ARCADIA, Calif. - Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, is in light training at Golden Gate Fields following a layoff from an injured foot earlier this year, but will not be ready for the Triple Crown, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Thursday.

Since early January, Hollendorfer and his team have been treating Shared Belief for a quarter crack that prevented racetrack training for several weeks. Hollendorfer moved Shared Belief from Santa Anita to Golden Gate Fields in early February to allow the gelding to be trained on the Tapeta synthetic track.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives said no dice to expanded gambling March 13 by defeating a bill to authorize a single, high-end destination resort casino 173-144.

The vote dashes hope for the possible return of live Thoroughbred racing at Rockingham Park any time soon, as the 108-year-old racetrack was the odds-on favorite for the location to develop the project.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Iotapa went to the front early in the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita last month and ran the best race of her brief career.

She may be equally dangerous from the front in a better field in Saturday’s $350,000 Santa Margarita Stakes over 1 1/8 miles. The Grade 1 Santa Margarita is the championship race for fillies and mares of the winter-spring meeting, and trainer John Sadler said he’s expecting another strong race from Iotapa.

Arnold Heft, who spent more than two decades as an official and owner in the National Basketball Association but more recently was best known for campaigning several multiple stakes winners in Maryland, died Thursday in Bethesda, Md., at age 94.

“He just loved sports,” said Heft’s trainer, Tim Keefe. “He was full of life. When he came into a room, everyone knew it. He had great stories and had a wonderful personality.”

Heft and his wife, Sylvia, raced multiple stakes winners Pulverizing, Baldski’s Choice, He Is Risen, Eighttofasttocatch, and Red’s Round Table.

Race 2

You never know where trainer Steve Asmussen will be from one day to the next, be it a horse sale in Florida or overseeing his string of runners at Fair Grounds or Oaklawn Park, but there is one place he’s usually certain to be found – atop the standings at the tracks where he’s got full strings.

Customers of AmWest Entertainment, an account-wagering operation available to residents of most states, will be able to donate money to Thoroughbred Charities of America directly from their accounts under a new partnership with the TCA, it was announced Monday.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Close Hatches, the runner-up in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, is scheduled to launch her 4-year-old season in the Grade 2, $200,000 Azeri at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, said her trainer, Bill Mott.

“We’re planning on coming,” Mott said Tuesday. “Our thinking coming to the Azeri is that if she would run well over the track, we might come back for the Apple Blossom.”

The Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, is April 11.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Honor Code will make his much-anticipated 3-year-old debut in a $75,000 allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on Wednesday at Gulfstream Park. Honor Code, who suffered his only setback in three starts in the Grade 1 Champagne, will face just four rivals, Social Inclusion, Specialnightaction, We’re All Set and Ta Bueno.

San Felipe Stakes (Santa Anita, Race 5) by Marty McGee

Clearly the scratch of Bayern (#6) because of a minor injury robs this Kentucky Derby prep of some luster, but it’s still an excellent race. Of the favorites – California Chrome (#4), Kristo (#7), and Midnight Hawk (#9) – the clear preference here is Midnight Hawk, considering he deserves another chance as a beaten favorite behind Candy Boy in the Lewis. His two prior races were terrific, and it’d be exciting to see him rebound with another big one here for Baffert.