TUCSON, Ariz. - Betfair, the online wagering operation, has made offers to California racetracks and horsemen to apply a 10-percent commission on bets made through its betting exchange, a far higher rate than the company applies to its customers in overseas jurisdictions, the company's U.S. president, Stephen Burn, said on Wednesday afternoon during a panel discussion at the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Racetracks will not know where to set their takeout rates until the industry conducts a scientifically valid study of the issue using economic field trials and updated data on betting behavior, participants on a panel focusing on takeout said on Wednesday morning at the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming.

The Jockeys’ Guild has offered to open up its books to an independent auditor in response to comments by Churchill Downs Inc. that the guild has declined to reveal how it spends voluntary contributions from racetracks.

The Woodbine Entertainment Group and a simulcast-marketing company reached an agreement late Wednesday that will avert a blackout in Canada of the popular signals from Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs, an official involved in the negotiations said Thursday.

LEXINGTON – The Jockeys’ Guild has pulled out all the stops over the last few months to draw attention to the decision by Churchill Downs Inc. to allow a contract providing $330,000 to the guild to expire at the end of this year, holding press conferences, submitting petitions, and sending letters to state congressmen critical of the decision. The strategy makes good sense for the guild, considering the size of the payment, but the efforts also obscure the fact that roughly three dozen other tracks do not provide the payments as well.

Television Games Network has hired the former New York racing executive Hal Handel to advise the company on its efforts to establish a foothold in the U.S. for exchange betting, the company announced on Thursday.

Handel, who has also held top positions in the racing industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, will “provide strategic advice and direction to TVG’s television network and its [account-wagering] business,” TVG said in a release, and “will also act as a liaison between the company and key stakeholders in the U.S. racing industry.”

The casino at Aqueduct that opened Oct. 28 has so far posted revenue numbers far above its initial projections, with per-machine figures nearly double that of any casino on the Eastern seaboard, according to figures from state gambling agencies.

After months of discussions with an upstart group of horsemen, the Thoroughbred Owners of California is expected to increase from three to six the number of owner-trainers that can be elected to its 15-person board next year.

The Louisiana Racing Commission has lowered the permitted threshold levels for the anti-inflammatory drugs Flunixin and Phenylbutazone in graded stakes in a policy that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012. The action was taken at a Monday commission meeting brings Louisiana into compliance with the graded-stakes accreditation requirements set by TOBA.

Flunixin’s threshold in graded races has been reduced from 50 nanograms per milliliter to 20, according to commission officials. The thresholds for Phenylbutazone have dropped from 5 micrograms per milliliter to 2.