For now, the banning of Lasix for this year’s races restricted to 2-year-olds at the Breeders’ Cup will not deter trainer Todd Pletcher from running in the $2 million Juvenile at Santa Anita.

Pletcher, who has the strongest arsenal of 2-year-olds of any trainer in the country, said he will let upcoming performances and his owners dictate whether to run in the Juvenile, the winner of which has been crowned 2-year-old champion 16 of the last 20 years.

ARCADIA, Calif. – California, here they come, right back where the Breeders’ Cup started.

For the third time in the last five years, fourth time in the last 10 years, and ninth time since its inaugural running in 1984, the Breeders’ Cup returns this fall to Southern California. With the opening of Santa Anita’s autumn meeting on Friday, and a plethora of important stakes races at Santa Anita and Belmont Park this weekend, the countdown has commenced to the 15-race Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2-3 at Santa Anita.

So Many Ways, the undefeated winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga, will not run in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita, her owner, Maggi Moss, announced in a press release issued Wednesday.

So Many Ways is trained by Tony Dutrow and is to be turned out under his care in Maryland before gearing up for a 3-year-old campaign that could be launched at Gulfstream Park.

The West Virginia Racing Commission has rejected the appeal of Mark Wedig, the owner and trainer that Mountaineer Park ejected under its anti-slaughter policy.

The commission denied Wedig’s appeal Sept. 17, following a Sept. 14 recommendation by hearing examiner Jeffrey Blaydes.

Blaydes had presided over a June 29 hearing in Newell, W.Va., where Wedig’s attorney, Lawrence L. Manypenny, had contended Wedig didn’t violate the policy when he retrieved racehorses Canuki and Cactus Cafe from Viande Richelieu, a Quebec slaughterhouse, because the horses were not slaughtered.

A top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that the state is considering a plan to seek a private, for-profit company to replace the New York Racing Association as the operator of the state’s three most high-profile racetracks.

The Factor, who when right was one of the fastest horses in training, has been retired from racing and will stand stud at Lane’s End Farm in Lexington, Ky., it was announced Saturday.

George Bolton, who co-owned The Factor with David Shimmon’s Fog City Stable, said The Factor had an injury to his left front ankle that would have required 60 days’ rest. Since he was going to miss races like the Santa Anita Sprint Championship and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, the decision was made to retire him.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms will return to California racing in 2013 after joining with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert to buy a small group of yearlings at Keeneland earlier this month.

Baffert, working with Juddmonte officials, selected three yearlings at Keeneland that will be based in California next year.

Baffert’s Juddmonte horses will represent the first regular presence for Juddmonte since Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott had a small team of horses at Santa Anita for Juddmonte in early 2010.

Paynter, the winner of this year’s Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, has displayed no signs of developing laminitis and is showing significant improvement in overcoming a severe case of colitis, according to the 3-year-old colt’s owner, Ahmed Zayat.

Breeders’ Cup Ltd. on Thursday launched a social-network game on Facebook that will allow players to simulate owning, training, and racing Thoroughbreds, the company said.

The game, called “Blazing Silks, Breeders’ Cup Edition,” is the second social-network game involving horse racing to be launched this year. In August, the Jockey Club launched “Thoroughbred World” on Facebook as part of its multi-year strategy to promote the sport, in addition to a fantasy-league game called “Major League Horse Racing.”

POMONA, Calif. – Claims submitted for horses who are later placed on official veterinary lists, for issues such as unsoundness or lameness, will be voided in California if a proposed rule is passed in coming months by the California Horse Racing Board.

Currently, horses who are claimed and placed on official veterinary lists are considered claimed, and are transferred to the new owner and trainer.