Betting on U.S. horse races in October of this year was down 8.8 percent compared with betting in the same month in 2011, according to figures released on Monday be Equibase.

The drop in handle coincided with a similar decline in the number of race days in the month compared with October of last year. Race days declined 7.8 percent, from 471 last October to 434 this October, as tracks continue to cut race days in order to counter dramatic drops in the annual foal crop stretching back to 2006.

Total commingled handle on the nine Breeders’ Cup races Saturday at Santa Anita Park dropped 8.8 percent compared with last year's event at Churchill Downs, according to a chart-by-chart analysis of the races.

Coupled with an 11.7 percent decline in betting on the six Friday races, total commingled betting for the 15 Breeders’ Cup races held at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday was down 9.5 percent, from $140.1 million last year to $126.8 million this year. It was the second year in a row that betting on the Breeders’ Cup has declined on a year-over-year basis.

Six days before statewide elections for the Kentucky Senate and House of Representatives, Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, said that he would push for legislation in the short 2013 legislative session calling for a referendum on the establishment of casinos in the state.

Beshear reiterated his support for casinos at a time when the state Democratic Party is hoping to fend off challenges in many election contests for House seats next week. The Democrats currently control the House, while the Republicans control the Senate.

Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company in Marion County, Fla., plans to run a Quarter Horse race and a Thoroughbred race on Dec. 11 to activate a 25-year-old permit for Quarter Horse racing that would allow the track to pursue a card room or other forms of gambling that might one day be legalized for permit holders, officials of the company confirmed on Thursday.

Churchill Downs Inc. has closed its acquisition of a casino in Vicksburg, Miss., following approval of its gambling license from the state’s gambling commission.

The casino is the second that Churchill has purchased in Mississippi over the past two years. The company is paying $141 million for the property, which includes an 80-room hotel and a 5,600-square foot amphitheater.

Daily Racing Form has announced the launch of DRF Breeding, which will greatly expand its portfolio of editorial content and product offerings to serve Thoroughbred racing’s sales and breeding market. DRF Breeding will debut with coverage of the November breeding stock sales.

John Hendrickson, who was appointed on Thursday by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be a special advisor to the New York Racing Association’s board of directors, will not have a voting role on the 17-member board, Hendrickson said on Friday. But he has been asked to “protect and enhance” NYRA’s Saratoga racetrack and the town where it is located, Saratoga Springs.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday afternoon appointed David Skorton, president of Cornell University, to chair a newly constituted board of directors at the New York Racing Association.

Skorton is a cardiologist, professor of biomedical engineering, and a professor in the Weill Cornell Medical College’s Department of Medicine and Pediatrics. Cornell is the home to a leading equine hospital, and the university formerly conducted drug-testing on behalf of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.

Penn National Gaming Inc., the owner of 28 gambling properties in North America, including several racetrack-casinos, had net income of $46.5 million in the third quarter of 2012, down 34 percent from net income of $70.8 million in the third quarter last year, according to financial statements released on Thursday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The sudden resignation of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty on Monday evening should have no direct impact on the upcoming final report from the horse racing transition panel.

The report, compiled by former Ontario cabinet ministers Elmer Buchanan, John Snobelen, and John Wilkinson was submitted to Ted McMeekin, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food, and rural affairs, on Monday, just more than two weeks past its original due date after the panel requested an extension.