Del Mar plans to run 42 races from Friday through Labor Day in the closing days of the track’s summer meeting. It may take that long to determine a close race for leading rider.

Through Monday, Umberto Rispoli led the standings with 42 wins, one more than Flavien Prat, who won his third summer riding title at Del Mar last year. Rispoli, who relocated from Hong Kong last December, is riding at Del Mar for the first time this summer.

Rispoli had three wins Monday to take the lead, doing so on his 32nd birthday.

Jockey Brice Blanc was released from a San Diego area hospital Tuesday after sustaining broken ribs in a one-horse spill in the eighth race Monday at Del Mar.

Blanc is expected to be sidelined for six weeks, according to his agent, George Bradvica.

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Warren’s Showtime led by a length in the stretch of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Aug. 22 before finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind upset winner Red Lark.

Warren’s Showtime will have a final chance for a stakes win at the Del Mar summer meeting when she starts on the same course and distance in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Will Harbut Racing LLC, is one of the three owners of Kentucky Derby entrant Necker Island. Will Harbut’s name is familiar to students of racing history – he cared for the legendary Man o’ War in his stallion career in Kentucky for more than 16 years. The man behind Will Harbut Racing is the groom’s great-grandson, Greg Harbut, a bloodstock agent who named the operation for his family’s deep ties to racing, which are especially poignant in this year of racial unrest.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For the first time in more than two decades, Angel Cordero Jr. won’t be rooting for his protégé John Velazquez to win the Kentucky Derby.

Arguably the most accomplished agent-jockey tandem in racing history, Cordero and Velazquez split up earlier this year after 22 years together. Cordero believes the split came at least in part because he fought hard for the connections of Tiz the Law to keep his other client, Manny Franco, on the horse when other riders were inquiring about replacing him following the horse’s only loss last fall.

Jockey Vinnie Bednar sustained lower-limb paralysis in a one-horse spill at Los Alamitos on Aug. 22, his father, Scott Bednar, said on Tuesday, and will be moved to a hospital in Colorado for treatment.

“The injuries are significant,” Scott Bednar said. “He lacks movement in his lower extremities. We’re hoping for the best in the long-term prognosis.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – All eyes were on Tiz the Law early Wednesday when the heavy favorite for Kentucky Derby 146 got reacquainted with a sloppy Churchill Downs surface for the first time in more than nine months.

The Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, historically run in recent years on the day before the Preakness Stakes, will instead be run on the same card as the Preakness this year, according to a stakes schedule distributed by Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Wednesday.

According to the schedule, the Oct. 3 Preakness card will feature 12 races, all of them stakes and seven of them graded. This year, the Preakness is the third leg of the Triple Crown, scheduled one month after the re-scheduled Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

A cooperative effort between Del Mar and Santa Anita to use high-level diagnostic equipment based at Santa Anita has been credited by veterinarians with catching potential small problems before they become big ones during a summer season in which Del Mar has continued its strong safety record of recent years.

Del Mar has subsidized the transportation to Santa Anita of horses to use three highly advanced diagnostic services – nuclear scintigraphy, position emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) – provided by the Southern California Equine Foundation.

John Shirreffs trained Zenyatta throughout her Hall of Fame career and can’t wait to see her soon, but the demands of the Kentucky Derby will mean the next visit will come later this month, when he returns for the yearling sales. This week, he’s sticking to Churchill Downs like Calvin Borel sticks to the rail.

“It’s hard to leave. You never know when something unforeseen could develop,” said Shirreffs, who trains Honor A. P.