A bill that would allow Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., to run its casino without any statutory obligations to racing was amended on Monday in a committee hearing to guarantee live racing at the track for at least five years.

Horses exercising at U.S. tracks and training centers under the jurisdiction of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority suffered fatalities at a rate of 0.50 per 1,000 timed workouts, HISA said on Monday. 

The per-workout fatality rate is the first tracked and published by a national organization in the U.S. HISA said that it was determined after collecting fatality data from the tracks and training centers and comparing the number of non-racing fatalities with the number of timed workouts at those facilities.  

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has issued 30-day suspensions to three trainers and disqualified 79 horses from performances in 2023 and 2024 in the first of its rulings related to an investigation into the administrations of corticosteroids at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Penn. 

A barn at Laurel Park has been placed under quarantine after a horse previously stabled in the barn was diagnosed with equine herpesvirus.

The horse diagnosed was Knucker Punk, a 3-year-old colt trained by David Mohan. According to a Maryland Jockey Club spokesperson, the horse first started to display symptoms in the form of a fever on March 10.

The first spring meet at Colonial Downs got off to an inauspicious start when the track elected to refund wagers on its first race due to confusion over approvals for wagering.

Wagering was restored for the second race of the eight-race card, according to Dave Zenner, the track’s director of racing and simulcast operations, who provided a statement to Daily Racing Form in response to an inquiry about wagering on the first race.

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has charged two more trainers based at Penn National with violations of rules covering the intra-articular administration of corticosteroids, according to records posted on the group’s website on Wednesday afternoon. 

The overall fatality rate in 2024 at North American racetracks that provide data to the Equine Injury Database fell 15.9 percent compared to 2023, dropping to its lowest level since the rate began to be tracked in 2009, according to a release from The Jockey Club, which administers the database.

The overall rate in 2024, 1.11 horses per 1,000 starts, was down from a 1.32 overall rate posted in 2023. The 2023 rate was up over the 2022 rate of 1.25 horses per 1,000 starts.

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has charged three more trainers in its wide-ranging case involving the illegal administration of corticosteroids at Penn National Race Course, according to records posted to the unit’s website on Monday night.

The three new trainers join eight others who have been formally charged in the investigation, which regulatory officials have said will eventually lead to the disqualifications of hundreds of horses that raced in Pennsylvania and neighboring states during an 18-month period in 2023 and 2024.

Amy Gregory, the director of communications at the Keeneland Association since 2013 and a staple in the communications office for nearly two decades, will retire this summer, the company announced on Monday.

Gregory ran the communications office for Keeneland’s two immensely popular race meets and the company’s half-dozen auctions, as well as assisting in the publicity efforts for Keeeland’s three Breeders’ Cup events, during an era when the promotional world transitioned rapidly from print and broadcast toward the dominance of social media.

Total wagering on Thoroughbred races at U.S. tracks in February dropped 8.0 percent compared to the same month as last year, but the decline was offset by a double-digit drop in the number of races held during the month, according to figures distributed by Equibase on Wednesday.