New York racetrack and casino owner Jeff Gural on Tuesday signed a 30-year lease with the state of New Jersey to operate the Meadowlands, a harness track in East Rutherford, according to the office of Gov. Chris Christie.

Gural signed the lease the same day that Christie endorsed an agreement reached between the state’s Thoroughbred horsemen and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority providing for the operation of Monmouth Park next year. Both Monmouth and the Meadowlands are owned by the NJSEA.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said he doesn’t feel Boys At Tosconova is ready to return to prime time just yet, a thought process which makes Friday’s third-level optional $80,000 claiming feature at Gulfstream Park just what the doctor ordered to prepare the Grade 1 winner for prospective stakes opportunities here later this winter.

The first foal out of the richest Louisiana-bred racehorse ever, Happy Ticket, is set to make the second start of his career on Thursday. Three-year-old Mr. Ticket, a Stewart Madison homebred by Distorted Humor, did not show much finishing sixth on a sloppy track in his debut last March, but Andy Leggio, who also trained Happy Ticket, expects more this time around.

“He’s a better colt than he showed in his debut,” Leggio said. “He had a little injury and I had to give him some time off. His works have been good. I’m hoping he runs a big race.”

Kip Didericksen, the retired jockey who won the 1990 All American Futurity with Refrigerator, will be inducted into the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame next June, the New Mexico track announced. He will be part of a class that will also include Four Sixes Ranch, trainer Heath Taylor, and multiple Grade 1 winner DM  Shicago.

Didericksen was Quarter Horse racing’s national champion jockey in 1986, and from 1989-1992. The Four Sixes Ranch, founded by Captain Samuel

Royal Currier, who set a six-furlong track record when he upset the $250,000 Gallant Bob at 18-1 in his previous trip to Parx Racing, changed tactics to turn the tables on fellow 3-year-old sprinter Poseidon’s Warrior in Tuesday’s $75,000 Valley Forge Stakes.

A renovation of Lone Star Park’s simulcast pavilion costing more than $3 million has been completed. It was reopened on Dec. 5, with a formal launch set for Jan. 2, said Drew Shubeck, the track’s president. Renovations on the building, which sits adjacent to Lone Star, began in July. The project was the first undertaking of Global Gaming, the owner of Remington Park that took over Lone Star in May.

“The pavilion was 15 years old. It was crying for a remodel, and Global Gaming really stepped up and got it going,” Shubeck said. “The whole building has been renovated.

Back when he was riding nearly all Steve Asmussen’s horses in New Orleans, Shaun Bridgmohan was always a threat to have a huge day at Fair Grounds. Bridgmohan’s business model has changed since the Asmussen era, but the big days aren’t gone yet. Saturday, Bridgmohan booted home five winners on a 12-race card, winning two stakes while scoring victories for three different trainers.

Jockey Gilbert Ortiz fractured his T-3 vertebra and several ribs in a spill at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., last Friday night. He was injured when his mount, Toast to La La, fell in the stretch of an 870-yard overnight turf stakes for Quarter Horses.

Ortiz, 48, was taken to a local hospital immediately following the spill and was released on Monday, said his agent, Cynthia Menard. She said there was no paralysis. Menard said Ortiz was scheduled to see a specialist on Tuesday, near his home in San Antonio.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Maturity has toned down trainer Chris Block’s level of emotion when his horses race, but even now Block remains a fierce competitor. One could almost feel him seething – inwardly now, of course – when Choragus took a very tough beat Dec. 2 at Hawthorne.

A one-run closing sprinter, Choragus was stuck in last behind a glacial pace that day (the leader of the 6 1/2-furlong race passed the half-mile in more than 48 seconds) but still launched a strong stretch rally. She split horses at the eighth pole and seemed destined for victory, but would up losing by a nose.

Jockey Florent Geroux will be riding at Oaklawn Park for the first time when the Hot Springs, Ark., track opens Jan. 13, but he figures to make an immediate impact. Geroux has signed on to be first-call rider for Midwest Thoroughbreds, the nation’s leading stable in wins and earnings that also accounted for this year’s owner title at Oaklawn.