Throughout his life, Bruce Headley was never far from a racehorse.

From his youth visiting an uncle who trained, to his teenage years as an exercise rider at a Southern California ranch, and finally the start of his own training career at 25, Headley was involved with horses nearly every day of his life.

Even when Headley left his stable at Santa Anita each morning for his nearby home in Arcadia, Calif., his spacious backyard was home to several young prospects and a few veterans being prepared for comebacks.

Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. happily reported that the injuries his multiple Grade 2 winner Arson Squad suffered when breaking down just before completing a workout here Saturday do not appear to be life-threatening, although his racing career is over.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When trainer Jim Hooper led his 5-year-old gelding Inherit the Gold onto Aqueduct’s main track for the Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Nov. 13, he noticed that the horse’s ears perked up.

“I think he likes that place pretty well,” said Hooper, whose horse rallied from off the pace that day to win by a neck, his seventh career victory at Aqueduct.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Eight older runners who have won a combined 64 races and $3.3 million square off in Thursday’s $60,000 Irish Tower out of Aqueduct’s main-track chute at one mile.

The lineup includes the favorite and second choice from this year’s General George Handicap, the last two winners of the Queens County, a Grade 1 winner who rates only as the third choice on the morning line, and features the return of Arson Squad, a nine-time winner who has earned nearly $1.2 million, who missed the J. B. Campbell and the Stymie in February because of a foot infection.