Keeneland is increasing the minimum wager for its superfecta from 10 cents to 50 cents and increasing the minimum for its pick three bets from 50 cents to $1, effective at the beginning of this year’s spring meet on April 3, the track announced on Thursday.

The decision to increase the minimums on the two bets runs counter to the direction most tracks have taken over the past two decades to drive down minimums to encourage small bettors to participate in exotic pools or cut the costs of covering more combinations.

FanDuel TV, the cable network that has broadcast live horse races on a dedicated channel since 1999, will begin to phase out its horse racing studio productions this summer and cease operations as a cable channel at the end of 2027, according to an official familiar with the company’s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

Francisco Mena, who won more than 1,600 races in a career that spanned more than four decades, died on March 18 in a hospital in Rosarito, Mexico, according to his brother, Guillermo.

Mena was 78. He died of natural causes, Guillermo Mena said.

Mena, better known as Paco, was a four-time leading rider at the Los Angeles county fair in Pomona, where he won a then-record 38 races at the 1981 meeting.

Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) have reached an agreement to resolve a dispute over dues the racing company owes to the authority, according to a notice posted on HISA’s website and a legal filing by Churchill Downs, both on Tuesday.

The fatality rate at North American racetracks that participate in the Equine Injury Database (EID) fell in 2025 to its lowest level ever recorded, at 1.07 per 1,000 starts, according to statistics released Tuesday by The Jockey Club, which maintains the database.

The 1.07 rate is a 47 percent drop in the rate since injury and fatality data began being collected by the Thoroughbred industry in 2009. The rate that year, when the U.S. racing industry began to be put under enormous pressure to improve its safety record, was 2.00 per 1,000 starts.

Churchill Downs Inc. has requested a stay of an order issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority requiring the track to pay nearly $5.3 million in unpaid dues and interest, officials of HISA confirmed on Friday.

CDI has also appealed the ruling, but the stay is expected to be argued within the next week, according to the officials. Under the order, CDI had 10 days from the issuance of the order on Monday night to appeal.

The Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit will return in 2026 and be held on June 29-30 at the Keeneland Sales Pavilion in Lexington, the sponsors of the conference announced on Wednesday.

The summit, which was last held in 2024, will include presentations on the latest analysis of the Equine Injury Database, the jockey scale of weights, vet scratches, pre-racing equine surgeries, track surfaces, and other topics, according to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. The entire Tuesday morning schedule will be devoted to the use of diagnostic equipment.

A panel of board members of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has issued a ruling requiring Churchill Downs Inc. to pay approximately $5.3 million in unpaid dues and interest within the next 10 days or lose its ability to send signals from its racetracks to out-of-state locations.

The ruling can be appealed by Churchill Downs Inc. to the full board within 10 days, according to HISA.

A former employee of the Penn National racing office has been arrested and charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the racetrack, according to records filed by the state police.

Jennifer Petrillo, a former bookkeeper in the racing office, was arrested on March 12 and charged with felony counts of forgery and counterfeiting.

The Florida legislature adjourned its regular 2026 session on Friday without the state Senate taking up a bill that would have allowed Gulfstream Park to decouple its racing and casino licenses, the second straight year that a decoupling measure failed to win approval.