LEXINGTON, Ky. – John Ward, the trainer of the 2001 Kentucky Derby winner, Monarchos, has been appointed executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, effective April 1, and will surrender his training license, according to Kentucky government officials.

Ward, 66, has been a member of the Kentucky Racing Commission since 2003. He will fill a position vacated by the resignation of Lisa Underwood, who had been the executive director for five years before resigning last November to return to private law practice.

Donald V. Little, founder of the Centennial Farms racing partnerships that campaigned 1992 sprint champion Rubiano and 1993 Belmont winner Colonial Affair, was seriously injured in a show-jumping fall Sunday in Florida.

Little, a regular competitor at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla., sustained a neck injury after falling from his horse during a jumping competition. He was flown by helicopter to Delray Medical Center, where PhelpsSports.com reported Sunday that he was in serious condition

Breeders’ Cup remains committed to a plan to ban the use of raceday furosemide in the five races restricted to 2-year-olds that are scheduled for its 2012 event at Santa Anita Park, a spokesperson for the organization said Monday, three days after a similar policy was abandoned by the American Graded Stakes Committee.

LEXINGTON, Ky.  - The American Graded Stakes Committee said late on Friday that it will not require a ban on the raceday use of furosemide in juvenile stakes run this year for the races to be eligible for a grade, reversing a policy adopted last year.

LEXINGTON – The straight-up defeat on Thursday of a bill sought by the Kentucky racing industry that would have potentially allowed state racetracks to operate casinos has effectively killed the effort for the rest of the year, officials involved in lobbying for the bill acknowledged on Friday.

The New Mexico Racing Commission has has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for clenbuterol for 12 months as of April 20. A bronchial dialator, clenbuterol will still be allowed for training, but will have to be stopped being administered 30 days before a horse races at any of the state’s tracks.

“Our main goal is to make the playing field level, to look out for the best interests of the horse players,” said Vince Mares, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A bill that would have put a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to approve as many as seven casinos in Kentucky was forcefully dispatched in the state's Senate on Thursday, dashing hopes among the bill's supporters that casinos will be legalized anytime soon.

Wayne Pacelle is the president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States, and in that role, he is the very public face of animal-rights issues in the United States. The author of a best-selling book, “The Bond,” Pacelle, 46, was elevated to president in 2004 after serving as the organization’s chief lobbyist and spokesperson for 10 years, a position that made him a familiar face in state and federal legislatures and on a variety of national television broadcasts.

See the questions HERE.

1. Just after midnight March 11, 1954, Life magazine picture editor Gerald Astor and a photographer were at Calumet Farm’s foaling barn to begin reporting on a racehorse from the moment of birth to the racetrack.

With 9,064 registered foals that year, what were the odds that the one they chose, later named Iron Liege, would three years hence win the Kentucky Derby?

In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed at a site near what today is St. Augustine, Fla. Numerous biographies published later in the 16th century claimed that Ponce de Leon was in search of the fabled fountain of youth, spawning a legend that has survived five centuries.

Three hundred miles down the Florida coast in Hallandale, another seaside community, Ponce de Leon’s legendary trip is recalled each year with the running of the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The race will be contested Sunday for the 66th time.