-trained Sultana (FR), who is going to try her luck in Friday's Al Mneefah Cup presented by the Ministry of Culture, were both among the horses that had to leave their home in a hurry and find shelter elsewhere.

Luckily, as always in times of difficulties, the racing community came together and transporters arrived from the neighboring training centers, while trainers based at Pau, which is a drive of about two and a half hours, opened their yards to accommodate the horses.

“It was a nightmare,” recalls Elisabeth Bernard, who trains 75 Purebred Arabians. “We had been told by the firefighters in the morning that the fire wouldn't reach us and then suddenly, in the afternoon, the wind changed and there it was. It was like an apocalypse. The villagers had already been evacuated, but you can imagine it is not that easy to get horses evacuated. However, the smoke was toxic and we had to move quickly.”

Evacuating 480 horses in a rush was no easy task and after the transport companies had filled their horse boxes, there were still plenty of horses left at the La Teste-de-Buch Racecourse.

“We started calling our friends and Xavier [Thomas-Demeaulte] sent me his horsebox,” Bernard continues. “And Didier Guillemin sent me his as well. But then we still had to find a yard for them, as I didn't want to split my horses.

“Also, there was a lot of panic amongst the staff and I thought if I don't keep my eyes on everything it won't work. There was only one place I could go and that was Pau, which has the infrastructure to accommodate 20 staff and 75 horses.”

It was an anxious 24 hours for the trainers based at the famous racecourse situated on the west coast of France, but Bernard concludes: “In the end, the people were more panicked than the horses, who took it all remarkably well. No horses were injured, but it was quite an operation.

“I think Christophe [Ferland] had to put some of his horses up at a stud, some went to the Bordeaux Racecourse and some to Deauville. Logistically it was a challenge, but the racing world was great, because they all helped out and all ended well.”

Happily, the flames did not quite reach the racecourse and it remains operational, with Big Call and Sultana proving that the training center is still very capable of producing top-class runners.

The post ‘It Was Like An Apocalypse’: French Trainers Recall Last-Minute Wildfire Evacuations In July Of 2022 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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