Churchill Downs Inc. has agreed to pay a $2.9 million fine and fund $5.6 million in renovations to its Fair Grounds racetrack facility in New Orleans to settle charges that it illegally discharged wastewater into the area’s waterways, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the company.

Midnight Bisou, the champion older mare of 2019, has been retired from racing after sustaining a fractured sesamoid in her right front fetlock, her connections announced in a press release Wednesday.

Midnight Bisou had worked a routine half-mile Monday morning in 50.15 seconds at Saratoga in advance of a scheduled start in Sunday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. Cooling out after the work, assistant trainer Scott Blasi noticed the filly was off in her right front.

BALTIMORE – Authentic was assigned post 9 as the 9-5 morning-line favorite in a field of 11 3-year-olds entered Monday for the 145th Preakness Stakes, to be run Saturday at historic Pimlico Race Course as the final leg of the 2020 Triple Crown.

Midnight Bisou, the reigning champion older female, will miss Sunday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland after coming out of a Monday workout at Saratoga a bit off, according to her connections.

Midnight Bisou was to be sent to Dr. Larry Bramlage at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., for a complete evaluation, according to Jeff Bloom, head of Bloom Racing, which owns Midnight Bisou in partnership with Madaket Stables and Allen Racing. Midnight Bisou is scheduled to leave Saratoga by van on Tuesday and be examined on Wednesday, Bloom said.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a type of gambling device operated in the past by some tracks in the state does not fit the definition of “pari-mutuel wagering” as defined by Kentucky law, a ruling that could jeopardize millions of dollars in annual revenues for the tracks and reduce purses in the state.

The Breeders’ Cup Classic this year will have a post time of 5:13 p.m. Eastern when the race is held as part of the two-day event at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 6-7 this year, the Breeders' Cup announced on Thursday.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Making official what had been widely expected, Tiz the Law, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, will skip the Preakness Stakes on Oct. 3 and point to the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 7, trainer Barclay Tagg said Tuesday.

Volatile, the top-rated sprinter in North America, has been retired from racing due to a hairline fracture of his right front cannon bone, according to a press release put out Monday by his owners Three Chimneys Farm and Phoenix Thoroughbreds.

Volatile will stand at stud at Three Chimneys for the 2021 breeding season. No stud fee has been announced.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen hit a mind-boggling milestone of 9,000 career Thoroughbred training victories in North America on Friday night, when Troy Ounce won the second race at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

“It’s truly amazing – it really is,” Asmussen said shortly after the race Friday. “It’s a whole lot of winning, man. It’s just very special.”  

CHICAGO – The Illinois Racing Board awarded 2021 racing dates Wednesday to the state’s three remaining racing venues during its annual dates awards meeting. The schedule follows the established parameters of the modern era in Illinois, with Fairmount Park outside Saint Louis scattering about 50 racing days from the end of April through early September, and the Chicago Thoroughbred season divided between Hawthorne in the spring and fall and Arlington during the summer.

Now, the hope is that the assigned schedule sticks.