LEXINGTON – Keeneland Race Course is seeking to buy a troubled harness track in eastern Kentucky in order to raze the facility and relocate the license to Corbin, Ky., where it will open a casino with hundreds of Instant Racing machines, officials said on Friday.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Wednesday approved the funding of a study designed to determine the regulatory parameters for a corticosteroid that officials say is increasingly being administered to Thoroughbred horses.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Planning for Ontario’s Horse Improvement Program, which will provide funding of up to $30 million for the province’s Thoroughbred and Standardbred sectors, is moving forward for 2013, the Ontario Racing Commission announced Friday.

The mandate of the Horse Improvement Program program is to improve the quality of racing stock in Ontario and promote breeding and ownership in the province through purse supplements and breeder awards for Ontario-breds.

LEXINGTON – A hearing officer in Kentucky has upheld a decision by the licensing committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to deny a racing license to the embattled trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.

The ruling, issued Monday, is largely moot because Dutrow has had his license revoked in New York and is no longer training. Still, the hearing officer’s ruling is noteworthy in establishing the grounds on which the licensing committee can deny licenses to trainers and other racing participants.

Handle on U.S. races in the month of January was down 2.0 percent compared with the same month in 2012, according to figures released by Equibase on Monday, in large part because of a 7 percent contraction in race days during the month.

The Jockeys’ Guild has embarked on a campaign to put pressure on the racing industry by releasing a list of the “top ten” racetracks that it says do not currently contribute to its funding.

The Jockeys’ Guild has endorsed a proposed set of medication rules devised and supported by the Jockey Club, in a statement that specifically referenced the rules’ allowance for the continuing raceday use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide.

A panel of veterinarians put together by the Thoroughbred Owners of California released a policy statement on Saturday supporting the continued raceday use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide.

States that have lowered the threshold level for the popular painkiller phenylbutazone have recorded a fewer number of positives for the drug since the lower levels were adopted, a racing-medication policy group said on Friday.

A bill that would allow Indiana’s racetracks to add casino-style games to their slot-machine operations is expected to be called for a vote in a state senate committee on Wednesday.

The provision allowing for expanded gambling at the casinos at Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park is part of a larger gambling bill that would also allow the state’s 11 “riverboat” casinos to build facilities on land. Supporters of the bill have cited increased competition from casinos and slots parlors in Ohio for the measures.