ELMONT, N.Y. – Shirley Day Smith, who spent more than 60 years as an administrative assistant in the press office at the New York Racing Association and its predecessors, died Thursday after a brief illness. She was 99.

Smith began working in racing before women were allowed to work at the track, and worked out of offices in Manhattan, according to a friend, the freelance writer Paula Rodenas.

CYPRESS, Calif. –Lovely Finish was being walked back to the Los Alamitos stables late Thursday afternoon when trainer Joe Herrick began to plot her next race.

Minutes earlier, Lovely Finish had run third in a maiden special weight sprint for California-breds, her first start since November – and first since Lovely Finish sustained burns in the devastating fire that struck the San Luis Rey Downs training center in December. Lovely Finish was burned on her head, neck, and back, and the 56-year-old Herrick was hospitalized with burns on his head and neck.

ELMONT, N.Y. – One week after working a fast five furlongs in 58.90 seconds, Diversify came back with a nearly identical five-furlong drill in 58.80 seconds Friday morning over the main track at Belmont Park as he aims for a repeat victory in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

With jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons for the second straight week, Diversify went in splits of 11.62, 23.03, and 34.31 before coming home in 24.49. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.20 and seven-eighths in 1:26.30.

The saga involving The Player continues in remarkable fashion.

After being gravely injured in the New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds on March 24, the 5-year-old horse was shipped Friday to the Indian Ridge Farm of owner-trainer Buff Bradley in Frankfort, Ky., following lengthy rehabilitation of his right foreleg at the Louisiana State University veterinary clinic.

Bradley and longtime partner Carl Hurst spared no expense in extending the life of The Player, a multiple graded winner of $452,485 from 14 starts.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Thunder Snow, the Dubai World Cup winner, arrived at Belmont Park at around 3 a.m. Friday to prepare for a two-race fall campaign in the U.S. that will include next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Thunder Snow arrived following a flight that began in Cambridge, England, and included a four-hour layover in Liege, Belgium, according to Tom Burns, the head traveling lad for trainer Saeed bin Suroor.

“He’s a really good traveler; he takes it all in stride,” Burns said.

Back-to-back allowances with oversubscribed fields anchor a 10-race Sunday card that concludes a four-day race week at Churchill.

Race 8 is a $60,000, second-level turf route in which Lilt and Tocame Linda figure as the fillies to beat. Eleven are entered, but only as many as nine can start in the 1 1/8-mile race.

Race 9 is a $58,000, first-level allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs, with Rubus and Most Amusing likely to draw serious attention among a full lineup of 3- and 4-year-olds.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mind Your Biscuits completed his serious preparation for his next start in the Lukas Classic by breezing five furlongs in 1:02 before dawn Friday over a fast Churchill Downs strip.

Tyler Gaffalione, who will ride Mind Your Biscuits when the Grade 3, $200,000 Lukas Classic is run Saturday night under the Churchill lights, was in from Florida to work the 5-year-old horse.

“Everything went as planned,” trainer Chad Summers said. “He broke off a little slow, but I got him from the three-eighths to the wire in :36. He’s sitting on a big race.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – King Kreesa will be reunited with familiar New York-bred turf-stakes rival Lubash at Old Friends, a retirement facility in Kentucky.

King Kreesa, a winner of 11 of 43 starts, including 10 stakes, has been retired from racing at age 9 and will be sent to Old Friends in the coming days, trainer David Donk said Thursday.

Donk said that Michael Blowen, who heads Old Friends, came to him a while back and said that when Donk and owners Gerald and Susan Kresa were ready to retire King Kreesa, Old Friends would like to have him.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Lady Joan suffered a tough neck defeat to La Moneda in the Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga last month.

With La Moneda skipping Sunday’s $125,000 John Hettinger Stakes to await a race next month, Lady Joan could be the horse to beat in the Hettinger for New York-bred females going 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Lady Joan ran three times at Saratoga, losing twice to La Moneda and winning a second-level allowance race at 1 3/8 miles.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The 9-year-old Kharafa, who upset last month’s West Point Stakes at 17-1 odds, will seek a fourth victory in Sunday’s $125,000 Ashley T. Cole Stakes for New York-breds at Belmont Park.

Kharafa will be making his 51st start on Sunday, and this will be the sixth straight year he has run in the Ashley T. Cole, run at 1 1/8 miles over Belmont’s inner turf course. Kharafa, a gelding by Kitalpha trained by Tim Hills, won this race in 2013, 2015, and 2016. He finished third in 2014 and last year.