One of the biggest changes for the 2023 racing season is the addition of several Saturday dates from June 3 through Sept. 2. Five of those dates are allotted for Quarter Horse racing with a first post time of 10:45 a.m. Five dates in that time frame will be Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing with a first post of 5:30 p.m., while two dates, July 8 and Aug. 26, will have an earlier post time of 12 p.m. The July 8 date will be the track's signature event, the GIII Indiana Derby.

The general racing calendar will begin with a Monday through Thursday schedule with Monday racing dropped in the summer to accommodate Saturday racing. In September, the schedule will go back to the original format of Monday through Thursday.

In addition to Indiana Derby, the fourth annual Indiana Champions Day, also featuring stakes races in excess of $1 million, is slated for Saturday, Oct. 28 with a first post of 12 p.m.

Horseshoe Indianapolis will also conduct live racing on three holidays during the meet. Racing will be held Monday, May 29 for Memorial Day and Tuesday, July 4 for Independence Day with a first post of 12 p.m. Racing will also be held Saturday, Sept. 2 for Labor Day, featuring an all-Quarter Horse card beginning at 10:45 a.m.

The post 2023 Race Dates Approved For Horseshoe Indianapolis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“Back then they had those weed-eaters with a motor you strapped onto your back,” Betz recalls. “Weighed about 40lbs. So 7:00 a.m., I started weeding down the front of the farm. Get to 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m., I don't see anybody. I'm thinking, 'Boy, people really work hard on a farm.' Finally, about quarter to six, no lunch or anything, I'm weeding round these trees up here, and Doc McGee comes in off his rounds. And he drives by, backs up, rolls down the window and says: 'Who are you?'”

Betz introduced himself to the Hagyard veterinarian. First day of his summer job, funding classes at the University of Kentucky: nutrition, farm management, that kind of thing. He'd arrived from Notre Dame with all his worldly possessions–a '64 Dodge and a dog–with a vague plan to transfer some Bluegrass know-how to the Quarter Horse game where he'd been learning the ropes.

At that moment Mrs. McGee appeared with a tray.

“Young man,” she said. “You look like you could use some iced tea.”

Many years later, they all met again on the top floor of the First Security building in downtown Lexington, to close on the sale of the farm. And Mrs. McGee reminded Betz of his response.

With a self-deprecating chuckle, he admits: “Apparently I said to her, 'Yes, I could. Because now I know how Jesus felt when he carried that cross up Golgotha.'”

When Mine That Bird crossed the line, the first person to call was Dr. McGee, saying how happy he was that the farm had raised a Kentucky Derby winner.

Mine That Bird famously brought only $9,500 as a yearling. Betz doesn't pretend he was any kind of standout, though he always believed in the genes: he'd bought the granddam because she managed second in the Canadian Oaks despite cracking a knee. “Something like Mine That Bird, though, that's just the icing on the cake,” Betz says. “That's just being in the game and giving yourself a chance to get lucky.”

Among countless other photos sharing the office walls, however, are a sale-topper and the half-brother to Roman Ruler and El Corredor who made $4.6 million at the 2006 Keeneland September Sale; and many besides, that did their job both in the ring and on the track. The latest is Echo Zulu (Gun Runner), herself a $300,000 yearling, who assisted her American Pharoah half-sister to $1.4 million last September at Keeneland, even though she had just won the first of the three Grade Is that secured her Eclipse Award.

These mementos of elite horses-remarkably copious, for a farm that has seldom grazed more than a couple of dozen mares–attest to the journey dividing that perspiring college kid from the reflective figure now lounging behind the desk. But perhaps it can better be charted by less familiar navigational points dotted about the room: native American totems, a scale model of a Great Lakes freighter, even the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius. Hardly standard issue, on horse farms. But never mind that Betz was a Philosophy and English major; here, simply put, is a man profoundly inquisitive about the world around him. And, really, that was also what drew him to horses.

“I think that's the number one thing you need in this business,” he says. “A natural curiosity. To be a careful observer. I think in some ways it's probably been an advantage, not to be second or third generation [in the industry]. Some of those people either don't have that curiosity to really see things and learn. Experience is a great teacher.”

