The National Handicapping Championship will go from a two-day format to a three-day format in 2014, the organizers announced on Tuesday, with the top competitors in the first two days squaring off for the final prizes during the third day.

Between them, trainers Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert have 52 of the 369 horses nominated to this year’s Triple Crown, and their strength in numbers was on display again over the weekend, when both saw leading prospects in their barns record important victories.

Pletcher scored wins with Revolutionary in the Withers at Aqueduct and Verrazano in an allowance race at Gulfstream, to strengthen an already powerful hand that holds aces such as Overanalyze, Shanghai Bobby, and Violence. Verrazano got a Beyer Speed Figure of 105, while Revolutionary received an 86.

Soldat, a graded stakes winner on turf and dirt, has been retired after injuring a suspensory ligament in his left hind leg, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said.

Soldat had been pointing to Saturday’s Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

McLaughlin said that Soldat “took a couple of funny steps” at the end of a half-mile workout at Palm Meadows on Jan. 26.

Late nominees

Black Onyx among 13 late nominees to Triple Crown

Equine fatalities rose by 5 percent at California racetracks for a 12-month period ending last June, with a significant rise in training deaths at Santa Anita.

The data was released on Friday by the California Horse Racing Board as part of an annual review of racing in the state. The review covered racing for the fiscal year from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012.

Horsemen’s chief should understand confidential stance

The Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Laurel Park and Pimlico Racecourse, submitted documents to two government agencies on Friday outlining its plans for capital improvements at the two tracks, the MJC said.

The MJC was required to submit the plan to the Maryland Racing Commission and Maryland Department of Budget and Management by Friday under a provision of a law passed last year giving the company the ability to use subsidies from state casinos for operating funds, rather than capital improvements, as required in an earlier version of the law.

Los Alamitos officials plan to meet with the city of Cypress, Calif., in coming days to present a design and expansion proposal for the Orange County racetrack, which could be remodeled to accommodate Thoroughbred racing as early as 2014, according to a track consultant.

Los Alamitos has proposed expanding its current five-eighths-mile dirt track to a circumference of just less than a mile and adding approximately 1,000 stalls on vacant land adjacent to its existing backstretch to accommodate Thoroughbred racing and training.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Thursday said it planned to adopt a set of rules on therapeutic medications that are being pushed as model rules for all racing jurisdictions by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Controversy has made the seat of chief steward on the Kentucky racing circuit an occasional hot one. Among the prominent cases, there was the Dancer’s Image medication disqualification from the 1968 Kentucky Derby, the sponges-up-the-nose fiasco in 1996, the Jose Santos Q-ring debacle of 2003, and the Life At Ten embarrassment from 2010.