Penelope Miller
Tampa Bay Downs

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Daniel Centeno has enjoyed tremendous success at the Oldsmar oval, and has begun Tampa Bay Downs’s 84th racing season with a bang, scoring 12 wins, 8 second place finishes and 1 third from  47 attempts in just 9 days of racing.  On Dec. 26’s Cotillion Festival Day Presented by Lambholm South as well as on December 30, Centeno piloted home three winners on each card.

Jenny Kellner
NYRA/Aqueduct Racetrack

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Alex G. Campbell, Jr.’s Awesome Ashley looks to ring in the New Year in the same fashion she kicked off her 2009 campaign – with a stakes win over the inner track at Aqueduct Racetrack.

(Edited Laurel Park report)

LAUREL, Md. – The 2010 racing season begins Friday afternoon at Laurel Park with a nine-race card highlighted by the $50,000 Maryland Filly Championship. The race was originally scheduled to be run Dec. 19 as the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship, but that program was cancelled because of a blizzard. The race was renamed and redrawn for three-year-old fillies as all horses become officially one year older on the first day of the year.

NYRA release

As part of a major new push for greater integrity in racing, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, effective New Year’s Day, 2010,  will be authorized to conduct unannounced drug testing of horses slated to compete at New York tracks even when they are stabled at farms away from those tracks.

NTRA release

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers Association today announced that the Monique Koehler, whose tireless work saving retired racehorses through Thoroughbred retirement programs, will be honored with the 2009 Special Eclipse Award. The Special Eclipse Award, honors outstanding individual achievements in, or contributions to, the sport of Thoroughbred racing. 

Brian Skirka
NYRA/Aqueduct Racetrack

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A field of 12 – including last year’s runner-up, Lord Kipling, and a trio from trainer Todd Pletcher – will wrap up the 2009 stakes schedule at Aqueduct Racetrack in Thursday’s $65,000-added Gallant Fox at 1-5/8 miles over the inner track.

NTRA release

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers Association today announced that William S. Farish, owner of Lane’s End Farm and a pre-eminent industry leader of multiple organizations and causes, will be honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in Thoroughbred racing.

(Edited Santa Anita Park report)

ARCADIA, Calif. – Racing on turf and beyond a sprint distance for the first time, 5-2 second-choice Macias held off fast-closing 3-2 favorite Alfarabi to win Monday’s fourth running of the $72,150 Eddie Logan Stakes for 2-year-olds while traversing the one-mile distance in 1:35.11 at Santa Anita.

Graham Ross
Fair Grounds

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Estrorace LLC’s Workin for Hops, away alertly and quickly in command, relinquished the lead in the run down the backstretch but rallied strongly in the lane to capture Monday’s $45,000 optional claiming grass feature for 2-year-olds by 4 1/2-lengths.

Graham Ross
Fair Grounds

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Fair Grounds’ famous trio of graded grass stakes appears a lot greener in 2010 because of the strategic repositioning of the Buddy Diliberto Memorial Handicap for the day after Christmas in 2009.