Betz is instead indebted to his father for the template of a self-made man. Having started out as locomotive fireman, he had ended up president of the railroad–and his sons, in turn, were expected to learn about life by experiencing it. Hence the desk replica of the SS Kinsman Enterprise, where Betz had another of his summer jobs.

“She was built in 1927 and was sister ship to the Edmund Fitzgerald that they wrote the song about,” Betz says, referring to the loss of all hands in a Lake Superior storm in 1975. “Having this here reminds me of a different time in my life. We'd bring taconite pellets mined in Minnesota and Wisconsin down to the steel mills. Loading onto the dock, being the young kid, they'd swing you over in what they called the bosun's chair, with a big cable you had to run up and put on a cleat. And the taconite, of course it spills out and you're running over these marbles, with the boat coming in and the gap so wide.” He holds his hands apart. “These boats come in at 660 feet, into a real high dock. And there are no brakes on a boat! There weren't a lot of safety rules back then.”

It was a grounding that gives Betz a distaste for any sign of entitlement in young people today, and he's grateful that his father's “nepotism” was confined to putting his sons on a section gang, laying the track.

“We were knocking these spikes in with a sledgehammer, and the Mexican men would go all day and then build a fire and cook their tacos,” Betz recalls. “But after about five hits, my arms were rubber. And they'd come up, put their arms round me and say, 'That's okay, you go rest.' So when the Mexicans started embracing the horse business, I had nothing but respect for them. It does open your eyes: what the real world is like, and that if you want something you have to go out and earn it.”

A first exposure to horses came through upcountry Ohio weekends with his great uncle, who drove a school bus, but traded work horses on the side.

“He was quite a character,” Betz recalls. “He'd go in there and next thing you knew he'd be coming out with a different horse from the one he went in with. And he'd hook them up to a sleigh, and we'd go on trail rides, and he'd tell all these stories round the camp fire.”

Having learned to handle horses, Betz hooked up with another rare type to show Quarter Horses through his high school years.    “This trainer took me all over the country: Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Chicago,” he says. “He liked the drink, he liked the ladies, so he'd go out and party while I stayed behind to feed and groom and then bed down in the corner of the stall. Interesting experience, to say the least. But there I was, a 15-year-old kid, paid $25 for every horse I showed in the ring. I'd go into tack shops and buy myself fancy chaps, I was king of the walk.”

To persevere with horses, even so, struck his family as “a ridiculous thing to do” with law school beckoning. But it was a time of opportunity. People were starting to cross Quarter Horses with Thoroughbreds, and Betz figured that he should come to the Bluegrass and learn a few angles–only to become so absorbed by Thoroughbreds that he never went back.

Lee Eaton gave him a little office to comb through regional racecards, digging out the pedigrees of any fillies entered for a claim. He also had to index, longhand, the families of the many horses sold by Eaton's pioneering agency: toil that left him thoroughly versed in pedigrees. Betz then rounded out his education with the chance to manage Helmore Farm for Edgar Lucas in Maryland.

“They stood three stallions and bred a couple of hundred mares each year,” he recalls. “I didn't have much experience of handling stallions, and it was three old racetrackers and me. I can remember to this day the first mare I foaled on my own, I was so nervous. But you got a lot of stuff thrown at you, real quick, and you learned how to deal with it. After that baptism under fire, coupled what I'd learnt with Lee, I felt there wasn't anything I couldn't do in this business if I kept working hard.”

Betz befriended another outstanding horseman in David Hanley, nowadays at WinStar, but then managing a farm in Ireland before an impressive stint as a trainer. They'd begun a transatlantic pinhook partnership, along with Irish vet James Egan, at a time when the weanling market was little contested.

By now Betz was leasing a farm near Paris from his former boss Lucas, who kept his mares there as part of the package. But then he heard that the McGees were selling and Betz, initially with partners, became only the third proprietor of 300 lush acres previously maintained on a revolutionary war land grant by heirs of Patrick Henry. (“Give me liberty, or give me death!”)

