Hansen most likely will bypass the Haskell Invitational in favor of the West Virginia Derby, trainer Mike Maker said Tuesday after Hansen worked five furlongs in 1:01.60 at his home base, the Trackside training center in Louisville, Ky.

Trainer Mike Maker, speaking from Saratoga, said he believes the West Virginia Derby, set for Aug. 4 at Mountaineer Park, is shaping up an easier spot than the Haskell, which will be run Sunday at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With its stars sidelined, the 3-year-old division will be looking for some once-highly regarded players and some fresh faces to help make things interesting in the second half of the year.

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another and Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags are both retired. Derby and Preakness runner-up Bodemeister is sidelined because of a temperature, leaving his stablemate Paynter, the Belmont Stakes runner-up and a horse who has yet to win a stakes race, as the marquee runner in this weekend’s trio of stakes activity.

A Kentucky court has given an attorney for John Veitch the authority to depose officials for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission in order to determine whether it is a requirement that stewards in the state have a job before being considered for a license, according to the court order.

Gantry’s ideal schedule for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint will be comprised of one light prep race in the Southwest region, sometime in September, said his trainer, Ron Faucheux. There’s also a chance the horse could just train up to the Grade 1, $1.5 million race, which is to be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Mike Maker said Friday that the next start for Hansen “probably will come down to a last-minute decision” as he and the colt’s owners try to decide whether to run in the Haskell Invitational or the West Virginia Derby.

Union Rags has been retired from racing because of the suspensory injury that was diagnosed a month after the colt won the June 9 Belmont Stakes.

Russell Jones, a longtime racing manager and adviser for owner Phyllis Wyeth, confirmed that Union Rags has made his final start and will begin his stud career in 2013 at a farm yet to be determined.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Frank “Pancho” Martin, the leading trainer on the New York Racing Association circuit for more than a decade, died Wednesday after a lengthy illness. He was 86.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A mid-level New York appeals court on Thursday upheld the 10-year revocation of trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.'s license, which was handed him last fall by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.

However, Dutrow, 52, plans to take his case to the New York court of appeals - the state's highest court - and will be able to continue to train horses until that appeal is heard. Dutrow had three horses entered in Friday’s opening-day card at Saratoga.

Team Valor International officials announced Tuesday that Went the Day Well, most recently 10th in the May 19 Preakness, is through racing for the year after being diagnosed with bone bruising in both front ankles.

Nearly eight weeks after the New York Racing Association and Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached an agreement to dissolve the association’s current board of directors in favor of a board controlled by state politicians, it remains unclear when state officials will seek to replace the current NYRA board.