“This morning I spoke with her husband Benny, and she is being released to go home to today,” said Poppenberg via email to the TDN. “Benny has family that will be staying with Sarah 24/7 and a nurse will be at their home every other day, as she navigates the process of recovery. She is only able to walk, talk, sit, and sleep. In my conversation with Benny, and after talking to Sarah, he will continue taking care of the barn, with the help of some new hires to assist in everything Sarah does.”

A Gofundme page has been started for Delany to raise the needed funds for her care. Poppenberg said that Darley had offered a season to Mystic Guide to be auctioned off with all monies raised to go to Delany's care, and that details regarding that auction will be forthcoming.

“Huge thanks to them for stepping up,” said Poppenberg. “Please continue to help Sarah and Benny, through this long road.”

Sarah Delany's Gofundme page may be accessed here. 

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“She was kicked in the back of the neck, and had spinal surgery as well as fusion,” said Poppenberg, “and luckily enough she has feeling in all extremities but recovery will be lengthy.

“Let me express that her and her husband are a small barn outfit, and absolutely love the horses, and this will be a difficult time for her as the trainer and her husband.”

According to EquineLine's official statistics, Delany made her first start as a trainer in 2012. She has 280 wins from 1,941 career starts.

A GoFundMe campaign has been established for Delany and can be accessed here.

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The track offers an Early Pick 5 beginning with the first race each night and a Late Pick 5, which covers the final five races. The Early Pick 4 starts on the second race and the Late Pick 4 covers the final four races on the card.

For more information about live racing at Delta Downs, click to visit the track's website at deltadowns.boydgaming.com.

The post Pick 4 and Pick 5 Takeout at Delta Downs Drops to 12% appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“It's nice to get it out of the way, because it was a long time getting it done,” said Johnson.

Breeder and owner Russell Welch and his wife, Janis, were at Delta Downs for the win by their filly by Shaman Ghost. Welch has trusted Johnson with his Texas and Louisiana-breds for the past seven years.

“He was sort of humbled by it all,” Welch said of the post-race presentation. “We are both rodeo cowboys and H.B. does an outstanding job breaking babies. He did tell me that evening that reaching the milestone would never have been possible without the support of his owners.”

Johnson concurred with Welch, citing Dennis Milligan, Jerry Myers, Greg Hoffman, Jerry Chiles, David and Susan Bunn, as well as Paul and Marianne Phillips as a few of his longtime  owners.

“I have been fortunate to have great owners who understand the importance of patience,” acknowledged Johnson.

Prior to his training career, Johnson was a rodeo competitor specializing in-bull and steer riding. In a training career that spans four decades, Johnson has saddled 6,486 horses with earnings over $15 million. Top earners included Albert's First ($477,318); Wa Bert ($356,488); Political Whit ($347,190); Icy Gentleman ($320,795) and Jimi's a Star ($314,060).

Johnson credits his wife, Jinnie, who is a major part of his operation, assistant trainer Jose Gomez and Oscar Nunez, who he hails as the “backbone” of the stable's grooms.

Retirement is not on the immediate radar for Johnson, who will turn 83 in January.

“I like doing what I do and can't think of anything else I would enjoy as much as this,” Johnson said.

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The post Broberg & Thornton Repeat Atop Delta Standings appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The featured race on the card will be the $150,000 Louisiana Premier Day Championship for older horses competing at 1-1/16 miles, which will be the 10th race on the program. This year's Championship attracted a full field of 12, which includes two also eligible runners.

The Championship is guaranteed to have a new winner this year. Underpressure, who has won the last two editions of the race, was not entered this year. The lukewarm 3-1 morning line favorite for Saturday's feature is Keith Plaisance's Langs Day, who won the Gold Cup at Delta Downs on October 30 impressively before finishing a hard closing second in a tough allowance race last time out on January 12.

The Championship field also includes Kendel D. Standlee's Izzy's Baby Boy (5-1), who most recently won a dramatic B Connected Stakes on New Year's Day; Robert Asaro Enterprises, Inc's Maga Man (8-1), who comes into the event with the highest career earnings mark of $289,480; and the Sam B. David, Jr. trainee Jax Man (6-1), who ran second, only a neck behind Izzy's Baby Boy, in the B Connected.

Fans will also be in for a treat when the $100,00 Louisiana Premier Day Matron rolls around as Grade 2 winner Cilla takes on several rivals in the five-furlong dash for older fillies and mares. The Brett Brinkman trainee and daughter of the great California Chrome is the solid 6-5 favorite as she goes for her seventh career win and attempts to add to her lofty $416,000 bankroll.

