The Breeders' Cup has adopted a policy that will bar a trainer from participating in any of its 14 season-ending races for one year if the trainer has a horse that tests positive for an illegal level of anabolic steroids in one of the races, the organization announced on Friday.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jeff Mullins reached into a small refrigerator in his stable office at Del Mar on Wednesday and pulled out a small sealed container full of fluid. The contents, a urine sample, were bound for the state's equine drug testing laboratory at the University of California-Davis later this week to be screened for anabolic steroids.

"There's three more just like that," he said.

Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a Republican from Louisiana, has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would eliminate the withholding tax on parimutuel winnings of $5,000 or more for bets that pay off at odds of greater than 300-1.

The elimination of the withholding tax has been pushed by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association for several years, but lobbyists for the organization have not been successful in finding a sponsor for a stand-alone bill until now.

The Keeneland September yearling sale has a record catalog of 5,555 horses this year, edging past last year’s mark by just two horses, Keeneland announced Tuesday.

The auction will run from Sept. 8 to 23 at the Keeneland sales pavilion in Lexington, Ky., with a dark day scheduled for Friday, Sept. 12. The catalog includes 2,827 colts, 2,727 fillies, and one gelding.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A new nationwide database of equine racing injuries eventually could help researchers and veterinarians identify at-risk horses before they break down, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's equine medical director said Thursday.

Mammad Mirza Huseynov, the buyer of the $800,000 sale-topping Storm Cat colt at Keeneland’s 2-year-old sale in April, has now purchased a farm in the Lexington, Ky., area.

Huseynov and his wife purchased the former Saddlebred property Brookhill Farm on Yarnallton Road in early July, according to Kentucky bloodstock agent Hanzly Albina, who said Husyenov has hired him to be his chief of North American operations. The Huseynovs already have a large breeding and racing operation in Azerbaijan.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Two-time Grade 1 winner Tomisue’s Delight, a full sister to 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft and the dam of stakes-placed Save Big Money, was euthanized on Wednesday due to complications from colic surgery, according to a release issued Friday by Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky. The A. P. Indy mare was 14.

All-sources handle in the United States and Canada declined 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008, according to figures released by Equibase and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association on Friday, reflecting the impact of widespread blackouts of racing signals during the period.

Handle was $3,837,687,728, down from $4,003,960,415 in the second quarter last year. Handle in the United States and Canada has declined in three of the last four years as the racing industry struggles to maintain its share of the wagering market.

The Breeders' Cup board of directors elected two members Friday, Helen Alexander of Middlebrook Farm and Roy Jackson of Lael Stables. Five others were also reelected to the board. They are: Antony Beck, William S. Farish, Jr., Terrence P. Finley, R.D. Hubbard and Satish K. Sanan. Each member will serve a two-year term that will commence in September. Farish retained his position as chairman of the board.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The select yearling sale season opens Monday with Fasig-Tipton's two-day July yearling sale, the first auction at Fasig-Tipton's Lexington headquarters since the Dubai company Synergy purchased the historic sale company.

Fasig-Tipton executives say that, despite that dramatic change in ownership, little else will change in the short-term.