Churchill Downs Inc. has purchased an additional 5 percent stake in Kentucky Downs, a small track in Franklin near the border with Tennessee, bringing the company’s minority share in the track to 10 percent.

The acquisition by Churchill comes in advance of the likely introduction of state legislation next week that would place a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to approve casino-type gambling, most likely at the state’s racetracks. The legislation is supported by Gov. Steve Beshear and other Democrats.

A group of industry organizations has launched a non-profit company that will serve as an accrediting body for so-called “aftercare organizations” that provide homes for horses that have been retired from racing, the organizations announced Thursday.

A budget prepared by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed that the state use $72 million in casino subsidies to the racing industry in each of the next three years to pay for agriculture projects.

The proposal would reduce the amount of money that annually goes to the racing industry by about 25 percent. In the last complete fiscal year, horsemen and breeders in Pennsylvania received $275 million in purse subsides and breeding awards, according to records maintained by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Organizations representing New York’s Thoroughbred horsemen and breeders have joined with harness and agriculture associations to lobby for their interests in an increasingly pro-gambling environment in the state, according to the organizations.

The consortium is being called the New York Horse Racing and Agriculture Industry Alliance. The group’s mission will be “to secure support for/protection of these critically important industries in any amendment to New York’s constitution to allow for full-scale commercial casinos.”

Wagering on U.S. races during the month of January declined only slightly compared to wagering during January of last year, according to figures released by Equibase on Saturday.

The decline, 1.1 percent, compared favorably to a larger 4.55 percent decline in race days during the month, meaning that handle per race day rose compared to the same metric last year. According to Equibase, total handle on U.S. races this January was $818.7 million, or an average of $2.60 million per day, compared to $827.8 million in January of last year, or average of $2.51 million.

Penn National Gaming Inc. had net income of $499.6 million in 2011, according to financial documents released on Tuesday, a sharp improvement over net income of $153.2 million in 2010, when the company took a $193 million impairment charge on the value of two of its Illinois casinos.

Voters in a northern county of Florida on Tuesday passed a measure that will allow a barrel-racing facility to operate slot machines.

The facility, Gretna Racing, is approximately 25 miles west of Tallahassee, near the border with Georgia, a state in which casino gambling is illegal. Gretna recently held the first-ever parimutuel barrel-racing meet in Florida, under a permit issued late last year by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Racing.

Trainer Tom Amoss was fined $2,500 by Kentucky stewards in January after a horse he trains tested positive for a prohibited amount of the muscle relaxant methocarbamol, the trainer’s third positive in about a year.

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board approved a rule on Wednesday requiring raceday testing of jockeys for alcohol impairment, joining a number of other states with similar rules.

The rule will require riders to take breathalyzer tests prior to race cards. Any jockey whose breathalyzer reading meets or exceeds 0.05 will be considered impaired, prohibited from riding that day, and subjected to fines or suspensions.

It may soon be possible to buy into a 20-horse racing stable for the price of a pizza.

That’s the plan envisioned by Frank Stronach, the owner and breeder who last year took possession of a half-dozen racetracks previously owned by a publicly traded company he controlled. In registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed late in December, Stronach outlined a plan to offer shares in six racehorse-ownership companies for $10 each, lowering the barrier to a level never before seen in the U.S.