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As the Churchill Downs Spring Meet enters its final three days, several jockeys and trainers are making their summer plans.

Leading rider Tyler Gaffalione plans to spend the summer in Saratoga where he recorded 33 wins last year and was No. 6 in the standings. Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. joined Gaffalione last summer but was unsure where he'll be based this year.

Much of the current Churchill Downs jockey colony will base in Kentucky for the summer and ride primarily at Ellis Park. Those expected to contest the Ellis meeting include last year's leading rider, Brian Hernandez Jr., along with Rafael Bejarano, Adam Beschizza, Martin Garcia, Florent Geroux, James Graham, Corey Lanerie, Julien Leparoux, Gabe Saez, and Joe Talamo.

Chris Landeros is scheduled to ride primarily at Ellis but will travel several days to Colonial Downs. Jockeys Rey Gutierrez and Joe Rocco Jr. plan to base at Colonial the entire summer. Last year Rocco was in a heated battle for leading rider for most of the meet with Horacio Karamanos and finished second 21-20 wins.

Nearly every trainer that is currently stabled on the backside of Churchill Downs will keep horses in Kentucky and ship to other tracks over the next two months.

Trainers Tom Amoss, Steve Asmussen, Phil Bauer, Mark Casse, Brad Cox, and Ian Wilkes have become regulars at Saratoga and will continue to have a presence there.

Trainers Jason Barkley, Bill Morey, and Matt Shirer are also slated to have stalls at Saratoga for the first time. They will split their stables between Kentucky and New York.

Norm Casse will be based on both coasts this summer with a barn at Del Mar and Saratoga.

Michelle Lovell and Mike Tomlinson will once again return to Colonial Downs for the summer. Lovell finished second in the standings last year with nine wins while Tomlinson finished fourth with seven.

Following the close of the Spring Meet on Monday, the next race date at Churchill Downs will be Arlington Million Day on Saturday, Aug. 13. Training will continue after the meet closes but will have adjusted hours of 5:30-9:30 a.m. (ET).

Over the next several weeks many trainers begin to ship in their 2-year-olds. Currently, there are about 450 2-year-olds stabled at Churchill Downs and Trackside Louisville.

The post Churchill Leading Rider Gaffalione To Head For Saratoga When Meet Ends; Hernandez, Other Jocks Take Aim On Ellis Park appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Champion jockey Sheldon Russell, away from the races for 296 days, made a triumphant return to action aboard first-time starter Heldish in the fourth race Friday at Laurel Park.

ItsTheJHo's Heldish, a son of Great Notion bred in Maryland by R. Larry Johnson and trained by Russell's wife, Brittany Russell, completed five furlongs in 58.77 seconds over a fast main track to win the maiden claiming event for 2-year-olds by 2 ¼ lengths as the 4-5 favorite.

Heldish broke running from Post 2 and was quickly in front, pressured on his outside by Box N Ben through a quarter-mile in 22.93 seconds. The top two began to separate from their rivals around the far turn and straightened for home set up for a stretch battle when Heldish shook loose in mid-stretch at Russell's urging and drew off.

“To be fair, I feel pretty good. We knew going in today that he was a pretty cool horse. He's been one of my daily gallops every morning. I'm very comfortable with him. You could see in the post parade, he's as cool as can be,” Russell said. “I want to say good job to Eric Camacho who gets on him every other day. He's always been all class. He was a great first ride back.”

It was the first race back for Russell, 34, since last Sept. 9 at Laurel when another 2-year-old Maryland-bred making its career debut, filly Little Bit of That, got spooked and reared heading to the track, unseating the rider, who had won earlier that day on 3-year-old gelding Arrio.

Russell landed on his right foot, toes first, and was later diagnosed with a Lisfranc injury, involving both the bones and ligaments in the middle part of the foot. Leading all Maryland jockeys in purse earnings and ranked second in wins when he went down, Russell underwent successful surgery later that month.

A long recovery and rehabilitation followed, including the removal of hardware inserted to stabilize the foot, and Russell was finally able to get back on horses in April. He was about a week away from returning to the races when he suffered another setback, breaking his collarbone during morning training. Sidelined several more weeks, Russell was back on horses again in June.

“Time-wise, it's the longest I've been off and I would say probably the toughest. Not being able to walk for four months was very hard,” Russell said. “We did three months of rehab and ended up taking the screws and plates out of the foot. There were times when I didn't think it was going to get better, but as we all know if you give it enough time everything heals. Just fortunate enough to be back in the saddle today.”

Represented by agent Marty Leonard, Russell has won six of his eight individual meet riding titles in Maryland at Laurel and was the state's overall champion in 2011. He has won more than 1,500 races and $43 million in purses since 2007 having overcome several injuries over the course of his career.

During his recovery, Russell kept busy spending quality time with his wife and children – daughter Edy, who turns 3 Aug. 25, and son Rye, born last Nov. 1. He was by his wife's side when she won Laurel's spring stand as well as the subsequent Preankess Meet at historic Pimlico Race Course. Ironically, it was Little Bit of That's victory on Mother's Day, May 8, which clinched her first career meet championship.

Russell has no mounts Saturday but is named again in two of nine races Sunday at Laurel, aboard Anthony Farrior-trained Jackie the Joker in Race 1, a 1 1/16-mile claiming event on the main track, and Smart Eulee for trainer Tim Keefe in Race 2, a maiden claimer sprinting 5 ½ furlongs over the Kelso turf course.

