Joe King, the track superintendent at the New York Racing Association for 25 years and the man who helped develop Aqueduct’s inner track, died Tuesday. He was 80.

King, a native of Queens, N.Y., and an Army veteran, worked for the company that rebuilt Aqueduct in the 1950s. He worked at NYRA for 35 years but was promoted to track superintendent in 1970. King was renowned for his work at NYRA before he left in 1994 to open his own consulting firm. King spoke on many panels about track maintenance and safety.

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association has sent an official response to proposed rules that would sharply reduce the tax liability on parimutuel winnings, kicking off a campaign to draw support for the changes from the racing community.

The response was submitted at the outset of a six-week period in which the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service will accept comments on the proposed rules. The comment period ends June 2, after which the two agencies will deliberate over whether to accept the changes.

Dan Farrell, an Eclipse Award-winning photographer who worked for the New York Daily News for four decades, died Monday due to pneumonia, the paper reported. He was 84.

Farrell freelanced for several news outlets before joining the Daily News in 1955. Primarily a sports photographer, Farrell won the 1987 Eclipse Award for a photo he took of Alysheba and trainer Jack Van Berg head to head. Farrell would later serve as a judge for the Eclipse Awards as well.

Lloyd Romero, a retired trainer and the father of Hall of Fame jockey Randy Romero, died Thursday night at his home in Erath, La.

Romero, 79, trained for decades and conditioned both Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, winning 907 races on the flat. His best Quarter Horse, Rocket’s Magic, finished third in the 1975 All American Futurity and, along with Romero and his family, was the inspiration for the Hollywood movie “Casey’s Shadow.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey David Flores, suspended by Singapore officials for a year in March for failing to obtain the best possible placing in a race in that country in February, will seek reinstatement before Santa Anita stewards on April 23.

In a hearing on Thursday morning, Flores was denied a request to immediately resume riding by stewards Scott Chaney, Kim Sawyer and Tom Ward. The case was continued for a week at the request of Phil Laird, counsel for the California Horse Racing Board, who asked for additional time to study the case, Chaney said.

Joe Clancy, editor of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine, has been named the winner of this year’s David F. Woods Memorial Award for his article “Horse of a Lifetime,” which documented California Chrome’s victory in last year’s Preakness Stakes.

Clancy will be presented the award at the Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico on May 14, two days before this year’s Preakness. Clancy won an Eclipse Award in the News/Enterprise category earlier this year for the same article. The story appeared in the July edition of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred.

A lawsuit filed by owner Willis Horton and jockey Luis Saez alleging libel against trainer Eric Guillot is likely to go to mediation within the next 120 days, according to the attorney representing the plaintiffs and court documents.

The mediation was ordered by Magistrate Judge Randolph Treece during a conference call to discuss scheduling of the lawsuit on Wednesday. Mediation in civil cases is being tried in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York under a pilot program. Under the order, the mediation will occur prior to Aug. 28. 

The four Pennsylvania veterinarians accused by federal prosecutors of illegally administering substances to horses on race day formally entered guilty pleas Tuesday in a Pennsylvania federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, which brought the charges.

The veterinarians had earlier agreed to plead guilty as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors requiring their cooperation with an ongoing investigation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 21, according to the attorney’s office.

Despite canceling its entire opening weekend this year due to wintry weather, Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., posted slight gains in average and total handle for the 2015 meet that closed Saturday, according to figures distributed by the track.

Average daily all-sources handle for the 52 days of the meet was $3,350,033, up 1 percent from $3,318,589 last year, when the track had 51 full days of live racing. The 2014 figure was up 19 percent compared with average daily all-sources handle in 2013, when the track had 54 live racing days.

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium has approved a recommended threshold level for a naturally occurring amino acid that has been found in a supplement believed to be in use illegally on race day, according to the organization.