LOUISVILLE, KY. –Joe Talamo, in his first year of riding the Kentucky circuit after more than 13 years in Southern California, was the leading jockey at the 25-day Runhappy summer meet, which ended Sunday at Ellis Park in western Kentucky. Talamo rode 20 winners, two more than Rafael Bejarano, who missed the last nine days of the meet. Talamo led in mount earnings with $746,716.

Brad Cox and Kenny McPeek tied for leading trainer with 10 wins, while the PTK of the Haughey family of Virginia was the leading owner with six wins.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bettors with the foresight to back Tiz the Law months ago for the Kentucky Derby are among those who will be hoping to cash in on an overlay Saturday.

The Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May – or, as it turns out in 2020, the first Saturday in September – is the Super Bowl of American Thoroughbred racing. Every trainer and jockey in the sport dreams, however casually, of giving or getting a leg up to answer the call to the post for the classic race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stacey Van Camp’s $8,000 yearling buy El Bayern gave her and her partner, trainer Mike Mattine, quite a thrill last Sunday when she came from left field to land her debut in the $250,800 Muskoka Stakes at Woodbine.

Van Camp said the victory was especially sweet because Sheena Ryan rode El Bayern after coming out of retirement this year. Ryan had success for Van Camp in the past, riding her allowance horse Stormfuhr in his victorious debut in 2017, and winning on Strut and Stomp and Uncatchable Fire. Ryan left the track last fall to pursue a career in yoga.

Ken McPeek has unfinished Kentucky Oaks business.

It has been more than 15 years since trainer John Shirreffs won the Kentucky Derby, but when he is asked of that glorious May day back in 2005 at Churchill Downs, the memories are vivid. The crowd noise, the feeling when Giacomo began his move, the temporary disbelief, the presence of mind to take it all in, all before being shepherded to the winner’s podium, then a post-race celebration in the Derby Museum, before finally heading back to the barn to check on his horse – it all comes flooding back.

Bound for Nowhere, the morning-line favorite in the Grade 2, $250,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Friday at Churchill Downs, will scratch to await the Grade 3, $700,000 Runhappy Turf Sprint on Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs, trainer Wesley Ward said Tuesday.

"Three times the money," Ward said of the reason for the decision.

Bound for Nowhere most recently was third in the Grade 2 Shakertown on July 11 at Keeneland.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., who was scheduled to ride Art Collector in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday before the colt was declared from consideration because of a minor injury, took off his mounts Tuesday at Churchill Downs after testing positive for COVID-19.

Hernandez said from his Louisville home that he tested positive on Monday, but that he also tested positive for the virus antibodies on Tuesday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tiz the Law, likely to be one of the heaviest Kentucky Derby favorites of the last half-century, was assigned post 17 in a field of 18 3-year-olds when entries were drawn Tuesday at Churchill Downs.

Longtime Churchill oddsmaker Mike Battaglia listed Tiz the Law as the 3-5 program favorite, followed by two rivals who drew to either side of him in the far outside gates, Honor A. P. (post 16, 5-1) and Authentic (post 18, 8-1).

As a young man in Venezuela, Juan Carlos Avila, like many Venezuelan youths, had designs on becoming a professional baseball player. He tried second base, third base, and then realized the whole enterprise was a dead end.

“I tried to make myself better; it didn’t work,” Avila said.