Comma to the Top, the winner of the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity last December and two other stakes in 2010, was withdrawn from this weekend's third round of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager on Thursday after trainer Peter Miller told Churchill Downs officials that the Kentucky Derby is not likely to figure in the gelding's plans this spring.

The pool for the Kentucky Derby Future Wager opens at noon, Eastern, on Friday, and continues until 6 p.m., Eastern, on Sunday. Without Comma to the Top, the pool will feature 22 individual horses and a field that includes all other runners.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2011 Florida Derby, already the deepest of all the Kentucky Derby preps, got even stronger on Thursday after trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. and owner John Fort decided to add the undefeated speedster Flashpoint to the mix.

FLORIDA DERBY DAY: Watch Mike Welsch’s video workout report – tune in Sunday for live racing

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Team Valor International announced Thursday that they have purchased Summer Soiree, the 10 3/4-length winner of the Grade 3 Bourbonette Stakes last Saturday at Turfway Park, and will run the filly next in the May 6 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Summer Soiree, by the hot young sire War Front, was owned by former Kentucky Gov. Brereton C. Jones and Wahoo Partners LLC. Larry Jones had trained the filly for her last two starts, an Oaklawn Park allowance romp and the Bourbonette.

INDIANTOWN, Fla. − It has been this kind of winter for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott: He has won more races at Tampa Bay Downs than at Gulfstream Park. He is 1 for 23 in stakes races in 2011, and the one winner − Changing Skies − was recently retired.

"January is always slow, but we kind of had a slow February and March, too," said Mott, who through Wednesday had won 15 races from 144 starters this year.

Mott is 7 for 91 at Gulfstream Park, where he has won or shared nine trainer's titles. In the last decade, his lowest win total here has been 16.

This fall at Turfway Park in Kentucky, owners will pay a $1 per-start fee, matched by the track, as part of a new program to provide funding for the care of retired racehorses. In California and Florida, one-third of 1 percent of the purses at most of the states' tracks are being diverted to retirement efforts, supplemented by donations from track operators. In Illinois, a partnership between horsemen and the two Chicago-area tracks launched last year seeks to identify at-risk horses for rehabilitation and adoption at one of three facilities funded by the racing industry.

Veteran jockey, he won his 4,000th Thoroughbred race on March 18 at Turf Paradise. He is the older brother of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens.

Birthdate: Oct. 6, 1960, in Caldwell, Idaho

Family: partner, Pam; son, Jake; daughter, Jessica

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board on Thursday issued a lifetime ban to former Thoroughbred owner and breeder Ernie Paragallo and barred him from all racetrack properties in the state, citing his conviction last year on 33 counts of animal-cruelty charges.

The ban was issued the same day that a New York appellate judge rejected Paragallo’s appeal of the 2010 conviction, a decision that will likely require Paragallo to return to an upstate New York jail cell.

David Seth Michaels, Paragallo’s attorney, did not immediately return a phone call Thursday afternoon.

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A group of California owners and trainers have formed an organization with the intention of either changing the makeup of the Thoroughbred Owners of California’s board of directors or usurping the TOC to become the state’s official representative for Thoroughbred horsemen.