WHO’S HOT

ARCADIA, Calif. – On Wednesday morning, Mike Smith was at Santa Anita to work a horse at 6:30, and though he had the rest of the day off on this non-racing day, it was hardly an off day. Smith was headed to the gym for a workout that would crush jockeys half his age.

Mountaineer Racetrack in Chester, W.Va., is planning to cut purses by approximately 20 percent this year as a result of reduced subsidies from its adjoining casino, according to track and horsemen officials.

Rose Mary Williams, Mountaineer’s director of racing, said the track was forced to make the cut after the state legislature passed a bill reducing the statutorily mandated subsidies by 10 percent in order to shore up the state’s budget last year. The purse cuts will affect all races, Williams said.

Stewards at Sam Houston Race Park have denied an appeal lodged by jockey Roman Chapa, ruling on Tuesday afternoon that an allegation that the rider used an electrical device on a horse at the track in January “constitutes an immediate danger to the public health, safety, and welfare.”

Texas Red, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita last November and a leading contender for the 2015 Triple Crown, was diagnosed with an abscess in his right front foot in the last week and will not train at Santa Anita for the remainder of February, trainer Keith Desormeaux said on Tuesday.

Desormeaux said that Texas Red left Santa Anita on Tuesday morning after training and was sent to a California farm where he will be treated for the abscess while swimming to maintain fitness.

The Maryland Racing Commission has suspended Jerry Thurston, a journeyman trainer, for 30 days after a horse he trained tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol following a mid-December race, according to commission records.

ALTOONA, Iowa--Daniel J. Doocy, who served as thoroughbred racing secretary at Prairie Meadows from 2003-2011, died Monday night in a hospital in Omaha from complications with his liver and kidneys.

Doocy, who was 51, had been racing secretary at Finger Lakes before his stint at Prairie Meadows and previously worked in racing offices at Arlington and Calder. He was the younger brother of the successful former jockey Tim Doocy.

Roman Chapa, the jockey charged in Texas with a felony for allegedly using an electrical device on a horse, appeared at an arraignment on Friday in a Harris County court in Texas but did not enter a plea after representatives of the county and his attorney asked for additional time to investigate the charge, according to Harris County officials.

The mutuel field closed Sunday as a 5-2 favorite in Pool 2 of the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, with Texas Red the heaviest-backed individual interest at 9-1.

When closing Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern, the field, the 24th or “all others” option, was higher odds than what the Churchill Downs morning line of even-money had projected. Nonetheless, the field still has been the favorite every year since Churchill first began offering parimutuel futures in 1999 in pools conducted at this time of year.

 Before Far From Over won the Withers Stakes, the star of Saturday’s card at Aqueduct was jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who won five races on the day.

Ortiz won the first three aboard American Progress ($8.30), Overthespeedlimit ($5.40),  and the Grade 3 Toboggan on Salutos Amigos ($3.50). After losing his next two races, Ortiz won the sixth on Via Strata ($3.90) and the seventh on Lord Commander ($7.80).

Ortiz ended the program with a third-place finish on Classy Class in the Withers and a fifth-place finish on Wesern Tryst in the finale.