A group of 40 owners have signed a pledge to race their 2-year-old horses this year without raceday furosemide, the anti-bleeding medication that has been the topic of a heated debate in racing for the past year.

Churchill Downs Inc. is one of 30-plus companies to have submitted applications for an online poker license in Nevada, officials of the Nevada Gaming Control Board confirmed on Wednesday.

The application for an online poker license follows Churchill’s acquisition earlier this year of Bluff Media, a multimedia poker company that owns several undeveloped website domains. Churchill officials have said that they plan to explore opportunities in online gambling as they become available as the company seeks to diversify with businesses outside of racing.

Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico used a three-hour Senate hearing on Thursday to gauge the level of support in the racing industry for federal regulation, at times threatening to scuttle the industry's federal authority to conduct state-to-state simulcast wagering if it did not address critics of its medication policies and regulation.

Dr. Dionne Benson, a former lawyer who recently completed a veterinary internship at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, has been hired as the executive director and chief operating officer of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, the organization announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has scheduled a hearing on Thursday in Washington, D.C., to discuss “the prevalence and use of medication and performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing,” according to a notice the committee posted last week.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wagering, purses, and race days in the United States all rose in June, contributing to increases in those categories for the year to date, as well.

The Equibase Company released data Thursday showing that wagering on U.S. races climbed 7 percent in June 2012, as compared to June 2011, from $886,892,710 last year to $948,859,061. Purses also gained 13 percent, rising from last year’s $96,823,566 to $109,507,231. And race days also increased 10 percent, from 542 in June 2011 to 595 this year.

A California jury has awarded $48,750 in actual damages and $50,000 in punitive damages to horse owner Jeffrey Nielsen of Minnesota stemming from a 2009 lawsuit against trainer Julio Canani and horse owner Roger Licht for the sale of some of Nielsen’s California-based horses in 2008.

The suit alleged that Canani convinced Nielsen to sell horses at low prices, and then turned around and resold them for higher values.

The ruling was released on June 28. The decision was first reported by Paulickreport.com.

Anthony Agilar is the fifth trainer in Louisiana to be suspended six months for a dermorphin positive in a ruling issued by the stewards at Evangeline Downs.

His case has been referred to the Louisiana Racing Commission for further action, said Larry Munster, assistant executive director of the commission. Agilar’s hearing before the stewards was held Saturday, and he has filed for and been granted an appeal, according to Munster.

James Gagliano, the president and chief operating officer of the Jockey Club, said in an open letter Friday that recent positives for the powerful painkiller dermorphin have demonstrated the industry’s need to adopt stricter enforcement and harsher penalties for drug violations.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board voted on Thursday to conduct further hearings on rules for exchange betting in the next month before revisiting the possible implementation of the rules later this summer. As a result, exchange betting is not expected to start in California until the fall, at the earliest.

The racing board had the option of adopting 26 rules pertaining to exchange betting and sending the rules to the state’s office of administrative law for a required legal review.