A bill passed this year by the New York state legislature will allow qualifying jockeys to have their health insurance paid for from a portion of video-lottery-terminal revenue previously earmarked for purses.

Due in part to wet weather, Belmont Park’s fall meet suffered near-double-digit declines in total and ontrack handle compared with a year ago.

All-sources handle for the 38-day meet was $294,710,551, a 9.8 percent decrease from last year’s total of $326,878,686 for 37 cards. Ontrack handle for this year’s meet was $42,697,719, a 9.6 percent decline from last year’s figure of $47,238,016.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Upstart, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is back in New York, but only briefly.

Trainer Rick Violette said Upstart won’t run in the Grade 2, $400,000 Remsen Stakes and instead will soon ship to south Florida to begin preparing for a 3-year-old campaign.

With Upstart, Violette hopes to get a New York-bred to the Kentucky Derby for a second straight year. This year, he finished fifth with Samraat, the winner of the Withers and Gotham stakes.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last year, Kiaran McLaughlin captured one of the four graded stakes run at Aqueduct on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. He came within a nose and a neck of winning two more.

That was with three horses. This year, McLaughlin is planning a full-out assault on the four graded stakes held on the final Saturday of November at Aqueduct.

Beholder, the two-time champion who missed this year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff after becoming ill, has recovered and now will be turned out before coming back to race next year, trainer Richard Mandella said Thursday at Del Mar.

“Her blood is good. X-rays of her lungs are good. Now, it’s just a matter of how much time to give her – one month, two months,” Mandella said. “She was sick. She was trying to get pneumonia.”

DEL MAR, Calif. – Art Sherman was at Del Mar on Thursday morning, setting up the few stalls he’ll use to run out of during the fall meeting here. Like most trainers for this season, he’ll keep his main string in place at its usual residence and ship in to run.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Javier Castellano, the leading rider in the nation in terms of purse money won, on Saturday will begin serving a seven-day suspension for careless riding stemming from an incident last year.

Castellano dropped his appeal of a suspension handed him by the New York stewards for his ride aboard Intense Holiday in last year’s Grade 2 Nashua Stakes. Castellano maneuvered Intense Holiday over to the inside and forced the rider on Tiznowforamerica to check and nearly go into the rail.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Travis Stone, the race-caller at Monmouth Park, has been hired by the New York Racing Association to be the backup announcer to John Imbriale.

Stone will call the races this Sunday and Monday as well as Nov. 16 and Nov. 19-23. He also will call on days when Imbriale is ill or on vacation.

When not calling, Stone will work in various departments at NYRA, including operations, simulcasting, and television. Stone will remain the announcer at Monmouth Park.

Stone’s hiring coincides with the 35th anniversary of Imbriale’s first day at NYRA.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Mike Luzzi, who suffered a broken leg and pelvis in a paddock accident Sunday, was to be transferred Wednesday afternoon to North Shore University Hospital after undergoing surgery earlier in the week at Jamaica Hospital in New York.

On Monday, Luzzi had a rod and screws inserted into his leg and had his pelvis “pinned together,” according to his wife, Tania.

“I’d say he’s a critical patient but a stable one,” Tania Luzzi said Wednesday. “It was a very serious injury.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Christophe Clement trains three of the 14 horses entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct, the last graded turf stakes for fillies and mares to be run this year on this circuit. Only 12 will be permitted to run in the 1 1/2-mile race.

Clement entered Aigue Marine, sixth as the 8-5 favorite in last year’s Long Island, Maximova, and Tabreed.