OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Administration of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide, known by the trade name Lasix, will be prohibited within 48 hours of all stakes races conducted at New York Racing Association tracks in 2021, NYRA announced Wednesday.
This year, all 2-year-old races at NYRA tracks – Aqueduct, Belmont, Saratoga – were run without Lasix.
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday night urged the state legislature to pass bills in 2021 legalizing sports betting and sanctioning gambling devices in use at state racetracks known as historical horse racing machines.
You would think, on the surface of things, that a horse coming off a win in the Breeders’ Cup Mile would have an edge over a Hong Kong-based horse who never has even raced in a Group 1 or Grade 1. But there is something about the rhythms and dynamics of Hong Kong races that lends considerable advantage to horses based on the circuit, and Golden Sixty, the big local hope for the Group 1, $3.23 million Hong Kong Mile on Sunday at Sha Tin, is no ordinary local hope.
Pennsylvania’s racetracks will be allowed to continue holding live race cards despite an order issued Thursday night by Gov. Tom Wolf for many businesses to sharply curtail their activities to mitigate a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the state, according to a top state racing official.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved new rules further restricting the use of clenbuterol, the bronchial dilator that has been at the center of numerous allegations of abuse for more than a decade.
Najja Thompson, a marketing and communications employee of the New York Racing Association for the past nine years, has been hired to head up the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., the non-profit organization announced on Tuesday.
Thompson, whose most recent position with NYRA involved recruiting new employees, will fill a post recently vacated by Jeffrey Cannizzo, the executive director of NYTB for 13 years prior to his resignation in October to take a position with NYRA as its senior director of government affairs.
Joe Appelbaum, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, has been re-elected to a second term, the association announced on Tuesday, along with the election results for its board of directors.
Appelbaum was first elected in late 2017, taking the post held by the longtime president, the late Rick Violette, who retired from the position while dealing with late-stage cancer. Votes in the election for president and members of the organization’s board are cast by owners and trainers who race at New York tracks.
Robert Hess Sr., a fixture among Northern California trainers for decades, died early Saturday of complications resulting from the COVID-19 virus, according to his son, trainer Bob Hess Jr.
Hess was 86. He was recently hospitalized after contracting the virus. Hess tested positive in November and was hospitalized for a few days before he was released. Hess was readmitted to the hospital days later and was hospitalized at the time of his passing.
“We felt he could get the best care there,” Bob Hess Jr. said Saturday afternoon. “I talked to him two days ago.
Total handle on U.S. races dropped 6.3 percent in November compared to the same month of last year, according to figures released on Friday by Equibase, but the overall decline shrouded a sharp gain in average handle per-race due to a substantial drop in the number of races held in the month.
The number of races held during the month plunged 28.8 percent compared to November of last year, from 2,730 in November 2019 to 1,945 this November, according to the figures. As a result, average wagering per race jumped 31.5 percent, from $350,126 last year to $460,321 this year.