“I knew I didn't want to work for anybody else,” Betz reflects. “I'm my own best critic. It's my life, not somebody else's, and you're not going to give that away. But I realized early on that there was no money in boarding horses, if you do it as you should without cutting corners. So if I was going to have a farm, I decided I'd want a piece of everything that's on it. That was the business model: populate the farm in partnerships, with people loyal to your program. And then upgrade as much as you can, whenever you have the capital.

“You have to be willing to take chances–I started out week to week, payroll to payroll–and you have to be objective. It's like running a sports franchise. These mares are draft choices: some work out, some don't. I want to strengthen their weaknesses without weakening their strengths, but to do that you have to see those strengths and weaknesses clearly. You can't be sentimental. And I think over the years, you develop intuition about it.”

To Betz, mating is all about match-making. “I don't think any stallion is too 'cheap' or too 'expensive',” he says. “All that matters is whether it's the right one for the mare. Can he enhance her? That's what you strive for. Breed the best to the best? Nice if you're Vanderbilt. But sometimes best to the best isn't the best. Yes, I have to be aware of the commercial side, because I sell yearlings for a living. I only race the odd filly. But within that context, within that group of successful stallions, there will always be matches that fit my mare.”

A case in point is Echo Zulu's dam Letgomyecho (Menifee), who had fallen beyond reach in the 2010 Keeneland November Sale, at $235,000, only to slip to $135,000 in the same ring a year later. Her first covers had been pricey, commensurate with her record as winner of her first three starts including the GII Forward Gal S. But maybe they weren't the right covers. Betz sent her to Mineshaft, and came up with graded stakes winner J Boys Echo; to Speightstown, for Grade I winner Echo Town; and then to Gun Runner for her champion. As Steve Asmussen said to him, after Letgomyecho's American Pharoah hit the home run last September: “'Well, I got mine. Now you got yours!'”

“I want to breed aptitude to aptitude,” Betz says, dismissing another lazy convention. “If your mare's fast, don't breed her to a stayer. Breed a stayer to a stayer and hope it's fast, or a sprinter to a sprinter and hope it can carry its speed. But those are just principles over-riding the program. It's like if you're a painter, and someone says why did you use that color? It all goes together at the end of the day, and you just hope that you got it right.”

That feels an instructive analogy, for there's a really creative sensibility at work here.

“I think I do have an artistic side,” Betz accepts. “I love music, I love art, and the way people can express themselves like that. To me, this is really my way to express myself. I'd love to be a musician, but I'm not, so this is kind of my extension.”

Like all artistry, all intuition, horsemanship is hard to articulate. As Betz says, if he can't always remedy a situation with a horse, he tries not to be confused by what's causing it.

“We like to give them human qualities, say they're courageous or whatever,” he muses. “And maybe there's a little bit of that: they can be competitive. But truth be told, the ones that excel, I think it's probably just easier for them. What did Vince Lombardi say? 'Fatigue makes cowards of us all.'

“I remember being sent down to Hialeah to look at this filly Jimmy Conway had, who used to train for Darby Dan. And I was asking him what he looked for, in terms of soundness and all that, and he said: 'Bill, if they can run, they're all unsound.' You train them hard; they run hard. So there's probably some truth to that, too.”

What does seem obvious is that Betz's empathy must reflect a hinterland so much wider than you tend to encounter in the obsessive, all-consuming world of Thoroughbreds. Asked about the Native American totems, for instance, Betz gives a shrug.    “They understood one very important premise, in my view,” he says. “People complain about the world. But if there's a God, maybe he didn't just make the world for us. That may be inconvenient for us, but maybe we're missing the point. We think we're the center of everything-and those native cultures understood that maybe they weren't.”

Not that he pretends the slightest immunity to the vexations of a horseman's life, whether in trivial daily frustrations or the disasters that can ruin a whole business cycle.

“It is a rollercoaster,” he says. “The emotional highs and lows can be pretty dramatic. That's not for everybody. I've had people over the years wanting to get into the business, but I'm pretty careful who I partner with-just because you know what's coming, and you need the mentality to accept those pitfalls. But I guess if you've got enough nerve to keep getting back on the rollercoaster, the thrills can be memorable.”

