Tag: Churchill Downs

Submissions For 2024 Kentucky Oaks Survivors Parade Open

Edited Press Release

Submissions to participate in the 2024 Kentucky Oaks Survivors Parade on Friday, May 3 are now open.

The launch of the Survivors Parade submissions coincides with the milestone mark of 100 days until the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve on Saturday, May 4.

This year's Parade will honor 150 Breast and Ovarian cancer survivors and fighters with tickets for the selected recipient and a guest to attend the 150th Kentucky Oaks on Friday, May 3, and include an unforgettable march on the historic track at Churchill Downs.

Those who have overcome or are battling a breast or ovarian cancer diagnosis who have never participated in the Oaks Survivors Parade are encouraged to submit their story at www.KentuckyDerby.com/Survivors-Parade until Tuesday, Feb. 20. Those who wish to nominate a potential participant for consideration are encouraged to share the submission link directly with the candidate so that they may submit the relevant qualifying information.

For the 16th Survivors Parade, Churchill Downs will support and recognize the meaningful work of two beneficiary organizations that provide critical services and care to underserved women across the region who may lack access to breast care screenings: Derby Divas in partnership with the Norton Cancer Institute Breast Health Program; and Horses and Hope in affiliation with the Kentucky Cancer Program that provides breast cancer screening, education and treatment referral among Kentucky's signature horse industry workers and others who lack access to health services. The Kentucky Oaks charitable initiative has raised more than $1 million to drive breast and ovarian health awareness and life-saving interventions over the past 15 years.

The 2024 Survivors Parade participants will be chosen randomly rather than by public vote to optimize equal opportunity and consideration. Winners will be announced Monday, Feb. 26.

In addition to a call for submissions, fans are encouraged to join the effort to raise money to support breast and ovarian health by donating to the Kentucky Oaks charitable partners at www.kentuckyderby.com/survivors.

The post Submissions For 2024 Kentucky Oaks Survivors Parade Open appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Nadine Seckman Wins Derby Museum Art Prize

Nadine Seckman, a junior at Atherton High School, has been named the grand prize winner of the 38th annual Horsing Around With Art competition, presented by WinStar Farm.

The HAWA Grand Prize is awarded to the artist whose work best captures the spirit of the Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs Racetrack President, Mike Anderson, said Seckman's piece embodied the emotion of Derby.

“For 149 years, it's been about the horse. And for Derby 150, this portrait of the horse in front of the Twin Spires captures the very spirit of the Kentucky Derby,” said Anderson.

The winning artwork will be professionally framed and put on display in the Museum for the next year. Seckman also received a Spring Race Day Experience prize package sponsored by Churchill Downs, and the Museum awarded Atherton High School's art department with a $500 prize for art supplies.

The post Nadine Seckman Wins Derby Museum Art Prize appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Second Stride Kicks Off ’24 Fundraising With Oaks/Derby Box Raffle

Second Stride, which rehabs, retrains and rehomes retired Thoroughbred racehorses, will open its 2024 fundraising efforts with twin raffles for third-floor boxes for six people, one box each for Kentucky Derby and Oaks Day donated by Churchill Downs. In the spirit of May 3-4 being the 150th runnings of America's favorite race and its filly counterpart, only 150 tickets will be sold at $150 apiece for the Derby and for $125 apiece for the Oaks. Buy raffle tickets for the all-inclusive boxes (including food and alcoholic beverage) here.

The drawings will be Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. ET and streamed via Facebook Live.

Second Stride, which was founded in 2005, rehomed 169 horses in 2023 and directly assisted a total of 197, up from the 124 adoptions in 2022, when the facilities expanded to include Chorleywood Farm in Prospect, according to a release from the organization. The former racehorses, as well as broodmares and unable-to-race bloodstock, came from 49 tracks, training centers and farms and went to new homes in 26 states and Canada this past year. The average stay at Second Stride for horses being rehabbed and/or retrained before adoption was 57 days, covering more than 2,500 training sessions.

