Mother Nature, so kind to Saratoga the previous two summers, was far less so last weekend, resulting in at least a temporary halt to a potentially record-setting summer for the New York Racing Association.
Barbara Banke, owner of Stonestreet Stables, and Michael O’Farrell Jr., owner of Ocala Stud in Florida, have been elected to the board of stewards of The Jockey Club, the organization announced Wednesday.
The New York Racing Franchise Oversight Board on Tuesday approved a plan devised by the New York Racing Association outlining the company’s long-term plans for renovations at its Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York.
Chris Scherf, the longtime head of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations who led the organization through successes, failures, and sporadic turmoil, will retire in October after 27 years as executive vice president of the racetrack trade group, the TRA announced Friday night after a board meeting in Saratoga Springs.
Horse racing may not appear to have much, if anything, in common with mixed martial arts. Still, an official with the sport's most prominent league will attempt to lay out its common ground with racing on Sunday as a guest of The Jockey Club at its Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing in Saratoga Springs.
Racing lobbyists remain optimistic that the U.S. Treasury will revise how parimutuel winnings are treated for tax-reporting and withholding requirements, but they said the revisions remain a low priority for the agency because of larger issues within the complex U.S. tax code.
Wagering through Betfair's New Jersey-based exchange-wagering system that was launched early this summer has averaged approximately $150,000 a week in its first three months and appears to be declining on a weekly basis, according to figures provided this week by the New Jersey Racing Commission.
Racing’s two most prominent daily fantasy sites have shut off New York residents from winning cash in any of their contests, citing the recent approval of legislation in the state that contained language barring horse-racing fantasy contests despite explicitly authorizing the contests on nearly all other sports.
The organization that assigns grades to U.S. stakes races has decided that the time is right to begin reducing the number of graded races in the U.S., citing the sharp decline in the foal crop from 2007-12 and a comparable decline in the number of races held in recent years.
All-sources handle on racing at the New York Racing Association tracks was up 5.6 percent through the first six months of 2016 when compared with 2015. The catastrophic injury rate is down over that same time period. And the first third of the Saratoga meet is doing well.
