Penny Ann Early, one of the first female riders to be licensed in the United States who was a victim of discrimination in the late 1960s, died on June 23 of an apparent suicide, according to two of her friends.

Early was 80. She was living in Tennessee at the time of her death.

Early had a brief career as a jockey in the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning a race at Suffolk Downs on April 19, 1969, the $10,000 Lady Godiva Handicap, that consisted entirely of seven female riders. Diane Crump rode the second-place finisher, ahead of Tuesdee Testa on the third-place runner.

Tracks throughout the upper Midwest cancelled their live racing programs for Wednesday after plumes of smoke from Canadian wildfires once again descended across the U.S. border for the second time in three weeks.

Two Ohio tracks, Belterra in Cincinnati and Thistledown outside of Cleveland, canceled their cards, as well as Hawthorne Racecourse in Chicago, Horseshoe Indianapolis in Indiana, Presque Isle Downs in northwestern Pennsylvania, and Mountaineer in West Virginia. 

Trainer Wesley Ward is currently serving a 15-day suspension handed down by the stewards in New Jersey after a horse he trained tested positive for naproxen, a regulated anti-inflammatory drug, after winning a race at Monmouth Park last summer, according to a ruling and people involved in the case.

Two Phil’s, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby on May 6 and a leading member of the 2023 class of 3-year-olds, has been retired from racing. 

The colt’s trainer, Larry Rivelli, said he and Two Phil’s’ group of owners decided to end the colt’s racing career on advice from noted equine veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage. 

Two Phil’s, one of the leading 3-year-olds in North America, exited his win in Saturday’s Ohio Derby at Thistledown with an ankle injury and is unlikely to race again in 2023. 

Larry Rivelli, who trains Two Phil’s for Vince Foglia’s Patricia’s Hope, Phillip Sagan, and Madaket Stables said that Two Phil’s on Sunday was being transported to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, where he’ll undergo further evaluation and is expected to be operated on by Dr. Larry Bramlage.   

CYPRESS, Calif. - Kings River Knight may soon outgrow California-bred stakes.

On Saturday at Los Alamitos, Kings River Knight won his second consecutive stakes for statebreds in the $100,500 Bertrando Stakes for milers, leading throughout under jockey Juan Hernandez.

Kings River Knight finished in a sharp 1:35.31 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 96.

At Santa Anita on May 28, Kings River Knight used similar front-running tactics to win the Crystal Water Stakes for statebreds at a mile on turf.

Veteran jockey Tyler Baze, who has not ridden since mid-April at Oaklawn Park, said on Sunday that he has recovered from recent surgery for bowel obstruction and gall bladder removal and is planning a return to riding in the near future.

“I’m healing from surgery,” he said. “I’m a whole lot better.

“The doctors cleared me to start doing something. I need to get strong and get fit again, strong enough to ride. I don’t want to go out there when I’m not 100 percent. I’m not rushing anything.”

A Northern Virginia sheriff’s office last week took possession of 98 Thoroughbreds from a farm in Shenandoah County after concluding that the horses were in a state of neglect and malnourishment, according to officials involved in the effort.

Federal prosecutors have traced a 2013 burglary at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame to a Pennsylvania-based crime ring that specialized in stealing sports memorabilia from museums over a period of 20 years, according to an indictment that was unsealed last weekend.

Kentucky Derby runner-up Two Phil's and Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles headline a field of eight 3-year-olds entered Monday for the Grade 3, $500,000 Ohio Derby, set for Saturday at Thistledown in North Randall.