Total handle for 27 days of live racing at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., was $240.5 million, the track announced Thursday, for an average of $8.9 million per day.
Churchill, which closed its meet Sunday, said that the total handle figure was a 53 percent increase over the total handle at the track last year for the 33 days it ran after Kentucky Derby week. The average was an 82 percent increase over post-Derby week average betting of $4.9 million last year, the track said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Bill Thomason will retire as president and chief executive officer of Keeneland at the end of the year and be replaced by Shannon Bishop Arvin, a board member and the general counsel for the company, Keeneland announced on Thursday.
Thomason has served as president and CEO of Keeneland since 2012.
Two more horses trained by Joe Sharp have been disqualified by stewards in Louisiana after post-race samples revealed the presence of a prohibited substance found in a deworming product, adding to a string of disqualifications of horses trained by Sharp over the past six months due to the substance.
An Equibase employee incorrectly entered the wrong number of a scratched horse into the company’s database prior to a race at Thistledown on Tuesday, an error that drew widespread attention when the “scratched” horse ended up winning the race, the company said in a statement issued late on Wednesday night.
Equibase is investigating a situation that occurred Tuesday at Thistledown racetrack in Ohio in which a horse that was part of an entry was listed as scratched at most data and betting sites but ran and won, the company announced late Tuesday.
Churchill Downs has submitted operational plans to Kentucky state officials that envision allowing spectators for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby and the race cards that will precede it, a Churchill Downs official confirmed Tuesday.
A broadcast of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday on NBC drew 4 million viewers at its peak, when Tiz the Law won the race, according to network officials.
This year’s Belmont Stakes was billed as the first leg of the Triple Crown, due to the rescheduling of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes to this fall. The broadcast was advertised extensively by NBC and its sister networks in the week leading up to the race. It was run at 1 1/8 miles, rather than its traditional distance of 1 1/2 miles, and had a post time of 5:45 p.m. Eastern, roughly one hour earlier than usual.
Arlington International Racecourse and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association finally agreed to a contract for the 2020 and 2021 racing seasons on Monday morning, but the 2020 Arlington meet almost was derailed by a dispute between Arlington and Hawthorne that unfolded during an Illinois Racing Board meeting just after the contract was signed.
