Churchill Downs Inc. is seeking to hire an executive director of racing to manage its racing properties and improve the company’s sometimes-strained relationship with horsemen and breeders, according to a posting on its corporate website.

Shared Belief, the ante-post favorite for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, worked a half-mile in 50.80 seconds on Tuesday morning at Golden Gate Fields, his first drill since overcoming an eventful trip to capture the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.

Russell Baze, the Hall of Fame jockey, was aboard for the drill for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Hollendorfer said everything went as planned with the work, and he would work Shared Belief weekly between now and his return to Santa Anita the week of the Breeders’ Cup.

An oddity of French betting and odds displays has caused several large U.S. account-wagering companies to credit their customers with a far higher payoff for the winner of Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris than what the filly actually paid.

The field for the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Saturday at Keeneland took a second blow with the retirement of My Conquestadory.

The filly became the second Grade 1 winner to defect from the race this week, joining Beverly D. Stakes winner Euro Charline, who was declared Monday due to lameness.

Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., and its offtrack betting parlors will cease operations Nov. 1 if the state racing commission does not approve a contract with a new horsemen’s group set up by the track, the owner of Colonial said this weekend.

Wagering on U.S. races plummeted in September by the largest monthly margin in recent history when compared with the same month of the previous year, according to figures released by Equibase on Saturday, driven downward by a sharp decline in both races and starts at U.S. racetracks.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. -- "Listen to that. You can't get that in a slots machine parlor or casino," said owner and trainer Jane Martin, as she stood in the packed Suffolk Downs clubhouse and heard the enthusiastic roar of the energized crowd of over 9,000 as they stood and cheered the horses through the stretch on the final day of live racing.

CYPRESS, Calif. -- California Chrome, in his first workout since finishing sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby two weeks earlier, went a half-mile in 47.40 seconds on Saturday morning at Los Alamitos with his regular jockey, Victor Espinoza.

MIAMI – Full fields will abound when the doors open Wednesday on the first-ever Gulfstream Park West meeting, to run through Nov. 30 at the track formerly known as Calder Race Course.  The Stronach Group has leased the Calder racetrack and a portion of the barn area for the next six years.

Wednesday’s 10-race program drew 123 entries, including also-eligibles. Although the meet is being billed as the Fall Turf Festival, only four of the 10 races on opening day have been carded on the grass.

Trainer Doug O’Neill, recently suspended by the New York State Gaming Commission for a medication violation and facing potential additional sanctions from the California Horse Racing Board, will be prohibited from pre-entering horses in the Breeders’ Cup, the Breeders’ Cup announced Friday.