The New York Racing Association has canceled live racing at Aqueduct on Friday due to an impending winter storm that could begin as rain but which is expected to leave up to a foot of snow in the New York City area by Saturday.

Aqueduct and the Belmont Cafe will remain open for simulcasting, and Telebet and Internet wagering will be available through NYRA Rewards.

A decision on live racing and simulcasting for Saturday will be made Friday.

The moment I swore never to return to another offtrack betting parlor in New York City was on the second Saturday of April 2010. I arrived at noon to the tiny OTB in downtown Brooklyn. The parlor was in a squat gray building on a dreary side street around the corner from Brooklyn’s Municipal Building and courthouses, not far from historic and affluent Brooklyn Heights. Its immediate neighbor was Empire Bail Bonds.

It’s John Nerud’s 100th birthday Saturday, but Nerud isn’t going overboard with his celebrations.

“Not all that much,” he said when asked about plans for his birthday. “I’ve had a lot of ’em.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have allowed the state’s casinos to operate online gambling sites, saying that the legislation did not go far enough in taxing profits from the operations.

In a statement released by his office, Christie said that he supported online gambling but that the 10-percent tax rate in the legislation should be increased to 15 percent. He also said that any legislation authorizing online casino-type gambling should have a 10-year moratorium.

An effort to approve casinos in Kentucky may get tied to the state’s pension woes after all, according to state officials who spoke Wednesday.

The Kentucky Derby has been run 138 times, but in those years only six times has a trainer been able to win it in consecutive years, and not since Bob Baffert in 1997 and 1998. This year, it will be Doug O’Neill’s turn to try and join a list that, so far, is restricted to “Derby Dick” Thompson, Ben Jones, Jimmy Jones, Lucien Laurin, D. Wayne Lukas, and Baffert, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame.

WHO’S HOT

A Michigan businessman who was indicted in 2009 on gambling and fraud charges has pleaded guilty to fixing races at Tampa Bay Downs and Delaware Park among other crimes, according to the Associated Press.

Mitchell Karam, 79, admitted he bribed a Panamanian rider, Ricardo Valdes, to fix Tampa Bay races. Valdes, who was named in the 2009 indictment, was believed to have fled the country late in 2006, and it is unclear if authorities have located the rider.

The Maryland Jockey Club is considering “significant” improvements to the grandstands and clubhouses at its two racetracks, Pimlico and Laurel, but is not ready to announce specifics for the plans, according to Tom Chuckas, chief operating officer of the MJC.

Los Alamitos officials will apply for permits this month with the city of Cypress, Calif., to expand the barn area and racetrack to accommodate Thoroughbred racing as early as 2014.

Track consultant Brad McKinzie said that Los Alamitos met with Cypress officials last Friday to present the track’s expansion plans.

“It was the first step,” McKinzie said. “So far, so good. We showed them a proposal of what we’ll do.”