Gabby Gaudet received an early college graduation present Wednesday when the Maryland Jockey Club announced she has been chosen as the new racing analyst at Pimlico and Laurel Park.

Gaudet, 22, a daughter of longtime Maryland trainers Linda and Eddie Gaudet, was hired after she did an on-air audition at Laurel on March 23. She will replace Frank Carulli, who is leaving after 10 years to move to Las Vegas.

Racing fans will get to know Gaudet during Pimlico’s meet, when she will co-host the in-house broadcast with Carulli on Saturdays and Sundays.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - These should be giddy times for David Wilkenfeld, owner of the undefeated Vyjack, who enters Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct as the second choice on the morning line to fellow undefeated 3-year-old Verrazano.

2013 Racing Dates

January 7 - May 4 ~ November 2 - December 17

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Sam Houston in Houston, which closed out its 33-date Thoroughbred meet March 18, handled an average of $1,330,820 a day on its live races from all sources, down 4 percent from its 2012 average of approximately $1.38 million a day.

Of Houston’s handle this year, an average of $1,207,396 a day was bet on the track’s races offsite – down 5 percent from the 31-date meet in 2012 – and $123,424 was bet ontrack – up 3 percent from last season. Attendance was up 10 percent, the track reported, while average daily purses at the meet rose 5 percent to $170,000 a day.

Delta Downs in Vinton, La., experienced a more than 13 percent increase in average daily handle during its 87-date Thoroughbred meet that ended March 23, the track announced Tuesday.

Delta handled an average of $1,629,138 a day on its live races from all sources, compared to $1,431,407 during the corresponding meet a year ago. Of the handle amount, an average of $1,599,553 a day was bet on the track’s races offsite, up 14 percent from last season. Ontrack, an average $29,584 a day was bet on live races, up 3 percent from last meet.

The owner of a horse at the center of a perplexing incident in January at Tampa Bay Downs, which resulted in the track’s banning of a veterinarian, said she was told by her trainer that the horse had mistakenly been treated with an antibiotic on race day that was intended for a different horse.

Ricardo Santana Jr., the leading rider at Oaklawn, and Luis Quinonez, the 2007 title winner in Hot Springs who also won five championships at Canterbury, will be based at Churchill Downs for the first time in their careers following the end of the Oaklawn meet April 13.

Santana, 19, had won 52 races at Oaklawn through Wednesday. Last year, he took the title at Delaware Park. The next stop will be the Churchill meet that opens April 27, said his agent, Ruben Munoz.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The team behind 2011 Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch will be moving one of its more promising 3-year-olds back to two turns Thursday in the eighth race at Oaklawn Park. Dipsy Drew will be making his second start of the year in the $65,000 optional claimer, to be run over 1 1/16 miles.

He is part of a field of 10 3-year-olds that includes Perfect Title, an impressive maiden special weight winner at Fair Grounds invading for trainer Dallas Stewart, and Chuck, who took a division of the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes last fall at Remington Park.

Kevin Scatuorchio was still a teenager in May of 2000 when he watched his father’s horse, More Than Ready, slip through an opening along the rail as the field for the 126th Kentucky Derby turned into the stretch at Churchill Downs.

After what he remembers being “a really hot day, a really long day,” Scatuorchio, his father, Jim, family and friends “had something to cheer about” as More Than Ready battled with Wheelaway for the lead in upper stretch.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Jockey Aaron Gryder has agreed to be first-call rider for owner Glen Todd at the Hastings meet that begins Saturday, April 13.

Gryder is currently based at Santa Anita. He began his career in 1987 and since then his mounts have earned more than $112 million. His biggest win came aboard Well Armed in the $6 million Dubai World Cup 2009.