A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 28 to discuss issues surrounding horse racing and a bill that would create a federal framework to regulate the sport, according to the leaders of the committee.

CHICAGO – Tuesday’s tumultuous January meeting of the Illinois Racing Board had an appropriate site - the James Thompson Center in Chicago. A movement is afoot to raze the architecturally significant and historic Thompson Center for retail or commercial development. The dark mood pervading Tuesday’s meeting expressed the widespread concerns that something similar could happen at historic Arlington International Racecourse.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Recommendations contained in a report released Wednesday examining the fatal injury suffered by Mongolian Groom in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic can be implemented at racetracks with far less prestige and personnel than those that host the year-end event, the author of the report, Dr. Larry Bramlage, said on Thursday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A committee in the Kentucky House of Representatives advanced a bill on Wednesday that would allow sports betting at the state’s racetracks.

He Looks Hot, the survivor of three colic surgeries in the last five years and the winner of the prestigious Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos last month, was named 2019 World Champion Racing Quarter Horse in a ceremony at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening.

Owned by breeder Ed Allred and trained by Scott Willoughby, He Looks Hot, a 7-year-old gelding in 2019, won 5 of 10 starts and earned $420,036 in a season that included a win in the $100,000 Spencer Childers Handicap in July.

Equibase, the industry-owned racing data company, has reached an agreement to acquire the timing assets owned by American Teletimer Corporation, in a move that will likely lead to the increased use of GPS systems to provide official fractional and finish-line timing data for U.S. races.

Bricks and Mortar, a leading candidate for 2019 Horse of the Year, has been named the recipient of the Vox Populi Award, an honor created 10 years ago by the late Penny Chenery.

Bricks and Mortar, who won all six of his starts last year, including the Breeders’ Cup Turf, was one of six candidates nominated for the award. Voting was conducted through online polls.

To celebrate the award, the organizers will stage a poster giveaway on Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. The poster will feature all 10 winners of the award.

Brad Kimbrell, the longtime head of InCompass Solutions, has retired and will be replaced by Harold Palmer, The Jockey Club announced Tuesday.

Kimbrell joined The Jockey Club in 1994 when the company purchased the precursor to InCompass. As president of the company, Kimbrell oversaw the development of several software suites and modules that were designed specifically to help racing offices better manage their tasks.

Wagering on U.S. races fell in 2019 when compared to the total amount of betting the previous year and when adjusted for a decline in races held during the year, according to figures released on Monday by Equibase. It was the first decline in the amount bet on U.S. races in five years.

Total betting on races held at U.S. racetracks was $11.04 billion, a 2 percent decline from total wagering in 2018 of $11.26 billion. With the number of races held last year declining 1.0 percent, the average handle per race in 2019 dropped 1 percent, from $307,877 last year to $304,858 this year.

CHICAGO – Arlington and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association had yet to sign a contract for the 2020 racing season as of Wednesday afternoon, a violation of a racing statute altered during 2019.