Horse Racing’s Effort to Be Whip-Smart Causes Conflict

Horse racing’s effort to be whip-smart causes conflict

DEL MAR — Thoroughbred racing and its regulators have enacted rule changes in recent years to limit jockeys’ use of whips, capping the number, timing and ferocity of strikes in an apparently productive effort to protect horses from pain, welts and cuts. Now it’s the enforcement of those rules that is leaving a mark. As sport’s finest gather at Del Mar this week for the Breeders’ Cup races Friday and Saturday, it is split over the validity of the…

San Diego friends live out horse racing dream at Breeders’ Cup, ‘just down the street’ in Del Mar

DEL MAR —  Michele Arthur and Ruben Islas own a horse who won a race on Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill Downs, and another who ran on Breeders’ Cup Friday at Del Mar. But neither horse was part of the main event. There will be no FOMO on Friday, though, when a 2-year-old owned by the San Diego friends —  Islas and Arthur’s husband, Jules, are business partners —  starts in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar. “Right down the str…

Head to Head: East vs. west in Breeders' Cup Juvenile

The $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile returns to Del Mar Friday with a field of seven after Doug O'Neill scratched long shot Civil Liberty because of swelling in an upper tendon. Once again, Hall of Fame trainers Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert set up an east-vs.-west showdown. The two have dominated the Juvenile in recent years, combining to win the last four editions. Baffert took home the trophy last year with Citizen Bull and returns with unde…

Banking on a 15-1 Longshot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies

Friday’s $2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar shapes up to be a wide-open affair, with accomplished fillies entered from California, New York, and Kentucky. Read More...