Kentucky Derby draws its biggest TV audience since 1992
The overnight rating for the Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday was the highest since 1990 and a 20 percent jump over last year’s number, according to NBC.
Matt HegartyMay 05, 2019
The overnight rating for the Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday was the highest since 1990 and a 20 percent jump over last year’s number, according to NBC.
Total commingled handle on the Kentucky Derby and its supporting undercard Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville set records for the fourth year in a row, according to charts of the races, despite negative attention focused on racing in the months leading up to the sport’s most important race.
Handle on the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on Friday set a record at $19.3 million, despite the negative forces battering the industry over the past several months.
Two U.S. senators will introduce legislation next week that would appoint the United States Anti-Doping Agency as the overseer of racing’s medication and drug-testing policies, the senators announced on Friday, but the bill differs in some ways from legislation that has already been introduced in the House of Representatives.
Keeneland Association, the not-for-profit racing and sales company, has donated $1.3 million to an endowment that will fund an equine drug research and testing program at the University of Kentucky.
The New York Gaming Commission will undertake a survey of the state’s racing constituencies to gauge support for a partial ban on the raceday use of the drug furosemide in the wake of an announcement from major racetracks in support of the ban.
Keeneland and Churchill Downs, Kentucky’s two most prominent tracks, have each pledged $100,000 to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, to be distributed to research projects over the next three years, the two racetracks announced jointly on Friday.
Jockey Paco Lopez was suspended 60 days by the Gulfstream Park stewards earlier this month for a second case of extreme careless riding this season, and on Thursday track officials said that suspension has been reduced to 30 racing days on appeal.
Christopher McNamara, a former vice president of a Lexington marketing agency, has been named the senior vice president of corporate partnerships at Breeders’ Cup Ltd.
Dr. Dionne Benson, who has served as the executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium for the past seven years, has accepted a position as Chief Veterinary Officer for The Stronach Group, the privately held company whose Santa Anita Park has been beset with criticism because of a spate of equine fatalities this winter.