Hank Zeitlin, the president and chief operating officer of Equibase Company since 2007, has resigned and will step down as of Feb. 29, 2016, the company announced on Friday.
Zeitlin, who has been with Equibase since 1998, informed the Equibase Management Committee that he intended to step down at the close of a recent board meeting, just after presenting the company’s business plan for 2016, according to officials. The resignation was “entirely his choice,” one official said.
Trevor Denman, the legendary announcer who has revolutionized race commentary in the United States in the last 30 years, is retiring from his position at Santa Anita, the track announced on Friday.
Denman will not announce the races for the upcoming winter-spring meeting, which begins on Dec. 26, but is not stepping away from the sport. Del Mar officials said on Friday that Denman will continue to be the race caller at the track’s two annual meetings, in the summer and fall.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The American Graded Stakes Committee has assigned grades to 464 races for the 2016 racing schedule, one more than last year, despite sharp contractions in the number of U.S. races held over the past three years.
One stakes, the Fourstardave at Saratoga in upstate New York, was upgraded to a Grade 1 from a Grade 2, the committee said. Two Grade 1 races, the Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar and the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita Park, were downgraded to Grade 2.
Total handle on U.S. races in the months of October and November was virtually even with wagering in the same two months last year, despite a precipitous decline in the number of races held at U.S. tracks, according to figures from Equibase that were combined to provide a more accurate picture of handle.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine closed its 2015 season on Sunday with a strong year-over-year increase in all-sources and average daily handle.
All-sources handle for the 133-day meet was $438,185,077, up 11.3 percent from last year’s total of $393,871,490 for the same number of days. Average daily handle was $3,294,625, compared to $2,961,440 in 2014. Woodbine recorded significant gains in wagering from the United States, which was impacted by a weakened Canadian dollar. Woodbine’s handle is reported in Canadian dollars.
The Frank De Francis Memorial Dash, which was once of Maryland’s most prestigious stakes races, has been upgraded to a Grade 3 stakes, the owners of Laurel Park announced Thursday.
The $350,000 race was awarded Grade 3 status by the American Graded Stakes Committee in its annual review of U.S. stakes races, according to The Stronach Group, which owns Laurel. The stakes committee, which is administered by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, has not yet announced the results of its full review.
The Stronach Group, which owns a number of racetracks in the United States including Santa Anita Park and Gulfstream Park, filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that a fantasy horse racing site is in violation of federal law because its business is “indisputably a form of wagering on the results of horse races,” according to the suit.
NEW YORK – On Wednesday night, the Christmas tree was lit in Rockefeller Center. Hours earlier and about 12 blocks away, New York Racing Association officials gave a presentation that showed the future of the organization was both merry and bright.
NYRA said it expects to show a profit of $4 million for 2015 – nearly double what it budgeted for – and has budgeted for a profit $2.3 million in 2016. The profit is exclusive of revenue derived from video lottery terminals at the Aqueduct casino.
The Indiana Horse Racing Commission and a veterinarian charged last year with multiple violations of the state’s racing law have reached a settlement agreement that will ban the veterinarian for nine years from the racing industry, according to a copy of the settlement agreement.
