David Cross Jr., who trained Sunny’s Halo to victory in the 1983 Kentucky Derby, died late Wednesday night at the University of Kentucky’s Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington, Ky., according to trainer Jinks Fires, for whom Cross had worked in recent years.

Cross, 84, had suffered from a series of health issues in recent years and had entered the hospital following a stroke, Fires said. He subsequently was transferred to hospice care.

A Florida administrative law judge has ruled that Calder Race Course in Miami should lose its slot-machine license due to the demolition of its grandstand, reversing another judge’s ruling from late last year.

Los Alamitos officials are considering reducing the number of racing days for the track’s upcoming summer meeting from 12 to 10 to ensure all programs draw sufficient entries, track vice-president Jack Liebau said on Tuesday.

Liebau said there is a possibility Los Alamitos could delay the opening of the meeting from June 27 to June 29. Currently, Los Alamitos is scheduled to run four days a week, from Thursdays through Sundays, through July 14.

For the second time in as many months, California Senator Dianne Feinstein has called for a suspension of racing at Santa Anita in reaction to a series of equine fatalities at the track.

In a five-paragraph statement released on Monday, Feinstein called for an “immediate moratorium on racing at Santa Anita.”

“We need a thorough investigation of practices and conditions at the track before any more races are held,” the statement read in part.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita and the Thoroughbred Owners of California have agreed to continue a $10,000 increase in purses for all overnight races through the end of the track’s spring-summer meeting on June 23, according to a statement published by the TOC on Friday.

Since April 19, the purses of all non-stakes races have been increased $10,000 in an effort to boost fields. The program was originally scheduled through June 2 and was then extended through June 9 earlier this month.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Del Mar may run fewer races per day during its summer meeting from July 17 to Sept. 2 after officials expressed concern on Thursday about the number of race-ready horses based in Southern California.

Speaking at a California Horse Racing Board meeting at Santa Anita, Tom Robbins, the track’s director of racing, stressed that Del Mar plans to run five days a week during the 36-day summer meeting.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker appointed Marcus Davis and Benjamin Reyes to the Illinois Racing Board on Wednesday. Davis and Reyes fill vacancies on the nine-member board, which still has only eight commissioners pending a final appointment.

Davis, according to an IRB release, is president of a sports marketing firm located in Oak Park. Reyes, a Chicago businessman, sat on the board between 2011 and 2014.

Pritzker is a Democrat, and it’s assumed that IRB chairman Jeffrey Brincat, appointed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, eventually will be replaced.

Betting on the Preakness Stakes set a record for the third year in a row, according to the chart of the race, while the overnight rating for the broadcast of the race dropped sharply in the absence of the horses that ran best in the Kentucky Derby two weeks earlier.

The overnight rating for the Preakness Stakes broadcast declined sharply compared to last year’s overnight, dropping 22 percent to a 4.3 with a 10 share, according to figures released on Sunday by NBC.

The Preakness this year was the first run in more than 20 years without the presence of the Kentucky Derby winner. Additionally, all four horses who finished first under the wire in the Derby two weeks ago skipped the race, including the disqualified winner, Maximum Security, and the horse elevated to first, Country House.

Total betting on the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore and the entire-14-race card on Saturday set records, according to charts of the races, extending a strong spring for racing’s big events, at least financially.

Total Preakness betting, including all multi-leg wagers ending in the race, was $62.84 million, according to the chart, a 1.4 percent gain on the record set last year. This year, 13 horses ran in the race over a firm track, whereas last year, eight horses ran on a sloppy track.