One of history’s greatest horseplayers, George E. Smith, better known as “Pittsburg Phil,” was collared in the paddock one day in the 1890s by a young Jacob Ruppert, then a businessman and Thoroughbred owner, later the owner of the New York Yankees. Ruppert needled him about the “easy life you lead. Just a few hours of pleasant work every afternoon out in the open air, and getting rich.”

Phil asked Ruppert why he only came to the races on Saturday or when a horse of his was running.

Because I have my business to handle, Ruppert answered.

Daily average handle for the winter-spring 2010-11 Golden Gate Fields meeting showed a decline in wagering on the track’s live races, while the following four-day race meet at the San Joaquin Fair in Stockton, Calif., had double-digit increases both in ontrack handle and all-sources handle.

The head of a New York regulatory agency has asked the New York Racing Association to provide detailed financial and budgetary records, including executive salaries, under threat of revocation of its franchise agreement to operate Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga Racecourse.

Robert Megna, the chairman of the Franchise Oversight Board and the budget director for New York Gov. Anthony Cuomo, made the request in a letter to NYRA’s chief executive, Charles Hayward, after the oversight board met on Monday. Cuomo’s office publicly distributed copies of the letter.

Lucy Acton, editor of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred and a contributor to Daily Racing Form, died of cancer June 7. She was 63. Acton was the daughter of the late Maryland Horse editor Snowden Carter and lived in both Reisterstown and Upperco, Md. During her tenure at Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, the magazine won two Eclipse Awards. Acton’s own awards included the 2006 Old Hilltop Award for excellence in racing coverage. . . . Steeplechase trainer Dorothy “Dot” Smithwick, 82, died June 16 in Middleburg, Va.

A bill that would allow Monmouth Park to hold 71 days of live racing a year – roughly half of the minimum currently set by law – moved to the New Jersey Senate floor after passing Monday out of a Senate committee.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Jose Valdivia has put his plans to ride in New York on a full-time basis on hold.

Instead, the Belmont Stakes-winning rider will continue to ride at Monmouth Park on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays while trying to drum up business in New York on Wednesdays and Thursdays, he said late Monday afternoon. Valdivia has retained the retired Hall of Fame rider Jorge Velasquez to be his agent.

New Cup race raises questions of overkill and basic purpose

When the idea of the Breeders' Cup was born in 1984, the point was to bring the best horses in the country to decide year-end championship honors such as Horse of the Year, champion juvenile, and champion grass horse. In the past five years, however, the Breeders' Cup board has decided to add races such as the Juvenile Turf, Juvenile Fillies Turf, Turf Sprint, Marathon, and now I see the June 16 article "Juvenile Sprint new Cup race."

Uncle Mo, the 2010 2-year-old champion male who missed this year’s Kentucky Derby due to what was eventually diagnosed as rare liver disease, is scheduled to start jogging on Monday at WinStar Farm, according to his owner, Mike Repole.

Repole said that Uncle Mo was to walk the shed row under tack and with a rider on his back on Saturday and Sunday before returning to the track on Monday. Uncle Mo has not trained since May 6 when he galloped at Churchill Downs. Later that morning, Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher scratched Uncle Mo from the May 7 Derby.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Frank Stronach is finalizing plans to send 20 2-year-olds to Southern California next month, fulfilling a promise he made in the summer of 2010 to support racing on the circuit when Santa Anita switched back to a dirt surface.

According to Mark Roberts, the general manager of Stronach’s Adena Springs South farm in Florida, the unraced 2-year-olds are scheduled to arrive in early July. The list of individual horses and the trainers that will receive them was expected to be finalized this weekend, Roberts said on Friday.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up, sustained an injury to his left hind leg that will keep him out of training for a couple of weeks, but should not prevent him from running again this year, his connections announced Thursday.