And surely the good days, all those photos on the wall, redress the disappointments?

“I think that's true in life,” Betz replies. “But I don't know that you do this for those kinds of things. You do it because this is what you do.”

The post Echo Zulu Latest to Show Best of Bill Betz appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The 2022 84-day live racing season begins with 22 days of Thoroughbred-only racing May 13 – June 18 with an additional two days of Thoroughbred-only racing on Thursday, Sept. 29 and Sunday, Oct. 2. The 60-day mixed Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse schedule will take place June 19 – Oct. 1.

Live racing will be offered Fridays – Mondays, with post times set for 6:00 p.m. CDT on Fridays and Saturdays, and 4:00 p.m. CDT on Sundays and Mondays. Post times may change for special race days, events, and holidays.

The Thoroughbred purse structure will see an increase of nearly 5 percent across the board. The bottom level purse will be at $10,500 for maiden claiming $5,000 or beaten claiming $3,500 runners. The top-level purses will range from $32,000 for maiden special weights to $37,500 for no conditioned allowance races.

The Thoroughbred stakes schedule will feature a total of 26 stakes worth an estimated $2,000,000 and will be highlighted by the Iowa Festival of Racing scheduled for Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9, and includes the Iowa Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1. Eight overnight allowance stakes worth $50,000 each will be scheduled early in the season mainly as local prep races for the Festival in early July. The Festival will be enhanced this season with two additional stakes added for 2-year-old boys and girls at $100,000 each, The Prairie Gold Lassie and The Prairie Gold Juvenile going 5 ½ furlongs. The main event of the Festival remains the $300,000 Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap which was won last year by the gray superstar Knicks Go. Two new stakes will be added for late August for 2-year-old boys and girls at $100,000 each, The Prairie Meadows Debutante and The Prairie Meadows Freshman going 6 furlongs. The Iowa Classic for Iowa bred runners will now feature all seven stakes worth $100,000 each.

The Quarter Horse purse structure will also see significant increases across the board with a 20 to 25 percent jump in overnight purses for 2022. The bottom level purse at $9,000 for maiden $7,500 to $5,000 races and the top-level purses ranging from $13,500 for maiden special weight to $17,000 for no conditioned allowance races. The Quarter Horse stakes schedule will offer 23 races worth an estimated $1.6 million and continue to feature a strong Futurity and Derby schedule for both open and Iowa bred runners, the Bank of America/Prairie Meadows Regional Challenge qualifiers in August, and finishing the season with Quarter Horse Championship Night on Friday, September 30 with the finals of the Valley Junction Futurity (G3) and Altoona Derby along with the Two Rivers (G3) for older 440-yard campaigners and Iowa Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1 featuring an all Iowa bred stakes card highlighted by the Jim Bader Futurity and Polk County Derby.

Horsemen should note that Condition Book 1 and stall application for the 2022 season has been posted online in the Horseman's Information area of Prairie Meadows' website at www.prairiemeadows.com/racing/horsemens-info and will be available in hardcopy form via mail or at Prairie Meadows Racing Office within the next few days.

Condition Book 1 will feature the first 14 days of the 2022 season (Thoroughbred-only racing) plus a preview section for Quarter Horse racing starting on page 66 of the condition book. This previews the first 10 days of Quarter Horse races offered from June 19 – July 4. Stall applications will be due in the Prairie Meadows Racing Office by Wednesday, April 6 for both breeds.

The barn area is scheduled to open for horses on Friday, April 15 and training is set to begin on Sunday, April 17, weather permitting.

Quarter Horse connections are reminded that Futurity and Derby nomination forms are available online, by mail, or by request through the Prairie Meadows Racing Office. Payment schedules begin March 1 for the Prairie Meadows Gold Futurity and Derby, Hawkeye Futurity, Cyclone Derby, and Iowa Quarter Horse Stallion Futurity and Derby. Payment schedules begin April 1 for the Valley Junction Futurity, Altoona Derby, Jim Bader Futurity, and Polk County Derby.

To continue receiving information about our 2022 live horse racing season, visit https://www.prairiemeadows.com/signmeup

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“At that time it was just blowing smoke, but now it doesn't seem as far-fetched,” Lawson said.

