Horse Racing News

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela announced his retirement Friday, ending a tumultuous 33-year riding career highlighted by a win in the 1989 Kentucky Derby on Sunday Silence but marred by substance-abuse problems that left him suspended for lengthy periods.

J C's Pride, the 2-year-old colt who set the track record for five furlongs at Saratoga this past summer, was euthanized earlier this week due to complications from an infection, trainer Robert Barbara said Friday.

One of the more notable sightings on the racetrack here this morning was that of the old warhorse Presious Passion, who is attempting a comeback with trainer Mary Hartmann.

With Uncle Mo retired, Stay Thirsty is now the top gun in Mike Repole's stable. And after a championship-caliber 3-year-old season in 2011, there are high expectations for the son of Bernardini next year.

Though Gulfstream Park opened one month earlier than usual for its winter meet last week, the graded stakes pickings are rather slim as they race through December for the first time.

Weemissfrankie will face the smallest field of her career when she starts as a heavy favorite in Saturday's $250,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes, the last Grade 1 race of the year for 2-year-old fillies.

Rapid Redux, who set a record for horse based in the continental United States with his 20th consecutive victory last month at Mountaineer Racetrack, will take aim at another record Tuesday at Laurel Park.

The Coa family riding tradition will continue this winter when jockey Kieber Coa begins his apprentice career in the United States.

Dual Grade 1 winner Weemissfrankie, third in the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies one month ago, will start in the $250,000 Hollywood Starlet Dec. 10, trainer Peter Eurton said Dec. 4.

Jockey Jorge Chavez, who was unseated during the running of the ninth race at Aqueduct Racetrack Dec. 4, will be sidelined at least five months as a result of injuries that include a broken collarbone, broken ribs, and broken vertebrae.