The Kentucky House passed a bill late on Thursday that would abolish the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and pass its duties on to a newly formed state corporation that would regulate all forms of gambling in the state other than the lottery.

The bill passed in the Senate on Tuesday and has been sent to Gov. Andy Beshear, who has not yet given an indication of whether he will sign the bill. The legislation was supported by Republicans, who have a veto-proof majority in both chambers of the legislature.

The Kentucky Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would create a government corporation that would assume the functions and responsibilities of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

Wagering figures for the recently concluded Fair Grounds meet in New Orleans surged by more than 20 percent, according to an analysis of betting figures conducted by Daily Racing Form, on the strength of increased field size due in large part to the track ironing out problems afflicting its beleaguered turf course last year.

The three major sales companies in the U.S. have agreed on a set of new protocols that are designed to increase oversight of medication use and prohibit the administration of certain drugs, the companies announced Tuesday.

The New York State Gaming Commission on Monday voted to uphold a hearing officer’s recommendations to sustain a 14-day suspension handed down to the Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher due to a 2022 overage of the regulated painkiller medication phenylbutazone.

Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash., will eliminate breakage at its upcoming 2024 meet and pay all winning wagers to the nearest cent, the track announced on Monday.

Emerald will become the first track outside of Kentucky to drop the practice of rounding payoffs to the nearest nickel or dime, a holdover from the days when payouts were distributed in the form of cash and tellers needed to quickly redeem winning wagers. Emerald said in a release that it has estimated that the decision will lead to an additional $400,000 distributed to winning bettors this year.

Veteran racecaller Tony Calo will become the new track announcer at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., when that track opens its meet this summer, according to Ellis’s parent company, Churchill Downs Inc.

Calo, who has called races at Golden Gate Fields, Bay Meadows, and, most recently, Finger Lakes racetrack in upstate New York, was first hired by Churchill Downs last year as the new racecaller for Turfway Park, another Kentucky track that Churchill owns. At Ellis Park, he will replace Jimmy McNerney, who was also the racecaller at Turfway prior to Calo being hired last year.

Tina Marie Bond, a horse owner, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and the wife of trainer H. James Bond, was elected president of the National Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association at the organization’s annual meeting in Florida this week.

Bond, who was elected president of the New York THA last year, is the first woman to head the National THA, which was established in 1994. The organization has had four presidents in its history.

Jockey Declan Carroll will retire from riding, but will remain in the Thoroughbred industry, he announced on social media Wednesday night.

Carroll, 24, said he will be taking a position with trainer Cherie DeVaux and agent David Ingordo’s bloodstock operation. DeVaux – who hung out her shingle in 2018, and whose barn enjoyed a breakout season last year – and Ingordo are married, and frequently collaborate in racing endeavors.