HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Tax has been scratched from the $500,000 Essex Handicap on Saturday at Oaklawn Park after sustaining a small puncture wound on one of his hind legs, trainer Danny Gargan said Friday.

Tax was the 120-pound highweight and probable favorite for the mile and a sixteenth race to be run on the same card as the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Irad Ortiz Jr., the superstar jockey who leads both the national and local standings in wins in 2021, will begin serving a five-day suspension Saturday, March 13, and will be inactive until he returns next Saturday at Fair Grounds for the big Louisiana Derby card.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – An arbitrator’s decision is due in the coming days following a Gulfstream stewards’ hearing held Thursday via Zoom into the controversial disqualification of Spanish Loveaffair in the Feb. 27 Herecomesthebride Stakes.

Spanish Loveaffair was disqualified from first to fourth for allegedly interfering with I Get It leaving the backstretch in the Grade 3 turf race. Casse said retired Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey was among those testifying that he believed it was the wrong call.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Prevalence earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure when easily passing a second preliminary test Thursday at Gulfstream Park en route to joining the Kentucky Derby trail.

Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Prevalence never had a straw in his path after breaking from the outside post in a field of six 3-year-olds in the one-mile, first-level allowance. He prevailed by three lengths in 1:35.82 over a fast track, returning $2.20 as a prohibitive favorite.

Protocols to protect against the transmission of equine herpesvirus have been put in place at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., after a horse tested positive at a training center near the track earlier this week, according to the Kentucky state veterinarian.

The training center has been quarantined after a horse there tested positive Tuesday for the neuropathogenic strain of the virus, known as EHV-1. The virus is extremely contagious and can be fatal, and outbreaks within the Thoroughbred racing community are most frequent during the winter months.

Pimlico Race Course will run 16 stakes on the two race cards featuring the $1 million Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes this year, the track announced on Thursday, with total purses of $3.25 million.

Ten of the stakes will be run on Preakness Day, May 15, while the other six will be run on May 14, topped by the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan. Both stakes races and their complementary race cards were delayed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and run in early October, without spectators.

Santa Anita could host customers as soon as early April.

Track officials are closely monitoring guidance from state government agencies related to when and how sports events in California can resume on-site audiences. The state’s Major League baseball teams expect to start their seasons on April 1 with a small number of customers in attendance.

Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., will race on a Monday-through-Wednesday schedule this year with a mid-afternoon first post time in order to exploit a scarcity of simulcast signals at that time and to cooperate with its regional neighbor to the north, Maryland, according to officials of the track.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A quarantine imposed on two barns Wednesday morning at Gulfstream Park has been lifted, track officials said late Wednesday afternoon. Training and racing will resume as normal on Thursday. 

The quarantine, which came about after a horse was euthanized late Tuesday evening after exhibiting neurological symptoms, resulted in more than a dozen horses being scratched from Wednesday's 10-race card.

Apollitical Patty had a brilliant 2-year-old season in 2020, highlighted by a sharp win against an excellent field in the $1,977,250 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity in December.

That may have been the prologue. Last Saturday, Apollitical Patty showed she may be better this year, with an easy win by an eye-catching 3 1/2 lengths in the first of three divisions of the $427,500 Los Alamitos Oaks. Not surprisingly, Apollitical Patty set the fastest 400-yard qualifying time of 19.55 seconds for the March 27 final.