Horse Racing News Blog

Orchid ‘Cap: Familiar Rivals Meet Again
Five of the eight entrants in the $150,000 Orchid Handicap (gr. IIIT) will face one another for second time in three weeks, as the older fillies and mares do battle March 30 on the turf at Gulfstream Park.

Lethal Heat Could be Dangerous in ‘Paula
Barry Abrams’ and Madeline Auerbach’s Lethal Heat is making her first start in graded stakes company, will be running off the turf for the first time, and is coming back in 10 days from a 1 3/4-length allowance win. But Abrams fully expects the 3-year-old daughter of Unusual Heat to handle those factors in the $100,000 Santa Paula Stakes (gr. III) at Santa Anita March 30.

New Zealand jockey banned after breath test
Officials at a New Zealand race meeting Monday breath tested a jockey they suspected had been drinking and ruled him too drunk to handle a horse. Stewards at the Riverton Racing Club on New Zealand’s South Island used a newly awarded power to demand a breath test when they became suspicious of the rider’s behavior.