Trainer Jayde Gelner, who in 2023 swept both divisions of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity at Lone Star Park, has some notable candidates for this year’s renewal of the races. The 5 1/2-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds, which each carry a guaranteed purse of $50,000, will be run July 5.

Mor Force is an early favorite for the colts and geldings division after winning his debut with a Beyer Speed Figure of 84 on May 30 at Lone Star Park. He romped by five lengths to earn what is the third highest Beyer put up by a 2-year-old so far this year in North America.

Touchuponastar, who won the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic in March at Fair Grounds, is on a bit of a busman’s holiday for the summer and is scheduled to return to racing this fall, owner Jake Delhomme said Tuesday.

“We’ve done it the last two years,” he said.

Touchuponastar is based at a training center in Louisiana. He ranks fourth in all-time earnings among Louisiana-breds with $1,460,000. Delhomme said the Louisiana-bred stakes for older route horses over the summer are on turf and that fact, coupled with the heat, made for the decision to freshen Touchuponastar.

J.G. Torrealba and Yedsit Hazlewood, leading jockeys at Laurel Park, were in a car accident early Tuesday morning. Torrealba was unharmed in the incident, but Hazlewood sustained multiple injuries and is expected to miss significant time.

According to trainer Jose Corrales, who helped Hazlewood travel to the United States and find mounts earlier this year, the two jockeys were traveling back from New York and were attempting to maneuver around a car ahead of them. The trainer said that they hit a rail beside the road, which flipped the car.

It took two magical minutes in 2022 for Sonny Leon to become a household name, forever and always a Kentucky Derby winner. Nestled among names like Smith, Velazquez, and Castellano, his winning ride aboard 80-1 longshot Rich Strike will forever mark him in one of racing’s most precious record books.

No one stumbles into a Derby mount. Far from the public eye the vast majority of his 11-year career, it has always been a march for the 35-year-old rider, a grinding search for recognition and respect in a sometimes unforgiving business.

Churchill Downs Inc. has informed the Louisiana Racing Commission that it intends to give up its racing and gambling licenses for Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans and its offtrack betting parlors because of dissatisfaction over a recent state Supreme Court ruling and its own unsuccessful efforts to gain relief from the legislature.