The New Jersey legislature approved a bill on Thursday that will enable racetracks and casinos in the state to take sports bets, but it is not yet clear when Gov. Phil Murphy will sign the bill.

Both the Senate and the General Assembly passed the bill after a round of lobbying during the morning and the early afternoon. Although Murphy has not indicated that he is opposed to the bill, a spokesman for his office told the Associated Press that the legislation “will be subject to the same thorough review that all legislation sent to him for signature is subject to.”

The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association has contributed $15,000 toward the funding of a study that will assess helmet designs and concussions, the association announced on Thursday.

All five entities in the ownership of Triple Crown hopeful Justify along with trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Mike Smith have pledged to donate a percentage of any earnings from Saturday's Belmont Stakes to the New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program.

Delaware is likely to become the first state to offer wagering on single-game professional sports outside of Nevada since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting, according to a Thursday announcement.

The state’s three casinos, all located at racetracks, can begin taking single-game bets early in the afternoon Tuesday, according to an announcement made by the state’s Department of Finance and attorney general. That includes Delaware Park in Stanton, which opened its 2018 live-race meet Wednesday.

Grade 1 winner Gygistar died "suddenly and unexpectedly" in Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday. The gelding was 19.

Gygistar's death was reported on the social media accounts of Diana Baker, who had cared for the pensioner following his retirement from racing and until his death. Diana Baker's husband, Chris Baker, had been the farm manager for the Spring Hill Farm of the late Edward P. Evans, who bred and raced Gygistar.

Lifelong horseman William E. Graves, a senior vice president with Fasig-Tipton for 26 years, died following a short illness on Wednesday in Lexington, Ky. He was 69.

Tributes from the bloodstock community and prominent Thoroughbred owners and trainers were beginning to flood in on Wednesday night as news of Graves’s death spread.

“Walking into Fasig-Tipton will never be the same,” owner Samantha Siegel said via Twitter.

Three hours after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on May 14 that struck down a federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting, officials at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park said at a hastily arranged press conference that the track would begin taking sports bets within two weeks, with the “possibility we could be ready sooner,” said Dennis Drazin, the head of the track.

On Monday, that two weeks will have come and gone. And Monmouth Park will not have offered a single sports bet, nor does it plan to for several more weeks.

The parent company of TVG has agreed to merge with FanDuel, a leading daily fantasy sports site, in a consolidation seeking to capitalize on a recent Supreme Court decision that could open the doors to sports wagering in a number of U.S. jurisdictions.

Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed. The two companies said in a release that the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter this year.

Breeders’ Cup Ltd. has partnered with two English festival tracks and the Australian host of the Melbourne Cup to launch a website and social-media disseminator focusing on international racing, the partners announced on Tuesday.

The site will be called World Horse Racing, and can be accessed through a dedicated website or through the more popular social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, the partners said. The partners are Breeders’ Cup, Ascot, and Goodwood Racecourses in the United Kingdom, and Victoria Racing Club in Australia.

Despite sloppy conditions and what appeared on paper to be a less-than-stellar betting race, total handle on the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore set a record while all-sources handle on the entire 14-race card was down 4.4 percent, according to charts of the day’s races.