Robert P. “Bob” Levy, who owned the standout racehorses Housebuster and Bet Twice and whose family owned Atlantic City Race Course, died Wednesday of natural causes. He was 87.

Levy was prominent in racing for much of his life but especially so in the 1980s and early 1990s, during the heydays of Bet Twice, winner of the 1987 Belmont Stakes, and Housebuster, a two-time champion sprinter inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2013. His best horses were trained by Warren “Jimmy” Croll, himself a Hall of Famer who died in 2008.

J. Willard Thompson, a steady presence in New Jersey racing circles for more than 50 years, died Saturday night at age 83 following a lengthy illness.

Thompson, a native of Georgia, was a Steeplechase rider in his early days. He turned to training in the early 1960s and became a driving force in New Jersey, winning three consecutive Monmouth Park training titles from 1975 to 1977. He also led the standings at The Meadowlands racetrack in 1980 and 1981.

He would come back 20 years later to win the 2001 Monmouth training title.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Irad Ortiz Jr. was the top points-earner as the recipient of the 16th Bill Shoemaker Award, given annually to the most outstanding jockey at the Breeders’ Cup.

Ortiz won two BC events, the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Newspaperofrecord and the Filly and Mare Sprint on Shamrock Rose, and finished in the top four in five other races from 13 mounts. Based on a 10-4-2-1 scoring system on first- through fourth-place finishes, he earned 35 points to narrowly edge Joel Rosario (32) and Javier Castellano (30).

Churchill Downs Inc., the publicly traded company that owns a swath of racing and casino assets across the U.S., has reached an agreement to purchase a majority share in a casino northwest of Chicago that is just miles from its Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Heights, the company announced Wednesday night.

Breeders’ Cup Ltd. and NBC Sports have reached a three-year contract extension to broadcast races within the “Win and You’re In” series of preps leading up to the two-day event, the companies announced Monday.

The contract extension will keep the series of prep races on channels owned by NBC through 2021, continuing a relationship begun in 2014. The “Win and You’re In” series awards automatic berths to horses for select Breeders’ Cup races. This year, 10 broadcasts featuring more than 20 “Win and You’re In” races appeared on NBC properties.

Cothran W. “Cot” Campbell, the South Carolina horseman whose racing partnerships brought racehorse ownership to the masses, died Saturday in Aiken, S.C., according to his church. Campbell, who announced his retirement in 2011 but remained a fixture at racetracks throughout the last seven years, was 91.

In 1988 at Churchill Downs, 41-year-old Freddie Head, stirrups set short, white jockey’s cap bobbing up and down like a buoy in choppy waters, cruised down the turf-course homestretch on Miesque, who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile for the second year in a row, the first repeat winner in Breeders’ Cup history.

In 2010 at Churchill Downs, Head watched from the stands as Goldikova, the best horse he ever has trained, skittered around the same course and won the Mile for the third year in a row, the first horse to win three Breeders’ Cup races.

There were four horses pre-entered on Wednesday in both the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Dirt Mile, which led to some angst among trainers worried as to whether they’d get into the Classic. But the likely composition of the Classic field came into sharper focus on Thursday after Bravazo – one of that quartet – worked at Churchill Downs and then was declared as certain for the Dirt Mile.

“That’s where we’re headed,” D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Bravazo, said after Bravazo worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds, the fastest time of 20 works at the distance.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With rain in the local forecast for Friday, a few Breeders’ Cup hopefuls were out for their final pre-race works a day earlier than planned Thursday over a fast track at Churchill Downs.

In all, five BC runners were on clocker John Nichols’s tab, most of them well before dawn and under the bright Churchill lights. First to go was Bravazo (Dirt Mile), who went five furlongs in 59.80 seconds for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Trainer Rick Violette, who passionately and tirelessly fought for the rights of horsemen while maintaining a successful racing operation for decades, lost his battle with cancer Sunday. He was 65.

Violette died at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., surrounded by family members.

Violette was diagnosed with cancer in the spring of 2015, but it was in remission until this year. Last month, Violette was hospitalized with a stomach ailment.