NEW YORK - On April 30, 2002, Catskill Off-Track Betting Corp., a public-benefit company that operates 25 facilities in nine counties in New York, began to offer touch-tone betting to its customers. The feature allowed anyone with a wagering account at Catskill to place bets using a telephone keypad and without talking to a live operator.

The eligibility of jockeys for inclusion in the Hall of Fame, and the percentage of votes needed for anyone to qualify for the Hall, both were made more stringent in rule modifications announced Friday by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Jockeys will now become eligible 20 years after they begin riding. They had been eligible after only 15 years. This rule change will not go into effect until 2006. Had this rule change been on the books this year, for instance, Hall of Fame inductee Kent Desormeaux would not yet have been eligible.

The New York legislature left the state capital on Thursday after passing a long-stalled budget but without addressing several racing bills.

One of the bills would have consolidated all of the regulatory functions of New York's increasingly varied gambling industry under one commission, a plan that would have eliminated the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, at least in name. The bill was passed by the Republican-controlled Senate earlier this year but did not find support in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

Tampa Bay Downs was locked down and closed for simulcasting on Friday because of Hurricane Charley. The racetrack is located in a mandatory evacuation area. . . . Services were scheduled for Saturday at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Omaha, Neb., for jockey Christopher Quinn, who died Tuesday at age 42, the result of head injuries sustained in a spill at Fairmount Park on July 19, 2003.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A task force that has studied the impact of offtrack betting will recommend on Sunday at the Round Table conference in Saratoga Springs that racetracks use revenue figures rather than handle figures when making business decisions, according to officials involved in the task force.

Citing the results of a study, the task force will contend that some tracks are better off limiting the distribution of their simulcast signal.

Lone Star exec defends track as Cup host

Alan Shuback failed to portray accurately Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie - home of the 2004 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships - in his Aug. 8 column, "Foreign interests dubious of BC at Lone Star." While retirements, injury setbacks, and supplementary fee issues surrounding this year's Breeders' Cup are beyond our control, defending our racetrack is not. Here is what you will find at Lone Star on Oct. 30:

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher has appointed John Nicholson, the executive director of the Kentucky Horse Park, to be the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority's interim executive director until a permanent replacement can be found, Fletcher's office announced Thursday.

Nicholson, the brother of Keeneland Association president Nick Nicholson, has been executive director of the Horse Park since 1997. The Horse Park office and the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority offices are on the same property outside of Lexington.

The stud fee of Talk is Money, a graded-placed stakes-winning 6-year-old Deputy Minister horse out of Isle Go West (Gone West), has been raised from $5,000 to $10,000 in 2005, Millennium Farms in Lexington, Ky., announced. Talk is Money's four weanlings to sell publicly in 2003 averaged $66,500, and his four yearlings to sell publicly this year have averaged $42,875. . . .

The Aug. 28 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course will be broadcast live during a two-hour telecast on ESPN from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced Wednesday. The broadcast will also feature live coverage of the King's Bishop Stakes and the Fourstardave Handicap. . . . New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey signed a bill on Sunday that will allow the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to lease its two tracks, Monmouth Park and The Meadowlands, to a private company.

Jockey Francisco Torres, who has not ridden in North America since being banned by Churchill Downs in November 2000 for refusing to take a urine test, has been named to ride five horses at Louisiana Downs on Thursday. Torres, 35, was named on one horse Saturday at Louisiana Downs but did not ride. . . . The condition book for the 19-date Breeders' Cup meet at Lone Star Park has been released. The meet will run from Oct. 1 to 31, with the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships scheduled for Oct. 30.