A Florida Senate committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would require the state’s racing commission to adopt a suite of new medication regulations that is being pushed nationally by groups seeking uniform rules among racing states.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee passed the bill unanimously, reporting it to the full Senate. Unlike in many other states, where regulations governing racing are devised and approved by state racing commissions, Florida requires the rules to be debated and passed legislatively.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board moved closer to implementing rules for third-party administration of Lasix, voiding claims when a horse bleeds from the nostrils, and amending the criteria for disqualifications when interference occurs during races at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

The Maryland Jockey Club on Wednesday afternoon released a 21-race stakes schedule for the Pimlico spring meet that will offer total purses of more than $4.2 million. Two Preakness weekend bonus programs for owners and trainers were also announced.

The $1.5 million Preakness, second jewel of the Triple Crown, will be run May 16, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. Seven supporting stakes have been scheduled for the Preakness undercard.

Mother Nature must be a fan of Thoroughbred racing in Nebraska. Although the real-feel temperature in Grand Island on Wednesday afternoon was 2 degrees, the forecast calls for a high of 49 degrees when Fonner Park launches its 62^nd year of racing Friday afternoon.

Fonner will race Friday through Sunday during a 31-day meet that runs through Kentucky Derby Day on May 2. Post time for Friday’s opening-day eight-race card is 2 p.m. Central.

With more cold temperatures and single-digit wind chills in the forecast, Thursday’s eight-race card at Aqueduct has been canceled, New York Racing Association officials announced Wednesday afternoon.

It is the 12^th full-card canceled this winter. Another card was scrapped after two races.

The forecast for Thursday calls for a high of 22 degrees but with winds between 20 and 30 miles-per-hour, wind chills are expected to be in the single digits. The forecast for Friday is very similar making it plausible that day’s card could be canceled as well.

The Ocala, Fla., City Council approved a plan Tuesday to develop Ocala Stud and Red Oak Farm into a roughly 400-acre residential and commercial area called Trinity Lane, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

Developer John Brunetti, owner of Hialeah Park, owns both farms. Ocala Stud comprises roughly 183 acres, while the adjacent Red Oak Farm is about 226 acres. Both properties were annexed into the Ocala city limits from Marion County and given new land-use designations.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Read the Footnotes might have been more brilliant, and Samraat maybe had more heart, but of the Kentucky Derby prospects Rick Violette Jr. has trained, none has been in a better position at this point than Upstart, who has both brilliance and heart and currently ranks as the best Kentucky Derby prospect on the East Coast.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency has announced that it has begun testing for elevated levels of cobalt in official samples collected at Canadian tracks, but certificates of positive analysis will not be issued until regulations have been amended to include it in the schedule of drugs.

Results of this testing will be used to establish an appropriate threshold in Canada, and data will be shared with provincial racing commissions, which may wish to initiate more immediate measures to address the misuse of the substance.

WHO’S HOT
There was no change to the Derby Watch top 20 from a week ago in terms of the runners on the list or the Kentucky Derby future line produced by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, who last week made Dortmund the ante-post favorite at 6-1. American Pharoah sure looked good in his third breeze last weekend. Last year’s Eclipse Award winner is coming around fas

STICKNEY, Ill. – At midmorning Wednesday in Chicago, the temperature was 9 degrees, and overnight the wind chill was forecast to hit minus-25.

Hawthorne Race Course, meanwhile, was preparing to open its 31-day winter-spring race meet Friday.