If you want great insight into Saturday night’s George Morton Levy Memorial Series final at Yonkers Raceway you can find it in the new and free HarnessRacing Weekend Preview as we talked to the driver or trainer of all eight starters. It’s the richest Levy final ever and it’s unanimous that this won’t be a line-‘em-up race.

In addition to the Levy talk, we also have some comments about Friday’s Blue Chip Matchmaker Series final. Read what driver and co-owner Tim Tetrick has to say about Shartin N’s chances to defend her title. You can also read what trainer Brian Brown has to say about his six starters in the weekend’s pair of James Hackett Memorial finals for 3-year-old Ohio-sired pacers at Miami Valley.

Kathy Parker’s Breeding Banter takes a look at eight new broodm... more...

Tag Up And Go and Watkins emerged as the winners of the joint $14,500 features during the Thursday program at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

Tag Up And Go enjoyed a drop in class, pointing right to the front for driver Marcus Miller and never locking back through splits of 28. 57, 1:25.1, and 1:53.4. Seven Iron raced in the pocket and stayed closest to the winner, but he was still 2 3/4 lengths behind under the line to the victorious Angus Hall gelding, who now has 42 wins and $560,466 to his lifetime credit. Rob Harmon trains the winner for owners Lester Gelardi Jr. and Anthony Passafaro.

The 12-year-old Striking Sahbra gelding Watkins visited Victory Lane for the 50th time in his career, and boosted his earnings to $913,385, by winning in 1:55.2 in the other co-feature. David Miller wa... more...

After having made a splash in qualifying action last week at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Courtly Choice, the returning son of Art Major, upped his game on Thursday during the morning session at the Campbellville, Ont. oval.

Courtly Choice was part of a compact, yet star-studded qualifying tilt that went postward for Race 8 over a “fast” track. Rail starter Mission Three was scratched from the race, which left a field of just four–but what a foursome it was.

Pilot James MacDonald was at the helm of Courtly Choice, the 2018 Meadowlands Pace and Little Brown Jug winner, and the duo started from Post 2 for the tightener.

Courtly Choice was the quickest off of the starting gate, and led fellow stars Sintra, Magnum J and Jimmy Freight past the quarter pole in a pedestrian :29.1.... more...

A coalition of Thoroughbred racetracks, including Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Del Mar, Oaklawn and the New York Racing Association sites of Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga, announced Thursday that it and other Triple Crown racetracks will begin phasing out raceday medication on Jan. 1, 2020. According to the coalition, the tracks involved represent 86 percent of the graded or listed stakes races in the U.S. this year.

The Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting that 2-year-old horses will no longer be allowed to be treated with the anti-bleeding medication Lasix within 24 hours of a race. In 2021, the rule will apply to all horses in stakes races at those racetracks. The newspaper noted that the 2021 Triple Crown races (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes) would then be run without any h... more...

The Meadowlands has always been known as a place where bettors can play against favorites with confidence and those who are anti-chalk must have loved wagering at the Big M last weekend (April 12-13), as 23 of 26 post-time choices went down to defeat during the course of the two-card race week.

After the odds-on favorite won the first race, the remainder of Saturday’s card went chalk-free as race after race saw horses and drivers mixing it up through contentious first halves that were reached in an average time of :55.2, leading to anything but wire-to-wire winners.

Shrewd handicappers who came up with one extraordinary winner – a 16-1 chance – in the 50-cent Pick-5 cashed in for $1,048 on Saturday night, while 50-cent Pick-4 players needed a 24-1 outsider in the leadoff spot fol... more...

George J. Karam passed away on Tuesday, April 16. He was 60.

Born on Sept. 4, 1958 in Rome, N.Y., he was the son of the late George B. and Elizabeth (Abounader) Karam. He was a 1976 graduate of Rome Free Academy and for many years ran the family business, Thrifty Food Store. On Dec. 5, 1997 he married his love, Joy Rolewicz, and together they moved to Saratoga Springs.

Mr. Karam had a lifelong passion for harness racing and horse ownership which led to a career in training and racing horses in Upstate N.Y. While working as second trainer for John Stark Jr., he took care of 2001 Horse of the Year Bunny Lake. He also served as president of the Saratoga Harness Horseperson’s Association. This in turn led to his dream job of judging harness races. At the time of his passing he was th... more...

Corey Callahan got career driving win number 6,000 on Wednesday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, breaking the maiden of the A Rocknroll Dance gelding Don’t Judge A Book with a 1:56.1 victory and then surviving the very late drama of an inquiry, which determined that his horse made a break just after the wire, allowing the milestone victory to stand.

The 40-year-old Callahan has won over 350 races and in excess of $5 million every year since 2009, with his best season coming in 2015, when he was fifth in North America in victories (636) and money ($9,812,464). Career-wise, the trotters and pacers he has guided have bankrolled $86.7 million. The 1-5 pacesetting favorite Mach It So was unable to hold off the late bid of pocket rocket Cruise Patrol by a head in 1:51.1 in the $14,500 fast-c... more...