LEXINGTON, Ky. – If you’re looking for evidence that ex-racehorses, even ones that couldn’t win at lower claiming levels, can be stars in second careers, take a look at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event’s entry list.

Jamie Haydon, the Jockey Club’s manager of industry initiatives since 2008, has been hired by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium as its interim executive director, the RMTC announced following a board meeting in Dallas on Tuesday.

A subcommittee of the House of Representative’s Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled a hearing for April 30 to examine health and welfare issues surrounding the racing industry, according to a notice from the committee.

The hearing, called by the Subcommittee on Health, will be held in a high school auditorium in Kennett Square, Pa., about 25 miles from Philadelphia. The chairman of the subcommittee is Rep. Joe Pitts, a Republican who represents Lancaster, Chester, and Berks counties in the House.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Following reports that a deal was in the works to sell historic Calumet Farm privately to billionaire Thoroughbred owner Brad Kelley, the chairman of Calumet’s advisory board said Thursday that no deal has been consummated yet.

The Paulick Report.com reported Wednesday night that Kelley, who owns Hurricane Hall and Bluegrass Hall, was close to making the purchase for an undisclosed amount.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – An attempt to override Gov. Dave Heineman’s veto of the legislative bill that would allow the state’s racetracks to install Instant Racing machines, failed after more than an hour and a half of debate in the session’s closing day on Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha, fell one vote shy of the 30 needed to override the governor’s veto on its first vote Wednesday morning. A motion to reconsider failed by a roll call vote of 29-20, killing the legislation.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A regulation that would phase out the raceday use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide in Kentucky over the next three years failed by the slimmest of margins on Monday when the 14-member Kentucky Horse Racing Commission split the vote, causing the measure’s defeat.

The Kentucky Racing Commission Monday failed to pass a recommendation from its raceday drug committee to ban the anti-bleeding medication furosemide when a vote of the full commission ended in a 7-7 tie. Earlier in the day the committee voted in support of a regulation to phase out the drug starting with 2-year-olds in 2013. 

The committee had voted to recommend the ban by a 4-1 margin.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will likely call for an up or down vote on the prohibition of the raceday administration of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide at a meeting on Monday, according to several officials who have knowledge of the committee’s plans.

The New York Racing Association is challenging the methodology used by the New York Times in a March  25 article that reported a high incident rate of injury at Saratoga Race Course over a three-year period.

According to the Times article, Saratoga had an incident rate of 5.5 horses per 1,000 starters from 2009 through 2011. The Times purchased data from Equibase and used the terminology used by chart callers to calculate their figures. Among the terms the Times used to calculate their incident rate were “vanned off,” “lame,” and “went wrong.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Clenbuterol, a bronchodilator that also is sometimes used to build muscle, may be prohibited at any level in post-race tests for Thoroughbreds in California as early as this summer, according to discussions at the California Horse Racing Board track safety and medication committee meeting on Wednesday.