ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Total wagering declined but the per-card betting increased during the recently concluded 131-day Woodbine Thoroughbred meet.
The all-sources wagering of $405,559,284 was down 10.6 percent from last year’s total of $453,865,564, which had 25 more race days. The per-card betting of $3,095,872 was a 6.4 percent increase over last year’s average daily handle of $2,909,394. Wagering in the greater Toronto area rose by 0.94 percent in 2013 over 2012.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board on Wednesday denied a request by the Northville Downs harness track to conduct Thoroughbred and mixed-breed racing in 2014.
The northwest Detroit-area track amended its 2014 dates application in October to include Thoroughbred and mixed-breed licenses in addition to its harness license. In December, Northville reached an agreement with the Michigan Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association to convert to a full-time Thoroughbred track beginning in October 2014, pending state approval.
Ron the Greek, a three-time Grade 1 winner and earner of more than $2.7 million, has been sold to foreign interests and is expected to remain in training for at least the early part of 2014, with possible targets including the King’s Cup in Saudi Arabia in February and/or the Dubai World Cup in March.
High-end claiming horses on the Kentucky racing circuit would be eligible for additional purse money from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund under proposed legislation that will be filed next month when the Kentucky General Assembly goes into session.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Several major changes have been made to Canterbury Park stakes schedule for 2014.
The richest race of the meet, the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby for 3-year olds at a mile on turf, has been moved from mid-July to Sept. 13 to highlight a closing day card that will also feature the $75,000 Shakopee Juvenile Stakes.
When Hollywood Park closes its doors for good Sunday, it will become the inevitable financial casualty of two bets reaching back to 1999. Those wagers worked out well for the two companies that tied their money to the track – a perverse turn of events considering the gaping hole the track’s closing will leave on the national racing landscape and the track’s deep history.
It is somewhat ironic that Hollywood Park – a track with some of the richest and most fabled stakes races of the past 75 years – will stage its final day of racing with a feature that had its inaugural running just one year ago. The King Glorious Stakes is the closing-day highlight Sunday.
Hollywood Park opened its doors on June 10, 1938, after battling for nearly two years with powerful naysayers – headed by Santa Anita Park officials and the chairman of the California Horse Racing Board – who said the Los Angeles area could not support another racetrack.
ROSLYN, N.Y. - Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, injured in a spill at the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2, has been cleared to start physical therapy and hopes to begin exercising horses in the morning within the next month.
“Hopefully, by mid-January I can get on horses in the morning. That’s what I’m hoping,” Velazquez said Wednesday. “It all depends how [quickly] I get my strength back.”
Velazquez did not speculate on when he could start riding races again.
ROSLYN, N.Y. - A task force will recommend to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the state’s racing industry help subsidize health and disability benefits for jockeys - a contribution that could come close to $1 million - but it was unclear exactly how or by whom it will be funded.
