Total betting on U.S. races declined 3.35 percent in 2024, according to figures distributed by Equibase on Friday, the third year in a row in which Thoroughbred handle has dropped compared to the year prior.

The New York Racing Association and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority have reached a settlement on a lawsuit NYRA filed jointly with Churchill Downs Inc. centered on a dispute over the calculation of HISA’s assessments on racetracks, the two companies said on Thursday.

Summertime on the California fair circuit was the best time of year for trainer Ray Thomas.

Thomas, who died in late November after a brief illness, was a mainstay at venues throughout California, and especially on the northern circuit at tracks such as Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, and at fair meetings in Ferndale, Fresno, Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Stockton, and Vallejo.

“He loved the fairs, absolutely,” his son, trainer Jamey Thomas said on Thursday. “On the fairs, it’s more of a family.”

Flavien Prat, who this year set the record for most graded stakes victories by a jockey in a single year, finished 2024 with $37,274,176 in earnings, easily topping the 2024 rider’s list by purses.

Prat’s total was a personal best from his 10 years of riding in the United States, besting his 2022 mark of $29.8 million by $7.4 million. Prat earned the sum from 1,040 mounts, winning on 230 of them, for a win rate of 22 percent.

Irad Ortiz Jr. finished second on the earnings list with $32.9 million in purses, while Tyler Gaffalione was third with $29.0 million.

Thorpedo Anna, the cinch for the Eclipse Award for 3-year-old filly and a leading candidate for Horse of the Year, features in three of the performances up for the “Moment of the Year,” according to a list distributed by the award’s administrator, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

The Federal Trade Commission has unanimously approved a rule change sought by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority that will equalize the assessments charged to a state’s racing constituents by basing the dues solely on the number of starts made by horses in those states.

The Jockey Club has denied stud book privileges to 12 individuals for at least one year due to violations of its good-conduct rules, the organization announced on Thursday.

The denials go into effect on Jan. 1 and will prevent any of the individuals from registering foals through the length of the suspension period, but the suspensions will not have any other practical effect on their activities beyond that. The Jockey Club, a non-profit agency, controls the U.S. stud book, which maintains registries of all Thoroughbreds eligible to race or breed in the country.

Shamrock Farm, a property owned by the family of National Thoroughbred Racing Association president Tom Rooney that is 20 miles from Pimlico Race Course, has been selected as the location for a new training center by the state-owned Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, the MTROA announced on Monday.

Sam Calvario and Tim McCanna tied for leading trainer with 16 wins at the Golden State Racing meeting in Pleasanton, Calif., that ended on Wednesday, the final day of Thoroughbred racing in Northern California until at least mid-June.

By Thursday afternoon, the two men had scattered across the United States.

Calvario took a late morning flight from the Bay Area to Houston to scout whether Sam Houston Race Park or Delta Downs would be a good fit for some of his runners.

“I may try to move a little stable over there,” he said.