Provided the status quo holds and there are no further cases of equine herpesvirus at Fair Grounds in coming days, the track will begin accepting shippers again next week. Off-track horses are entered to race on the Friday, Jan. 27 card.
The Spendthrift Juvenile Stallion Stakes at Churchill Downs will be split into two divisions for the 2017 renewal, with the addition of a race for fillies.
Jessies First Down, a winner of five stakes at five tracks in three states, was named the 2016 World Champion Quarter Horse in a ceremony at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening.
Delaware Park will hold an 81-day season in 2017 – the same number of days as last year – but has moved its opening day back two weeks on the calendar. Instead of opening on Preakness Day, as the track did last year, Delaware will open Saturday, June 3. The season will continue deeper into the fall and conclude Oct. 21.
The New York Racing Association would be able to appoint the majority of its board members under a proposal submitted to the legislature late Tuesday night by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The purse of the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland here has been raised to $200,000 from $150,000 due to a sponsorship agreement between the track and Stonestreet.
Representatives of the New York racing industry and the community of Saratoga Springs urged a committee of lawmakers on Tuesday to return control of the New York Racing Association to a private board.
An attorney for Mario Serey Jr. on Tuesday argued at a hearing in front of the stewards at Penn National Racecourse that a recent spate of positives in the trainer’s barn for the regulated medication clenbuterol was the result of sabotage.
A handful of horses at a second facility in Oldham County, Ky., have tested positive for the wild-type strain of equine herpesvirus (EHV-1), but none of the horses are showing symptoms of the disease.
There were no new cases of the equine herpesvirus reported over the weekend at Fair Grounds, but the track and Louisiana state officials still were grappling with the logistics of managing the viral outbreak here.