Another race that will get plenty of attention will be the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Day Starlet. The one-mile event will be a rematch between 5-2 morning line favorite Free Like a Girl and Medley. Medley narrowly defeated Free Like a Girl in the $100,000 Louisiana Lassie Stakes at Fair Grounds on December 11. But Medley has never raced at Delta Downs and Free Like A Girl is undefeated in Vinton with two stakes tallies in as many starts earlier this meet. On October 22 she romped by 18-1/2 lengths in the $100,000 Louisiana Jewel and on November 19 she scored another impressive win in the $100,000 My Trusty Cat.

In addition to the many local horsemen taking part in Louisiana Premier Day, there are also some nationally prominent trainers who will saddle horses on the program. They include Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, as well as Karl Broberg, Tom Amoss, W. Bret Calhoun and many others.

Delta Downs will offer the DRF Bets $50,000 Guaranteed All Stakes Pick 4 wager on the Louisiana Premier Day program. The special wager will take place on race 8 – 11, which includes the afternoon's richest race, the $150,000 Louisiana Premier Day Championship serving as the penultimate leg. The special wager will also include an ultra-low takeout of just 12%.

Delta Downs will also welcome a special guest to its simulcast program during Louisiana Premier Day. Nationally known horse racing analyst and commentator Martha Claussen will join track announcer Don Stevens on the simulcast show as a co-host, handicapper and trackside reporter following the major stakes races.

Listed below are each Louisiana Premier Day race in program order.

Race # Purse Stakes Race Distance Age

1 $50,000 LAPD Bon Temps Starter 5 furlongs 4yo & up FM

2 $100,000 LAPD Matron 5 furlongs 4yo & up FM

3 $38,000 (La-bred Maidens) 7-1/2 furlongs 3yo

4 $50,000 LAPD Ragin Cajun Starter 5 furlongs 4yo & up

5 $100,000 LAPD Starlet 1 mile 3yo FM

6 $60,000 LAPD Ladies Starter 1 mile 4yo & up

7 $100,000 LAPD Sprint 5 furlongs 4yo & up

8 $125,000 LAPD Distaff 1 mile 4yo & up FM

9 $100,000 LAPD Prince 1 mile 3yo

10 $150,000 LAPD Championship 1-1/16 miles 4yo & up

11 $60,000 LAPD Gentlemen Starter 1-1/16 miles 4yo & up

The Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association will be awarding two (2) $1,000 college scholarships via a drawing that will take place on Louisiana Premier Day.

Entries for the LTBA drawing will be taken at a designated booth between 11 am and 12 noon. Winners will be announced after the fifth race and will have to be present to win when the announcement is made from winner's circle. To qualify for the drawing, entrants must be enrolled full time for spring or summer 2022 classes and in good standing with their Louisiana college or university.

For more information about Louisiana Premier Day and the remainder of Delta Downs' current season, which runs through March 5, visit the track's website at www.deltadownsracing.com. Fans can also follow the track on Facebook and Twitter.

Delta Downs Racetrack Casino and Hotel, a property of Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), features exciting casino action, live horse racing and fun dining experiences. Delta Downs is located in Vinton, Louisiana, on Delta Downs Drive. From Lake Charles, take Exit 7 and from Texas, take Exit 4.

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Ironically, after more than three months of debate over alleged shadows and perceived inconsistencies with how the patterns fall on the racing surface, the lighting installer and a consulting firm retained by Delta are now trying to rectify the problem not by increasing candlepower, but by actually turning down the intensity of the lighting from about 90% of full illumination to around 60% on each of the poles around the six-furlong track.

“The jockeys are basically saying that there are lights that are very bright, and then it goes into shadows, which they're afraid that the horses will be spooked [by],” Steve Kuypers, Delta's vice president and general manager, told the Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) during a Tuesday meeting.

“That's what is taking so long, is [because] they have to go pole by pole, light by light,” Kuypers said. “And they do this by flying a drone up so [it gives a picture of] the candle width or the candle light, so they can adjust light by light. So we're hoping in the next couple of weeks they will come with a full report to get the entire track to a candle light that is acceptable, and then we'll invite the jockeys over, let them ride, hopefully they will say it's okay.”

Delta's jockeys did not speak on the issue during the Jan. 18 meeting. But the last time the LSRC took up this issue, on Dec. 13, a lawyer for The Jockeys' Guild told commissioners there were “grave concerns” with the light-emitting diode (LED) system, which was necessitated by the old lights getting wrecked by a hurricane in August 2020.