“I've got to say a huge thank you to Justin [Horowitz], one of the [Heldish] owners, for trusting in me. He knows the horse has been working really good I the mornings,” Russell said. “It would be an easy out to put one of the top jocks on him, but he gave me that opportunity and I'll forever be grateful.”

The post Off 296 Days, Jockey Sheldon Russell Makes Successful Return To The Saddle At Laurel appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Equibase Company announced Friday the resignation of Sal Sinatra, president and chief operating officer.

“I am stepping aside at this point so that I may dedicate my time to personal issues that require my full attention,” said Sinatra. “I am grateful to the members of the Equibase Management Committee for their support of me and to my co-workers at Equibase Company and The Jockey Club for their help and kind assistance since I joined Equibase one year ago.”

Ian Highet, chairman of Equibase, said that James L. Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club, will assume the role of president of Equibase in the interim. Equibase will commence a search for a new president, which will include internal and external candidates.

“We thank Sal for his contributions to Equibase, in particular his work to facilitate the development of the Equibase E-GPS, the hybrid of light beam timing and GPS tracking,” said Highet. “Because of this new service, the future is bright for Equibase as we embark on producing new modern statistics and data that will advance handicapping for beginners and experts alike.”

“I look forward to working closely with the excellent team at Equibase as we efficiently roll out E-GPS and as we continue our work on many other initiatives and services important to the Equibase partners and customers,” added Gagliano.

Equibase Company is a partnership between subsidiaries of The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America and serves as the Thoroughbred industry's official database. Through its website and mobile applications, Equibase offers a comprehensive array of free statistical information as well as premium handicapping products and reports in support of the North American Thoroughbred racing industry.

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The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame will highlight the career and accomplishments of the renowned cartoonist Pierre “Peb” Bellocq during a ceremony at Belmont Park on Saturday, July 9 as part of the Stars and Stripes Racing Festival.

Stars and Stripes Day features four graded stakes headlined by the Grade 1, $1 million Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational for sophomores and the Grade 1, $700,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational for 3-year-old fillies, which serve as the 10-furlong opening legs of the Caesars Turf Triple Series. Also featured on the lucrative card is the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban, a 10-furlong test for older horses; and the Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies.

In 2020, Bellocq was selected to be a member of the National Museum of Racing's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, NYRA and the Racing Museum have yet to hold a public event to commemorate this honor.

NYRA and the National Museum of Racing will honor Peb's contributions in a variety of ways including a race named in his honor followed by a winner's circle ceremony featuring Bellocq alongside family and friends.

“The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame would like to thank NYRA for generously offering to host this wonderful day in honor of Peb, whose art and humor have captured the unique and vibrant characters and scenes of thoroughbred racing for generations,” said Brien Bouyea, Communications Director at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. “The racing world owes Peb a great deal of gratitude for his lifetime of distinguished work that has brought so much joy to the sport.”

Bellocq, 95, was born in France in 1926. At age 19, the French racing journal France Courses gave him national exposure by publishing one of his cartoons of a jockey. Bellocq signed the drawing as “Peb,” a signature that became his lifelong moniker.

By 1954, Bellocq's work had achieved international acclaim and he was contracted by Laurel Park owner John D. Schapiro to do drawings for the prestigious Washington, D.C. International Stakes. Bellocq decided to relocate to the United States and in 1955 accepted an offer to work as the staff cartoonist for the Morning Telegraph and its sister paper, Daily Racing Form, a job he held until December 2008. Early in this career, Bellocq also produced political cartoons for the Philadelphia Inquirer while simultaneously working for the Form. Bellocq eventually transitioned his primary focus to thoroughbred racing.

Along with his work for the Form, Bellocq has been commissioned by numerous racetracks to produce vibrant murals capturing the flavor of the sport. At Belmont Park, he created a mural which is featured prominently on the 2nd floor of the clubhouse featuring a wide variety of racing personalities. His large-scale cartoon collages have become fixtures at Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Arlington, Oaklawn, Aqueduct, and The Meadowlands.

Bellocq has also produced several books; his first, published in 1957, consisted of 150 cartoons and was titled “Peb's Equine Comedy.” Bellocq also illustrated the 1969 Joe Hirsch book “A Treasury of Questions and Answers from the Morning Telegraph and Daily Racing Form.” In 2004, he created drawings for author Ed Hotaling's book on Hall of Fame jockey Jimmy Winkfield, whom Bellocq had known personally when the rider was living and racing in his hometown of Maisons-Laffitte.

Bellocq has received numerous awards for his work, which has been exhibited extensively. In 1980, he received an Eclipse Award for his contributions to racing and he was presented The Jockey Club Medal in 2016. Bellocq also received the National Cartoonists Society 1991 Sports Cartoon Award and their 1999 Newspaper Illustration Award. In 1998, the Daniel Wildenstein Art Gallery in New York held an exhibition of Bellocq's work titled The Racing World in Sketch and Caricature. From July 2004 through December 2005, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame put on a special exhibition of his works titled Peb: The Art of Humor, which celebrated his 50th anniversary of horse racing artwork in the United States.

For more information, please visit NYRA.com.

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