Diego Herrera, just 17 years old, was originally booked to ride 13 horses on Sunday, Jan. 2. He began the afternoon with the first turf win of his career at Santa Anita Park, taking a starter allowance race aboard Phil D'Amato trainee Solo Animo.

He ended the evening by picking up a 14th mount just 30 minutes prior to the Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap at Los Alamitos. The apprentice easily guided Juan Aleman trainee Kiss Thru Fire to a half-length victory, earning the first graded stakes win of his career.

“It was pretty cool,” Herrera acknowledged. 

Though his official riding career began in 2021, Herrera has been involved in match racing since he was as young as 11. Prior to that, he and his pony “Sparky” would dream up match races on the beach near the family home in Inglewood, Calif. 

“I'd pretend that somebody else was running against me, I'd run him about 10 yards, then stop him and turn him back and do it again,” Herrera remembered. “He was the sweetest pony ever, just let me do whatever with him, and he was pretty fast, too!”

Diego Herrera and “Sparky” (photo provided)

That's not to say that Sparky didn't enter his fair share of match races, too, some right along the river bed where Herrera had learned to ride.

“Match racing is a part of the Mexican culture,” Herrera explained. “ Wherever we can race a horse against a horse, we do it!”

Diego Herrera and Sparky win a match race (photo provided)

If he wasn't riding Sparky, a young Herrera was practicing his form atop a bale of hay, or following his father around on jobs with his landscaping business with the hope that they'd be able to stop at the racetrack on their way home.

“I never wanted to be home,” he said. “When I was four years old, I'd hear my dad wake up and go to put on my little boots and want to go to work with him.”

Herrera's father, from Agua Caliente in Mexico, worked cattle aboard horses on his family farm, and since moving to the U.S. has owned racing Quarter Horses for years. When his son was old enough, the family traveled as far away as Washington and Colorado so that he could ride in the match races.

Since school was important to Herrera's mother, he committed to finishing his high school diploma at the charter school of Lennox Academy. The arrival of the pandemic in early 2020 made it a bit easier for Herrera to get a job on the racetrack in the mornings, then head home to complete his online studies.

“My parents both busted their bum to give me a better life,” said Herrera. “I knew I needed to respect that.”

Continuing his education even while working at the track and riding as many as two tracks in one day, Herrera earned his diploma last month. 

Meanwhile, his racetrack education had continued at Los Alamitos under the tutelage of the Andrade family, first as a hotwalker and a groom, and eventually as an exercise rider. Oscar Andrade Sr. was once a rising superstar in the Quarter Horse jockey ranks, setting a record that still stands when he rode seven winners during a single night at Los Alamitos on June 5, 2001.

Sadly, tragedy struck just months later when Andrade Sr. was paralyzed from the chest down in a racing accident. His wife, Elena, began training in 2004, and they've remained major players in the Quarter Horse industry in Southern California. 

“I owe a lot to them,” Herrera said. “They taught me that you never stop learning in this business, and that every horse is different every single day. They taught me the discipline, and that you have to be open to learn new things and never stop learning.”

April Ward, longtime assistant to Hall of Fame (Thoroughbred) trainer Bob Wheeler, has been with Herrera from the beginning of his professional career and books all his Quarter Horse mounts. However, Los Alamitos racing director Scott Craigmyle suggested the young jockey try Thoroughbreds, as well, and introduced Herrera to agent Vince DeGregory, a legend in his own right. The pair began making the rounds at Santa Anita Park.

“I just fell in love with the place,” Herrera said.

DeGregory helped Herrera get his first mount on Thoroughbreds, and though Herrera is now represented by Lawson, he'll never forget the influence of the older horseman. DeGregory's resume includes jockeys like Angel Cordero Jr., Chris McCarron, Laffit Pincay Jr., Bill Shoemaker, Alex Solis, Jacinto Vasquez and Jorge Velasquez, in addition to Victor Espinoza, Darrel McHargue and Joel Rosario.

“He told me never to put myself below these other riders,” said Herrera. “We all go out and do the same thing, and we're all in the same game, so I should always be confident in myself.”

