Television Games Network and the New York Racing Association have reached a multiyear extension to an existing contract giving TVG the rights to broadcast and offer betting on NYRA’s races over a variety of platforms, the two sides said Tuesday, four days before the opening of the summer meet at NYRA’s Saratoga Race Course.

Breeders’ Cup announced on Monday a multi-year partnership with the aviation company Sentient Jet, making the company the exclusive private aviation partner of the two-day World Championships and the name-in-title sponsor of the Grade 1, $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Brad Cummings, the co-founder of the website the Paulick Report, is attempting to find support for a horse-racing wager that would be offered through lottery-ticket vendors like convenience stores and automated terminals, Cummings said this week.

Under his plan, lottery vendors would sell daily $2 quick picks that would be partially mingled with a betting pool at a North American racetrack, likely the trifecta pool, Cummings said. In that case, the winning tickets would be determined by the numbers of the horses who fill out the trifecta.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ongoing research into the maintenance of dirt tracks is increasingly pointing to the importance of water content in keeping the surface consistent throughout the oval and on an hour-to-hour, day-to-day basis, according to Dr. Mick Peterson, an expert on measuring track surfaces who is the executive director of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory.

LEXINGTON, Ky., – Owners, trainers, and veterinarians should better work as a team when managing racehorses to assess risks the horse might face when racing and training, a panel of owners, trainers, and vets said Wednesday during the second and final day of the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at the Keeneland sales pavilion.

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act on Tuesday afternoon, which allows licensed veterinarians to freely transport the drugs necessary for their trade.

The act, which was approved by the Senate in January and is expected to be signed into law, amends the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, in which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency bars veterinarians from transporting drugs away from where they are registered to handle them – such as a clinic or a mobile vet’s home base.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Horses need regular intervals of rest or “reduced exercise” during training in order to build bones strong enough to handle the loads encountered during racing, according to Dr. Larry Bramlage, the renowned equine orthopedic surgeon.

Noted equine veterinarian T. Douglas Byars, D.V.M., died Monday at his home in Georgetown, Ky. He was 70.

Byars, a native of San Francisco, Calif., received his undergraduate degree in biology from California Polytechnic University, and later earned his doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of California at Davis. He authored more than 75 articles in professional publications and trade journals.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Lone Star Park has been considered Texas’s flagship track since it opened in 1997 and hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2004. But when the Dallas-area oval closes its Thoroughbred meet Saturday night, it will wrap up arguably its most challenging season in 18 years of operation.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Regulatory veterinarians are increasingly using injury data and the practices of other jurisdictions in determining how to identify at-risk horses before the horses run, according to participants on the opening-day panel on Tuesday at the Safety and Welfare of the Racehorse Summit at the Keeneland sales pavilion.