Tom Hammond, who has been a broadcaster on NBC and has covered Thoroughbred racing for decades, was named by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners as the 2016 winner of the Warner L. Jones Jr. Horseman of the Year Award.

Hammond, a native of Lexington, Ky., has been the anchor of NBC’s Breeders’ Cup coverage since its 1984 inception and a fixture on the summer and winter Olympic broadcasts. He will be honored at the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners annual awards dinner on Nov. 19 at Big Spring Country Club in Louisville. Churchill Downs’s John Asher will be the emcee.

Viewership of the Breeders’ Cup Classic on NBC during prime-time Saturday night plummeted last year compared with the same race last year, which featured Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in his career finale, according to figures obtained by NBC on Thursday.

Los Alamitos has amended the stakes schedule for its meet next month, which was originally announced earlier this week.

Now, the Soviet Problem for fillies will be run on Dec. 17, and the King Glorious on closing day, Dec. 18. Both are $100,000 races for California-bred 2-year-olds.

The meet is highlighted by the CashCall Futurity and the Starlet, both Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds to be run Dec. 10.

CHICAGO - Phil Georgeff, the renowned Chicago racing announcer, died Monday in Alabama.

Georgeff, 85, was born on Chicago’s West Side and began announcing at Arlington Park in 1957. His career spanned 35 years, and Georgeff called races at every track on the Chicago circuit: Arlington, Sportsman’s Park, Hawthorne, Balmoral Park, Maywood Park, and Washington Park. So synonymous with races here did his calls become that Georgeff was known as the voice of Chicago racing, or, sometimes, simply The Voice.

A referendum on the New Jersey ballot that would have authorized the legislature to approve two new casinos in the northern part of the state failed overwhelmingly in voting on Tuesday.

The ballot initiative was defeated by a 3-1 margin. If the measure had been approved, the Meadowlands, operated by the real-estate developer and racetrack-casino owner Jeff Gural, was considered a leading candidate to receive one of the two new licenses.

Antioco Murgia, a jockey with 72 wins this year, has been prohibited by the Kentucky stewards from accepting mounts in the state as Lexington authorities proceed with an investigation into charges that resulted in the rider’s arrest on Friday, according to racing officials.

Murgia, who is from Italy, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of rape and one count of sodomy, according to an arrest report of the Lexington police. He was named on one mount at Churchill Downs in Louisville on Saturday and one on Sunday, but did not ride on either day.

George “Bucky” Sallee, the Keeneland bugler for more than 50 years who was given the fanciful title of Bugler Emeritus upon his retirement in 2013, died on Monday at age 87, according to Keeneland. Sallee lived in Georgetown, Ky., at the time of his death.

New Jersey’s horsemen have reached an agreement that would guarantee that the state’s Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries receive tens of millions of dollars in subsidies from a casino located at The Meadowlands if voters on Tuesday approve a longshot measure that ultimately results in a casino at the track, the horsemen said late on Monday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita ended its 21-day autumn meeting on Sunday with significant growth in average attendance and handle compared to the corresponding meeting in 2015.

Direct comparisons with the 2015 meeting are difficult since the track hosted two days of Breeders’ Cup races this year but did not host the event last year. In a review of the two meetings, track executives removed the Breeders’ Cup business figures from last Friday and Saturday to compare the remainder of the seasons.

Wagering on U.S. races in October was down starkly from betting during the same month last year, according to figures released by Equibase on Monday, but the comparison was nearly meaningless due to the later running of the two-day Breeders’ Cup event this year.