Kentucky Downs plans to conduct major renovations to its property over the off-season for the Franklin, Ky., track, with the goal of countering additional competition that is expected from a new casino nearly equidistant from the track’s major market, Nashville.
Delaware Park raced the same number of dates this year as in 2018 but ran fewer races. The result was a 7 percent decline in all-sources handle at the 81-day meet.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission unanimously approved the sale of Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., to Churchill Downs Inc. at a special commission meeting held on Tuesday, according to a KHRC official.
The seven states operating as a regulatory cooperative in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have agreed to adopt more stringent rules over the administration of therapeutic medications that can act as painkillers and anti-inflammatories.
Cowboy Swagger, with noted professional Fallon Taylor aboard, won the barrel racing discipline at the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover at the Kentucky Horse Park, and was subsequently voted America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred.
Magnum Moon, winner of the 2018 Arkansas Derby, was euthanized on Friday after battling laminitis for more than a year.
Wagering on U.S. races in the third quarter of this year declined 1.89 percent, a slightly higher rate of decline than a drop in the number of races, according to figures released on Friday by Equibase, at a time when racing officials are closely watching handle numbers for evidence of attrition against a backdrop of intense criticism of the sport from some quarters.
Golden Gate Fields reported a 12.8 percent increase in all-sources handle from last year for its recently completed summer meet, and that it was the the sixth straight meet at the track with a handle increase.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has scheduled a committee hearing for next Tuesday to discuss dates proposals from state racetracks, including a request by Churchill Downs to take the winter dates on the state racing circuit from Turfway Park.
Northern California trainer John Martin has been suspended six months and fined $20,000 after three of his runners tested positive for the banned medication ergoloid mesylates at the Big Fresno Fair in 2018 and at Golden Gate Fields in March.
