A bill that would allow wagering on historic race results, better known as Instant Racing, was passed by the Michigan Senate early Friday morning and awaits the approval of Gov. Rick Snyder to become law.

Under the bill’s guidelines, 15 percent of revenues from Instant Racing would go to the horsemen’s purse pool. Also included is a measure to increase Michigan-bred breeders’ awards from 10 percent to 15 percent of a race’s gross purse to the winner. Instant Racing machines are currently in operation at tracks in Arkansas and Kentucky.

The Ohio State Racing Commission on Thursday approved 88 Thoroughbred dates at Beulah Park and 122 dates for Thistledown, leaving unresolved the question of whether Beulah would run additional summer dates to make up for the temporary closure of River Downs.

Betfair, the British-based exchange-wagering company that owns Television Games Network, plans to withdraw from a dozen countries where the company has faced difficult regulatory conditions or questions about its legality, the company said on Thursday when announcing financial results for the past six months.

The countries include Germany, Greece, Canada, and Russia. All together, the countries that Betfair will withdraw from accounted for about 24 percent of its revenue in the last fiscal year, the company said.

Trainer Mike Campbell has won re-election as president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Chicago’s Thoroughbred horsemen’s association.

Campbell defeated his challenger, trainer Tony Granitz, by 506 votes to 239, becoming the first ITHA president in several years to win a second term in office.

NEW YORK -  At the outset of his first meeting as the chairman of the New York Racing Association Reorganization Board, Dr. David Skorton said he would be "depending on a lot of input, listening and learning" from his fellow board members.

A California-based owner has filed an appeal of a Kentucky court decision that upheld a rule restricting where claimed horses can run.

Jerry Jamgotchian said he filed the notice of appeal on Tuesday afternoon in Franklin Circuit Court. In a release accompanying the notice, Jamgotchian said he believes “that all horseowners must have the full and unfettered right to race their claimed horses anywhere, without restriction, and believe that the ruling was made solely to protect Churchill Downs and other Kentucky racetracks.”

Dan Fick, former executive director of the Jockey Club, has been hired to head a Texas organization that is lobbying for slot machines at state racetracks, according to the organization.

Fick, a Texas native who was most recently the director of racing at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, will take his place at the organization on Jan. 1, according to a release. Fick also was the director of racing for the American Quarter Horse Association, headquartered in Amarillo, for nearly 20 years.

A bill that would grant Catskill Off-Track Betting Corporation the legal right to operate OTB parlors in New York City’s five boroughs was sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday, but it is unlikely that the bill will receive his endorsement, according to racing officials.

A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said on Thursday that the bill was “under review.” Azzopardi would not directly comment on Cuomo’s opinion on the bill.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Regulators and racetracks that seek harsh penalties against drug offenders continue to encounter obstacles to the enforcement of those penalties through a legal review process that is increasingly sympathetic to the rights of licensees, panelists at the University of Arizona Global Symposium on Racing and Gaming said on Thursday morning.

Ohio’s racing industry seems to have a lot of promise. Owners of the three Thoroughbred tracks have promised to spend half a billion dollars on new racing facilities and casinos. Horsemen have been guaranteed approximately 10 percent of the casinos’ net revenues for purses. Ohio breeders will share in the largesse with rich additions to the state’s breeding fund.

So how come it’s hard to find anyone smiling?