In 1988, many of New York’s most prominent jockeys staged a strike to protest the pay scale at the tracks run by the New York Racing Association. Two weeks later, they were back riding after a court ruled in favor of their right to act collectively and NYRA agreed to an out-of-court settlement to raise the pay scale for riders for second- and third-place finishes. Despite dozens of riders having crossed the picket line, it was widely considered a big victory for jockeys and their representative organization, the Jockeys’ Guild.

As Cigar turned into the stretch of the sixth race at Aqueduct on Oct. 28, 1994, with a five-length lead, track announcer Tom Durkin, high in his perch atop the grandstand, trained his binoculars on the heretofore unknown and modestly accomplished horse widening his lead with every stride. Just behind Durkin, on his desk in the announcer’s booth, the cursor on his Apple Macintosh laptop flickered at the end of a catchphrase he had composed earlier that day just in case what was transpiring before him should come to pass.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Billy Fox Jr. sits in the covered atrium of the original J. Gumbo’s restaurant he founded in the historic Frankfort Avenue district of Louisville in 2005. He smiles when asked for his recollections of a quarter-century ago, when he crossed a picket line to ride, as he calls them, “big, strapping racehorses.”

Mount Pleasant Meadows was approved to conduct a 43-day meet in 2014, from May 3 to Sept. 28, per an executive order issued by the Michigan Gaming Control Board on Oct. 31.

The central Michigan track hosted the same number of live dates during its 2013 meet.

Mount Pleasant will host live racing on Saturdays and Sundays, with the exception of July 26-27 when the property will be used for the Isabella County Fair, from which the track’s management leases the facilities. Additionally, the track will host live racing on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1.

Richard Hannon, five times a champion trainer in England, will retire as of Jan. 1, handing off his massive operation to his son, Richard Jr.

[bc_video_id:310621:]Can she go the distance?

That’s the big question facing Miss Behaviour coming into the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess on Saturday. She answered it once already this week by making a successful 20-hour trip to Vinton, La., from her base at the Bowie Training Center in Maryland.

Keeneland held its inaugural Sporting Art Auction Wednesday at its sales pavilion in Lexington, Ky., and officials said that they were satisfied with the $3.11 million in proceeds despite the fact that several seven-figure items went unsold.

Dennis Moore has joined Santa Anita as track superintendent, a position he also holds at Betfair Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos.
Moore, 63, joined Santa Anita, effective immediately, the track announced on Wednesday evening.

The announcement will give Moore a vital role in the maintenance of the two racetracks that will hold the bulk of racing dates at Los Angeles tracks in 2014 – Santa Anita and Los Alamitos. Hollywood Park is closing permanently after the current meeting ends on Dec. 22.

A Kentucky state legislator has pre-filed two bills for the 2014 session that could potentially lead to the authorization of casino gambling in the state.

One bill would authorize a referendum asking voters whether they approve of adding language to the state constitution that would allow the legislature to enact laws permitting casinos. The second would authorize casinos at five Kentucky racetracks and at three other locations in the state, according to copies of the bills available on the state legislature’s website.

Wise Dan, the 2012 Horse of the Year and the heavy favorite for a repeat this year, will be paraded in the paddock next Saturday, Nov. 30, during the closing-day program of the fall meet at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

The public appearance is tentatively scheduled between the third and fourth races, or at about 1:30 p.m. Eastern.