Race days in the United states declined nearly 10 percent in June this year compared with last year, according to figures released by Equibase on Tuesday, and handle on U.S. races during the month followed suit, declining 5.2 percent.

The 9.67 percent drop in race days is the largest month-to-month decline in recent history. Many U.S. racetracks have been slashing dates from their schedules in order to address declines in field size related to a precipitous decline in the foal crop and training methods that increasingly favor fewer starts.

The New York Racing Association announced Thursday that Hal Handel, chief operating officer, will resign his position and leave the company at the end of the Saratoga race meet in September.

“I have been managing racetracks continually for more than 25 years, and the time has come to do some different things,” Handel said in a statement. “This decision was made before the Kentucky Derby, and the timing was agreeable to NYRA.”

The racing association did not name a replacement.

Frank Stronach, who is set to take over the racing and gambling assets owned by MI Developments on Thursday, has sold approximately $850 million of stock in the auto-parts company he founded since December, according to regulatory filings.

Handle through two of the three leading national account-wagering platforms in the United States declined in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the first quarter of 2010, according to the platform operators and regulators in Oregon, where the platforms have betting hubs. The decline signals a contraction in the account-wagering market for perhaps the first time.

Corinne and Bill Heiligbrodt, among the nation’s leading owners with more than $21 million in purse earnings since 2005, will disperse their bloodstock and take a hiatus from Thoroughbred ownership “to devote more time to family and other business interests,” according to an announcement by Fasig-Tipton.

Craig Fravel, a longtime track executive with Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in La Jolla, Calif., has been named the president and chief executive officer of Breeders' Cup, the organization announced on Friday.

Fravel, 54, has been employed by Del Mar for his entire career in racing, starting at the track as its general counsel in 1990. He was elevated to track president and general manager last year.

The owners of Ohio’s seven racetracks will be allowed to apply for licenses to operate slot machines under a plan offered by Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Total all-sources wagering on the 13-race card at Belmont Park on Saturday was $81,245,326, a 9 percent increase over the all-sources figure for the Belmont Stakes day card last year, according to the New York Racing Association.

The handle figures were boosted by record handle for the pick six on a Belmont Day. The total pool for the pick six was $1,921,917, including a two-day carryover of $144,003. The previous record for a pick six on a Belmont Stakes day was set in 2008, when the total pool was $1,869,152.

Wagering on U.S. Thoroughbred races continued to decline in May as racetracks slashed race dates to cope with a shrinking supply of horses, according to figures released on Saturday by Equibase.

Wagering in May declined 7.8 percent, from $1.26 billion to $1.16 billion, according to the figures, while the number of race days held at U.S. tracks shrank 9.6 percent, from 563 last May to 509 this May. Meanwhile, the amount of purses distributed at U.S. tracks in May declined 4.4 percent, from $100.3 million to $96 million, reversing a trend in earlier months in which purses rose.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - The attorney representing Richard Dutrow Jr. in his fight with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board over his trainer’s license believes there is an impropriety over the way the state is going about penalizing him for his two most recent violations and asked the board not to consider revocation as a punishment.