In an absolutely stunning development, Heavenly Prize is the lone contemporary inductee into the 2018 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, this despite a change in voting rules this year that seemed as though it would make it easier for a backlogged group of deserving candidates to finally get in.

Heavenly Prize was one of 10 horses, trainers, and jockeys on the final ballot, the others being jockeys Robby Albarado, Corey Nakatani, and Craig Perret; trainers Mark Casse, John Shirreffs, and David Whiteley, and the racehorses Blind Luck, Gio Ponti, and Havre de Grace.

With Saturday's final two Road to the Kentucky Derby races, plus the defection of Sunland Derby winner Runaway Ghost owing to injury, the potential Derby field is now set, with the current bottom level for making the 20-horse field a record 39 points.

The Kentucky Derby is May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Much can and likely will change over the next two-plus weeks, but at the moment Firenze Fire is 20th on the list with 39 points. Combatant, ranked 21st with 32 points, is on the bubble.

Sunland Derby winner Runaway Ghost will miss the Kentucky Derby after coming out of a Saturday work with a suspected hairline fracture to his right front cannon bone, according to his trainer, Todd Fincher.

Diagnostics were taken when the horse was cooling out after a six-furlong move in 1:13.80 at his base of Sunland Park.

“We can see a small line there,” Fincher said. “Right after the workout he was fine. During the cool-out period he started being off. We took X-rays and he had a little profile on the shin – a faint sign.”

William Nack, a longtime sportswriter whose deep grasp of his subjects and stylish prose invigorated a biography of Secretariat that many consider to be one of the greatest racing books ever written, died on Friday, according to Sports Illustrated, which employed him for more than two decades. Nack was 77.

Keith Brackpool, who was hired by The Stronach Group in 2013 to head the company’s California operations, has resigned and sued the company for $40 million, alleging breach of contract in a dispute over the disposition of an equity stake in the private company.

Myung Kwon Cho, an owner and breeder who won Grade 1 races at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park earlier this century, died April 9 after a lengthy illness, his son Raxon told Santa Anita publicity.

Cho was 72. He had been in hospice care since February.

Born in North Korea, Cho was raised in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to the United States in 1978. He operated a clothing export business and became involved in racing in the 1980s.

Carol Culp, the first licensed female exercise rider in New England, died Wednesday. She was 84.

Born in Peterborough, N.H., Culp began riding in the hunter-jumper realm, in which she rose high enough in the ranks to compete in the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden. At age 10, she was given consideration to be the stunt double for actress Elizabeth Taylor in the film National Velvet.

Gun Runner and Winx, both rated 129, once again top the latest edition of the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.

The most recent update of the rankings, released Tuesday after the latest convening of an International Federation of Horseracing Authorities’ committee, has the same top three as the last edition, but while Gun Runner has been retired to stud, Winx is back in action again this weekend in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick Racecourse in Australia.

The San Luis Rey Downs training center in San Diego County is reopening this week, more than four months after a devastating wildfire that cost the lives of 46 horses.

Since the Dec. 7 fire, a majority of the more than 400 horses based at San Luis Rey Downs in Bonsall, Calif., were housed at Del Mar, about 35 miles to the northeast. As of Wednesday, about 200 horses have been moved to San Luis Rey, according to Del Mar officials.

Another 200 remained at Del Mar as of Wednesday, with trainers anxiously awaiting word when they can relocate to San Luis Rey Downs.

Victor Espinoza, a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, will go for his fourth when he climbs aboard Bolt d'Oro in this year's running on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Mick Ruis, the trainer and owner of Bolt d'Oro, made it official late Monday, informing Espinoza's agent, Brian Beach, after a dinner meeting between Ruis and Espinoza that Espinoza would indeed have the mount.