With the end of 2023, which was the 20th anniversary of the opening of Old Friends, Michael Blowen, founder of the Thoroughbred retirement farm in Georgetown, Ky. in 2003, has announced he will be stepping down as President of the facility. However, while he won't be running the farm on a daily basis anymore, he will still be greeting visitors, giving tours, and other things as needed. Taking over the reins as the President and CEO of Old Friends is John Nicholson, best known as the former Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park from 1997 to 2014. He will assume his new position on Thurs ..read more

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke is nearly ready to return to riding races, he told the Daily Racing Form this week, following a three-month hiatus from the sport. Van Dyke, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey of 2014, took the time to focus on his mental health. “Toward the end of Del Mar, I felt it really strong,” Van Dyke told DRF. “I knew I needed to get myself right or I'd go further and further down. It was all mental. It was not drug-related or drinking too much. It was my mental approach. It took a while to get a hold of it.” During his time away from the track, Van Dyke focused on ..read more

Like many others, Steve Roberts will remember longtime horseman Tommy O'Keefe for more than just his time as a multiple graded stakes winning trainer. A lifetime winner of 245 races, 13 of them stakes, with over $6 million in career purse earnings, O'Keefe passed away on Dec. 22 after a courageous battle with bone cancer. “Tommy was a great horse person who truly loved the game,” said Roberts, himself a long-time racing participant, who is currently a jockey agent working out of Woodbine. “In the days since he passed, I've heard so many great stories about Tommy from other trainers and horse p ..read more

The online portion of Thoroughbred Charities of America's Stallion Season Auction presented by Mt. Brilliant Family Foundation kicks off on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 9 a.m. and runs through Friday, Jan. 5, with staggered closing times starting at 4 p.m. ET.  Nearly 200 seasons including Vino Rosso, Volatile, Army Mule, Blame, Liam's Map, and Violence will be available for online bidding on Equiring.com. The majority of seasons will sell no guarantee however a few seasons will be offered no guarantee with a 2025 breed back.  A full list of seasons is available here. The auct ..read more

Godolphin LLC, which campaigned 15 North American graded stakes winners, including two Breeders' Cup winners, repeated as leading owner by earnings, and Irad Ortiz, Jr., again established a single-season earnings record as the leading jockey according to final statistics released today by Equibase Company LLC, the Thoroughbred industry's official database for racing information. Brad Cox ended the year on top as the leading trainer by earnings; his first earnings title came in 2021. The year-end compilations are distributed annually by Equibase and include results from Thor ..read more

The Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) announced Tuesday that applications for the 2024 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America, are now open for submission. The application period closes at 5 PM EST on January 19, 2024. Accepted trainers will be announced no later than February 15, 2024. The 2024 Thoroughbred Makeover Rulebook outlines all rules and information relevant to the competition, with changes for 2024 marked in red and clarifying information marked in blue. Interested applicants can start the application process now by logging in at ..read more

The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) announced Tuesday that Andy Belfiore will return as the organization's Executive Director, effective Sunday, January 7. “Andy has a wealth of experience in all facets of the racing industry,” said NYTHA President Tina Bond. “In addition to her knowledge base, Andy's devotion to equine welfare and aftercare are especially crucial in this period of our sport. We are very pleased that she will be rejoining the NYTHA team.” A native of Massachusetts, Belfiore grew up riding show horses. She started her career in racing on the backstretch at ..read more

Uncle Chuck, a half-brother to Maclean's Music standing in Florida, was euthanized on Dec. 22 after he was found to have an untreatable form of lymphoma, BloodHorse reports. The 6-year-old son of Uncle Mo stood two seasons at Journeyman Stud in Ocala, Fla., and he shuttled to Argentina for two Southern Hemisphere breeding seasons. He was among Florida's most active stallions during both of his seasons at stud, and his first foals are yearlings of 2024. Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings, Uncle Chuck is out of the Unbridled's Song mare Forest Music, making him a half-brother ..read more

In a race that changed inexplicably when favored Sweet Azteca ducked out at the top of the stretch, California-bred Chismosa essentially cut the corner and went on to a hard-fought 1¼-length score in Santa Anita's $100,000 Las Flores (G3), the main event on Monday's New Year's Day card. Ridden by Kyle Frey and trained by Rafael DeLeon, Chismosa was about two lengths off early pacesetter Sweet Azteca and Frankie Dettori while third midway on the turn. From there, she angled outside the favorite leaving the quarter pole, but when Sweet Azteca ducked out, blowing the turn for home, Frey was able ..read more

On Saturday, Dec. 30, trainer Mike Stidham saddled Tufani, the $100,000 Pago Hop victress at Fair Grounds, marking his fourth time winning that event and a fitting end to what has been another big year for Stidham Racing. In his 34th year as a trainer, Stidham surpassed his high-water mark for earnings to reach $5,098,073 in 2023. A big part of that success was Godolphin's Proxy, who capped off a sensational career with a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) to go along with his two graded stakes victories in 2023. On Jan. 1, Godolphin's Heckled won Race 8 at Fair Grounds, brea ..read more