The state of Maryland is considering whether to exercise an option that would allow it to match an $85 million deal made by Churchill Downs Inc. to buy a package of intellectual property rights related to the Preakness Stakes, according to officials with knowledge of the process.

The option is contained in a state law passed in 2024 that allowed Maryland to take title to the home of the Preakness, Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, from 1/ST Racing and Gaming, according to the officials. The option would need to be exercised by mid-June.

Rick Baedeker, a former president of Hollywood Park and executive director of the California Horse Racing Board, announced his retirement from the sport at the racing board’s monthly meeting in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday.

Baedeker said that later this month he will leave his current position as executive director of the Southern California Off-Track Wagering Network, which coordinates simulcast locations through the region.

“It’s been 50 years,” Baedeker said of his career. “I’ve had a lot of different roles in that time.”

Horses racing at tracks under the jurisdiction of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority had a fatality rate of 0.95 per 1,000 starts in the first quarter of 2026, HISA said in a quarterly report issued on Tuesday.

The first-quarter racing fatality rate is a slight decline from the overall 2025 rate, which was 1.04 deaths per 1,000 starts. The fatality rate in the first quarter of 2025 was 0.85 deaths per 1,000 starts, while the overall 2024 rate was 0.90 deaths per 1,000 races, the lowest rate ever recorded at U.S. tracks.

Ercel Ellis Jr., a jack-of-all-trades in the racing industry who hosted a racing radio broadcast for five decades, died on May 7 in Lexington at a veterans’ affair facility, according to his family. Ellis was 94.

A Central Kentucky native whose father managed Dixiana Farm during his youth, Ellis hosted the race results show “Post Time” from 1959 to 2010 and developed a separate radio program, “Horse Tales,” chronicling the industry’s horses and personalities, that ran until early 2026. The programs were highly popular in Central Kentucky.

Regulatory veterinarians should take extra care in declaring horses fit to race and train when those horses have been placed on the vet’s list for unsoundness at any time in their careers, according to a health advisory issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Friday. 

The three-week Los Angeles county fair meet at Los Alamitos this summer will offer the same three stakes presented in recent years.

The season runs from June 19 to July 5 on a Friday-through-Sunday basis.

The richest race of the nine-day meeting is the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes, a $200,000 race for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on July 4.

The other two Saturday programs will include stakes – the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for California-breds at a mile on June 20, and the $100,000 Los Alamitos Derby at 1 1/8 miles on June 27.

Betting on Thoroughbred races at U.S. racetracks rebounded into positive territory in April after months of decline, but the average per race dipped marginally, according to statistics released by Equibase on Tuesday.

Total betting was up 2.23 percent compared to April of last year to $898.25 million. April of this year and last year both had eight weekend dates.

The number of U.S. races held in the month jumped 3 percent, so the average handle per race declined marginally, by 0.7 percent to $413,942.

The race-day administration of the diuretic Lasix will continue to be allowed for horses 3 years old and older running in non-graded stakes races following a much anticipated vote by the board of directors of the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority on April 24 that was announced on Tuesday morning.

All-sources handle at the Keeneland spring meet that concluded on Friday jumped 8.65 percent over wagering during the weather-challenged spring meet last year but declined slightly when compared to the spring meet of 2024, according to figures distributed by the track on Friday night.