A Kentucky judge has granted former Kentucky chief state steward John Veitch a stay of a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ruling that prevented him from seeking a racing license for one year, according to a copy of the ruling.

Kentucky Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate granted the stay on Wednesday at the request of Tom Miller, Veitch’s lawyer, who had earlier filed a 30-page motion disputing the penalty. The racing commission issued the one-year penalty in February, several months after Veitch had been fired as chief state steward without cause.

Bill Hodtwalker

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – After winning narrow approval in the legislature last week, a bill which would authorize Instant Racing machines at racetracks in Nebraska, has been vetoed by Gov. Dave Heineman, and returned without consent to the Legislature.

The bill passed on final reading last Thursday by a vote of a 26-18 vote with five senators not voting. An override of the veto would require 30 votes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jambalaya never won a Sovereign Award, as his major accomplishments came during a season in which he did not make the requisite three starts in Canada.

But, Jambalaya has been accorded an honor which has eluded many, many Sovereign Award winners as he is among the 2012 inductees to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

The inductees were announced on Tuesday following the vote of 20 members of the Hall of Fame election committee, who chose from lists of three candidates submitted by the group’s nominations committee in each of five categories.

Nancy Purcell, an owner of a small string of racehorses in upstate New York, was looking for a cheap prospect to run at Finger Lakes. Through a friend, she was directed to an Ohio operation, Stillfork Farm, that had several prospects, including a 4-year-old filly, Ohbabyobeyme, who had broken her maiden at Saratoga in August 2011 for a claiming tag of $20,000 but who had been laid up since the win.

“I thought she would fit in with exactly what I wanted,” Purcell said. “Here was a horse that didn’t fit at Saratoga, but probably would be competitive at Finger Lakes.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The vote for Canada's Horse of the Year couldn't have been any closer.

But when the top three choices of 37 Sovereign Award voters had been graded on a 4-2-1 basis, the talented multiple stakes-winning older turf mare Never Retreat was the winner by a 78-76 margin over Inglorious, who had captured last year's Woodbine Oaks and Queen's Plate.

The Horse of the Year presentation was the climax of Thursday night's Sovereign Award celebrations here at Woodbine and a sellout crowd of 300 was on hand to fete the winners.

Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs has launched an interactive website for its in-house Thoroughbred retirement program, partly in hopes that it will become a central source of information about all Thoroughbred industry adoption and retirement programs.

The Breeders’ Cup has approved a rule change that will ban trainers from participating in its year-end event if they have served a penalty for a horse testing positive for a Class 2, Category A drug in the past 12 months, effective with this year’s event.

Handle and purses at U.S. racetracks soared in March compared to the same month last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by Equibase, continuing a string of unlikely monthly improvements for a sport that has suffered serious declines over the past three years.

Handle jumped 9.5 percent in the month compared to last March, from $899.3 million to $984.4 million, while purses were up 12.4 percent, from $78.3 million to $88 million. Race days were up 1.8 percent, from 387 to 394, so the gain in handle outpaced the addition of race days.

With an influx of $5.3 million from the state's casinos and horsemen, Laurel Park and Pimlico Racecourse in Maryland cut their losses in 2011, according to financial statements filed with the Maryland Racing Commission on Monday. The combined 2011 loss - $5.3 million - is a significant improvement from 2010, when the two tracks lost a combined total of $20 million.

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board passed a rule on Monday that will void a claim for any horse that is euthanized on the track. The rule, passed on an emergency basis, will go into effect immediately.

With the adoption of the rule, New York becomes the second state to pass a rule allowing for the voiding of a claim for a horse that is injured during a race and subsequently euthanized – as long as the horse is euthanized before being removed from the track. California passed an identical rule last year.