Presque Isle Downs | Horse Racing Free Tips

4,000th Win for Jamie Ness

Trainer Jamie Ness earned the 4,000th win of his career when Sing Scat (Irish War Cry), a 3-year-old filly he co-owns, captured the first race at Laurel Park Sunday. The victory was the 27th in the month of July for Ness and extended his win streak to 17 calendar days between Laurel, Delaware Park and Parx that dates back to June 30. It was also the second career milestone Ness has reached at Laurel where he earned his 2,000th win with Caylee's Song on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 2013.

“Luckily, we weren't [waiting] for very long. It came pretty fast,” Ness said. “It's kind of a longevity milestone, I guess you'd call it. We've been doing this a long time. I remember being right here for 2,000. Seems like it was yesterday.”

Ness is the 16th trainer to reach 4,000 wins in North America and ranks 13th among active trainers behind Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen's record 10,199 and counting. The 48-year-old Ness recorded win number 1,000 at Presque Isle Downs Sept. 23, 2010 and hit the 3,000-win milestone at Parx Feb. 18, 2020.

“The last thousand went pretty quick,” Ness said. “The first win was tough. I went like oh-for-30 or 40 and was like, 'This is hard.' I just wanted to win one race when I first started. I had bad horses and didn't do a good job with the ones I had, so it took a while before I won a race.”

Heading into Sunday Ness was the leading trainer at both Delaware Park and Parx and tied 16-16 with Brittany Russell in Laurel's summer meet standings after Starship Laoban gave Ness win number 4,001 in Sunday's third race.

“I'm fortunate. [This] is something I would do even if I didn't get paid,” Ness said. “It's my hobby, it's my passion and it's my job. Very few get to do that, so I feel blessed to be able in that position.”

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Saffie Joseph, Jr. Suspended 15 Days In Pennsylvania For Positive, Will Appeal

Saffie Joseph, Jr., the leading trainer at the current meet at Gulfstream Park, has been suspended for 15 days and fined $500 by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission after his trainee Artie's Princess (We Miss Artie) tested positive for the substance Gabapentin after her win in the GII Presque Isle Downs Masters S. on Sept. 19, 2022 at Presque Isle Downs.

The story was first reported by the Paulick Report.

According to the website Equinews.com, “Gabapentin has been used in horses for many years, and is often prescribed as adjunct therapy for horses with pain rising from laminitis, particularly as part of a multimodal approach to pain management.”

Joseph denied any wrongdoing and said he is appealing the ruling.

“I had never even heard of this medication and it was never used on that horse or any horse I've had,” he said. “We've never had it in the barn. I was completely shocked by this.”

According to a document from the Pennsylvania Racing Commission, which Joseph forwarded to the TDN, Artie's Princess was also tested the afternoon before the race and was negative “for the presence of foreign substances.” Joseph questioned how the same horse could test positive the next day when it had not had any further veterinary treatment.

“She was tested 24 hours before the race by the same Pennsylvania lab,” he said. “The horse was negative and was then positive the next day when no vet treated her. How is that possible? The proof is in the pudding.”

Joseph also said the horse tested positive at a level that should be considered below the recognized threshold level.

“The stewards had all the facts and they made a decision,” Joseph said. “They chose not to step up to the plate and did not make a decision based on the facts. I'm not denying what was there. But how did it get there? I don't know. If you follow the science and the studies that have been done, it shouldn't even be called a positive.”

Joseph asked for a split sample. The Texas A & M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory confirmed the positive finding.

Had he not appealed, Joseph's suspension would have run from June 5 through June 19, 2023.

The Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission also ordered the disqualification of Artie's Princess and a redistribution of the purse. Café Society (Empire Maker) originally finished second in the race.

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PHBA Releases Stakes Schedule

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association released its 2023 stakes schedule for locally bred horses they said on Thursday. The list includes 29 stakes to be run at state-wide tracks throughout the year, with seven slated for Pennsylvania-sired and bred runners.

The first of 23 stakes with purses of $100,000 will be run Monday, Apr. 24 at Parx Racing, followed by a summer stakes schedule hosted by Penn National and Presque Isle Downs. The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association's signature event, Pennsylvania's Day at the Races, will be held Monday, Aug. 21 at Parx.

Click here, for the full stakes schedule.

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Jockey Avery Whisman Passes Away at 23

Jockey Avery Whisman, who rode in the Mid-Atlantic region after beginning his career in 2018, passed away Wednesday at the age of 23 after what his family described as a “prolonged illness.” He was at his parents' home in Versailles, Kentucky at the time of his passing. Whisman had not ridden since accepting mounts Aug. 23 at Presque Isle Downs.

Though Whisman had been ill, his mother, Salli, described his passing as “a sudden an unexcepted event.”

“He absolutely loved the sport,” Salli Whisman said. “He was an incredible horseman. If you talked to anybody in the industry who worked with him they will tell you he was always kind and gracious and polite and had an incredible smile on his face. When he was on a horse he was only thinking about that horse and he brought all the skills he learned as a youngster. He could settle any horse. Everyone loved how quietly he sat on a horse and how he could read what horse needed.”

“From the time I first met him, we just clicked,” said trainer Matthew Kintz. “We had a lot of success together last year. I was really looking forward to him having a bright future. I'm thankful I was able to enjoy the time I did have with him because he was a great guy.”

After learning of Whisman's death, Hall of Famer Mike Smith took to Twitter to pay tribute to the young jockey.

“R.I.P my little brother you will Always be so Loved,” read his tweet.

Whisman met Smith when he moved to Southern California in the summer of 2018 where he went to prepare for his career. Smith took Whisman under his wing and gave him boots and the saddle he used win winning the GI Kentucky Derby in 2005 aboard Giacomo (Holy Bull). The same saddle was given to Smith by Laffit Pincay Jr. when he retired in 2003.

Salli Whisman said the entire family was involved in eventing and that her son had been around horses since he was a toddler.

“I wanted to have a career where I could ride,” Avery Whisman told the Laurel media relations department in 2019. “I love riding horses, I love working with them in the mornings and teaching them and trying to make them better and improve every single day. Just being around horses, it's what I love. I wanted to find a career where I could do that for the rest of my life. Unfortunately in the eventing and show world, there's not really any kind of money in it. You can't support yourself doing that, so when I started galloping and started making a little money and started getting a little taste of the racing industry, I loved it. It made the most sense.”

Whisman made his debut Dec. 18, 2018 at Turf Paradise. He would move to the Maryland circuit in 2019 and also rode winners at Presque Isle and at Colonial Downs.

“He was a bit of an adrenaline junky,” his mother said. “He loved the speed.”

Whisman had 90 career winners. His best year came in 2019 when he had 53 winners.

He is survived by his mother, his father Lyman, a former steeplechase jockey, and sisters Caitlin Pinkney-Atkinson, Emma Whisman and Clare McCabe. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the The Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.

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