Ray York, who rode Determine to victory in the 1954 Kentucky Derby, died last weekend at the age of 86 from pneumonia at an extended-care facility in Bakersfield, Calif., according to a press release put out by Santa Anita.

Tommy Trotter, a longtime racing official who served as a racing secretary at tracks from coast-to-coast died Sunday in a hospital in Aventura, Fla., after a brief bout with pneumonia. He was 93.

Covfefe, who just last month won Eclipse Awards as both champion 3-year-old filly and champion female sprinter, and who initially was announced as remaining in training for 2020, has been retired and will be bred to the white-hot stallion Constitution, her connections announced Monday.

Covfefe won six times in eight starts, with her final start a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita Nov. 2. She also scored a Grade 1 victory in the Test at Saratoga last summer. She earned more than $1.1 million.

The Thoroughbred racing and bloodstock worlds lost a legend on Friday as Hall of Famer and breed-shaping sire A.P. Indy died of natural causes in his stall at his longtime home, Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky. The son of Seattle Slew was 31.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Sports regulatory bodies are increasingly focusing their efforts on the use of intelligence and data networks to root out illegal drug use and cheating, according to speakers on Thursday at the Asian Racing Conference, a development that poses challenges to racing’s current reliance on post-race and out-of-competition drug tests to combat doping.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Sports marketing and the fundamentals underlying the practice are changing rapidly in the internet era, and horse racing will need to adapt to those changes if it hopes to stem declines in its popularity in many jurisdictions worldwide, speakers at the Asian Racing Conference in Cape Town, South Africa said on Wednesday.

A former state racing official has sent a letter to his former employers at the New York State Gaming Commission seeking to reinstate trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., who is currently serving a 10-year suspension.

Steve Lewandowski, who served as the gaming commission steward for five years before retiring last summer, in November sent a letter to the commission in which he called the suspension and $50,000 fine levied against Dutrow “a gross miscarriage of justice.”

The contents of the letter were first reported by Horse Racing Insider on Sunday.

View the top 20 contenders for the 2020 Kentucky Derby Field with comments from Jay Privman and Marty McGee.

Jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. has had a bench warrant issued against him by San Diego County Superior Court after failing to show last month for an arraignment pertaining to three felony counts and one misdemeanor related to domestic violence arrests late last year.

Arroyo’s bail had been set at $50,000, but was increased to $100,000, according to court documents.

Trainer Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey has been suspended 15 days by the Ohio State Racing Commission for a positive for a prohibited diuretic, hydrochlorothiazide, detected in a post-race test of a horse that won at Belterra Park in Ohio last September.

Tactical Affair,  a now 5-year-old Tapit mare owned by the Phipps Stable, tested positive for the substance after winning a non-winners of two allowance at Belterra on Sept. 9 last year, 17 days after she won a maiden race at the same track.