Longtime jockey Kenneth “Chopper” Bourque passed away Tuesday in Taylorsville, Ky.

The cause of death was cancer, according to Bourque’s son, Kenneth Bourque Jr. The elder Bourque was 67.

Bourque was born and raised in the jockey hotbed of Erath, La. He rode bush track races as a youth and had his first sanctioned win in 1969 at Evangeline Downs. Bourque moved to the East Coast to make the most of his apprentice allowance before settling in as a journeyman at various Midwest tracks, eventually coming to ride nearly exclusively in Louisiana.

David Kassen, who began his career on the racetrack walking hots at age 9, died at 81 on Sunday in Lake Placid, New York.

Kassen, born in Cincinnati in 1939, was a groom, a gallop boy, and even a jockey’s agent before he lost 40 pounds to become a contract rider in 1959 for trainer Marvin Gaines at Keeneland. Kassen rode 12 years before becoming a trainer in 1971 and he trained into 2020 before bladder cancer forced him off the racetrack. Kassen and his wife, Bonnie, moved to New York several months ago as his condition worsened.

Tiz the Law, a four-time Grade 1-winning New York-bred, has been retired from racing due to bone bruising and will stand at Coolmore America’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky in 2021, it was announced Wednesday.

Fred Aime, who booked mounts for Pat Day at the height of the Hall of Fame jockey’s career, died in hospice Wednesday in Jefferson Parish, La., following a lengthy bout with cancer. He was 70.

Day said Aime worked for him for about 10 years, from 1986-96, and that they enjoyed an ideal working relationship throughout their time together.

“He was a great agent, a great guy,” said Day. “I got to speak to him not too long before he passed. He did a very commendable job for me and we set records together. He was a real pleasure.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite being shut down for 11 weeks, losing 43 racing dates, and operating the last seven months of the year without fans ontrack, the New York Racing Association appeared to weather the economic storm from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and end up in decent shape for 2020.

Several weeks ago, Vinnie Bednar drove a car for the first time since Aug. 22.

On that Saturday night at Los Alamitos, Bednar was involved in a one-horse spill that caused a spinal cord injury, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. Bednar underwent surgery at USC Medical Center the next day and spent two weeks there before he was transferred to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., a premier rehabilitation center for paralysis patients.

Bednar spent more than two months in Colorado, undergoing various aspects of treatment and rehabilitation.

Santa Anita begins its winter-spring meeting on Saturday with an addition to the turf course, a slight increase in overnight purses, and an outstanding 11-race program that includes five graded races.

What is missing from opening day, and in all likelihood for the duration of the meeting, are paying customers.

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Jockey Florent Geroux will shift his tack from his usual winter base at Fair Grounds to ride at Oaklawn Park when the Arkansas track’s 2021 race meet begins Jan. 22.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Veteran riders Alex Birzer, Jorge Martin Bourdieu, Kendrick Carmouche, Aaron Gryder, and Deshawn Parker, who collectively have won more than 17,500 races, are the finalists for the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, it was announced Tuesday by Santa Anita, where the award has been presented annually since 1950.

Very few substantive changes have been made in the listing of graded stakes for 2021, officials with the American Graded Stakes Committee announced Friday.

Only one race, the Saratoga Derby, has been upgraded to a Grade 1 for next year, while no Grade 1 race contested in 2020 has been downgraded. The Saratoga Derby, which was won this year by Domestic Spending, subsequent winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, was run in 2020 as an ungraded, $500,000 race.