SunRay Park will introduce notable changes to its racing and wagering formats on Friday, when the Farmington, N.M., track opens for a 36-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. The meet will run through Sept. 1.

A welcome rite of summer returns Friday to Ellis Park when the western Kentucky track begins its 2015 meet with an eight-race card.

Turf racing and 2-year-old racing – often at the same time – will characterize a 31-day meet that runs through Labor Day, Sept. 7. Purses will be better than ever, according to racing secretary Dan Bork, with some $150,000 per day being paid out to horsemen, including bonuses from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

Take your pick between Knight Crossing and Believe Too in a $20,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds that headlines Friday’s eight-race card at Northlands Park. Knight Crossing looks like the one they will have to catch, and Believe Too should be the one trying to mow him down in the 6 1/2-furlong dash that drew nine horses.

Knight Crossing should be favored. He is looking for his fourth straight win for leading trainer Greg Tracy and will be ridden by leading rider Rico Walcott.

After canceling its Monday and Tuesday cards due to a safety issue involving deer in its infield, along the outer rail of its backstretch, and crossing its racing surface, Presque Isle Downs plans to resume racing Wednesday with a new post time.

Since deer are most active around dusk and dawn, Presque Isle is changing its post time beginning Wednesday from its usual 5:25 p.m. Eastern to 3:05 p.m. The earlier post time will remain in effect on Thursday and for all of next week.

The start of morning training hours also is being changed from 6 to 9.

Kauto Star, the winner of two Cheltenham Gold Cups and 16 Grade 1 steeplechases in England and Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2011, was euthanized on Tuesday as a result of paddock injuries suffered last week.

Kauto Star, 15, was being treated for neck and pelvis injuries at a veterinary clinic in Lambourn, England, west of London, when the decision was made that he could not be saved.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs posted a marginal increase in all-sources wagering at the 38-day meet that ended Saturday night, halting a downward trend that included an 11 percent decrease at the corresponding meet last year.

According to figures sent via e-mail Monday by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, total handle at the meet was $377,870,880, up 2 percent over the corresponding 2014 meet, which also consisted of 38 days and drew $368.8 million.

Delta Downs in Vinton, La., is set to undergo a $45 million expansion to its hotel and food-and-beverage facilities, Boyd Gaming, the parent company of Delta, announced on Tuesday. Construction is scheduled to begin in September and is to be completed by the end of 2016.

Delta Downs will construct a new hotel tower that will feature 167 additional rooms and suites at the track. There are also plans to redesign the hotel’s 200 existing rooms. Boyd also plans to expand its special-event center, located ontrack at Delta.

Pat Milone, a breeder in Maryland and former trainer, died last Friday at age 63, according to his wife, Shelley Stoneking.

Milone Grew up in Omaha, Neb., and went to work for Jack Van Berg at Ak-Sar-Ben. He trained on his own at a number of Midwest and East Coast tracks. In recent years, he and Stoneking, a former rider who manages the tack shop at Delaware Park, bred and raised horses on their Chesapeake City, Md., farm.

Milone was diagnosed with kidney cancer in March, according to Stoneking.

Trainer Wayne Catalano sent out two nice winners over the weekend at Monmouth Park. He upset the promising French fillies Kenzadargent and Stellar Path in the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes on Saturday at 7-1 with I’m Already Sexy. On Sunday, Irish You Well got back on track for Catalano by winning a second-level optional-claiming race at 1 1/16 miles. Irish You Well, the winner of last year’s Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth, was ridden out to a 2 1/2-length win.

Paco Lopez was aboard both of Catalano’s winners.

What looked like an evenly matched jockey colony early in the Monmouth Park meet is once again turning into the Paco Lopez show.

Lopez had an amazing weekend at Monmouth, going 9 for 18, and now leads the standings with 38 wins, 17 more than Trevor McCarthy in second.

On Friday, Lopez won the daily double at Monmouth, rode the third race, and then hotfooted it to Belmont Park, where he finished sixth on Easy to Say for Ben Perkins Jr. in race 6. Belmont had a 3 p.m. Eastern first post Friday.