Saturday’s International Gold Cup at Great Meadow will include both steeplechase and flat racing and could be a blueprint for racing’s Virginia future.
The Virginia Racing Commission convened on a gray October day in Richmond, which was only foreshadowing what was to come next.
Horses raised in Virginia are thriving everywhere but at home. Tomorrow’s Racing Commission meeting might, or might not, resolve the long impasse over days.
Colonial Downs says it’s fixing Virginia racing by creating, then negotiating with a new “horsemen’s group.” Nick Hahn says that sounds more like gelding.
Whether it will end with a signed contract, or the relinquishing of the Colonial Downs’s license, Virginia’s dates dispute is moving towards an end game.
Tomorrow’s state-bred racing at Laurel Park — instead of Colonial Downs — gives Virginia breeders something they’re used to: an out-of-state chance to shine.
Nothing’s gone to plan for Tonalist’s breeders. But he’ll enter the Belmont starting gate June 7 with a shot to deny California Chrome’s shot at history.
The Virginia Racing Commission is scheduled to meet tomorrow in a last-ditch effort to save the 2014 Thoroughbred meet. A timeline of how we got here.
A Virginia Racing Commission meeting this morning failed to resolve the dispute between Colonial Downs and horsemen over dates. They’ll try again Thursday.
Trainer Michael Pino and owner Tim O’Donohue have a knack for claiming. They showed it Preakness day when Wallyanna won the James Murphy Stakes.