CYPRESS, Calif. – Los Alamitos finished its 12-day summer meeting Sunday with a gain in average all-sources handle over the 2017 meet, according to a track statement, though comparisons with the corresponding meeting last year are difficult to make.

Last July, the track ran a two-week meeting that did not include the Fourth of July. This year, the track held a three-week meeting that included a Fourth of July program. The eight-race July 6 program was halted after two races because of excessive heat.

The 36-day summer party at Del Mar begins Wednesday.

For many fans, the seven-week meeting, which lasts through Labor Day, is the highlight of the racing year – a chance to escape to the beach in northern San Diego County for top-class racing and an atmosphere unlike any other venue in the United States. Credit the time of year and brief meet for making Del Mar an annual destination for racing fans.

Total handle on New Jersey sports betting in June was $16.4 million, according to the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, with slightly less than half bet at Monmouth Park’s sportsbook.

Handle at Monmouth’s sportsbook, which was open for 17 days in June, was $8,176,212, according to the head of the company that operates the track, Dennis Drazin, for a market share of nearly 50 percent.

Only two other bookmaking locations were open in the state during June – Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino, also open for 17 days, and Ocean Resort, open only three days.

Voting members of the Breeders’ Cup have re-elected four board members and selected three new board members, the Breeders’ Cup said Thursday.

Churchill Downs Inc. has cancelled a plan to buy a casino in Mississippi from El Dorado Resorts Inc. after federal anti-trust regulators requested additional information on the purchase, the two companies announced late on Monday.

Churchill Downs will pay El Dorado $5 million as a termination fee in cancelling the $50.6 million transaction, one of two purchase agreements that Churchill reached with El Dorado earlier this year. The other, Churchill’s acquisition of Presque Isle Downs and Casino in Erie, Pa., for $178.9 million, will go ahead as planned, the two companies said.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A gubernatorial candidate in Kentucky has come out in support of casino gambling in the state, resurrecting an old issue that has never gained full traction in the legislature despite longtime racing industry support for slot machines at racetracks.

All-sources handle on Saturday’s Stars & Stripes card at Belmont Park was $24,612,465, the highest in the five-year history of the event. The card was highlighted by the Belmont Derby and the Belmont Oaks.

This year’s post-position draw for the two-day Breeders’ Cup event in November at Churchill Downs in Louisville will be held at Equestricon, the fan convention that is scheduled to run the week prior to the Breeders’ Cup in Louisville, the organizers announced on Monday.

Wagering on races held at U.S. racetracks during the second quarter of 2018 was up 4.76 percent despite a drop of nearly 2.1 percent in the number of races held, according to figures released Thursday by Equibase. The latest uptick follows a 6.2 percent increase in wagering during the first quarter, which was the best three-month showing for handle figures in the economically challenged racing industry for some time.

Year-on-year handle in the U.S. is up 5.56 percent, with $5.87 billion wagered through June 30, compared to $5.56 billion in 2017.