The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has advised veterinarians and trainers to be cautious when exercising horses after layups of 60 days or more because of new data showing an increased risk of shoulder injuries in horses returning to the work tab. 

The notice, which was distributed to all trainers and veterinarians who are registered in HISA’s data-tracking portal, said that 40 percent of “fatal proximal forelimb fractures” occurred in horses who had recorded no “high-speed furlongs” in the past 60 days.  

A federal district court judge has denied a motion sought by the Michigan Gaming Control Board to lift an injunction preventing the board from taking action against Churchill Downs Inc. for accepting bets from Michigan residents earlier in the year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday at a staged public appearance at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s 2-year-old sale that he would not “look favorably on legislation that is going to decimate any of our signature industries,” a statement that pours cold water on the prospects of a legislation that would allow Gulfstream Park to decouple its racing and casino licenses.

The statements, which were distributed in a video by a lobbying group, the Thoroughbred Racing Initiative, formed to oppose the decoupling effort, were made from the auction ring at OBS.

On Thursday, a majority of California Horse Racing Board commissioners voted down requests for summer racing dates from two fairs in Northern California. 

Only one of the votes qualified as an official action because the board’s rules require four votes to be binding. Four commissioners voted to deny racing dates to a group seeking as many as 10 dates at Pleasanton, while three of the five commissioners voted to deny an application for as many as seven dates at Ferndale. 

The Florida House Commerce Committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would allow Gulfstream Park to cease live racing after the next five years while still operating a casino on the track property, just hours after a Senate committee pulled a similar bill from a hearing.

The House committee voted 17-9 to advance a bill that included the decoupling language as a late amendment, four hours after the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government postponed its own hearing on a bill dealing solely with the decoupling issue.

Jill Byrne, who previously worked as a top executive of Colonial Downs in Virginia, has been hired as the new executive director of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association, the organization announced on Thursday.

A native of Virginia, Byrne was the vice president of racing operations for Colonial from 2019 to 2023. She left the track to join the Virginia Equine Alliance at the end of that year, and will remain the VEA’s vice president of marketing and strategic planning while serving as executive director of the VTA.

The equine drug-testing laboratory operated by the University of Kentucky has been sold to a private company, the school announced Thursday. 

Eagle Diagnostics, a company that operates a diagnostics and testing laboratory in Utah, purchased the lab and has tabbed Travis Mays as its director. Mays was formerly the head of the Texas A&M lab’s analytical chemistry section. 

Breeders’ Cup Ltd. has once again expanded its Challenge Series of races that guarantee starting berths and entry fees to winners, with 93 races included for this year’s event at Del Mar, up from a total of 82 races last year.

The rescheduled Blue Grass Stakes card at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington on Tuesday drew $20.38 million in bets, an incredibly strong showing for a Tuesday but down 30.4 percent compared to handle last year on the card, which was held on a Saturday, according to a DRF analysis of betting data from charts of races. 

A budget passed by the Maryland legislature on Monday included a provision that will eliminate the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority at the end of this year, two years prior to when the authority was previously scheduled to be dissolved. 

The MTROA was created in 2023 to manage a transition from the private operation of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park to a state-owned entity. After legislation was passed last year to facilitate that transition, the MTROA led an effort to establish the non-profit Maryland Jockey Club, which is now running the tracks.