The Arkansas Racing Commission has scheduled hearings on April 19 and April 20 to hear an appeal by trainer Bob Baffert of two positives for the painkiller lidocaine at Oaklawn Park last year, according to Baffert’s attorney.

Craig Robertson, Baffert’s attorney, is expected to argue that the two horses were inadvertently exposed to lidocaine due to a medicated patch worn by his assistant, who saddled the two horses on the day both tested positive. Robertson has also said that the amount of lidocaine found in the horses’ systems would not have impacted the horses’ performances.

The potholes that can be found on the road to the Kentucky Derby knocked out one of the top contenders Wednesday, when Greatest Honour was ruled out of the race.

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Famed Kentucky horsewoman Alice Headley Chandler, the founder of Mill Ridge Farm, passed away peacefully at her home in Lexington, Ky., on April 6, at the age of 95.

Chad Brown likens the approach he and owner Seth Klarman take to building Klarman’s Klaravich Stables to drafting a team, looking for prospects at every position. Potential contenders for the spring classics – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont – are an important part of the roster, to be sure, but so is finding horses like Bricks and Mortar, their 2019 Horse of the Year. They want horses who can run short or long, on turf and dirt, be it colts or fillies.

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Helium, who won the Tampa Bay Derby in his last start and is scheduled to go straight to the Kentucky Derby on May 1, and Weyburn, who won the Gotham in his last start and is scheduled to run in the Wood Memorial on Saturday, are two of the nine 3-year-olds announced on Wednesday as late nominees to the Triple Crown.

Fox Sports will purchase a 25 percent equity share in the New York Racing Association’s account-wagering company and extend a broadcast-rights agreement with the association until 2030, the two companies announced Thursday.

Larry Melancon, a journeyman rider who retired in 2010 with more than 2,800 wins and abiding friendships in the sport, died on Thursday at his home in Louisville, Ky., according to friends of the rider. Melancon was 65.

Melancon suffered a major stroke while on vacation in North Carolina in 2017, an incident that required him to be put into an induced coma. His health never fully recovered after the stroke, though he still maintained contact with friends in the racing community, according to Al Stall, a trainer who was close to the rider.

Collaborate is trying to go from an unstarted maiden at the beginning of February to a prominent Kentucky Derby contender in less than three months, a meteoric rise that’s a microcosm of that of his trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr.