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.
Wagering on U.S. races, helped by two days of the Labor Day weekend, was down marginally in August, by 0.4 percent, according to figures released on Thursday by Equibase.
Jockeys at Santa Anita will be restricted to whipping a horse three times in succession before trying something else to urge the horse, a whip rule mirroring those of Europe and to be instituted at the beginning of the fall meeting starting Sept. 26, according to officials at Santa Anita and the Jockeys’ Guild.
A backlog of incomplete post-race drug tests at a widely respected laboratory in Lexington has sent regulators scrambling to get the work done while underlining the growing pains associated with the industry’s move to adopt stricter rules on therapeutic medications.
The Indiana Horse Racing Commission will consider an emergency regulation at a meeting next Thursday that would establish a threshold level for cobalt, the naturally occurring mineral that is allegedly being used by some horsemen under the belief that it could boost red-blood-cell production, according to a staff report posted on the commission’s website.
Frank Gabriel, hired in February to be the racing secretary at Belmont Park and Saratoga, is leaving the New York Racing Association and returning to Dubai.
A committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Wednesday tabled a proposal that would allow the state’s tracks to offer races that would only be open to horses that did not receive race day administrations of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide.
Belterra Park, the racetrack-casino that replaced River Downs in Cincinnati, will cut purses by 20 percent beginning Saturday due to lower-than-expected revenue from slot machines at the track, horsemen’s officials said Tuesday.
