If you can’t beat him, grab him.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, who has twice beaten Tiz the Law aboard Authentic, will be the new rider for Tiz the Law when he makes his next start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23, his connections announced Thursday.

“We’re very pleased to have an opportunity to have Johnny ride him,” said Jack Knowlton, head of the Sackatoga Stable, which owns Tiz the Law. “He beat us twice this year with Authentic. Now that Authentic isn’t around any longer, getting Johnny is a good opportunity.”

Marshall Gramm, a college professor and racehorse owner from Memphis, took home first prize of $322,500 in winning the 12th annual Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge last weekend at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

The Breeders’ Cup was designed to be a year-end event where championships are determined, and it succeeded magnificently in that pursuit Friday and Saturday at Keeneland. Just about every major divisional award was decided on the racetrack, most notably Horse of the Year, with Kentucky Derby winner Authentic outrunning top older horses Improbable, Maximum Security, and Tom’s d’Etat, as well as fellow classic-winning 3-year-old Tiz the Law, in a star-studded Classic.

Breeders' Cup Classic

Recap | Full results, payouts, and chart

Breeders' Cup Turf

Recap | Full results, payouts, and chart

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Star European jockey Christophe Soumillon has tested positive for the Covid-19 virus ahead of the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland and is off his two scheduled mounts Saturday.

A Breeders’ Cup media release said the positive was returned Thursday after Soumillon was tested at Keeneland the previous day. It was the only positive out of 55 tests administered to all Breeders’ Cup jockeys. Soumillon left the track following reaffirmation of the positive and has entered into isolation.

The National Hockey League returned for the playoffs 4 1/2 months after a premature end to the regular season, and successfully completed a post-season that crowned the Tampa Bay Lightning as Stanley Cup champion.

The National Basketball Association, similarly, picked up with the playoffs 4 1/2 months after suspending regular-season play, and completed a season in which the Los Angeles Lakers reigned as champion.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Inthemidstofbiz has been scratched as a longshot from the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint after being found Thursday morning at Keeneland to have a slight fever, according to trainer Cipriano Contreras.

The defection of Inthemidstofbiz reduces the field for the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint to eight. The seven-furlong race will be run Saturday as the fourth of 12 races and the first of nine straight BC events.

Voters in Nebraska on Tuesday approved a referendum allowing racetracks in the state to operate casino-type games, while voters in Virginia approved casinos in four locations that will now offer competition for the state’s recently resurrected horse track, Colonial Downs.

The Nebraska referendum will allow six tracks in the state to open casinos. Supporters of the measure have said that subsidies from the casino operations could lead to a doubling of the number of race dates in the state. In 2020, Nebraska tracks ran 53 live race dates.

Vekoma, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland, will scratch from that race after spiking a temperature Tuesday night, trainer George Weaver said Wednesday morning.

Weaver said the horse was treated with antibiotics to lower the temperature and he was doing better Wednesday morning, but he could not run.

It is expected that the horse’s racing career is over as he is scheduled to stand at stud in 2021 at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Two former New York Racing Association racing department employees testified Tuesday that they provided trainer Linda Rice information she should not have received prior to entries closing for races in which she was considering entering and that Rice gave them and other racing office employees monetary gifts.