Santa Anita executives are hoping to meet with officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health next Saturday, April 18, in an effort to get permission to reopen the racetrack amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Santa Anita was deemed a nonessential business and was closed by order of county health officials on March 27, with less than an hour before first post time. Santa Anita raced for five days, March 14-22, without spectators and with numerous safeguards in place to protect horsemen and track employees.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ontario Racing has announced funding for horse owners to make up for the suspension of racing in the province due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These funds were already committed to the industry through the Funding Agreement for Live Horse Racing between Ontario Racing and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. To enable this access, Ontario Racing, OLG and the other parties have agreed to amend the funding agreement.

Angling for a resumption of racing at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita, seeking methods to fund workers’ compensation costs, and planning a summer season were among the topics that occupied Greg Avioli’s afternoon Wednesday amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

Avioli, the former Breeders’ Cup president, is the president and chief executive officer of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, the state’s official representative of Thoroughbred horsemen.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The one-year state budget passed last week by the Kentucky legislature includes funding to establish an equine drug-testing laboratory at the University of Kentucky and directs money to the state’s racing commission in order to hire additional investigators, according to the Senate majority leader.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Total handle on historical horse racing machines operated by a number of Kentucky racetracks plummeted 43 percent in March due to the closures of their casinos in mid-March, according to figures from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Total wagering through nearly 3,000 machines at locations at Kentucky Downs, The Red Mile, Ellis Park, and the Trackside training center in Louisville was $132.4 million this March, compared to $234.0 million in March of last year. All of the locations closed Sunday, March 15, due to efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

In his daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday evening, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear did not float any specific plan for the return of live racing in the state, even without spectators.

Keeneland had been scheduled to open its spring meeting on April 2 and Churchill Downs is slated to open its spring-summer meeting on April 25. Keeneland canceled its meeting, and Churchill has yet to make a formal announcement on the status of its meet, but in mid-March announced that the Kentucky Derby was postponed from the first Saturday in May to Sept. 5.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was clearly spelled out in Thoroughbred racing’s economic indicators for the first quarter of 2020, released on Friday by Equibase, as a reduction in race days and a corresponding drop in wagering led to dramatic declines in March.

Top trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis entered not guilty pleas to charges related to administering illegal substances to racehorses during an arraignment conducted telephonically Thursday afternoon by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Golden Gate Fields has been ordered closed by Alameda County officials because of the coronavirus pandemic, track executives said on Thursday.

The track made the announcement in a text message sent to horsemen late Thursday morning, about an hour before the first race was scheduled to begin.

The three tracks that host the Triple Crown have agreed to postpone the late nomination period for those races, which would have closed Monday, owing to the postponement of the Kentucky Derby because of the coronavirus pandemic and its potential impact on the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, according to a release put out Sunday by Churchill Downs, which hosts the Derby.