Every empire has its own arc. There are slow-growing, durable dynasties, and there are supernovas, where power explodes beyond manageable limits, fading just as quickly.

Horse ownership can breed dreams of empire. A certain type of owner starts winning races and can’t seem to stop, and such organizations usually fall into the latter class of empire: Sharp lines of rise and fall. But quietly, and without much formal acknowledgement, Thoroughbred racing has been ruled the last five years by one of the strongest ownership empires in the sport’s history.

Citing accumulated snow and ice within its Polytrack racing surface, Turfway Park has canceled racing for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The cancellations come a little more than a week after Turfway, along with much of northern and Central Kentucky, was hit with freezing rain and snow. These conditions left ice in the racing surface and necessitated cancellations after four races last Saturday and the entire card last Sunday.

In the aftermath of Thursday's heavy snowstorm along the East Coast that dumped a foot or more of snow, Friday's racing programs at Aqueduct, Laurel Park, and Penn National Race Course were canceled. Penn National also called off its Saturday evening program.

Aqueduct and Belmont Park remained open Friday for simulcasting.

Friday’s card will be the fifth full card of racing at Aqueduct lost due to weather this winter. A sixth program had its final eight races canceled due to fog. Training at Aqueduct and Belmont was canceled Friday morning.

Winning Image, an eight-time listed stakes winner, will try to win her first graded race in what will be the final start of her career in Saturday’s Grade  2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park.

Winning Image drew post 6 in a 10-horse field that includes the New York-bred La Verdad, a winner of five consecutive races; Centrique, winner of the Claiming Crown Glass Slipper two starts back; and My Wandy’s Girl, who finished second as the favorite in last year’s Barbara Fritchie.

No one knows better just how difficult it is to win the Kentucky Derby than trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. A member of racing’s Hall of Fame, Hollendorfer has won the Kentucky Oaks three times. The first Friday in May – or, in some years, the last Friday in April – he’s got that down. The first Saturday in May – that’s been more challenging.

Hollendorfer has run in the Derby five times without winning, including fifth-place finishes by Eye of the Tiger in 2003 and Chocolate Candy in 2009. But he’s also had particularly cruel setbacks the week of the race.

Who’s hot

In anticipation of what is expected to be the worst snowstorm this winter, Penn National Race Course and its sister track Charles Town have canceled live racing for Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

In central Pennsylvania, snowfall is expected to begin Wednesday night, with forecasts calling for between 8 and 12 inches before it stops late Thursday. In West Virginia, the storm is expected to produce between eight and 16 inches of snow over the next 24 to 36 hours.

ARCADIA, Calif. - William Currin, an owner and breeder who won stakes with such runners as Bushwacker, Memorette, My Best Brother, Outta Here, Rosengold and Stormello, died on Tuesday of heart-related causes at his home in Solana Beach, Calif., according to a family friend.
Currin was 77. He had been in declining health in recent months.

Mount Pleasant Meadows in central Michigan suspended simulcast operations on Saturday, per a decision by the track’s board of directors, said the president of the Michigan Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

The track did not conduct simulcast wagering on Saturday or Sunday, and is normally closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Racetrack officials were in meetings on Monday to determine the track’s long-term future.