Mountaineer racetrack in West Virginia has canceled the track’s richest race, the $500,000 West Virginia Derby, citing “the health and welfare of all involved,” according to a letter the general manager sent to staff and the media.

The West Virginia Derby is typically Mountaineer’s most high-profile race, and it was scheduled this year for Aug. 1, along with the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes, a $200,000 race. The letter signed by general manager Jason Pugh stated that the Derby “as well as the entire race card” on Aug. 1 would be canceled.

Ete Indien has suffered “a little setback,” trainer Patrick Biancone informed Tuesday, and thus will not run Saturday in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth.

Biancone, in a text, did not detail the setback. Biancone said Ete Indien will now train straight into the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.

Ete Indien most recently was fourth in an allowance race on June 10 at Gulfstream Park that was won by his stablemate, Sole Volante. Ete Indien has not worked since June 28, when he worked six furlongs on the turf at Palm Meadows. That is his lone work since the June 10 allowance.

Saratoga Race Course will not allow jockeys to ride at the track if the jockey leaves during its upcoming summer meet to ride elsewhere, under a new protocol announced Tuesday in the midst of an unsettling recent spate of positive coronavirus tests in the U.S. riding community.

DEL MAR, Calif. – There’s a little less laughter in the world. Ken Church, the former jockey who used his knowledge of racing and his engaging personality to work in media relations in Southern California for three decades, died Monday in Reno, Nev., where he had retired more than 20 years ago.

Saratoga Racecourse will have a refurbished main track that is expected to drain better than the old one when the meet kicks off its 40-day run Thursday.

While the New York Racing Association was installing a new safety rail at Saratoga, much like those in place at Aqueduct and Belmont Park, it also undertook the massive project of replacing an old, worn-out drainage system on the main track.

Last summer, Jeremiah Englehart won nine races with 2-year-olds at Saratoga, equaling his three previous meets combined in that category. He’s hoping for similar success at the 2020 meet that begins Thursday.

Englehart has several high-priced purchases he hopes to debut at this meet, topped by After the Party (Into Mischief), a $750,000 yearling purchase at last September’s Keeneland auction.

“She’s supposed to be pretty nice,” Englehart said. “I haven’t really tested her out, this next week or two we’re going to ask her to do a little bit more.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Tap It to Win was back on the work tab Monday for the first time since his fifth-place effort in the Belmont Stakes 23 days ago, breezing an easy half-mile in 48.00 over the main track at Saratoga.

Jose Ortiz is heating up at just the right time.

After a slow first half of 2020 due to a wrist injury and the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortiz will head into Saratoga – where he has won three of the last four riding titles – on a roll. At Belmont Park, which ended its 25-day meet Sunday, Ortiz won 14 races from his last 40 mounts to finish with 32 victories, two shy of his brother Irad, who won the meet title.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though the 3-year-old Creed was impressive in two victories at the Belmont Park spring/summer meet, trainer Shug McGaughey does not plan to rush him into the big events such as the Travers or Kentucky Derby.

McGaughey said his summer target is more likely to be the Grade 2, $150,000 Jim Dandy, which has been scheduled for Sept. 5 at Saratoga.

“I want to give him a little separation from his last race,” McGaughey said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown’s long-term goal with Dunbar Road is the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. What path he chooses to get here there remains an open question.

Brown was impressed with Dunbar Road’s three-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park.

“Although it wasn’t the strongest field, I thought it was one of her best races the way she ran and really galloped under the wire with plenty in the tank,” Brown said. “This filly has continued to move forward.”