The racing committee of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted on Monday to revise the percentage of total casino subsidies that go to the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries this year in favor of Standardbreds, according to state officials.
It’s too early to pass judgment on Canterbury Park’s grand experiment of lowering takeout this season, but while betting on the track’s live product has increased year over year through last Sunday, gross handle hasn’t risen enough to compensate for the decrease in revenue caused by the takeout decrease.
Moonist, the champion aged Quarter Horse of 2015, was euthanized late Tuesday after complications from colic, trainer John Cooper said on Wednesday.
Moonist was rated the nation’s leading older horse this year and was unbeaten in four starts, including the Los Alamitos Winter Championship in February. Moonist won a division of the Vessels Maturity trials at Los Alamitos on June 12 and would have been a strong favorite to win the final on July 3.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Otabek Umarov, the owner-trainer suspended recently by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for 10 years, will appear before a Franklin County Circuit Court judge in Frankfort, Ky., on Wednesday morning for a request of a stay of the commission’s sanction, according to court records and his attorney.
Jay Hickey, the outgoing president of the American Horse Council, has been presented with the AHC’s highest honor, the Rolapp Award, which is typically given to a legislator, the organization announced on Tuesday.
Hickey, who will retire on June 30 after 23 years at the helm of the AHC, was presented with the award at a reception on June 14 with legislators, the AHC said. The organization’s board of trustees had earlier voted to select Hickey for the honor.
There is a pick six carryover of $190,743 entering Wednesday’s card at Belmont Park after the wager went unhit for a third consecutive card on Sunday.
There was a $78,339 carryover entering Sunday’s card and an additional $197,214 was wagered into the pool. First-time starters Great Import ($35.60) in the first leg and Kat Zippity ($34.80) in the last leg were the longest prices in the sequence that had only one favorite, Tent City, win.
Wednesday’s pick six will begin in race 4 (3:04 p.m. Eastern) and include four turf races.
Trainer Mac Robertson won the 1,000th race of his career when Thunder and Honey won the seventh race at Canterbury Park on Saturday.
Robertson, the son of trainer Hugh Robertson, apprenticed under his father for years, and though he was trainer of record for a minimal number of starters in the mid-1990s, he actually went out on his own in 2005, though even now there remains active convergence between stables of father and son.
A racehorse based at Ruidoso Downs was confirmed positive for the equine herpesvirus late Friday, the New Mexico track announced on Saturday.
The strain was EHV-1. The horse was euthanized, and the barn at which the animal resided is under quarantine.
Ruidoso is in a mixed meet for Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. The season runs through Labor Day.
Janet VanBebber has been named the American Quarter Horse Association’s chief racing officer, the organization announced on Friday. VanBebber, a former trainer who raced extensively in Louisiana and Texas, will oversee the AQHA racing department and be responsible for developing new programs.
VanBebber will assume her post June 23.
The Oklahoma Racing Commission on Thursday ordered a new hearing in a case concerning a fight between two riders during the running of a Will Rogers Downs race May 21.
The altercation between jockeys Freddy Manrrique and Natalie Turner took place during the 12th race on the final card of the track’s meet for Thoroughbreds. The incident began prior to the three-sixteenths pole and continued past the sixteenth pole, according to a ruling in the case. The riders’ mounts finished fifth and sixth in the one-mile allowance for Oklahoma-breds.
