TUCSON, Ariz. – A three-judge panel on Wednesday selected a racing-based sweepstakes proposal as the winner of the first Innovators’ Circle Award at the Symposium on Racing and Gaming here, the conference organizers announced.

American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, was the overwhelming choice of voters in this year’s Vox Populi Award, which was established five years ago by Penny Chenery, the owner of the late Secretariat, to honor the “horse whose popularity and racing excellence best resounded with the American public and gained recognition for Thoroughbred racing.”

TUCSON, Ariz. – The administrators of a voluntary accreditation program for racetracks have added a section to the code requiring tracks to push state racing commissions to demand that laboratories implement drug-testing procedures and policies recommended by national policy groups, according to the program’s executive director.

Frank Mirahmadi, who has been the announcer at Oaklawn Park since the retirement of longtime caller Terry Wallace, said Tuesday he has resigned his position with the Hot Springs, Ark., track to call races at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. 

TUCSON, Ariz. – The era of Big Data is likely to usher in the widespread availability of sophisticated handicapping and betting programs that closely resemble the type of high-dollar systems that have operated in the shadows of the racing industry for the past 15 years, according to officials speaking at the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming on Tuesday morning.

The topic of historical racing machines has been placed on the Dec. 15 meeting agenda of the Texas Racing Commission, according to the agency’s spokesman, Robert Elrod.

Historical racing machines are similar to slot machines, with payoffs based on the results of past races. Although rules were put in place in 2014, historical racing machines have yet to operate in Texas.

TUCSON, Ariz. - The Symposium on Racing and Gaming this year kicked off on Tuesday with a somewhat risky session in which five panelists were asked to deliver nine new ideas each that could impact the racing industry, and if the size of the audience was the measure, it was a rousing success.

TUCSON, Ariz. – It is no secret horseracing is a mature industry. In fact, in the sports and entertainment market, it is one of the most mature in the world. So it’s not a surprise that an industry that began showing its age decades ago is on the lookout for some fresh thinking.

Turf writer Steve Haskin and the late editor and writer Raleigh Burroughs are latest additions to the Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor at the National Racing Museum’s Hall of Fame, it was announced Monday by the museum.

There will be a pick six carryover of $123,347 at Aqueduct on Wednesday when the inner track opens for the winter season.

The pick six went unhit on both Saturday and Sunday, the final two days of the main track meet. Since the state does recognize Sunday as the official end of the fall meet, the wager is permitted to carry over. The state recognizes the official end of Aqueduct’s fall meet as Dec. 31.