GLOBAL RACING NEWS

Despite recent problems, Santa Anita’s much-criticised all-weather Pro-Ride track will stay at the California venue for the foreseeable future for economic reasons.

 

After a series of abandonments owing to waterlogging, it was thought likely that the Pro-Ride, on which overseas runners have thrived at the last two Breeders' Cups, would be ripped out at the end of the current meeting in April, with a return to conventional dirt the most likely outcome.

 

However, management at the Santa Anita track has claimed that paying up to $10 million to revert to dirt would be akin to "throwing money down an open pit" due to racing regulations imposed by the state horse racing board. The California Horse Racing Board mandated installation of synthetic surfaces in 2007. 

Carthage (formerly named Beheshtam), so highly regarded in France last year that he was ante-post favourite for the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe at one stage, is ready to embark on a new career in Hong Kong with trainer John Moore. The Aga Khan accepted a generous offer for the four-year-old son of Peintre Celebre, whose last race was a distant twelth behind Sea The Stars in the Arc in Paris last October. John, son of the legendary jockey and trainer George Moore has long held an ambition to win a major prize in his homeland and has sent down horses from Hong Kong in the past only to come up short. 

 

An assault on the on the 2010 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups is on the cards for the horse who ran fourth in last year's Prix du Jockey Club and runner-up to Cavalryman in the Group 2 Prix Niel. He was acquired from the Aga Khan and Alain de Royer-Dupre not long after he finished midfield in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe by Moore. The Caulfield and Melbourne Cups are the two main targets but Moore intends to run him  in a couple of lead-up races over shorter distances to bring him along beforehand.

In Global terms, last year saw racing:

 

NSW sold its lotteries business to Tatts Group last week for a price that exceeded expectations and was "by far" the strongest bid for the business, according to the state's Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, who said that the bidding process was competitive, with offers coming in from Australian as well as international parties.

 

The purchase price represents a multiple of around 13 times NSW Lotteries' earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the coming year, a higher multiple than Tatts paid for its Golden Casket acquisition in 2007. Tatts is building up its lotteries business to compensate for a hole that will emerge in its balance sheet after 2012 when Tatts and Tabcorp lose their Victorian gaming licenses.