One month ago, the jockeys' concerns about shadows were offset by an initial report issued by the lighting experts that had proclaimed the new Delta lights to be “tremendously better than the pre-hurricane lighting.”

Tuesday, commissioner Tom Calvert pressed Kuypers on why the fix was taking so long.

“This problem that we're having is difficult, because we were supposed to have Delta running at night and Fair Grounds running during the day,” Calvert said. “And now we have two of our major tracks competing against one another for the daytime patrons, and it's a bad situation. And we would like some expedition on behalf of your experts, and it doesn't seem like it would take a month to figure it out.”

By unanimous voice vote Tuesday, the LSRC extended permission for Delta to continue racing during daylight hours for another 60 days, a period of time that extends beyond the meet's closure in seven weeks.

The commission also mandated that Delta provide any new report authored by its lighting experts within 15 days. Delta can also come back before the LSRC at any time before or after then to request a switch back to night racing if jockeys end up okaying the most recent round of fixes to the lighting system.

Three races into the first night program of the season Oct. 15, a horse fell at the top of the stretch. Fueled by complaints from some jockeys and trainers that areas on the turns were dangerously dark and shadowy, the remainder of that card and the Oct. 16 program were cancelled. Delta, a longtime night-racing fixture, has raced only afternoons since then.

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Breaking from post eight in a field of nine, Cilla stalked the early pace set by Icy Charlie, who carved out fractional times of 22.54 seconds for the opening quarter mile and 46.01 for the half. As they turned for home Cilla engaged Icy Charlie who didn't give way easily in the stretch. The pair battled it out for a few strides before Cilla gained the upper-hand and went on to a 2 3/4 length victory over a game Icy Charlie, while Onerollofthedice settled for third, another half length behind the runner-up.

Cilla covered the five-furlong distance of the Orleans in 58.40 seconds. Each race on the Friday program was contest of a fast track and under sunny skies.

The win by Cilla marked the sixth of her 13-race career. She earned $45,000 for the effort and now has a career bankroll of $416,000.

Bred in Louisiana by Ladner and her trainer Brett Brinkman, Cilla is a 4-year-old bay daughter of California Chrome, out of the Into Mischief mare Sittin At the Bar.

Fans who wagered on Cilla collected payoffs of $3.20 to win, $2.40 to place and $2.20 to show. Icy Charlie was worth $4.80 to place and $3.40 to show. Onerollofthedice returned $7 to show.

Delta Downs will close out its race week on Saturday afternoon with another nine-race program that kicks off at 12:55 pm. The headliner will be the $75,000 Sam's Town Stakes for older horses sprinting five furlongs.

For more information about the current season visit the track's website at www.deltadownsracing.com. Fans can also get information about the track through Facebook by visiting the page 'Delta Downs Racing'. The track's Twitter handle is @deltaracing.

Delta Downs Racetrack Casino and Hotel, a property of Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), features exciting casino action, live horse racing and fun dining experiences. Delta Downs is located in Vinton, Louisiana, on Delta Downs Drive. From Lake Charles, take Exit 7 and from Texas, take Exit 4.

The post California Chrome Daughter Cilla Dominates Friday’s Orleans Stakes At Delta appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Logan Cormier was a natural to play the role. He, too, is a survivor.

The last thing on Cormier's mind when he showed up on opening day for the 2020 meet at Turf Paradise was that he would be cast in a movie. He was coming off a year in which he won just 15 races and was hoping to revitalize a career that included a 16-year gap, time he spent away from the game while sentenced to prison. But a chance encounter in the kitchen in the jockey's room with Clifton Collins, Jr., who stars in the movie in the role of jockey Jackson Silva, led to Cormier getting an audition to play Brock. Collins and director Clint Bentley were so impressed with Cormier's audition that he not only got the part, the role was expanded.

“I didn't get paid hardly anything for the movie,” the 42-year-old rider said. “But it's brought some excitement to my life. It's something to be proud of.”

Considering all that Cormier has been through, those things matter.

It all started simply enough. When Cormier was 16, he left his native Louisiana and started riding as an apprentice on the Maryland circuit.

He won 86 races during his first two years riding and seemed destined to become a steady force wherever he rode.

