The New York Racing Association will offer two twilight Friday racing cards at Saratoga Race Course during the Spa’s 36-day, 2007 season that begins on Wednesday, July 25. Last year, in an effort to add more excitement to closing weekend at Saratoga, NYRA moved the Woodward from Belmont Park to Saratoga for the final weekend.

Champion juvenile male Street Sense added to his accolades on Thursday when he received highweight honors on the 2006 Experimental Free Handicap released by the Jockey Club. Street Sense scored a ten-length victory in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) on November 4 at Churchill Downs. With no other juvenile male scoring more than one Grade 1 victory in 2006, that effort helped the Street Cry (Ire) colt secure a high weight assignment of 127 pounds.

The usually reserved Simon Crisford, racing manager for the Maktoum family’s Godolphin stable, did not even try to contain his enthusiasm as he watched Discreet Cat gallop easily across the Al Quoz training track in Dubai  Thursday morning. 

Kentucky Derby 132 Review, a book commemorating Barbaro’s win in the 2006 .Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), is now available. Licensed by Churchill Downs and Barbaro’s owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, the 80-page coffee table book is the first in a series and is limited to 5,000 copies available online at www.Secretariat.com.

An alert regarding a case of equine herpesvirus-1 put out by the Dutchess County, N.Y., Cornell Cooperative Extension Jan. 23 is being clarified. While a release stated EHV-1 had been diagnosed, Jessica Chittenden, director of public information for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, said the horse has never shown clinical signs of neurologic herpesvirus and has not been confirmed positive for EHV-1. 

Taking a get-tough stance, the California Horse Racing Board moved forward with its sweeping overhaul of the state’s equine drug policies including the first ban of so-called “designer” anabolic steroids.

At its monthly meeting Jan. 23, the board voted 7-0 to open a 45-day public review of the changes, which include tougher and consistent penalties for more than 800 classified drugs.