Midwest Thoroughbreds, the leading owner in North America in wins since 2010, has fired one of its trainers, Brad Cox, and has shipped the 30 horses he trained at Churchill Downs to Jamie Ness on the East Coast.

Cox said Saturday that he was informed this week of his firing by a phone call from an attorney representing Richard Papiese, the Chicago businessman who owns Midwest with his wife, Karen. This was the second time Cox, 32, has been fired by Midwest, having worked for them for about seven months in 2010 before being rehired in April 2011.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Steve Lehman, who has been serving as the Ontario Racing Commission's chief operating officer, will be its new executive director, effective Oct. 31, when the current CEO, John Blakney, retires.

The appointment, contingent on a contract agreement, was announced by the commission's chairman, Rod Seiling, in a press release in Thursday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A dispute between the owners of Inherit the Gold could alter plans for the recently retired New York-bred gelding, including a possible return to the races.

Mary Murray, who races under the name Glas-Tipp Stables and who owns 50 percent of Inherit the Gold, said she was never informed by trainer Jim Hooper that Inherit the Gold was going to be retired. She said she heard about it through the media.

A two-time winner of the Eclipse Award as champion jockey, he suffered a severely fractured heel earlier this year at Santa Anita, but has returned with a vengeance this summer at Del Mar, where after the first two weeks of the meet he was tied with Rafael Bejarano atop the jockeys’ standings with 16 victories. He was interviewed in the jockeys’ room at Del Mar last Saturday, July 28.

Birthdate: Jan. 1, 1972, in Tucson, Ariz.

Family: wife, Pam; sons Collin, Jared; daughters Shelby, Amanda

It was early January 2011, and Rosemary Homeister, riding at Tampa Bay Downs, had been feeling increasingly tired and nauseated. She didn’t know exactly why. There had been almost no break between the end of the Churchill Downs fall meet and the start of Tampa Bay, and Homeister had been going hard since arriving in Florida.

A Kentucky circuit judge is expected to rule in the next 90 days on whether the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission acted improperly in suspending former chief state steward John Veitch for one year because of his role in the Life At Ten incident at the 2010 Breeders' Cup.

HRTV, the television network co-owned by Churchill Downs and the Stronach Group, will broadcast all of the Breeders’ Cup races for this year’s event live with the exception of the Classic under a deal reached with Breeders’ Cup covering cable broadcast rights, the two companies announced Wednesday.

CHICAGO – Track applications for 2013 racing dates filed with the Illinois Racing Board on Tuesday suggest the racing calendar next year in Illinois will closely resemble the one employed in 2012.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Paynter, who was an overpowering winner of the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Sunday, had an elevated temperature on Tuesday morning and, as a result, was not put on a scheduled flight back to California. His participation in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 25 is now in jeopardy, trainer Bob Baffert said Tuesday morning at Del Mar.

Concentration of racing talent stagnates the game