Results and recap articles for the 2013 Kentucky Oaks card at Churchill Downs.

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Jockey John Velazquez on Thursday returned to the saddle for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks, finishing last aboard the slow-starting first-time starter Armelda in the fifth race at Belmont Park.

It was Velazquez's first mount since suffering a cracked rib and chipping a bone in his wrist in a spill at Aqueduct on April 7.

"I had to ride that horse all the way around there," Velazquez said by phone from Belmont. "I got some air out of it. I feel good, I feel really good."

Velazquez said he also got on three horses Thursday morning at Belmont.

The Illinois Senate by a 32-20 vote late Wednesday passed Senate Bill 1739, which would expand gaming in the state and allow racetracks to operate slot-machine parlors.

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives and, should it pass there, must be signed by Gov. Pat Quinn to become law. Quinn in January vetoed an old gaming-expansion bill that had been held for nearly two years at the desk of Senate president John Cullerton, and during 2012, Quinn loudly voiced skepticism about what he termed top-heavy gaming expansion.

The Ohio Horse Racing Commission on Wednesday morning approved 65 days of live racing at Beulah Park to be run under the banner of River Downs, putting to rest a protracted negotiation between tracks and horsemen that threatened to cost the Ohio racing circuit a significant number of live racing dates at a time of significant uncertainty in the state.

Departing has both the points and the credentials to have run in this year’s Kentucky Derby. But trainer Al Stall Jr. is in no rush to put his improving 3-year-old on the Triple Crown trail just yet.

Departing has captured 4 of his 5 starts, his lone setback coming at the hands of Revolutionary when third in the Grade 2 Risen Star. He is coming off an impressive 3 1/4-length triumph for Stall and owner-breeders Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider in the Grade 3 Illinois Derby.

Churchill announced on Tuesday that the guarantee for its Derby Day pick six will be $1 million, double the $500,000 guarantee from last year, while the guarantee for the Oaks Day pick six would be boosted $50,000 to $250,000.

Every racetrack in America can learn a lesson from how Charles Town management handled the timing issue in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic on April 20. As soon as the first fraction of 25.96 seconds was posted, it was clear that something was wrong.

There was simply no way Percussion, who was being sent to the lead, was going that slowly. And there was no way Game On Dude, racing second, went slower than 26 seconds for that first quarter-mile.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Hidden Treasure and the Jack Hood are this year’s Thoroughbred inductees in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame’s “Legends” category.

The two will be honored at the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame’s annual gala Aug. 13 at the Mississauga Convention Center along with Standardbred legends Samuel Johnston and Celias Counsel and six inductees from each breed voted in by the organization’s election committee.

Hidden Treasure was owned and bred by Bill Beasley, who was inducted in the Hall of Fame’s builder category in 1985.

The New York Racing Association’s board of directors on Monday approved an interim management team of three of its top officials as the organization continues to conduct a search for a chief executive officer.

Susanne Stover, NYRA’s chief financial officer, David O’Rourke, NYRA’s vice president of corporate development, and Glen Kozak, NYRA’s vice president of racing surfaces and facilities were approved on Monday as the three-person team.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Cameras were clicking on the Churchill Downs backstretch Monday morning, the norm in the media storm of Derby Week. Most were focused on the racetrack, capturing the leading Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks runners as they galloped and breezed around the track.