The overnight rating for the Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday was the highest since 1992 and a 20 percent jump over last year’s number, according to NBC.

The overnight rating for the broadcast running from 5 p.m. Eastern until approximately 7:30 was a 10.9 with a 25 share, according to NBC. The rating peaked at 11.9 with a 27 share during the race, NBC said. The 1992 rating was also a 10.9.

Last year, the Derby broadcast posted a 9.1 rating and a 21 share, a drop of 17 percent from the 2017 broadcast.

Total commingled handle on the Kentucky Derby and its supporting undercard Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville set records for the fourth year in a row, according to charts of the races, despite negative attention focused on racing in the months leading up to the sport’s most important race.

Handle on the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on Friday set a record at $19.3 million, despite the negative forces battering the industry over the past several months.

The Oaks handle was up 10.4 percent compared with the record for the race set last year, which itself was up 18.1 percent compared with handle on the race in 2017. Churchill Downs has been aggressively marketing the lead-up events to the Derby over the past 10 years, and those efforts have paid dividends for the Oaks.

Two U.S. senators will introduce legislation next week that would appoint the United States Anti-Doping Agency as the overseer of racing’s medication and drug-testing policies, the senators announced on Friday, but the bill differs in some ways from legislation that has already been introduced in the House of Representatives.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Keeneland Association, the not-for-profit racing and sales company, has donated $1.3 million to an endowment that will fund an equine drug research and testing program at the University of Kentucky, the company and the university announced on Wednesday.

The New York Gaming Commission will undertake a survey of the state’s racing constituencies to gauge support for a partial ban on the raceday use of the drug furosemide in the wake of an announcement from major racetracks in support of the ban, commission officials said during a meeting on Monday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Keeneland and Churchill Downs, Kentucky’s two most prominent tracks, have each pledged $100,000 to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, to be distributed to research projects over the next three years, the two racetracks announced jointly on Friday.

Jockey Paco Lopez was suspended 60 days by the Gulfstream Park stewards earlier this month for a second case of extreme careless riding this season, and on Thursday track officials said that suspension has been reduced to 30 racing days on appeal.

Lopez also will donate $10,000 to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and volunteer at the nearby Jackson Memorial Hospital.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Christopher McNamara, a former vice president of a Lexington marketing agency, has been named the senior vice president of corporate partnerships at Breeders’ Cup Ltd.

Dr. Dionne Benson, who has served as the executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium for the past seven years, has accepted a position as Chief Veterinary Officer for The Stronach Group, the privately held company whose Santa Anita Park has been beset with criticism because of a spate of equine fatalities this winter.