LEXINGTON, Ky. – Over the past several months, Churchill Downs Inc., the owner of the iconic Louisville track that conducts the U.S.’s biggest race, the Kentucky Derby, has come under fire from multiple directions. Owners of Derby horses have lambasted the track publicly for its Derby Day accommodations, horseplayers have urged boycotts of the company’s racetracks, and legislators in Louisiana earlier this year pushed a punitive bill that would have forced the company to spend 10 percent of its casino proceeds on its Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Irad Ortiz Jr., who was taken to North Shore Hospital following an ugly three-horse spill in Wednesday's eighth race at Belmont Park, was released that evening without any serious injuries and amazingly was expected to ride Thursday, according to his agent, Steve Rushing.

"I just spoke with Irad," Rushing said Thursday morning. "He feels good and plans to ride."

A hearing into the Monday altercation at Delaware Park between trainer Juan Vazquez and jockey Trevor McCarthy was held before the board of stewards on Wednesday morning. A decision on whether fines and/or suspensions will be issued is not expected until Friday or Saturday.

John F. Wayne, executive director of the Delaware Racing Commission, said both Vazquez and McCarthy spoke at the hearing and that the tone of the meeting was one of “regret” that the incident had occurred.

The opening of the 2014 Thoroughbred meet at Hazel Park Raceway on Friday will be a homecoming for Michigan’s horsemen on many levels.

For the younger generation, it will mark a return to the greater Detroit area after the short-lived Pinnacle Race Course closed its doors in 2010. For the older generation, it signifies a return to the track itself, which hosted Thoroughbred racing from 1949 to 1984 before becoming a Standardbred-only venue.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The worst seats in the stands for Saturday’s $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita may be directly behind Kenji Morinaga, the owner of the 4-year-old Imperative.

Consider Morinaga’s recollection of Imperative’s win in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia on April 19, which he watched from his living room, not far from Santa Anita.

[Gold Cup at Santa Anita: Get PPs, watch Saturday's card live]

Juan C. Vazquez, the leading trainer at Delaware Park, was arrested Monday by Delaware State Police for simple assault after attacking jockey Trevor McCarthy in the winner’s circle following the fourth race at Delaware Park, according to track officials.

“There was an incident at the scales, it’s being investigated, an arrest was made,” John F. Wayne, the executive director of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission said Monday afternoon.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - The Lone Star Park jockey colony will take on the track’s management team in a Wednesday night softball tournament benefiting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. The three-game series at the Quick Trip Park adjacent to Lone Star will begin at 6 p.m. For admission, a suggested donation is $5 per person.

Starlight Racing partners will make donations to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the American Association of Equine Practitioners in memory of their Grade 2 winner Intense Holiday, who died of laminitis on June 12.

The racing partnership will offer a matching-funds donation of up to $100,000, earmarked for laminitis research, to be divided between the two organizations.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Trainer Chris A. Hartman collected career win 1,000 Sunday afternoon when Silver Rock Star ($2.80) rallied under stable jockey Ken Tohill to take a conditioned claiming event.

Hartman, 40, who hails from a family of horse trainers that includes father Stan, brothers Alex and Phil, and wife Hillary, has had great success in his native Southwest, Arkansas, and Iowa, winning at a 22 percent clip.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jim Cahill, a former executive vice president of Costco, has been elected to the Thoroughbred Owners of California’s board of directors along with five incumbents – Mark Dedomenico, Mike Harrington, Terry Lovingier, Jack Owens, and Bill Strauss, the organization announced Saturday.