Herrera quickly learned how much he enjoyed the strategy that is such a crucial part of the Thoroughbred game.

“In Quarter Horse races you get a clean break and you go on with it,” he explained. “The Thoroughbreds are so different, with different strategies and techniques, so I think that's one of the big reasons I like it so much. I get the same adrenaline rush going 300 yards as I do turning into the stretch in the longer races.”

In 2021, Herrera rode 44 Thoroughbred winners from 376 starters, as well as 25 Quarter Horse winners from 198 mounts, according to Equibase. He plans to keep up with both breeds for the time being, letting Ward work out the scheduling with Lawson.

“Most people are surprised when I tell them he's only 17 years old,” Lawson said. “His work ethic is impeccable, and the fact that he pays attention to what he's told when working the horses in the morning and in the afternoon is impressive. It's refreshing to see that kind of development in somebody so young.”

“I just want to keep doing what I'm doing, become a better and smarter rider, then hopefully after the bug is gone (in April) I can stay at Santa Anita and continue to be successful,” said Herrera. “I have to be on my A-game, and make sure my mentality is right every time I walk out of the jock's room. I may ride a lot of longshots, but I try to be very confident in my horse and in everyone behind the scenes.”

Diego Herrera rides Solo Animo to victory in a starter allowance race at Santa Anita on Jan. 2, 2022

Gentry Farms' Kiss Thru Fire wins the Charger Bar Handicap and is the first repeat winner in this race since champion Quirky in 2015-16. Jockey Diego Herrera also wins his first G1 stakes. Juan Aleman trains the multiple G1 stakes winner Kiss Thru Fire. pic.twitter.com/auhZk19X4M

— Los Alamitos Race Course (@losalracing) January 3, 2022

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: From Quarter Horses To Thoroughbreds, 17-Year-Old Herrera Is Off And Running appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Post time on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays will be 5:00 p.m. CDT while Sundays and July 4 racing will begin at 1:00 p.m. On Sunday, July 3, racing will begin at 4:00 p.m. The 2022 schedule also includes a nine-day break from July 18 through July 26 to accommodate Twin Cities Summer Jam, an annual multi-day music festival held in the racetrack infield.

In 2021, all-sources wagering reached a record $90.9 million with racing conducted Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons, surpassing the $68.4 million record set in 2020 when 53 days of racing were conducted.

Tuesday racing will be replaced with Saturday evening racing programs in the coming season in an effort to build on the on-track success, and maintain the more recent off-track wagering levels, experienced on Sundays in 2021 when crowds returned to pre-pandemic numbers while off-track handle averaged $894,736, nearly triple the 2019 figure. From 2015 through 2019, average daily attendance exceeded 6,500 with heavily promoted days often surpassing 18,000.

Purses are projected to reach $15 million, exceeding $230,000 per day. The 2022 thoroughbred and quarter horse stakes schedules will be announced in early January with stall applications, full details of Canterbury Park's shipping incentive programs and the first condition book available shortly thereafter. The Canterbury Park stable area, which can accommodate more than 1,400 racehorses, will open Wednesday, April 27.

Canterbury Park's 24/7 card casino and simulcast racebook remain open daily. For more information, visit www.canterburypark.com.

The post Canterbury Park Approved For 65-Day Race Meet In 2022 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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This is the only Stallion Season Auction that brings together Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse Stallions in one sale, and one in which all proceeds go to help former jockeys who suffered catastrophic, career ending injuries.

“This is a true opportunity to show the world that those in the Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horse industry will stand up for those who can no longer stand for themselves,” said Jockeys and Jeans President Barry Pearl. “The racing community has proved to all in or outside racing that they care not only for the horses they race, but the humans who ride them.”

Since its founding in late 2014 by a group of former jockeys, Jockeys and Jeans has raised $1.9 million for jockeys who suffered career ending racing injuries, including $340,000 in 2021. The group needs to procure and sell $100,000 in stallion seasons to pass $2 million in funds raised.

Those wishing to donate a season or seasons and sell them privately are welcome. All seasons are non-guaranteed and donors have the option of including a breed-back the following year if the buyer's mare does not get in foal on first cover.

Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund provides a monthly stipend of $1,000 to some 60 former jockeys who suffered catastrophic career ending injuries. At least 40 are either quadra- or paraplegics.

For the first time last year, the group secured Quarter Horses seasons. Chiefly though the help of legendary Quarter Horse Jockey, G.R. Carter, breeders bought seasons (semen) totaling over $35,000. The tally from Thoroughbred breeders was slightly higher.

“We thank each and every season donor and season buyer, said Pearl. “We believe, as they say in horse racing, 'What goes around comes around,' and all here hope, pray and believe their investment will pay dividends. We are tickled to see that the racing industry is on the rebound from the pandemic years and the sport we all know and love is regaining its health. Yes, there are challenges and yes there are changes, but the needs of our fallen brothers and sisters go on.”

Pearl noted that nearly all the disabled riders live on a fixed income and that dealing with the increased cost of living means hard choices and sacrifices.

“Our season sale not only offers solid stallions at a reasonable cost, but more importantly, the opportunity to make a difference in those who gave a big part of their lives to horse racing.”

The post PDJF Benefit: Jockeys And Jeans Great American Stallion Season Sale Set For Jan. 21-24 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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“This is a true opportunity to show the world that those in the Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horse industry will stand up for those who can no longer stand for themselves,” said Jockeys and Jeans President Barry Pearl. “The racing community has proved to all in or outside racing that they care not only for the horses they race, but the humans who ride them.”

Those wishing to donate a season or seasons and sell them privately are welcome. All seasons are non-guaranteed and donors have the option of including a breed-back the following year if the buyer's mare does not get in foal on first cover.

The post Jockeys and Jeans Stallion Season Sale Set for Jan. 21-24 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“We have established a great spot for our racing cards during the week and wanted to keep those intact, but we also wanted to accommodate our local racing fans with some Saturday racing cards,” said Eric Halstrom, Vice President and General Manager of Racing. “We feel our racing schedule offers a great balance that will appeal to a wide range of racing fans in 2022. We want to thank both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing organizations for their input and assistance with finalizing the request for dates.”

The bulk of the schedule will fall on Monday through Thursday. First post Monday through Wednesday will be at 2:30 p.m. with racing beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays. A total of six days are dedicated to Quarter Horse racing beginning at 10 a.m. with an additional day set aside for the AQHA Bank of America Challenge Championships coming to Indiana Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. Five Saturdays will include Thoroughbred racing with the first set for Saturday, May 7 on Kentucky Derby, historically a large day of activity for Indiana Grand.

The final Saturday of racing is set for Saturday, Oct. 29 featuring Indiana Champions Day. The event will play host to 10 stakes races with purses exceeding $1 million. The afternoon card, which begins at noon, showcases the top Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse athletes in the state surrounded by numerous giveaways, contests, and promotions.

Indiana Grand will also offer holiday racing programs for Memorial Day Monday, May 30 and Monday, July 4 beginning at 12 p.m.

The racing season will conclude Wednesday, Nov. 23 with a special racing program the day before Thanksgiving. Dates for stakes races next season, including the Indiana Derby, will be announced at a later date.

The 20th season of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing is set to resume Tuesday, April 19 and run through Wednesday, Nov. 23. Racing will be held Monday through Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. with Thursday racing beginning at 3:30 p.m. A total of 12 Saturday racing programs will be held in 2022. For more information on events and racing, go to www.indianagrand.com.

The post Indiana Grand Approved For 127 Race Dates In 2022 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Prairie Meadows 2022 live racing season will begin on Friday, May 13 and will conclude on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. A total of 84 racing days will be scheduled with both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing offered.

The season begins with 22 days of Thoroughbred-only racing from May 13 – June 18 and continues with a mixed Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse schedule of 60 race days along with two additional days of Thoroughbred-only racing. Quarter Horses will start racing on Sunday, June 19 and have 60 days of racing through Saturday, Oct. 1. The two additional days of Thoroughbred-only racing will be held on Thursday, Sept. 29 and Sunday, Oct. 2.

