Dr. Dana Stead, who resigned last year from the position of track veterinarian for tracks on the Southern California circuit, has been hired by Churchill Downs Inc. to the new position of Equine Safety and Integrity Veterinarian, Churchill announced on Wednesday.

Stead will work alongside Dr. William Farmer, Churchill’s equine medical director, in “fulfilling a core commitment to equine safety” at Churchill’s Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks, Churchill said. He will begin in his position on Feb. 5, Churchill said.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has approved funding for three studies that will examine the use of furosemide, the diuretic that is used to mitigate bleeding in the lungs, in racehorses, part of a mandate contained in its enabling legislation.

The three studies were approved by HISA’s Board of Directors following recommendations issued by its Furosemide Advisory Committee. The costs of the three studies will be $773,500, HISA said.

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a number of rules and regulations that would seek to improve oversight of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the national regulatory body that was created in 2020 to replace the sport’s state-by-state regulatory structure.

Horses stabled at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. that receive a corticosteroid injection in the fetlock joint will need to have the joint radiographed before a second administration within 60 days of the first injection, according to a new policy announced by the track on Thursday.

The new policy was implemented on Thursday. It arose out of discussions between the local horsemen’s group and the track, which began a trial project at the start of its meet last year in which all joint injections are monitored by regulatory personnel.

The fate of Thoroughbred racing in Northern California will be largely determined in the next 60 days.

With Golden Gate Fields scheduled to close in June, a group of owners, breeders, and trainers are scrambling to start a race meeting in late September at the Cal-Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento or the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton that will serve as a replacement venue.

The goal is to provide continuity for the sport in that part of the state following the summertime county fair meetings at Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and Ferndale.

Aidan Butler, the chief executive of a division of 1/ST, the racing company, has been promoted to president of the company, 1/ST announced on Wednesday.

Butler had previously led the 1/ST Racing and Gaming Division. Belinda Stronach, who took over the racing assets of 1/ST from her father, Frank, in 2018, had previously served as president, chief executive officer, and chairman of 1/ST, but she will cede the president title to Butler, the company said in a release.

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey has issued a pocket veto of a bill passed early this year that would have directed $10 million in annual subsidies to Thoroughbred purses from 2025 to 2029, but racing officials said they were confident that the bill would find support in the current legislative session.

The bill was passed by the Senate on Jan. 8 by a vote of 35-1 in the final days of the 2023-24 lame-duck legislative session, which has since ended. Late in 2023, the House passed the bill by a vote of 73-0.

John Harris, former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board and one of the most prominent owner-breeders on the West Coast, has joined the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Owners of California along with owner-breeder Ty Green and trainer Andy Mathis.

The TOC announced the appointments on Wednesday after discussions by current board members, according to TOC president and chief executive officer Bill Nader. Harris, Green, and Mathis will need to run for re-election later this year, Nader said.

Supporters of a plan to consolidate racing in Maryland at a rebuilt Pimlico Race Course operated by a new not-for-profit company are urging the state’s horsemen to rally behind the proposal, under the contention that legislators will need to be convinced the plan has widespread backing before agreeing to elements of the proposal.

Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pa., opens its year-long meet today with a curtailed racing schedule and two new extended breaks scheduled for the spring and fall, in a plan designed to boost purses in a competitive market.