“We spent 2022 working on expansion so we could take care of and find second careers and forever homes for more retired racehorses,” said Second Stride founder and executive director Kim Smith. “Aftercare for horses coming off the track is a race without a finish line. So now we look to build on 2023, which across the board was our most successful in terms of horses served, rehabbed and adopted as well as financial growth including fundraising and grants and volunteer hours. And just to put the 197 horses we assisted last year in perspective, that number is slightly more than the 1% of North America's 2023 foal crop.

“We can't thank Churchill Downs enough for donating a prime box to these historic runnings of the Derby and Oaks. Every dollar raised will go toward the horses. This will get our fundraising off to a great start and hopefully make more people aware of Second Stride, how the horse donation process works and how our staff and volunteers prepare each donated horse individually for a second career, whether that be eventing, in the show ring, trail riding or as a wonderful, loving companion.”

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Baffert, Zedan Drop Appeal of Medina Spirit Disqualification

Trainer Bob Baffert took to X late Monday afternoon to report that he has told his legal team to drop the appeal to the result of the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby, from which Zedan Racing Stable's Medina Spirit (Protonico) was disqualified for a betamethasone positive.

The post read: “I have instructed my attorneys to dismiss the appeal related to the disqualification of Medina Spirit in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Zedan Racing owner, Amr Zedan, and I have decided that it is best to positively focus on the present and future that our great sport offers. We thank the KHRC (Kentucky Horse Racing Commission) and Churchill Downs for listening and considering our point of view and we are grateful for the changes and clarity that HISA brings to our sport.”

Ever since Medina Spirit was disqualified over the positive for the medication betamethasone, Baffert and Zedan have tried to have the disqualification overturned. Their primary argument was that the medication got into the horse's system through a topical cream used to combat skin rashes. Baffert and Zedan's lawyers would eventually build more than two years of court cases and administrative appeals around the contention that the betamethasone that showed up in Medina Spirit's post-race positive test was the type that came from a permissible topical ointment and not via some other restricted means, like an intra-articular injection.

In September, Zedan and Baffert filed a petition for a judicial review of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commissions's disqualification of the colt from his win in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The petition was filed in Franklin Circuit Court in Kentucky and also includes a protest over Baffert's suspension in Kentucky.  Zedan and Baffert claim in the petition that the “laboratory limit of detection” used to identify betamethasone in Medina Spirit “is contrary to the plain terms of KHRC regulations and is void as arbitrary and capricious.”

They also argued that KHRC's exercise of rule making and adjudicatory powers is illegal and that the penalties against Zedan “are unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious.”

One month earlier, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) closed the 27-month regulatory saga involving Medina Spirit's Kentucky Derby drug disqualification by unanimously voting to deny appeals by trainer Baffert and Zedan Racing Stables while accepting a hearing officer's recommended order that the penalties originally imposed by the Churchill Downs stewards be affirmed in their entirety. From there, Zedan and Baffert began to try to win their case through the courts.

“The KHRC did what it does best–rubber stamped its own foregone conclusion. I will discuss with Mr. Baffert, but believe it is highly likely the matter is appealed so that it can finally be presented to an impartial Court,” Baffert attorney W. Craig Robertson III said at the time.

It was not clear Monday why Zedan and Baffert apparently changed their minds and decided to drop their case.

It is possible that their dropping the case was a peace offering in what has been an ugly battle between Churchill Downs and Zedan and Baffert that at times took on a personal tone. Churchill first banned Baffert from the 2022 and 2023 Derby. In a surprising move, Churchill announced in July that the Baffert ban was being extended until at least Dec. 31, 2024.

“Mr. Baffert continues to peddle a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit,” Churchill said at the time in a statement.

Churchill also recently announced that any horse trained by someone banned by the track (Baffert is believed to be the only one under such a suspension) will be ineligible to compete in the Derby if still in that trainers barn as of Jan. 29.

Throughout the dispute, there was widespread speculation that Churchill's harsh treatment of Baffert was in response to the lawsuits. With those lawsuits now having been dropped, it will be interesting to see how Churchill reacts and what doors might open for Baffert and his owners.

Following the news that the case had been dropped, Churchill Downs officials said that the development would have no bearing on Baffert's current status. “Today's dismissal of appeal does not change the current suspension or deadline to transfer horses for the upcoming 150th Kentucky Derby,” read a statement forwarded by Churchill's Darren Rogers.

 

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