Live racing will be offered on a Friday – Monday schedule with the exception of the final week of racing which will feature a Thursday – Sunday schedule. Information on post times, special race days, events, and holiday racing will be announced at a later date.

Prairie Meadows Racing Management is currently working with the Iowa Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association, Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, and Iowa Quarter Horse Racing Association on details regarding the 2022 racing season for both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.

Assistant Racing Secretary Chad Keller reports that the projections for purse money available in 2022 are looking strong for both breeds.

“We are still in discussions regarding Thoroughbred purses and stakes but the potential is there to see an increase in overnight purses and within the stakes program,” Keller relayed. “On the Quarter Horse side, we have agreed that Quarter Horse overnight purses are projected to increase around 20% across the board so the range of overnight purse levels would feature a low of $9,000 and a high of $16,200 for open company races. Iowa bred purses would range from $12,056 to $21,700 including their supplement funds. Quarter Horses in Iowa will be racing for the longest period of time in their history here with 60 race days over more than 3 months in 2022 and depending on how strong the horse inventory is, the potential to run nearly 10% more races for Quarter Horses would be possible. The Quarter Horse stakes program will follow a similar format as in 2021 with a few adjustments to some races for 2022.”

The first condition book along with the stall application will be available in early 2022. Quarter Horse Futurity & Derby nomination forms and stakes schedule information will be available in the coming weeks. Additional details on the upcoming 2022 live racing season will be announced and posted at https://www.prairiemeadows.com/racing as they become available.

About Prairie Meadows

Prairie Meadows began operations as a nonprofit organization in 1989 with the goal of promoting economic development, jobs, agriculture, and tourism in the state of Iowa. Through taxes, grants, and charitable donations, Prairie Meadows has given $2 billion to the state of Iowa. Prairie Meadows offers slot machines, table games, live and simulcast racing, sports wagering, hotel accommodations, entertainment, and more.

The post Prairie Meadows Approved For 84 Race Dates In 2022, Including 60 Mixed-Meet Days appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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This is the only Stallion Season Auction that brings together Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse Stallions in one sale. This is a true opportunity to show the world that Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horse people will stand up for those who can no longer stand for themselves.

Since being founded in late 2014 by a group of former jockeys, Jockeys and Jeans has raised $1.9 million for jockeys who suffered career ending racing injuries. The racing community has proved to all in and outside racing that they care not only for the horses they race but the humans who ride them.

The auction begins on Friday, Jan. 21, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. and ends Monday, Jan. 24th at 5 p.m. on Starquine.com. A preview of the seasons will be available on Thursday, Jan. 20. All seasons sold, their buyers and their prices are private. If you wish to donate a season or seasons and sell them privately, they are very welcome.

All seasons are non-guaranteed and donors have the option of including a breed-back the following year if the buyer's mare does not get in foal on first cover. All at Jockeys and Jeans are volunteers and every cent of the selling prices goes to the PDJF. The charity provides a monthly stipend of $1,000 to some 60 former jockeys who suffered catastrophic career ending injuries. At least 40 are either quadra or paraplegics.

Last year, for the first time, Jockeys and Jeans sought seasons to Quarter Horses. Chiefly through the help of Quarter Horse Racing Legend, G.R. Carter, Jockeys and Jeans sold some $35,000 in seasons. The tally from Thoroughbred breeders was only slightly more.

Jockeys and Jeans would like to thank each and every season donor as well as every season buyer. Jockeys and Jeans believe that, as they say in horse racing, “What goes around comes around,” and all here hope, pray and believe your investment will pay dividends.

“We are tickled to see that the racing industry is on the rebound from the pandemic years and the sport we all know and love is regaining its health,” said Jockeys and Jeans President, Barry Pearl. “Yes, there are challenges and yes there are changes, but the needs of our fallen brothers and sisters go on. Nearly all live on a fixed income and dealing with the increased cost of living means hard choices and sacrifices. Our season sale not only offers solid stallions at a reasonable cost, but more importantly, the opportunity to make a difference in those who gave a big part of their lives to horse racing.”

The post Jockeys And Jeans Great American Stallion Season Sale Benefitting PDJF Set For Jan. 21-24 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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