WHO’S HOT

The Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Ky., will host the fourth annual Old Friends Along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail dinner and bourbon tasting on Feb. 25, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $100 per person, and the evening benefits the Old Friends equine retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky. The Seelbach also is offering guests participating in the Kentucky Distillers Association’s Bourbon Trail tour of Kentucky Distilleries a reduced room rate of $119 per night.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Voters in Kentucky will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment to allow casinos at five racetracks and two other sites in Kentucky under a bill unveiled by Gov. Steve Beshear on Tuesday.

The legislation, which is being co-sponsored by Sen. Damon Thayer, would place the issue on the November ballot in Kentucky. Under state law, any legislation proposing to amend the constitution requires a three-fifths vote in both the House and Senate.

Giant Oak, who won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap early last year, has been named the Illinois Horse of the Year by the Illinois Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Foundation, it was announced late Monday.

We know the most unbreakable of all Kentucky Derby “rules.” Any aspirant that failed to race at 2 need not apply for a spot in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. The last horse to win the Kentucky Derby without the benefit of at least one race as a juvenile was Apollo in 1882, 21 years before the very first World Series was played. For the last century, it is this juvenile foundation, or so it seems, that aids a Derby prospect through the winding road to Louisville.

Todd Pletcher

Born: June 26, 1967, Dallas, Tx.

• Won five Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer, 2004-2007, and 2010[bc_video_id:234660:]

• Trained the winners of 10 Eclipse Awards:

A woman and a horse were killed and a second woman was injured Friday in a hyperbaric chamber explosion at the Ocala, Fla., division of the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center.

Editor’s Note: Countdown to the Crown returns for a seventh season online as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene.

Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 6 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Exchange wagering is unlikely to be launched in California in the foreseeable future after some racetracks and horsemen’s organizations expressed opposition to the implementation of the new style of wagering before a California Horse Racing Board committee on Thursday.

Robert B. Cohen, the former president of the Hudson News chain of retail outlets and the owner of a string of New York-based horses, died on Feb. 1 at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., of progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological disorder. He was 86.

Cohen had several horses in training with Heriberto Cedano at the time of his death. His most well-known horse, Hudson County – which shared the name of the company Cohen headed before launching the Hudson News outlets – finished second in the 1974 Kentucky Derby to Cannonade.