Northville Downs has scrapped plans to conduct its inaugural Thoroughbred meet about two weeks before it was scheduled to begin, having voluntarily submitted its Thoroughbred and mixed-breed licenses to the Michigan Gaming Control Board last Friday.
Located in the western suburbs of Detroit, the previously harness-only track was approved by the gaming board to host 16 days of live flat racing in 2014 from Oct. 12 to Nov. 16.
CHICAGO – The Illinois Racing Board approved a 2015 racing schedule Tuesday during its annual dates-awards meeting that trims the number of race days in Chicago by 21 percent compared with this year.
Cuts are necessary to retain a racing structure similar to what currently exists. Illinois tracks have supplemented purses with a casino impact fee the last three years, but that money is gone, and barring legislative action, purses will be generated only from betting handle in 2015.
The Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association has asked Fair Grounds to reconsider the way it plans to pay out purses during the 2014-15 race meet.
The Louisiana HBPA said the meet-opening overnight purse levels were calculated forecasting a 15 percent handle decline compared with the 2013-14 meet. The HBPA takes issue with that forecast, contending that improvements to the turf course and increased attention to customer service should produce, at worst, flat betting compared with last year.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Average daily all-sources handle at the Arlington 2014 meet that ended Sunday declined more than 19 percent compared with the 2013 season, another blow to an increasingly battered Chicago racing circuit.
Total handle for the 89-day meet was $213,418,428, for a daily average of $2,397,960, down from 2013 meet totals of $264,813,352 gross and $2,975,431 average daily handle, a year-over-year drop of 19.4 percent.
Major professional sports leagues and the NCAA have again filed a request for injunction that would prohibit New Jersey racetracks and casinos from offering gambling on their games, arguing in a court filing Monday that the practice would be a “blatant violation” of a court order last year.
The president of the New England chapter of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association said that he will submit a preliminary application to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission indicating the organization’s intent to run a live meet at Suffolk Downs next year.
The deadline to submit applications for dates is Oct. 1.
The Monmouth Park meeting that concluded Sunday showed gains in attendance, ontrack handle, and all-sources handle, according to figures released by the track Monday.
Average attendance at the 57-day meet was 9,296, an increase of 3.4 percent over 2013, when 61 days of racing were held. Ontrack betting at the meet averaged $538,540 per day, 5.6 percent higher than the $510,106 wagered daily last year.
Average daily all-sources handle on the Monmouth races was $4.59 million, an increase of 3.5 percent over the 2013 average of $4.4 million.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Victor Espinoza was suspended seven days by Santa Anita stewards Sunday for causing interference aboard Sky Kingdom in Saturday’s Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes.
Espinoza was sanctioned for allowing Sky Kingdom to drift wide on the first turn, carrying the 1-5 favorite Shared Belief four wide. The incident was the subject of widespread discussion after the race, which was won by Shared Belief.
Trainer Bob Gorham continued his run of success in the Michigan Sire Stakes, winning four of the six divisions Saturday night at Hazel Park.
The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based trainer, consistently one of the state’s leaders, improved upon his three-win performance during last year’s card, taking the 2-year-old and 3-year-old male divisions, as well as sweeping the races for older horses. All six races carried an estimated purse of $50,000 for Michigan-sired runners.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Rajiv Maragh will be out indefinitely – most likely through the Breeders’ Cup – after breaking his right arm in a spill Saturday at Belmont Park.
Tony Micallef, the agent for Maragh, confirmed that Maragh has a broken right arm. As of 8 p.m., Maragh was at a Long Island hospital still awaiting X-rays to learn the extent of the break.