The path Texas racing will go down next year remains unclear with a Nov. 30 funding deadline looming, but dates for the 2016 season were approved on Tuesday. The Texas Racing Commission granted a calendar similar to the one in place this year, with the main change a later start for the Thoroughbred meet at Retama Park near San Antonio.

Lone Star Park near Dallas was approved for a 50-date Thoroughbred meet from April 7 through July 17. The track was also awarded a 26-date Quarter Horse meet from Sept. 16 through Nov. 12.

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission voted unanimously on Saturday to dismiss longtime executive director Joe Gorajec, following months of pressure applied by horse-racing interests in the state.

The commission voted 4-0 to dismiss Gorajec during an unusual executive session scheduled for a Saturday morning, according to officials with knowledge of the vote. Deena Pittman, the assistant executive director, was made interim executive director.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rock Fall, a multiple Grade 1 winner who figured as one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Oct. 31, was euthanized after suffering a catastrophic leg injury while galloping out from a workout Saturday on the main track at Keeneland.

The 4-year-old colt had just completed a moderate breeze, going five furlongs in 1:02.80 in company, when he fell past the wire. Sources reported no major injuries to the exercise rider or other horses.

Champion sprinter Work All Week has been retired with a stress fracture in his knee, owner and breeder Richard Papiese of Midwest Thoroughbreds announced in a press release on Thursday.

Work All Week most recently finished third in the Grade 3 Phoenix Stakes on opening day at Keeneland, which is when the injury is believed to have occurred.

The Keeneland Association, the racing and sales company, has joined a group that is pushing for federal legislation that would grant a private, nonprofit company the authority to set the medication rules and drug-testing policies for all U.S. racing states, the track announced on Thursday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Longtime Woodbine owner and trainer Nick DeToro died suddenly on Monday at the age 88 of an apparent heart attack.

DeToro trained his own horses since 1986, winning 349 races from 2,905 starts, for earnings of nearly $10 million. He won with six of his 54 starters at the current Woodbine meet.

DeToro campaigned the stakes winners Golden Path, Torquay, Colonial Surprise, and Cafe Dancer. Golden Path was one of the leading 2-year-old fillies in Canada in 1999, when she won the Glorious Song, Fanfreluche and Muskoka stakes.

The Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile lost one likely pace horse but gained another this week. The speedy Liam's Map is now the probable favorite for the $1 million Dirt Mile on Oct. 30 after trainer Todd Pletcher announced Wednesday the horse will bypass the 1 1/4-mile Breeders' Cup Classic.

Private Zone would have been the likely pacesetter in the Dirt Mile, but his connections said after his work at Monmouth on Monday that he is being pointed for the BC Sprint. Private Zone, who this year has been beaten only by Honor Code and Tonalist, breezed five furlongs in 1:01.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has an advantage in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Distaff – volume.

Got Lucky won the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes last weekend at Keeneland, joining Curalina and Stopchargingmaria as legitimate Distaff contenders for Pletcher. Combined, they have won 18 races and more than $3.5 million.

“They’re all fillies we’ve had from Day 1, so it’s great to see them develop … all three Grade 1 winners. It’s fun to see that,” Pletcher said this week from Keeneland.

The last two major preps for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint resulted in surprises, with one of the would-be favorites for the race, Taris, incurring the biggest blow to her reputation with her defeat in the L.A. Woman Stakes at Santa Anita.

The attorney general of Wyoming has ruled that Instant Racing gambling machines at the state’s racetracks and offtrack betting parlors violate the state’s prohibition on slot machines, a decision that could immediately affect the operations of Wyoming Downs and have an impact on the operation of the machines in other states as well.