The top two finishers in the $100,000 Lake Erie Stakes at Fort Erie on Sept. 12, One Bay Hemingway and One More Brew, have been disqualified from purse money after it was determined that they carried the incorrect weight.

When the overnight for the Sept. 12 card came out, both horses were correctly listed at 120 pounds in the sprint for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds. The track program, however, had them both at 118 pounds, which is what they carried in the race, during which they dueled throughout with the favored One Bay Hemingway winning by a head.

Jockeys Hector Berrios and Adrian Escobedo will be suspended from full participation for Saturday’s program at Los Alamitos after being cited for excessive use of the whip in races at that track on Sept. 15.

Both riders were fined $250 for striking their mounts seven times, one more than the allowed limit.

Escobedo is not booked to ride Saturday. Berrios is scheduled to ride Yuki in the $125,000 Dark Mirage Stakes, which is designated as exempt from routine suspensions.

Senor Buscador, winner of the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in July, will have his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita, joining a growing list of leading runners for that race who are bypassing the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 30.

Trained by Todd Fincher for Joe Peacock, Senor Buscador finished fourth by 2 1/2 lengths in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Sept. 2 at Del Mar. The BC Classic is run at 1 1/4 miles.

“We’ll wait and give it our best shot,” Fincher said. 

Friday is comeback day at Los Alamitos for jockey Abel Cedillo, who has not ridden since he suffered a neck injury in a fall July 23 at Del Mar.

Cedillo has one mount on Friday and two on Saturday. He is riding the final weekend of the two-week Los Alamitos meeting through Sunday before the Santa Anita autumn meeting begins Sept. 29.

Cedillo received doctor’s clearance to resume riding earlier this month and began exercising horses on Sept. 14. He worked two horses that day and said he had no residual soreness from the neck injury.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The New York State Gaming Commission fined New York Racing Association racing official Rob MacLennan $2,000 for failing to tend to business in a professional manner, necessitating two claims to be voided, according to a ruling on the Gaming Commission website.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - All sources handle for opening week at the Belmont At the Big A meet was $35,780,104, down 6.4 percent from last year’s figure of $38,234,761 when Belmont’s fall meet was also conducted at Aqueduct.

There were 38 races run during opening week at this year’s meet compared to 40 last year. All 19 scheduled turf races were run on turf this year just as all 20 scheduled turf races remained on turf last year.

Average field size so far this meet has been 7.89 with 300 betting interests compared to 7.73 with 309 betting interests last year.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The first step in trainer Chad Brown’s plan to keep his top fillies and mares separated on potentially the road to the Breeders’ Cup worked to perfection when Search Results won last Saturday’s Grade 3 Locust Grove Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs.

Brown chose to run Search Results in the Locust Grove so he could run his 3-year-old filly Randomized, winner of the Grade 1 Alabama last month, in the Grade 2 Beldame versus older females at Aqueduct on Oct. 8.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Ways and Means came out of her runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes on Sept. 3 at Saratoga with an injury and will not race again this year, trainer Chad Brown said Wednesday.

Ways and Means appeared to clip heels with the ultimate winner Brightwork early down the backside in the Spinaway. Ways and Means was beaten a half-length by Brightwork while finishing 6 1/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Wonder Ride.

Brown said Ways and Means took a chip off her right ankle.

Prominent California trainers Carla Gaines and Peter Miller are in the midst of seven-day suspensions for medication violations found in their runners earlier this year, according to rulings recently published by the Horseracing and Welfare Integrity Unit.

Gaines and Miller had horses test positive for the tranquilizer acepromazine. They were each fined $1,000 and suspended one week. The suspensions end on Friday.

Gaines was cited for a positive found in a post-workout test taken on July 14 from Summer Lake, who has not raced since May 2022.

Santa Anita is adding an all-turf $3 pick three to its betting menu for the autumn meeting from Sept. 29 through Nov. 5, one of two significant changes for bettors for the six-week season.

The all-turf pick three will be offered on the final three grass races daily, weather permitting, and has a minimum bet far more expensive than the 50-cent pick three bets offered on a daily basis.