The board of directors of New York Thoroughbred Breeders held its first meeting of 2021 Jan. 21 and re-elected Thomas J. Gallo, III as board president.

Reversing its vote from last month, the California Horse Racing Board extended the 2021 license granted to Los Alamitos Race Course for its Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred racing from six to 12 months.

Rachel Doran and Ciara Russell have been awarded a placement at Springhouse Farm near Lexington.

On the Meydan dirt, Military Law came from a pace-stalking trip, found a gaping opening at the top of the stretch and went on to win the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 Stakes (G2) by 1 1/4 lengths from Thegreatcollection.

The Kentucky Supreme Court has denied a request by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and state tracks for the court to reconsider its Sept. 24 opinion that determined that at least one brand of HHR operating in the state is not pari-mutuel.

Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale will be held Feb. 8-9.

Jessica Harrington has criticized the “seriously annoying” level of extra paperwork involved in sending runners to Britain from Ireland in the aftermath of Brexit.

After flashing speed and fading in longer races during the fall and early winter, Jay Em Ess Stable’s Take the One O One moves in another direction Jan. 23 when he sprints six furlongs in the $200,000 Palos Verdes Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park.

The BHA disciplinary panel fined trainer Aidan O’Brien for failing to ensure his employees were sufficiently informed and able to identify each horse, which meant the horses in question were incorrectly saddled and ridden by the wrong jockeys.

The BHA disciplinary panel fined trainer Aidan O’Brien for failing to ensure his employees were sufficiently informed and able to identify each horse, which meant the horses in question were incorrectly saddled and ridden by the wrong jockeys.

Knicks Go, winner of the 2020 Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) in track record time at Keeneland, earned the honor as the Top Midlantic-bred in polling conducted by Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred and The Racing Biz.

Oaklawn Park opens for its 57-day live racing season Jan. 22 after having its business and hotel development slowed by COVID-19-related setbacks.

Fighting Mad, one of the West Coast’s top older distaffers of 2020, has been retired from racing following a fifth-place finish in the La Canada Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Jan. 9. She will be bred this year to Curlin, according to co-owner Gary West.

Even with a pile of wins and recent grade 1 placing under his belt, lightly raced Performer still looks like a horse who could move forward when he makes his 5-year-old season debut Jan. 23 in the Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

His name might be just as surprising as the path he followed to grade 1 laurels as an older horse and elevated status as the favorite in a $3 million race. Such is life for a 5-year-old Thoroughbred named Knicks Go.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board says it remains committed to combatting the use of unauthorized drones at racecourses and will continue to work alongside the gardai following an incident at Punchestown on Jan. 18.

Phipps Stable homebred Vigilantes Way will try to make it two in a row over the Gulfstream Park turf course Jan. 23 when she faces nine other older fillies and mares at a mile in the $125,000 Marshua’s River Stakes (G3T).

Pioneer Ventures bred the filly out of the Bodemeister mare Hope So.

Pennsylvania-bred Bronx Beauty will return to Gulfstream Park Jan. 23 to do two things: redeem herself from last year’s off-the-board finish in the $200,000 Inside Information Stakes (G2) and to finally bring home her first graded victory.  

Florent Geroux’s current stint as a riding regular at Oaklawn Park figures to go better than his first. Much better.