Senior jockey and president of the PJA for flat riders P.J. McDonald has backed his weighing room colleagues to continue to “do the right thing” in redoubling efforts to keep race meetings going during the coronavirus pandemic.

Considering that in his only other race at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Wells Bayou registered a clear victory in the Louisiana Derby (G2), choosing the New Orleans track for his racing return Jan. 16 off an extended layoff makes sense.

Japan’s 2015 Horse of the Year Maurice clinched his first black-type winner as a stallion in style as his son Pixie Knight led home a one-two in the Nikkan Sports Sho Shinzan Kinen (G3) at Chukyo Racecourse.

A little more than 28 months had passed since the last time Ride a Comet had appeared in a turf race and that absence surely made his heart grow fonder for a start on sod. He won the $100,000 Tropical Turf Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park.

Shadwell Stable’s Lamutanaatty made a successful debut Jan. 9, when he was ridden to victory by Tyler Gaffalione at Gulfstream Park for trainer Chad Brown.

A top-level winner in her native land, Chilean-bred Sanenus broke through at the graded level in North America Jan. 9 in the $201,000 La Canada Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park.

The New York Racing Association has barred trainer Eric Guillot from entering horses or having stalls at any of its three tracks in response to Guillot’s use of a racially insensitive name given to one of his horses.

Bedecked in hats and scarves and winter coats, patrons of the Keeneland January Sale braced themselves against plummeting temperatures the morning of Jan. 9 to attend a special kind of show known only to horsemen: the broodmare parade.  

WinStar Farm’s Yoshida sired his first reported foal when a colt was born at WinStar Jan. 9. Bred by Anastasie Astrid Christiansen-Croy, the bay colt, who arrived at 10:58 p.m., is out of the Monsun mare Gravata.

Gulfstream Park officials announced Jan. 10 that additional invitations to the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1T), to be held Saturday, Jan. 23.