Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington will not allow spectators at its immensely popular spring meet from opening day on April 2 until at least April 11, the track announced Thursday, just following an announcement from Turfway Park that the track will be closed for spectators through the remainder of its meet.
Racetracks across the U.S. and around the world began rapidly mobilizing in reaction to the burgeoning coronavirus outbreak, with tracks in California, Florida, Maryland, New York, Ireland, and Dubai closing their doors to spectators for the foreseeable future.
The fatality rate for racehorses making starts at North American racetracks was 1.53 per 1,000 starts in 2019, according to statistics released on Thursday, the lowest rate since the launch of the Equine Injury Database in 2009.
The Association of Racing Commissioners International has canceled its conference in April due to the coronavirus outbreak, the organization announced on Wednesday.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday passed a bill that included an amendment requiring the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a private non-profit company known as USADA, to prepare a presentation about how it would implement an “anti-doping program” for horse racing, according to the sponsor of the amendment.
Horses based in the Belmont Park barns of Jason Servis and Mike Tannuzzo were transferred to other trainers on Tuesday and Wednesday, but when those horses will be permitted to run again is uncertain.
Horses at Gulfstream Park trained by Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, who were arrested Monday on federal indictments alleging they participated in a scheme to administer illegal medications to their horses, are in the process of being sent to other stables or to farms, Mike Lakow, Gulfstream Park's vice president of racing, said Wednesday.
The New York Gaming Commission on Tuesday afternoon became the first racing regulatory body in the United States to issue summary suspensions to the racing individuals named in indictments unsealed Monday, a decision that will likely trigger suspensions in other jurisdictions.
Owner Michael Dubb said Tuesday he plans on moving the approximate 25 horses he had with trainer Jason Servis to a host of other trainers, but it remains unclear when those horses - or any horse formerly trained by Servis - will be permitted to run in New York.
Twenty-four hours after being arrested in a horse-racing doping scandal, trainer Michael Tannuzzo was at Belmont Park Tuesday morning. It will likely be the last morning he is allowed on the grounds for a while.
