Wagering on U.S. races was up 2.6 percent in September of this year compared to the same month last year, while purses shot up 13.8 percent, according to figures released on Thursday by Equibase.
Corticosteroid use, pre-race inspections, and post-retirement programs are among the topics that are scheduled to be discussed at the fourth Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, to be held Oct. 16-17 at Keeneland.
The Kentucky racing circuit is facing the biggest potential change in decades by a well-received proposal from Churchill Downs to hold a 12-day race meet in September next year.
Heath Reed, a leading Quarter Horse trainer, has been suspended 21 years by the New Mexico Racing Commission because of four positives for the banned painkiller dermorphin and two positives for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.
A committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission tabled votes on the 2013 dates requests for three tracks on Monday after the tracks submitted schedules that included several overlaps, including a request by Churchill Downs to run on four weekends in September in conflict with Turfway Park.
Horsemen on the backstretch at New York Racing Association tracks wondered if many of the recommendations made by a government appointed task force would truly prevent horses from breaking down in the future.
The Louisiana Racing Commission conducted two days of hearings on Thursday and Friday to hear the appeals of seven trainers who had been suspended after horses they trained tested positive for the potent painkiller dermorphin.
The New York Racing Association and state regulators agreed to make substantial changes in veterinary and medication practices after the release Friday of a task force’s report that said some of the deaths of 21 horses during the Aqueduct inner-track meet last winter could have been prevented.
The 2013 Illinois racing calendar will mirror this year’s, but the Illinois Racing Board shifted several hundred thousand dollars worth of simulcast host commissions from Arlington to Hawthorne during its annual racing dates award meeting on Tuesday in Chicago.
Churchill Downs Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Kentucky Downs seeking a court order that would require the track’s majority ownership to buy out Churchill’s 10-percent stake in the track.
