With the value of prep races to the May 4 Kentucky Derby rising exponentially this week, trainers are getting right to the points.

WHO’S HOT

Sam Abbey, a racing official whose career in the sport spanned 43 years, died on Tuesday night in a car accident, his current employer, Hialeah Park in Florida, confirmed on Wednesday. He was 65.

Abbey had been employed at Hialeah as the director of racing since the track reopened for Quarter Horse racing in 2009. Previously, Abbey had served for nine years as the track’s racing secretary when the showcase South Florida facility ran a spring Thoroughbred meet.

Tony Allevato, the executive vice president for television at the horse racing network TVG, was let go on Tuesday, according to two racing officials.

Allevato, a former director of television production and the broadcast publicist at Hollywood Park, was the first executive producer hired by TVG when the network was launched in 1999. He was gradually given more responsibilities as the network grew, and was elevated to executive vice president in 2011.

Pete Anderson, a jockey who once rode Forego and a trainer who had strings of horses for top Florida breeders, died on Tuesday at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Fla., after suffering a heart attack, according to his daughter, Aggie Ordonez. Anderson was 82.

Always a longshot, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said in an interview on public radio Tuesday that an effort to authorize casinos in the state is dead for this year.

The deadline to file new legislation passed last week without a casino bill being filed. Beshear had said earlier this year that he was considering support for a bill that would legalize as many as seven casinos in the state, but the bill did not guarantee that existing racetracks would receive licenses, causing some tracks to withdraw support for the effort.

Larry David, a Santa Rosa, Calif., resident, has become the first National Handicapping Championship Tour member to earn two berths to the 2014 championship under a new rule implemented just this year, the tour’s organizers announced on Friday.

David finished second in a tournament on Feb. 2 at NHCqualify.com and then finished second in a Feb. 10 tournament at Horsetourneys.com. Both tournaments awarded berths in next January’s championship to the top five players.

The Nebraska State Racing Commission has suspended a trainer for two years after one of the trainer’s horses tested positive for the powerful painkiller dermorphin.

The commission issued the suspension and a $1,000 fine Wednesday to Kim Veerhusen, whose horse, Cheatin Cowboy, tested positive for the synthetic opioid after finishing second in a race on July 15 at Horsemen’s Park in Omaha. Tom Sage, executive director of the commission, said Friday that the penalty was “the longest suspension that I know the commission has ever given out.”

The eighth season of Countdown to the Crown returns as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 4 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates, opinions and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.

Straight from the gate

If there’s one thing predictable about the Thoroughbred industry, it’s that it’s unpredictable. Spring At Last is a prime example. The now 10-year-old did not race at 2 and was never tried on synthetic surfaces, yet here he is, the number one Kentucky-based freshman sire of 2012 by progeny earnings and the leading sire overall by average earnings per starter on synthetic surfaces. Go figure.