SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Rick Violette, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said Saturday that a ban on Lasix, as proposed in a statement released on behalf of a number of prominent trainers Friday, would not “benefit the horse, the owners, or the horseplayers” while also “jeopardizing” the survival of all the small racing stables currently operating in this country.

Monmouth Park announced Friday afternoon that overnight purses at the track will be cut 10 percent, beginning Aug. 8. Monmouth is currently offering average daily overnight purses of $342,000. That figure does not include graded stakes purses.

The announcement comes five days after the highlight of the Monmouth meet, Haskell Invitational Day, when 35,983 fans attended the races and all-sources wagering totaled $13,423,280, third highest in track history, not counting the 2007 Breeders’ Cup cards.

A group of leading trainers, including D. Wayne Lukas and Todd Pletcher, said in a statement released on Friday that they would support the gradual phase-out of the legal race day use of the drug furosemide, the diuretic that is used by nearly every horse in the United States to mitigate bleeding in the lungs.

Arlington requested a shortened race meet and three-day racing weeks for much of its 2015 season in its annual racing-dates request filed with the Illinois Racing Board and released Friday.

Arlington is in the midst of an 89-day meet racing four days per week this summer, but requested only 79 days of racing for 2015, and wants to run just three days per week – Friday through Sunday – from April 20 through June 30 and during the entire month of September. Arlington requested four-day weeks, Thursday through Sunday, during July and August.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar might eliminate turf sprints and reduce the number of claiming races on the surface for the rest of the summer meeting after a filly was seriously injured in a turf sprint on the troubled course Thursday, according to a track official.

Track and racing officials were scheduled to meet Friday to discuss options for turf racing through the end of the current meeting Sept. 3.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Wayne Catalano, the prominent trainer who has been hospitalized for more than a week with a severe case of influenza A and subsequent pneumonia, has regained full consciousness, been taken off a respirator, and continues to make strong progress recovering from his illness.

Jockey Channing Hill, who is married to Catalano’s daughter, Shelbi, said late Thursday that Catalano, for the first time since last week, was conscious and responsive Thursday morning. Doctors had induced a coma to help Catalano’s body marshal all its resources to fight the illness.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Lavender Road, the filly who suffered injuries after hitting her head against a rail at Saratoga on Wednesday, had to be euthanized Thursday afternoon due to a fracture in her neck, according to the New York Racing Association.

Lavender Road, owned by Kallenberg Farms and trained by Abigail Adsit, was diagnosed with the fracture by Dr. Travis Tull, the attending physician at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital near the track where the filly was brought Wednesday.

Joshua Stein scored a victory with the first horse he started as a trainer when Cleverly Beverly won a nose decision over favored Starfire Mist in a 1 1/16-mile starter allowance race on the turf at the Sonoma County Fair on Thursday.

In her previous start, Cleverly Beverly ($15) won a $25,000 maiden race as the final starter in the long career of trainer Roger Stein, Joshua’s uncle, who was forced to retire because of a physical problem affecting nerves in his hands and feet.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The 3-year-old filly Lavender Road was in stable condition at a nearby equine hospital Wednesday after suffering from head trauma and heat stroke, according to her trainer, Abigail Adsit.

Tom Amoss became the 28th trainer in North American racing history to win 3,000 races when Infinity of Humor captured a starter-allowance race Wednesday at Indiana Grand in suburban Indianapolis.

Amoss, a perennial leading trainer at Fair Grounds, Churchill Downs, and Indiana Grand, made the two-hour drive from his home in Louisville, Ky., to be on hand.

“What first needs to be said, front and center, is that this is a group accomplishment,” said Amoss, a Louisiana State University graduate who began training in 1987 and whose stable has earned more than $79.3 million.