Page 14 - March 2016

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by Jennifer K. Hancock
Spring At remington pArk
Spring is in the air! Foals are beginning to test their racing legs in pastures across the county and the names of some of this year’s crop of 2 year olds are beginning to appear in race programs.
Many juveniles attended kindergarten at Remington Park as the track hosted schooling races in February and opened its 2016 American Quarter Horse meet on March 11.
On February 24, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed an emergency rule change that will no longer require the Sooner State to acknowledge suspensions through the American Quarter Horse Association’s Multiple Medication Violation System (MMVS).
The new rule is now in effect and the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission will still exclude individuals currently serving a jurisdiction suspension from Oklahoma or another state from racing at Remington Park but will not apply to individuals suspended and listed on the current AQHA suspension list through the MMVS.
Remington Park’s 2016 American Quarter Horse and Mixed Breed Season continues through June 4, which will feature a card with eight stakes races. Races will be conducted on a Thursday-Sunday schedule with first post on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 6 p.m., and the first post on Sundays at 1:30 p.m.
The Grade 2 Remington Park Futurity and the Grade 3 Remington Park Derby are slated for
April 23. Closing day will feature the Grade 1 Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity, Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity and the Grade 2 Heritage Place Derby.
texAS rAcing Funded
On February 24, the Texas Legislative Budget Board authorized the Texas Racing Commission to extend its Rider 7 appropriations so the commission will be funded through August 31, 2017.
The funding came after the Texas Racing Commission voted 5-4 on February 18 to repeal rules allowing historical racing terminals and more than a year of fierce political fighting that included lawsuits and the threat of racing in the state being shuttered due to no governing agency.
Sam Houston Race Park’s Quarter Horse meet is scheduled to begin on March 25.
recognizing excellence
At the recent Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Awards Banquet, longtime American Quarter Horse supporter Melodie Knuchell received the Sam Thompson Award, which recognizes leadership within the racing community.
Knuchell is the director of nominations and simulcasting at Los Alamitos Race Course and serves as the vice-president of the Los Alamitos Race Track Chaplaincy of America, where she worked closely with Thompson before he passed away.
She describes the award as a nice surprise but said, “It’s bittersweet. Having worked on the Chaplaincy Council with Sam – it would have been a loss either way – but having worked with him on the Chaplaincy, it really affected us a lot. Having known him in that capacity in addition to being a rider, it makes you understand what the award really means. Going the extra mile beyond your daily duties and trying to be helpful to everybody.”
Knuchell knows about going the extra mile.
In addition to her duties at the track and with the chaplaincy program, she is also involved on a national level in the sport. She is a member of the AQHA Graded Stakes Committee, where she has served as a committee chair in the past; the Racing Committee; and the Champions Selection Committee.
“I was born with that special gene that some girls get
– that special DNA that you inherit somehow,” Knuchell says of her love of horses. “From day one, I’ve been a horse- crazy kid. Luckily for me, my brother especially and my mom and dad were really into the Quarter Horse racing so I started coming to Los Alamitos as a 4 or 5 year old.”
Send photos and news items to jennifer_k_hancock@hotmail.com.
The MonTh in review
12 SPEEDHORSE, March 2016
Track chaTTer