Bob Fortus, a longtime turf writer and editor for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, died Tuesday morning in Baton Rouge, La., as a result of complications from injuries he sustained when he was struck by a car March 29 near his home in New Orleans.
Fortus, who contributed to Daily Racing Form after the Times-Picayune laid him off in 2012, was 69.
Mike Farrell of The Associated Press on Wednesday was named the winner of the Bill Handleman Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the 2018 Haskell Invitational. The award was announced at the post-position draw luncheon for this Saturday’s Haskell.
Farrell has written about Monmouth Park and the Haskell for more than three decades. During that time he has worked for Sportsphone, UPI Radio, The Record of North Jersey, Daily Racing Form and The Associated Press.
Gainesway Farm’s Antony Beck and Airdrie Stud’s Bret Jones have been re-elected as directors of the Breeders’ Cup board, and Alan Cooper, an official with the Niarchos family’s Thoroughbred operation, has been added to the board, the organization announced on Thursday.
Voting for the board was conducted by the Breeders’ Cup’s 44 members, a body that serves to elect the board, which has 14 members, serving staggered terms.
The Empire State Development Corporation of New York on Monday approved an environmental impact statement for the construction of a hockey arena for the New York Islanders at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, clearing a hurdle toward the ultimate groundbreaking on the project.
Dr. Jennifer Durenberger, currently the chief examining veterinarian for the New York Racing Association, has been appointed to succeed Jim Edwards as the Jockey Club steward at NYRA tracks.
Edwards, a former jockey who has worked as a steward for the last 16 years – the last 3 1/2 in New York – retired from the position on Sunday.
“It’s the right time,” Edward said Sunday before his final card. “Everybody in this game sacrifices something. I’m going to head to Florida to be around family.”
The two horses in isolation at Delaware Park were both doing well Saturday, according to John Mooney, the executive director of racing at Delaware Park.
The first horse, who had tested positive for the “strangles” bacteria, originally had a stiff neck, nasal discharge, and a temperature but is no longer displaying those symptoms. The other, who had tested negative for the strangles bacteria, according to Mooney, had a temperature, but it has subsided.
“We’ll just have to wait and let this situation play out,” Mooney said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The horse-racing industry in Ontario has been looking for stable footing since the lucrative slots-at-racetracks program was canceled by the provincial government in 2013.
After several years of uncertainty, the industry’s long-term funding agreement with the province went into effect April 1. The Ontario government will give the industry $105 million annually for the next 19 years to fund racing operations, capital improvements, purse enhancements, and administration.
All-sources handle nationwide fell 7 percent in June to $991 million, contributing to a decline of 3 percent in handle in the second quarter, according to data released Thursday by Equibase.
For the second quarter, handle reached $3.14 billion, down from $3.24 billion in 2018.
Several factors contributed to the decline, notably fewer racing days at Santa Anita, which canceled nine Thursday programs from mid-April to late June because of concern over a shortage of available horses.
Two national horsemen’s organizations issued a joint statement Thursday addressing the ongoing case of Jerry Hollendorfer, imploring racetracks to apply due process in a controversy that has sidelined the Hall of Fame trainer since The Stronach Group ordered him June 22 to vacate their California tracks, Santa Anita and Golden Gate.
Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, has been hired as the next executive director and chief operating officer of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC), the organization announced Tuesday.
