A federal court of appeals has affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Texas can prohibit companies like Churchill Downs Inc. from taking wagers from state residents over the Internet and phone.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Sept. 24 that a Texas law banning Internet and phone wagering did not violate the Constitution’s protections on interstate commerce, while acknowledging that case law on potential violations of the commerce clause are “quite simply, a mess.” A district court in Texas had previously ruled against Churchill in the matter.

The Thoroughbred Club of America recognized three noted equine veterinarians, Drs. Larry Bramlage, Edward Hagyard Fallon, and A. Gary Lavin, as honored guests during the organization’s 83rd annual testimonial dinner on Sunday at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

The trio became the seventh, eighth and ninth veterinarians to be honored by the TCA. Previous veterinarians honored were Dr. Charles Hagyard, Dr. Arthur Davidson, Dr. William McGee, Dr. Jack Robbins, Dr. DeWitt Owen Jr., and Dr. Robert Copelan.

Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, the chairman of The Jockey Club, has been designated to deliver the keynote address at the International Conference of Horseracing Authorities on Oct. 6 in Paris, the administrator of the conference announced Thursday.

LEXINGTON , Ky. -- The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Thursday approved amendments to its penalty schedule for medication violations, bringing the state largely in line with the recommendations of national groups seeking uniform rules in U.S. racing states.

MTR Gaming, the owner of Mountaineer Park in West Virginia and Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania, has completed a merger with Eldorado Resorts Inc., a small casino operator, in an all-stock transaction.

The combined company will own six casinos, including Scioto Downs in Ohio. The racing operations of both Mountaineer and Presque Isle receive tens of millions of dollars annually in subsidies from the casino side of their businesses.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. – The Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which on Tuesday dealt a fatal blow to Suffolk Downs when it ruled favorably on Wynn Resorts application to site a $1.6 billion casino development only a stone’s throw from the stable gate, will meet later this month to address the track’s imminent closure.

But Suffolk CEO Chip Tuttle said it is too little, too late for the hundreds of employees headed to the unemployment line and for the racing and breeding industry’s 1,500 direct and indirect job holders in the state.

Horses who win races without competing on Lasix during the upcoming meet at Oaklawn Park will receive a purse bonus, Charles Cella, president of the Hot Springs, Ark., track, announced Thursday. The program awards horses a 10 percent supplement to the winner’s share of the purse, with bonuses to range in value from $1,080 to as high as $60,000 for the richest race of the meet, the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby.

The New Jersey Racing Commission on Wednesday adopted a set of medication rules that has been endorsed by most major racing organizations, including a new penalty scheme applying to repeat offenders, according to the executive director of the commission.

Projected purse payments at the Fair Grounds 2014-15 Thoroughbred meeting will be reduced, at least temporarily, by about $2.7 million because of a lawsuit filed by a group of Quarter Horse owners, trainers, and jockeys, Fair Grounds announced Wednesday.

The lawsuit contends that Quarter Horse interests are owed supplementary purse payments derived from betting at Fair Grounds-owned video-poker parlors.

A stake was driven through the heart of the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry in New England on Tuesday, when the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted 3-1 to award the sole Boston-area casino license to Wynn Resorts instead of to Mohegan Sun and partner Suffolk Downs.

Wynn officials must come back to the commission Wednesday morning to agree to a final list of conditions for the license, and then commissioners will take a final vote. But that is perceived as a formality.