Due to weather, both Laurel and Penn National cancel live racing Friday Feb. 26th.

Live racing has been cancelled at Aqueduct Friday, Febuary 26th and Saturday Febuary 27th

Live racing Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pa. for Thursday night, Feb. 25, has been cancelled as the Mid-Atlantic region is being hit by its third major snowstorm in February.

Track officials are hoping to resume racing at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26.

Trainer Wayne Catalano won his 2,000th race when he sent out Dunscombe to victory in the third race Hawthorne Feb. 24.

Catalano now has earnings of $36,077,886 from saddling a lifetime total of 9,694 horses. Catalano, who began training in 1983, scored his biggest recent victory with 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) winner She Be Wild, who was later named champion 2-year-old filly.

Trainer Todd Pletcher sent out three winners of Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) prep races over the weekend, and then headed out for a 10-day suspension.

Pletcher began serving a 10-day suspension Feb. 22 he was handed by the California Horse Racing Board for a positive test for the prohibited substance procaine from Wait a While who finished third in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) at Santa Anita.

Pletcher had a banner send-off for his suspension, as the trainer had a personal Derby prep hat trick, winning the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth (gr. II) with Eskendereya, the Risen Star (gr. II) with Discreetly Mine, and the El Camino Real Derby (gr. III) with Connemara.

Pletcher decided not to appeal the 10-day suspension and $25,000 fine, even though he disagrees with the verdict.

MI Developments Inc. has agreed in principle to lease San Luis Rey Downs training center to a company owned by Leigh Ann Howard, the current manager of the Bonsall, California, facility, said MI Developments Chief Operating Officer Donald Cameron.

MI Developments is the parent company of Magna Entertainment Corp., which currently operates San Luis Rey Downs. Magna Entertainment’s desire to close the facility was recently made public.

The California Thoroughbred Trainers then stepped up to try to save the training center, and it appears that at least for now the efforts were successful.

“Dennis Mills, vice chairman and chief executive office of MI Developments Inc., hopes the Thoroughbred Owners of California, as well as the equine community in Southern California, will continue to support Ms. Howard in this new and exciting endeavor.”

Two-time Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winning jockey Calvin Borel has been named the 2010 winner of Santa Anita Park’s George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in a vote of his peers.

Borel will receive his award in a winner’s circle ceremony at Santa Anita on March 14.

Retired Hall of Fame jockey and current racing analyst Gary Stevens, winner of the Woolf Award in 1996, made the announcement Feb. 20 from Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in New Orleans on HRTV.

Borel will become the 61st recipient of one of racing’s most coveted awards, which has been presented since 1950. The Woolf Award honors and recognizes those riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual rider and the sport of Thoroughbred racing.

The bankruptcy sale of Magna Entertainment Corp.’s horse racing assets in Maryland has been postponed a fourth time.

According to a filing Feb. 19, a Feb. 23 auction of Laurel Park and Pimlico tracks and the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) race has been delayed to March 25. A new date for a hearing on the sale of Maryland Jockey Club assets was not set.

Also postponed Feb. 19 was a hearing on Maryland’s asserted right of first refusal in any sale. The state wants the Preakness race at Pimlico to stay in Maryland.

Magna, one of  the largest horse-track owners in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection last March, saying it was unable to obtain new financing while supporting its existing debt.

Golden Gate Fields has been fully accredited by the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance following a complete review of all racing operations at the Albany, California, track.

Golden Gate is the 15th track to receive accreditation from the Alliance. The track played host to several meetings with Alliance officials and underwent an on-site review of all facets of the racing facility.

The California Thoroughbred Trainers reported Feb. 16 that San Luis Rey Downs will close as a Thoroughbred training center effective March 15.

The CTT said it received word from owner Magna Entertainment Corp., which cited economic circumstances for the decision.

The trainers’ organization said reallocation of stabling and vanning funds from Southern California Off-Track Wagering Inc. “contributed to the economic conditions” that led to the decision to shutter San Luis Rey Downs.

The funds had been distributed to Santa Anita Park, Hollywood Park, Fairplex Park, and San Luis Rey Downs. The CTT said a SCOTWINC committee in 2009 voted to cease funding off-site stabling at Fairplex and San Luis Rey Downs, so Fairplex closed its stable area to off-site stabling.

Up to 1.25% of pari-mutuel handle from satellite wagering in Southern and Northern California goes to the stabling and vanning fund. The CTT said it recently formed a “strong working relationship” with the Thoroughbred Owners of California and plans to discuss “a potential resolution” to the San Luis Rey Downs shutdown.