The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has lifted a quarantine on two barns at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., according to a spokeswoman for the department.

The department lifted the quarantine after tests on 74 horses in the barns were negative for equine herpesvirus, a highly contagious disease that has disrupted racing and training at Parx all winter. The horses in the barns were exposed to the virus three weeks ago by a filly who showed signs of the disease before being removed to a private farm.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The heat wave that hit Santa Anita over the weekend affected a couple of runners who suffered from heat exhaustion, including the filly Ann’s Gold, who collapsed near the outside rail after her race Saturday and was tended to by scores of people, from veterinarians to the gate crew and track executives.

Ann’s Gold was in a precarious position. Great care was used to extricate her, and trainer Jack Carava said she was doing well the next day.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Neil Drysdale has won the San Luis Rey Stakes five times and will take aim at a sixth score with a pair of runners when the Grade 2, $200,000 race is run over 1 1/2 miles on turf Saturday at Santa Anita.

Drysdale will send out Lucayan, who comes off a third-place finish in the 1 1/4-mile San Marcos Stakes on Feb. 8, and Fire With Fire, who won the Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile Stakes at Turf Paradise on Jan. 18.

After further review, Wayne Catalano will be running both Solitary Ranger and Poker Player on Saturday in the Grade  3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes, the annual showcase race at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

Catalano initially was inclined to run only Solitary Ranger, a wire-to-wire winner of the Battaglia Memorial at Turfway, but said Tuesday he also will run Poker Player, who rallied to be second in that same March 1 race.

Things could hardly be better for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

He won the Grade 1 Santa Margarita with Let Faith Arise last Saturday and Grade 1 winner Tamarando was to fly to Kentucky on Wednesday with stablemate Swiss Lake Yodeler for Saturday’s $550,000 Spiral Stakes and the $125,000 Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway Park. Both 3-year-olds are homebreds for Larry and Marianne Williams and will be competing in races offering 50 qualifying points to the winner for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Can the top 3-year-old from Puerto Rico become a top 3-year-old in the United States? Mickey Gonzalez believes the answer is yes.

Tonito M won six of seven starts in Puerto Rico before Gonzalez purchased him last month. The Rock Hard Ten colt arrived at Santa Anita on Friday to prepare for a U.S. campaign. He jogged twice over the weekend and was scheduled to begin galloping Tuesday for his new trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer.

Race 2

Dominic Galluscio, who won more than 1,000 races during a training career that spanned more than three decades, died Monday after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 55.

Often seen with a smile on his face, and frequently with a cigar between his lips, Galluscio was well-liked and well-respected among his peers on the Belmont Park backstretch.

Turf Paradise will hold an auction, both silent and live, as well as a bake sale and dinner following the races on Wednesday, April 16, to raise funds to assist injured rider Anne Von Rosen.

The 43-year-old rider was injured March 11 when after pulling up following a Quarter Horse race at the Phoenix track her mount, Panchita Bonita, who had finished second, stumbled and flipped, landing on her. She suffered serious spinal cord injuries and has already gone through a number of surgeries.

The Virginia Racing Commission scheduled a meeting for March 27 to consider live-racing dates at Colonial Downs this year after adverse weather prevented many commissioners from attending a meeting Monday at the New Kent racetrack, the executive director of the commission said after the meeting.