“I got blessed because I got to ride for guys like Bud Delp and King T. Leatherbury when I had my bug,” he said. “I didn't realize back then how good I had it. I was born on the backside, literally. This is what I was meant to do. At the time, I didn't realize what I had. I was young.”
Riding in Louisiana and Texas, he had the best year of his career in 2003. By the end of September, he had 88 wins and $901,083 in earnings. But serious trouble was brewing away from the track. Cormier was descending into a personal hell fueled by a serious drug addiction. Needing money for drugs, he committed a robbery in Texas and was charged with criminal trespassing, robbery and evading arrest or detention.

“When I had my bug I did really good, but I let my street life and the stuff outside the track slow me down,” Cormier said.
Cormier would spend the next 4 1/2 years in the Texas prison system. Upon his release, he reverted back to old habits and was caught dealing drugs.

“What drugs was I taking? Everything,” he said. “I let my addiction override my desire to ride. After I got paroled, I was still running the streets, doing things I shouldn't be doing. I'm good for now. I have it under control, but addiction is a hard thing to overcome.”

Charged with violating his parole, he was forced to serve another 4 1/2 years. When Cormier walked out of a Texas prison in 2016 a free man after nine total years behind bars, he weighed 170 pounds, hadn't ridden in a race in 13 years and didn't know if anyone would ever license him.

“I never thought I'd make it back and be able to ride again,” he said.

The hardest part would be finding someone who would give a convicted felon a license to be a jockey. In 2019, he got the break he was looking for when he was able to convince the Arizona Department of Gaming to give him a second chance. After getting his Arizona license, he says he lost 40 pounds in three weeks and he won on his first mount back in a July 6, 2019 race at Wyoming Downs. It had been nearly 16 years since his last ride. Cormier went from there to Arizona Downs and then to Turf Paradise.

He was glad to be back, but wrestled with what had become of his career. He had become a struggling jockey trying to make it at the sport's lowest tier tracks.

“I wound up at these nothing tracks like Turf Paradise,” he said. “When I was going good, I used to watch Turf Paradise on TV and I said to myself I will never go to a place like that. They don't run for any money there.”

It has not gotten any easier for him. He won 10 races in 2020 and has just five wins this year. He believes that owners and trainers are holding his past against him.

“People make it hard,” he said. “They'll use me to get horses ready and then when they run them will put someone else on them. They judge me for my past transgressions. They look at what you did wrong, not at the good things you have done.”

After the 2021 Turf Paradise meet ended, he rode at Fairmount Park and then at Fair Meadows in Oklahoma. He has not had a mount since July 20. He left Oklahoma to return to Louisiana to fight for custody of his 9-year-old daughter. He would like to ride in Louisiana at Delta Downs, but the state racing commission there will not license him. To stay fit and to make money, he has been breaking yearlings.

“It's been driving me insane that I can't ride,” he said.

He hopes to return to riding soon, if not in Louisiana then maybe back in Arizona.

“I'm at an age where I'll get one last run in,” he said. “Not too many years left in me. If I get in another 10 years I will be lucky.”

Things may be tough for Cormier, but not as tough as they were while he was rotting away in prison having thrown away what should have been the best 16 years of his career. His career may be on hold, but he will ride again, he's clean and sober and he's drawing nothing but positive reviews for his portrayal of Leo in Jockey.

“To go to prison is lowest you can go,” Cormier said. “You can't get any lower than that. That's rock bottom. If I can make it back, ride again and be a productive member of society, then anybody can.”

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The new system was necessitated by a hurricane wiping out the old lights in August of 2020. Delta first raced under the new lights at night on Oct. 15, when a horse fell at the top of the stretch in the third race and the rest of the card, as well as the Oct. 16 program, were cancelled. Delta has only raced afternoon cards since then, which management maintains is not ideal for handle.

Since then, new lights have been added to the system, and the original ones have been re-aimed to improve coverage. Training in the mornings has occurred under the updated system since Dec. 2, but jockeys like Ty Kennedy, Gerard Melancon, and Tim Thornton expressed that they still don't feel the lights are safe.

Delta's vice president and general manager Steve Kuypers countered by referencing a report written by lighting specialist John Stewart, brought in on Dec. 1, which states that “the only track in the nation with a better lighting system was Churchill Downs.”

“We can't agree on okaying this if the lighting system's not safe for these riders,” Commissioner Eddie Delahoussaye, a retired Hall-of-Fame jockey, told the other commissioners. “Somebody goes and gets killed–I don't want that on my head.”

The LSRC wound up voting unanimously to extend Delta's afternoon racing schedule for an additional 30 days, unless the two parties can agree on the safety of the lights and desire an expedited re-vote prior to that timeframe.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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