In racing’s storied history, match races have included great older males facing off in epic duels, fillies taking on males, and even Quarter Horses against Thoroughbreds. Now, they take on a new twist – a former couple in a match race at Del Mar.

For a few years, jockeys Mike Smith, 45, and Chantal Sutherland, 35, were an item and were even engaged. That ended last summer. Today, they are rival jockeys in Southern California. Sunday, they face off in a match race at Del Mar that has been dubbed the Battle of the Exes.

In-the-money finishes in 33 graded stakes races held in Canada will now earn points toward qualifying for the races held by the Breeders’ Cup during its year-end event, the Breeders’ Cup announced on Wednesday.

The Canadian stakes will join the roughly 400 graded stakes in the United States scheduled to be run before Oct. 23 that award points to horses for qualifying for a spot in one of the 15 Breeders’ Cup races, which are each limited to fields of 14 horses.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association has begun to explore options that would allow the racetrack operator to establish off-track betting parlors in the five boroughs of New York City, the association’s chief executive, Charles Hayward, said at a conference on Tuesday.

Racetrack executives in California have proposed reducing the takeout rates for exactas, quinellas and daily doubles by this fall.

Last week, Hollywood Park president Jack Liebau and Santa Anita president George Haines sent a joint letter to the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Owners of California asking it to support reductions in the takeout in those pools and a change in the distribution of revenue generated from the takeout of the 50-cent pick five.

Victor’s Cry, the winner of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile in 2010, has been retired to stud because of concern over the condition of his ankles, trainer Eoin Harty said on Monday.

Stallion plans have not been finalized, Harty said. Victor’s Cry, 6, won 6 of 24 starts and $762,021.

“He’s showing some wear and tear on those ankles,” Harty said. “I didn’t want to jeopardize his future career.”

Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom began walking the shed row at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland this week, trainer Graham Motion said Friday.

On June 30, Animal Kingdom underwent surgery to repair a slab fracture in his left hind leg. Following a couple of weeks of stall rest upon returning to Motion’s barn, Animal Kingdom has now been hand-walked around the barn.

He thought he had arrived. Kelly Breen, just 23 at the time, had won twice at the Meadowlands with Contarido and now was sending the horse to New York for his first starter on the other side of the Hudson River. Contarido came through, winning under Julie Krone. Breen had made it there. He could make it anywhere.

Breen excitedly phoned everyone he knew – his parents, his friends – imploring them to watch that night’s edition of “Thoroughbred Action,” the replay show that was hosted by the popular Harvey Pack.

Having practiced patience with horses her whole life, 85-year-old Josephine Abercrombie wasn’t about to start changing her philosophy now.

Even after Alternation rallied to win the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 14, she and her trainer Donnie Von Hemel decided not to run back four weeks later in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.

“Too soon,” Abercrombie said. “We haven’t gone that distance yet. We’d like to take it easy and give him an opportunity to be at his very best. Not push him, in other words.”

Ron Geary has owned Ellis Park since he purchased the western Kentucky track from Churchill Downs Inc. in 2006. A Louisville businessman who made a fortune in the health-care industry, Geary, 64, has been a life-long racing fan and handicapper. He earned $150,000 for finishing second in January in the 2011 Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas. Later this year or early in 2012, Ellis is expected to install about 200 Instant Racing machines, which determine winners on the basis of past races and have a parimutuel-style payout.

A rule change in California that will void any claim for a horse who dies on the racetrack is likely to be seriously considered in other states despite opposition by many horsemen’s groups, according to racing officials.