The Louisiana Racing Commission on Tuesday granted Churchill Downs Inc. a one-year conditional license to operate its Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans after track officials told the commission that the company was committed to a number of initiatives in the next 12 months to improve the track and its customer service, according to officials.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Rosie Napravnik will serve a four-day suspension following the Kentucky Derby for her role in the disqualification of Bayern from first to second in the Derby Trial on opening night at Churchill Downs last Saturday.

The penalty is to be served during the first four racing days at Churchill after the Derby – May 8-11. Napravnik’s agent, Derek Ducoing, said the jockey does not intend to appeal.

Napravnik would have received a three-day suspension for the incident but an extra day was added because she was being allowed to ride on Derby Day.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he would not enter Strong Mandate in the Kentucky Derby and instead will consider running him in the Preakness Stakes on May 17.

Though Strong Mandate would not have enough points to make it into the field of 20 for the Derby, he could have been one of four also-eligibles entered.

Strong Mandate, who won last year’s Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, is coming off a last-place finish in the Arkansas Derby.

“I’m looking at the Preakness, but I might even wait until Saratoga,” Lukas said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Approaching the top of the stretch in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, jockey Rajiv Maragh thought he had a chance to win the race on Mucho Macho Man. Turning for home, however, Mucho Macho Man could not match strides with Animal Kingdom and ended up finishing third.

The remainder of that year’s Triple Crown did not go well for Maragh. He finished eighth on Mucho Macho Man in the Preakness and was subsequently removed from the horse for the Belmont Stakes.

Carlo Vaccarezza, the owner and trainer of multiple Grade 1 winner Little Mike, pulled his horse from Churchill Downs on Tuesday, in a protest of a decision by Kentucky racing regulators to take a blood sample from the horse for out-of-competition testing.

There is a practice that threatens our racing industry – that of creating non-generic restrictions to the entrance requirements for a graded race. This year's Kentucky Derby is an example.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – By the end of the week, at the end of the long prep season toward the Kentucky Derby, handicappers and horsemen alike often simply look to the heavens for some sort of inspiration or intervention, but this year they needed to look earlier, for on Monday, the heavens opened, the rains came, and then, after a dramatic morning, this year’s chosen one dropped from the sky.

Four-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas won’t have a starter this year, but there are a few story lines he will be watching with interest. Among them is Medal Count, set to make his third start in 30 days after winning the Transylvania Stakes on April 4 and finishing second in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 12.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One year after finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby, Normandy Invasion will return to Churchill Downs to take on a strong field that includes Eclipse Award winner Will Take Charge in Friday’s Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes.

Trainer Chad Brown decided to send Normandy Invasion to Louisville on Sunday, shortly after he breezed four furlongs in 48.35 seconds at Belmont Park. Normandy Invasion had worked a bullet five-eighths in 59.03 eight days earlier.

Barbara D. Livingston shares her favorite photos from Derby Week at Churchill Downs.