Due to less weather-related cancellations, all-sources handle at Aqueduct’s 2018-19 winter meet was up 14.2 percent, but average daily handle was basically flat compared to the corresponding time period from the previous winter, according to figures released Tuesday by the New York Racing Association.

From Dec. 7, 2018 through Sunday, all-sources handle on Aqueduct’s races was $335,521,091, compared to $293,795,129 from Dec. 8, 2017 through March 31, 2018.

Average daily handle this winter was $5,592,018, up 0.9 percent from the previous winter’s figure of $5,543,304.

Portland Meadows, the 73-year-old racetrack in Oregon that has struggled financially for years, will not re-open this year and the property will be redeveloped, according to racing officials in the state.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ten new names are in the lineup for the fourth and final pool in the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for the customary three-day run.

The morning line for Pool 4 as set forth by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia shows 8-1 co-favorites in Game Winner and Maximum Security – but with three major Derby preps to be run Saturday, there figures to be plenty of movement in odds by the time the pool closes Sunday.

Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., has adjusted the date of the Super Derby and renamed a stakes race in honor of horseman Frankie Brothers in changes to the track’s 14-race stakes schedule announced Monday. The meet opens May 4 for an 84-date season that runs through Sept. 25.  

The Grade 3, $300,000 Super Derby will be run on Sept. 7. The date is approximately a week later than last year, when it was held on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. This year, the Super Derby will move back to a Saturday. The later date is intended to better serve patrons at Louisiana Downs.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – When Maybry’s Boy won the Spectacular Bid Stakes at Gulfstream Park in the winter of 2002, his neophyte owner Randy Hill thought, “This game’s not that hard.”

Over the last 17 years, Hill, like most owners, has learned just how hard it can be to own horses. For all the difficult times, though, there is the anticipation for days like this coming Saturday that make it all worthwhile.

Saturday, Hill will be part-owner of three horses running in major Kentucky Derby preps and another in a high-class sprint stakes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The best race of the entire 2018-19 Gulfstream Park Championship meeting was arguably the battle for leading jockey honors which went down to the final yards of the final race of the 89-day session before Irad Ortiz Jr. nosed out two-time defending champion Luis Saez for the title.

ARCADIA, Calif. – An uneasy stew of anticipation of upcoming races mixed with a perilous immediate future at Santa Anita permeated the track on Monday morning, as top-class horses prepared for expected starts in two of the biggest races of the meet this Saturday, while camera crews from five local television stations did morning reports, all referencing the meet’s 23rd fatality, which occurred Sunday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – They’ll start Keeneland a day earlier than usual this year, because why wouldn’t you? While purists are harrumphing, track management is only too happy to turn an available Thursday into a celebration of spring, with a later post time and live music and other fan-friendly events on tap.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – An exacting encore will be difficult, if not nearly impossible. But Wesley Ward will give it his best shot.

“We’re ready to go,” Ward said early this week at Keeneland, where last year he swept the last 10 races for 2-year-olds at the spring meet. “Very ready, I think.”

Ward runners somehow were defeated in two 2-year-old races on opening day of the 2018 spring meet, but the trainer gave nobody else a turn the rest of the way by finishing with 10 winners from 16 starters in those 12 baby races. Even by his high standards, it was an incredible feat.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jaywalk finalized her preparation for her second start as a 3-year-old when she breezed a smooth half-mile here Sunday in 48.60 seconds. The defending divisional champion, she will face a rugged test Saturday when she lines up against the likes of Restless Rider and Feedback in a pivotal 82nd running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Ashland Stakes.