ARCADIA, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board voted against proposed 2026 county fair race meetings in Red Bluff and Ferndale on Thursday, a severe setback in the effort to revive racing in the northern part of the state.
The Tehama County Fair in Red Bluff requested a four-week meeting in May; the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale sought to race four weeks in August. On Thursday, the racing board voted 4-2 to reject both proposals.
Trainers should be on the lookout for “non-specific” lameness in the hind ends of horses that are entering training as a precaution for avoiding fatal injuries in the upper bones of the rear legs, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority said in an Equine Health Advisory issued on Thursday.
The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction that would prevent Churchill Downs Inc. from accepting bets from state residents through its account-wagering company, according to court records.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has filed a complaint to its board alleging that Churchill Downs has failed to pay $2.4 million to the authority for services provided in 2025, according to a notice posted to HISA’s website on Wednesday.
John Ortiz, a trainer based in New York, is facing the loss of nearly $500,000 in purses after five of his horses tested positive for the regulated anti-inflammatory dexamethasone over a three-week period in November and December of last year, according to records posted on the website of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.
One of the horses, Braverthanubelieve, tested positive for dexamethasone twice – after a maiden win on Nov. 11 and then after winning the $500,000 New York Stallion Stakes Series on Dec. 6.
The Florida House of Representatives on Wednesday night overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow the state’s two remaining Thoroughbred tracks to operate casinos without a requirement to run live races, but a similar bill in the Senate is expected to face an uphill climb.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 77 to 34, one week after a stripped-down version of the bill passed out of the House Commerce Committee. The bill would allow both Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach and Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar to “decouple” their gambling and racing licenses.
The chairman of the Texas Racing Commission said Wednesday that a response to a cease-and-desist order the commission recently sent to Churchill Downs Inc. regarding the entry of the company’s account-wagering operation into the state is being reviewed by the office of the state’s governor and its attorney general.
The chairman, Robert C. Pate, a judge, said that the state officials had begun a review of the response but did not offer any other specifics.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and keep the industry up to date,” Pate said.
The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has suspended the probationary accreditation status of a drug-testing lab operated by the Ohio Department of Agriculture for a minimum of six months, HIWU announced on Tuesday.
In a release, HIWU said that the suspension was put in place on the recommendation of its Laboratory Expert Group due to “nonconformities” with the accreditation standards that HIWU began enforcing at the start of 2025. HIWU is the enforcement arm of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
New restrictions on betting by computer-assisted wagering programs put in place on Thursday by the New York Racing Association were suspended on Friday, NYRA announced just before the day’s card was scheduled to start.
The suspension was related to “technical upgrades to the tote system,” according to Patrick McKenna, the vice president of communications for NYRA. The upgrades are expected to be completed by Feb. 11, the next day of racing at NYRA’s Aqueduct racetrack following Friday’s card.
Widespread winter-related cancellations at tracks throughout the Midwest and Northeast led to a 13.6 percent decline in the number of races at Thoroughbred tracks and a 6.1 percent drop in handle in the month of January when compared to the same month last year, according to figures released by Equibase on Thursday.
Although total wagering declined nearly $50 million for the month, the Equibase figures show that a large amount of handle migrated to other tracks in the face of the cancellations, with average wagering per race jumping 8.6 percent compared to January 2025.
