Trainer William “Buff” Bradley is back in the racing limelight with Groupie Doll, the 4-year-old filly who clinched a divisional Eclipse Award by romping to victory in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Groupie Doll, who will face male rivals Saturday in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, is the second star bred and raced by Bradley and his 81-year-old father, Fred. The first was Brass Hat, who retired in May 2011 with career earnings of more than $2.1 million. Bradley is based at Churchill Downs.

Age: 49

Jockey Jeff Faul died Friday night in Cankton, La., after being hit by a car, confirmed his fellow Delta Downs rider and longtime friend, Gerard Melanon. Faul was 47.

Faul was a Louisiana native who won the first race of his career at Delta Downs, on Jan. 3, 1982. His last mount also came at Delta, on Nov. 3. In between, Faul won 1,776 races from 13,747 starts, for career mount earnings of $13,879,176.

A steward at New York Racing Association tracks employed by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board was recently suspended for 10 days without pay by the board because of an incident on Aug. 13 in which he mistakenly closed the betting pools for a race at Saratoga two minutes before the race went off, a state official confirmed on Friday.

Trainer Dale Romans will be honored Dec. 5 by the Turf Publicists of America with the prestigious Big Sport of Turfdom Award at the Symposium on Racing and Gaming in Arizona.

Romans has been in the spotlight for much of 2012, enjoying a banner season with horses such as Little Mike, Shackleford, Dullahan, and Tapitsfly.

“I’m really honored, and I’m going to be there to receive it,” said Romans.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Animal Kingdom, who turned in one of the top performances in this year’s Breeders’ Cup when finishing a troubled second behind Wise Dan in the Mile, will launch his 2013 campaign on Feb. 9 in the Grade  1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap at 1 1/8 miles, his connections announced on Wednesday. Trainer Graham Motion is using that race as a prep for Animal Kingdom’s first major goal next season, the $10  million Dubai World Cup seven weeks later.

See the questions HERE.

1. In August 1961, Arlington Park and Washington Park near Chicago voted to merge into a single corporation, under the leadership of Marjorie L. Everett, majority shareholder of both tracks. It was also announced that the Arlington Futurity and Washington Futurity would be combined. In 1961, the Arlington Futurity grossed $211,750 and the Washington Futurity grossed $213,750.

Forty years ago this weekend, on Nov. 18, 1972, the remarkable Secretariat completed his juvenile season winning the richest Thoroughbred race that year, the $298,665 Garden State Stakes. Five years later, the race’s home, Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, burned down. The track was rebuilt and reopened with great fanfare in 1985, but it, too, did not survive. Racing ceased in 2001, and the stands were torn down in 2003.

The Garden State Stakes reappeared briefly at Monmouth Park but has all but disappeared.

With no fanfare, Ramon Dominguez set the record for most purses earned by a jockey in one year when he guided Smokin Candy to a second-place finish in a $25,000 claiming race on Friday at Aqueduct, according to records maintained by Equibase.

With the $7,680 second-place purse, Dominguez surpassed the record of $23,354,960, set in 2003 by Jerry Bailey, by approximately $3,500. By the time the weekend was over, Dominguez had added another $400,000 in earnings to the record, finishing Sunday’s card at Aqueduct with $23,739,189 in purse earnings.

BC officials fail to follow through on best intent

We racehorse owners and breeders are also huge fans. Most fans agree the competition on Breeders' Cup Day trumps all other days. Unfortunately, those who are supposed to be managing the championship day for our industry are not enhancing the power and prestige of the Breeders' Cup.

Christian Hellmers was leading the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge going into the final race of the $10,000 buy-in handicapping tournament, but Patrick McGoey put $7,000 on the nose of the Classic winner to win more than a quarter-million dollars.

No, you haven’t stumbled on a recap of the 2011 betting challenge held at Churchill Downs. The exact same thing happened last weekend at the 2012 competition at Santa Anita, with McGoey going all-in and hitting the final race to top Hellmers, who held on for second each year.

Yes, Virginia, lightning does sometimes strike twice.