LEXINGTON, Ky. – In an apparent reversal of an earlier decision, Mountaineer Park in West Virginia has ejected trainer Mark Wedig, who retrieved two slaughterbound racehorses last month in an effort to prove he had not violated the track’s anti-slaughter policy.

The West Virginia Racing Commission denied Wedig’s request for a stay on Wednesday. Wedig has appealed the May 29 ejection, and commission executive director Jon Amores said that the commission would schedule a hearing within 30 days.

ELMONT, N.Y. – It is now 34 years in the waiting and 12 furlongs to go for racing’s next Triple Crown winner. I’ll Have Another is the 12th horse to try to capture Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown since Affirmed accomplished the feat in 1978.

Beginning in 1997, Tom Durkin has called the last seven attempts at immortality, including the last four tries for network television.

After Lemon Drop Kid, Commendable, Sarava, Birdstone, Da’ Tara, and Ruler On Ice, we are all justifiably spooked by the Belmont Stakes, as if it this is a horror movie instead of a horse race.

Don’t move too soon. Don’t open a big lead. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.

I am going to make a novel suggestion. Find what you think is the best horse and bet on him.

Did Point Given move too soon when he blew the race open around the turn and won by a dozen? Apparently not.

BENSALEM, Pa. – Reunited and it feels so good.

Six years after amicably ending their business relationship, owner Rick Porter and trainer John Servis are back together again, albeit in a limited capacity.

In April, Porter sent four horses to Servis at Parx Racing including the promising 4-year-old Spin Zone. Porter will also have a pair of 2-year-olds with Servis, who trained for him from 1999 to 2006.

Servis has won two races from five starters for Porter in their new arrangement.

BENSALEM, Pa. − John Servis has been where Doug O’Neill is now − on the precipice of racing history.

So as O’Neill prepares I’ll Have Another for his attempt to become Thoroughbred racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner in Saturday’s 144th Belmont Stakes, Servis offers this bit of advice.

“Slow down and enjoy the ride, because you’ll look up and it’ll be five years down the line, and you’ll [wonder], ‘What happened?’ ” Servis said. “It just flies by, it really does. Next thing you know it’s over, and it’s a long time getting back − if you get back.”

Nates Mineshaft, the one-time $25,000 claimer who’s building a reputation as one of the nation’s leading handicap horses, could have his next-race plans firmed up Sunday after he works at Churchill Downs. He is under consideration for one of two handicaps later this month, his trainer, Austin Smith, said Tuesday.

The options include the Grade 1, $400,000 Stephen Foster at Churchill. It will be run over a mile and an eighth June 16. The other consideration is the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker at the same distance at Prairie Meadows on June 30.

Talks between New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the operator of a casino at Aqueduct on a proposed convention center at the track have been dropped, officials for Cuomo’s administration said over the past several days.

Howard Glaser, Cuomo’s director of state operations, said in a statement distributed by Cuomo’s office that the negotiations “have not produced a resolution that is satisfactory for the state and are made difficult by the lack of certainty about the future of casinos in New York.”

The last time a horse won a Triple Crown, Tom Hammond had the best seat in the house. He stood next to announcer Chic Anderson as Affirmed outdueled Alydar down the stretch at Belmont Park in 1978.

“Maybe the greatest race I’ve ever seen,” said Hammond, the two-time Eclipse Award winner and host of NBC’s Triple Crown coverage. “Maybe second best, just behind Winning Colors losing to Personal Ensign in the ’88 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The decision by the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Owners of California last week to table a vote on implementing exchange betting for at least a year was met with dismay and anger by officials with Betfair TVG, who said over the weekend they will continue to pursue implementation of the new form of wagering.

Stephen Burn, the chief executive officer of Betfair TVG, said he was given only a brief warning last Friday that the TOC would not support starting exchange betting for the upcoming Del Mar meeting, which runs from July 18 to Sept. 5.

A memorial service will be held at River Downs in the winner's circle at 11:30 Wednesday for trainer Reid Gross, who died Saturday at St. Joe Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., from complications of cancer.

The 72-year-old Gross trained horses for nearly 50 years, mostly in Ohio and Michigan. According to his granddaughter Mandy Wheldon, Gross kept working with his horses until very recently.

"He was out walking horses the other day, using a cane," she said. "He wasn't going to let it keep him down. He loved the horses."