DEL MAR, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board on Thursday voted to reduce the licensing fees for owners and trainers who send horses from out of state or other countries for the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
The issue was approved after considerable debate.
Licenses typically cost $150 for owners and trainers, but a 120-day license costing $50 will be issued later this year that expires on Dec. 31.
Eddie Castro, an apprentice rider, rode five winners Friday at Calder, winning the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and ninth races. It was the second time in a week Castro had five winning mounts on a Calder card. . . . The World Series Racing Championships, without a sponsor since Emirates Airlines withdrew after the 2001 series, has entered into a partnership with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. The partnership begins with Saturday's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot and will also include selected events in the series.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A mutuel clerk for the New York Racing Association was fined by the State Racing and Wagering Board and was also suspended five days without pay or benefits by NYRA for betting, a violation of state law.
Murray Lazarus, a mutuel clerk at Belmont Park, was caught making wagers on June 29 at Belmont, according to Jim Gallagher, vice president of regulatory compliance for the NYRA.
The Nebraska State Racing Commission voted 3-0 Wednesday to reject the application for a proposed simulcast facility and racetrack in Hastings, Neb., about 25 miles from Fonner Park. The plan was opposed by Fonner and the Nebraska Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, which cited a potential loss of more than 12 percent in Fonner's mutuel handle and a loss of purse money. . . .Two senior executives with Magna Entertainment Corp. have resigned, the company announced Thursday.
Breeders' Cup officials announced Wednesday that Dollar Bill has been scratched from Period 1 of the Breeders' Cup Future Bet. Trainer Bobby Frankel said Tuesday that Dollar Bill would be out of training for a few months. Although Frankel did not disclose the type of injury that necessitated the layoff, he stated that the injury was not serious.
The attorney general of North Dakota and other state regulators are looking into whether Racing Services Inc., the offtrack betting operator in the state, deliberately underreported some of its recent handle figures to avoid paying taxes, state officials said Tuesday.
Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner and the 1987 Horse of the Year, died in Japan last year at age 19, according to an Associated Press report.
Yoskhikazu Watanabe, Ferdinand's former owner, told a Tokyo-based AP reporter that the horse was "disposed of during the last year." Watanabe did not provide further details about the death.
New York City Off-Track Betting Company reached an agreement in principle on Tuesday afternoon to take the Breeders' Cup future wager that is being offered this weekend. The company, which operates all the offtrack betting parlors in New York City, offered betting on only two of the four rounds of the Breeders' Cup future wager last year. . . . The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association has donated $35,000 to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation for an upcoming expansion of the foundation's facility at the Wallkill State Correctional Facility in Wallkill, N.Y.
The Breeders' Cup set the fields on Monday for its first of four this weekend, giving bettors the opportunity to make wagers on four races exactly three months before the events are scheduled to run.
Fields were set for future bets on the Classic, Distaff, Sprint, and Turf, scheduled for Oct. 25 at Santa Anita as part of the eight-race Breeders' Cup card. A Breeders' Cup-designated panel picked 23 individual horses and a field entry for each race.