Rick Mocklin has been named the new announcer for Louisiana Downs, said Trent McIntosh, director of operations for the Bossier City track. The meet opens May 2. Mocklin takes over for Travis Stone, who last month was hired as the announcer for Monmouth Park.

Bourbon Courage will be part of what is anticipated to be a large, competitive field for Saturday night’s Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park near Dallas. The race is the first major stakes of the meet, and it had a working list of 10 or 11 possible starters as of Tuesday.

“That’s kind of where we sit now,” said Mike Shamburg, racing secretary at Lone Star.

Imperative, the upset winner of the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia on Saturday, will have the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 28 as his early-summer goal, trainer George Papaprodromou said Tuesday.

Imperative ($55) won the first stakes of his career in the Charles Town Classic over 1 1/8 miles, beating 3-5 favorite Game On Dude by 1 1/2 lengths.

“Hopefully, it will be that kind of year,” Papaprodromou said.

September Thoroughbred racing in Southern California is moving to Los Alamitos.

On Monday, officials with Los Alamitos and Barretts Sales and Racing at the Los Angeles County Fair reached an agreement to relocate the 11-day race meeting previously run at Fairplex Park on the Los Angeles County fairgrounds to Los Alamitos.

A pair of fundraisers at Turf Paradise to aid severely injured jockey Anne Von Rosen raised more than $63,000.

Von Rosen was pulling up her mount after a Quarter Horse race March 11 at the Phoenix track when the horse stumbled, tossed Von Rosen, and fell over her. Von Rosen was paralyzed from the waist down and has undergone several surgeries. She has returned to her native Germany to continue her recovery and physical therapy.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Saturday night at Churchill Downs will mark an important trial run – and not necessarily on the racetrack.

Yes, the opening-night Downs After Dark program will be highlighted by the long-misnomered Derby Trial, but it also will mark the debut of the much-heralded video board that now towers high above the Churchill backstretch.

Romantica, the runner-up to Dank in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf last fall in her only start in North America, heads a field of 12 fillies and mares entered in the Thursday feature at Keeneland, the Grade 3, $150,000 Bewitch Stakes.

Now trained by Bill Mott for owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms, Romantica will be getting first-time Lasix after a series of nine workouts at Payson Park this winter, capped by a final blowout at Keeneland. The 5-year-old mare breezed a half-mile in 46.40 seconds Saturday in final preparation for the 1 1/2-mile Bewitch.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – About an hour before Kid Cruz won the Tesio at Pimlico, trainer Linda Rice watched from Ocala as La Verdad rolled to a 3 3/4-length front-running victory in the Grade 2, $200,000 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct.

It was La Verdad’s seventh win from nine starts and her first in a graded race. She ran six furlongs in 1:09.10 and earned a 98 Beyer.

Rice said La Verdad likely will be pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont on May 17.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens – who celebrated his 85th birthday Monday – is coming back to New York and bringing his talented 3-year-old filly House Rules with him.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Inoel Beato broke his left collarbone when his mount, Market Blaster, unseated him while leaving the starting gate of the fourth race Friday at Aquedcut and will be out at least one month, according to agent Jorge Velasquez.

Beato won six races during Aqueduct’s inner-track meet and was 1 for 21 since the main track opened March 27.

Meanwhile, jockey Emmanuel Esquivel will be returning to Chicago this weekend to begin preparing for the Arlington Park meeting, which opens May 2. Esquivel was the leading rider at Arlington last year.