Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs has launched an interactive website for its in-house Thoroughbred retirement program, partly in hopes that it will become a central source of information about all Thoroughbred industry adoption and retirement programs.

The Breeders’ Cup has approved a rule change that will ban trainers from participating in its year-end event if they have served a penalty for a horse testing positive for a Class 2, Category A drug in the past 12 months, effective with this year’s event.

Handle and purses at U.S. racetracks soared in March compared to the same month last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by Equibase, continuing a string of unlikely monthly improvements for a sport that has suffered serious declines over the past three years.

Handle jumped 9.5 percent in the month compared to last March, from $899.3 million to $984.4 million, while purses were up 12.4 percent, from $78.3 million to $88 million. Race days were up 1.8 percent, from 387 to 394, so the gain in handle outpaced the addition of race days.

With an influx of $5.3 million from the state's casinos and horsemen, Laurel Park and Pimlico Racecourse in Maryland cut their losses in 2011, according to financial statements filed with the Maryland Racing Commission on Monday. The combined 2011 loss - $5.3 million - is a significant improvement from 2010, when the two tracks lost a combined total of $20 million.

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board passed a rule on Monday that will void a claim for any horse that is euthanized on the track. The rule, passed on an emergency basis, will go into effect immediately.

With the adoption of the rule, New York becomes the second state to pass a rule allowing for the voiding of a claim for a horse that is injured during a race and subsequently euthanized – as long as the horse is euthanized before being removed from the track. California passed an identical rule last year.

The Jockey Club on Friday morning released an updated version of rules it is seeking to have adopted by state racing commissions. The changes include stronger penalties for trainers whose horses repeatedly positive for medications violations, the Jockey Club said, and reiterates the Jockey Club’s opposition to the raceday use of furosemide.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A funeral reception will be held at Woodbine on Tuesday evening for Dr. Michael Colterjohn, who died at Orangeville’s Headwaters Health Care Centre at age 55 on Wednesday morning following a battle with brain cancer.

The reception will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Northern Dancer Room and follows a service for friends and family which will be held at the Egan Funeral Home chapel at 4 p.m.

Visitation at the Egan Funeral Home, located at 211 Queen Street South in Bolton, will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board plans to make its injury data for the past three years at New York racetracks available to the public through the launch of a searchable database next week, the board’s chairman, John Sabini, said at a meeting of the board on Wednesday.

A New Jersey state assembly committee plans to hold hearings later this year on whether the legislature should approve casino gambling at the Meadowlands, according to members of the committee.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Assemblyman Ruben Ramos, both Democrats, said that the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gambling Committee will host the public hearings “later this year,” but no dates were announced. Ramos is the chairman of the committee.

John Ward, the Kentucky Derby-winning trainer who was recently appointed executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, has asked the state to push back his official start date from April 1 to April 16, according to the agency that oversees the commission.