Horses who win races without competing on Lasix during the upcoming meet at Oaklawn Park will receive a purse bonus, Charles Cella, president of the Hot Springs, Ark., track, announced Thursday. The program awards horses a 10 percent supplement to the winner’s share of the purse, with bonuses to range in value from $1,080 to as high as $60,000 for the richest race of the meet, the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby.
The New Jersey Racing Commission on Wednesday adopted a set of medication rules that has been endorsed by most major racing organizations, including a new penalty scheme applying to repeat offenders, according to the executive director of the commission.
Projected purse payments at the Fair Grounds 2014-15 Thoroughbred meeting will be reduced, at least temporarily, by about $2.7 million because of a lawsuit filed by a group of Quarter Horse owners, trainers, and jockeys, Fair Grounds announced Wednesday.
A stake was driven through the heart of the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry in New England on Tuesday, when the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted 3-1 to award the sole Boston-area casino license to Wynn Resorts instead of to Mohegan Sun and partner Suffolk Downs.
The Arkansas Racing Commission on Thursday approved a new set of medication rules that will bring the state into line with a handful of other states that have adopted the regulations in an ongoing effort to unify U.S. racing jurisdictions under one set of rules.
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association will attempt to bring together the opposing sides on the divisive issue of raceday medication and federal regulation of racing in an attempt to “forge a consensus” before any other federal bills are introduced, the NTRA’s president, Alex Waldrop, said during a briefing to racing constituents on Friday morning at Keeneland.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie issued a directive Monday allowing the state’s casinos and racetracks to offer sports betting effective immediately, an unusual move that is sure to be challenged by sports leagues that had won earlier court rulings finding that sports betting in the state would violate federal law.
DraftKings, one of a number of online fantasy sports sites that have emerged over the past several years, will sponsor the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint this year and launch fantasy contests centered on racing results, the company and Breeders’ Cup announced Monday.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission endorsed the recommendation of its Horse Racing Committee to divide monies in the Race Horse Development Fund at a rate of 75 percent to the Thoroughbred industry and 25 percent to the Standardbred horsemen and breeders at a public hearing on Sept. 4.
Betfair U.S., the division of the international bet-exchange company that includes Television Games Network, had net revenue of $23.3 million in the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year, up 14 percent compared to the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, according to financial statements released Thursday by Betfair.
