Manitoba’s provincial government introduced a bill Thursday that would reduce Assiniboia Downs’s share of the net proceeds from the 140 video-lottery terminals at the track. The amount is not known.

This is the second time the province has attempted to siphon off funding from the Manitoba Jockey Club, which operates Assiniboia Downs.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – One of the largest crowds in years cheered on the racing action – and the return of a veteran rider – at Fort Erie last Sunday under a warming opening-day sun.

Food and beverage sites were packed all day and the mutuel clerks were inundated with customers who bet more than $128,000 in ontrack wagering for the 8-race card. That represents a 28 percent increase over last year’s opening day, which came three weeks earlier on the Sunday of Kentucky Derby weekend.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Nipissing, a Chiefswood Stable homebred who is coming off a second-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile Selene Stakes for trainer Rachel Halden, figures to be no worse than second choice in the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks here next Sunday.

But Original Script, another Chiefswood runner who is trained by Paul Attard, could be somewhat overlooked in the wagering and is eligible to come up big in the 1 1/8- mile showpiece for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 3-year-old colt Positively is out of the Mr. Prospector mare Macoumba, which gives him an impressive pedigree but does nothing for his race record.

Macoumba, now 21, is the dam of Malibu Moon, the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Orb and one of the hottest sires in North America these days.

Yet in the case of Positively, as the saying goes, he’s been a half-brother to the A.P. Indy horse Malibu Moon since the day he was born. The son of Distorted Humor has to make his own way in the racing world.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Game On Dude did not train Friday at Santa Anita, and a workout scheduled for Sunday has been postponed after the 6-year-old showed signs of viral illness.

The top older horse in California, Game On Dude had an elevated temperature Friday morning and left grain in his feed tub. Trainer Bob Baffert cancelled the 6-year-old’s normal training routine Friday, pending another blood test scheduled for Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Delaunay might well be the best sprinter in North America right now – and in fact he occupies the No. 1 spot in that category in Daily Racing Form ’s latest Watchmaker Watch.

But owner Maggi Moss and Tom Amoss are not going out of their way to prove it – not just yet, anyway.

Amoss said Friday that the likely next start for Delaunay is the June 28 Iowa Sprint Handicap, a $125,000, six-furlong race to be run at Prairie Meadows, the hometown track for Moss. Delaunay might well be 1-10 to win that race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario − Essence Hit Man will face only three rivals Sunday, when he attempts to win the Grade 3, $150,000 Vigil Stakes at Woodbine for the second consecutive year.

Winner of the Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion sprinter each of the last two years, Essence Hit Man won the six-furlong Jacques Cartier Stakes for the second year in a row in his season opener April 27. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure after scoring by four lengths in 1:08.83, not far off his track record of 1:08.16.

Belmont Park

75 degrees, Sunny, fast

ELMONT, N.Y. – As was the case the previous morning at Churchill Downs, the weather was unseasonably warm and humid in New York and, not surprisingly, the majority of this year’s Belmont Stakes prospects were out early and back in their stalls prior to the renovation break Friday at Belmont Park. That group included Kentucky Derby winner Orb, as well as all five of trainer Todd Pletcher’s Belmont prospects.

Paul Jones was a few days past the $70 million mark in career earnings when he was told that he had become the first Quarter Horse trainer to reach the milestone.

Storm Chasor’s win in an allowance race at Ruidoso Downs last Monday put Jones past $70 million. Through Thursday, he had career earnings of $70,002,780.

“I didn’t know where I was as far as money earned,” Jones said on Thursday.

Jockeys John Jacinto and Rodolfo Guerra were both transported to a Bossier City, La., hospital with undetermined injuries following a spill in the sixth race at Louisiana Downs on Thursday afternoon.