Aqueduct’s road to the Triple Crown is paved with even more gold as two of the four Kentucky Derby prep races restricted to 3-year-olds received purse increases for 2014, according to the stakes schedule approved Wednesday by the New York Racing Association Board of Directors.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Jockey Fernando De La Cruz posted his 1000^th career victory Wednesday when he booted Jungle Princess to victory in the fifth race on the opening day program at  Tampa Bay Downs.

De La Cruz, leading rider at the recently concluded Indiana Downs meeting and second in the standing at Tampa last season, guided Jungle Princess ($8.40) to a half-length tally in the six- furlong sprint for $8,000 claiming sprinters.

Frisky Warrior, a five-time winner this season, was chosen as horse of the year for 2013 at Finger Lakes during the local Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association awards dinner.

A 4-year-old gelding owned and trained by Ralph D’Alessandro, Frisky Warrior won 5 of his 8 Finger Lakes starts this year, all in sprints, while ridden by the meet’s leading rider, Jamie Rodriguez.

Frisky Warrior surpassed the $200,000 mark in lifetime earnings after winning his most recent start on Oct. 24. He was also honored as the track’s top older male.

Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., realized a 10 percent increase in average daily handle at its 56-date meet that closed Tuesday, bolstered by a single-day handle record set on its inaugural Land of Enchantment program of seven stakes Nov. 27. The card’s centerpiece was the new $300,000 Zia Park Oaks won by Unusual Way.

A horse quarantine in effect since Nov. 13 at Parx Racing may be lifted early next week.

According to Sal Sinatra, director of racing at the suburban Philadelphia track in lower Bucks County, the horses in the one remaining barn that has not been symptom-free of the equine herpesvirus for a minimum of 21 days will have blood drawn on Friday. Those samples will be tested for the disease, which is highly contagious and sometimes fatal to horses but of no danger to people.

Sunland Park will move into its 55th year of operation on Friday with 85-point preps for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, a new general manager, and anticipation building for the March 21 release of a movie about its most famous starter, Mine That Bird.

Sunland, which operates a mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, will race 76 days through April 15, 2014. Rick Baugh is the new general manager, taking over from the retired Harold Payne. Baugh had previously overseen operations at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M. He joined Sunland in April. 

A group of Canadian horse owners and a casino developer will build a small dual-breed racetrack and adjoining casino just north of Calgary, Alberta, the partners announced on Wednesday.

The partners said the property will have a 5 1/2-furlong track and will open for Standardbred racing by the end of 2014, when construction on the track and casino is expected to be completed. Construction of the grandstand, which will have seating for 900, and a 33,000-square-foot casino with 550 slot machines will cost $22.5 million, the partners said. Funding for the project has been secured.

A new equine hospital is scheduled to open across the street from Belmont Park in the spring of 2014.

Under a lease-buy agreement with Racebrook Capital Advisors LLC, Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine will establish Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists, a referral and emergency care hospital on the property of the defunct Ruffian Equine Medical Center.

Retired trainer Harvey Vanier, among the Midwest’s leading horsemen during the 1980s and 1990s, died at home in Versailles, Ky., on Sunday. Vanier was 89.

An advisory committee to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved changes to the state’s medication rules that would align Kentucky with rules passed in almost a dozen other states this year, but not before hearing strident complaints about a provision tightening the use of the bronchial dilator clenbuterol.