The Thoroughbred racing calendar for Northern California in September and October was altered at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting, interspersing county fair meetings in Stockton and Fresno with the months-long Golden Gate Fields meeting in Albany.

Under dates previously allocated, Golden Gate Fields was scheduled to start its summer-autumn meeting Aug. 21 and run through Sept. 13 before pausing for race meetings in Stockton and Fresno in late September and early October. Golden Gate would have resumed racing Oct. 15.

Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Mass., will run three race dates this summer spread out over three months under a plan devised by the track and the state’s horsemen, according to Lou Raffetto, a consultant to the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

The plan entails offering $500,000 a day in purses for one racing day in June, July, and August, when the boutique summer meets in the Northeast are in full swing. Raffetto said the track will market the racing days as a “fun, festive atmosphere” akin to hunt meets, with tailgating and fair-type amenities.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Prairie Meadows kicks off its 26th Thoroughbred racing meet, offering more than $15 million in total purses, with a nine-race card that gets under way Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Central.

Consisting of 67 dates, the scheduling is similar to recent years aside from a two-day first week followed by a three-day second week.

Starting the weekend of the May 2 Kentucky Derby, the track will resume its usual Thursday-Sunday cards. The track also will race on Memorial Day, May 25, and will add a pair of Wednesday evening cards July 15 and Aug. 5.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – “Offerings From a Rust Belt Jockey,” by Andrew Plattner and published by Dzanc Books of Ann Arbor, Mich., was named the winner of the $10,000 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award at a Wednesday reception at Shane Ryan’s Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington.

The fictional story about the travails of a frustrated third-tier jockey became the second novel to take the award, following Jaimy Gordon’s “Lord of Misrule” in 2010. The award was conceived in 2006 by the late Dr. Tony Ryan and has since been presented annually by the Ryan family.

AUBURN, Wash. – Positive vibes have been emanating from Emerald Downs in advance of the 2015 meeting, which begins Saturday. The track’s new owners, the Muckleshoot Tribe, got off to a popular start with horsemen when they increased overnight purses by 20 percent from 2014, and the initial response has been encouraging for all involved. The horse population has swelled, and some 15 to 20 new jockeys and trainers have set up shop for the summer. As if on cue, there’s even sunshine in the forecast for opening day.

Jockey Martin Garcia is in the unique position of having ridden both American Pharoah and Dortmund, so he, more than anyone, can compare and contrast the top two choices for this year’s Kentucky Derby on May 2.

OPELOUSAS, La. – For someone who just became the 52nd-winningest jockey in North American history, Gerard Melancon has to be one of the best-kept secrets on the continent. The 47-year-old native of nearby Rayne, La., posted a two-bagger on Evangeline Downs’s season-opening program April 8, boosting his victory total to 4,348. The tallies vaulted him ahead of Pat Valenzuela, who is decidedly on the other end of the visibility spectrum.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs on Wednesday unveiled its renovated section for the owners of Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses, a ground-floor section comprising 20 private, open-air, all-inclusive suites between the sixteenth pole and finish line.

WHO’S HOT

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Mitchell, the winningest trainer in Del Mar history who won 21 training titles in Southern California, died on Tuesday of the effects of  a brain tumor diagnosed in 2012, according to friends of the family. Mitchell was 66.