LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Fayette County judge on Thursday denied a motion sought by lawyers for Ahmed Zayat to dissolve a receivership that is seeking to liquidate his racing assets as part of a proceeding initiated by a New York investment company that has sued the owner, parties in the case said Friday.

The number of graded stakes in Canada remains at 45, but six races that had black-type status have been upgraded to listed-stakes status for 2020 after the Jockey Club of Canada’s graded stakes committee held its annual review.

After reviewing the North American Race Committee figures and the Race Quality Scores for all graded and listed races in Canada, the committee upgraded the Belle Mahone, Flaming Page, Sweet Briar Too, Charlie Barley, Alywow, and Ruling Angel Stakes. These races had previously been considered ineligible for graded and listed status.

Just days before he is scheduled to make his first start at 3 after being named last year’s champion 2-year-old male, Storm the Court topped a list of 347 3-year-olds who were made early nominees to this year’s Triple Crown, it was announced Wednesday by Churchill Downs, host of the Kentucky Derby.

Storm the Court is scheduled to race on Sunday at Santa Anita in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes, which will mark his first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile three months ago.

Ten new names are in the lineup for Pool 2 of the 2020 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for the customary three-day run.

The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, has been pegged as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Pool 2 by Churchill Downs linemaker Mike Battaglia, with Tiz the Law the shortest individually listed interest at 8-1. Next are Independence Hall (10-1), Dennis’ Moment (12-1), Nadal (12-1), Authentic (15-1), Maxfield (15-1), and Thousand Words (15-1).

Kentucky Derby 2020 point standings

Leaderboard for qualifying points to the 2020 Kentucky Derby, which will be run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, May 2, 2020. Points are earned by the top four finishers in designated Kentucky Derby prep races.

The trainer Mike Maker has filed a lawsuit accusing Ahmed Zayat of breach of contract and fraud, the latest development in a string of financial controversies enveloping the owner who raced 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

The suit, filed in Jefferson County, Ky., where Maker is based, accuses Zayat of reneging on a deal reached between the two parties in September that would allow Zayat to settle $120,000 in unpaid training bills. The bills stretched back to 2018, when Maker agreed to train a total of eight horses for Zayat Stables, the nom de course of Ahmed Zayat.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Pink Lloyd, Global Access, Amalfi Coast, and Here’s Hannah are all finalists in multiple categories in the 2019 Sovereign Awards voting. The 45th annual Sovereign Awards ceremony will be held April 16 at the Universal Eventspace in Vaughan, Ontario.

Canada’s Horse of the Year in 2017, Pink Lloyd is favored to become the champion male sprinter for the third year in a row, over Silent Poet and Yorkton. Unbeaten in six stakes starts last year, Pink Lloyd is also a finalist in the older male main-track category, along with Mr Ritz and Special Forces.

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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For only the second time in the 49-year history of the Eclipse Awards, the Horse of the Year and all the people associated with him swept their categories, as the Runhappy Eclipse Awards dinner on Thursday night at Gulfstream Park provided a glorious epilogue to the 2019 season of Bricks and Mortar.

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