After suffering a severe spinal injury during a spill at Colonial Downs last month, jockey Tyler Conner announced his retirement from racing in a video posted to social media Tuesday. He said that he is slowly regaining feeling and recovering from the incident, but that it had a jarring impact and has led him to consider a life beyond the saddle.

“I have zero desire to ride a racehorse again,” Conner said. “I’ve been wanting to quit for years and this gives me a good reason now. I just have to focus on getting healthy and figuring out what I want to do.”

Gulfstream Park in Florida has filed a lawsuit asking a state district court to invalidate a requirement that the track hold a live race meet to operate slot machines, the latest salvo in the track’s effort to decouple its racing license from its casino license.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – He’s admittedly biased, but trainer Miguel Clement believes he has the best middle-distance and marathon male turf horses in the country in his barn. 

He may not be wrong. 

Last Saturday, Deterministic successfully cut back to one mile and won the Grade 1, $750,000 Fourstardave Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths over Intellect. It was his third graded turf stakes win this year and second in a Grade 1, having won the Manhattan at 1 1/8 miles here June 8. Deterministic also won the Grade 2 Fort Marcy at Aqueduct in May. 

DEL MAR, Calif. - Bourbon and Ginger is expected to start in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 6 after a hard-fought win in a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs in her debut on Saturday.

Ridden by Mirco Demuro, Bourbon and Ginger was always near the front and won by a half-length over a fast-finishing Grandma Mary.

Trained by Richard Mandella for Spendthrift Farm, Bourbon and Ginger was purchased for $325,000 as a yearling at Keeneland last September.

“She’s very smart and quick,” Mandella said.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Six months ago, Seismic Beauty was a maiden race winner from summer 2024 being prepared for a comeback. Things have changed remarkably.

Seismic Beauty is California’s leading older female and a bold filly who has shown startling improvement in recent starts.

On Saturday at Del Mar, Seismic Beauty won her third consecutive start, and the most prestigious race of her career, in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares.

The remarkable thing is that trainer Bob Baffert expects more from Seismic Beauty in coming starts.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sierra Leone bested his familiar nemesis Fierceness when winning Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes. For his expected next assignment, Sierra Leone will try to exact some revenge on Mindframe - a stablemate of Fierceness - in the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga on Aug. 31. 

Regardless of where he runs, Political Twist wins.

The 2-year-old Quarter Horse, unbeaten in four starts, won a division of the West Texas Futurity trials at 300 yards at Sunland Park on March 16 and the $365,271 final on April 5. On May 23, Political Twist won a trial for the $1 million Ruidoso Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, and the final by a comfortable 1 1/2 lengths on June 8.

Political Twist’s fifth start will be Monday at The Downs at Albuquerque, in the first of 16 time trials at 440 yards for the $3 million All American Futurity on Sept. 1.

Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park will each rename a graded stakes to honor the late trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Christophe Clement, the track’s parent company, 1/ST Racing and Gaming, announced on Wednesday.

Starting in 2026, Santa Anita will rename its Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes as the D. Wayne Lukas Stakes, while Gulfstream will change the name of its Grade 3 La Prevoyante Stakes to the Christophe Clement Stakes.

Lukas, a Hall of Famer, died in late June at the age of 89. Clement died in late May at the age of 59.