Youbet.com, the online horse race wagering and broadcast company, intends to raise $18.5 million with a stock offering of 6.2 million shares, the company announced Monday morning.
The shares will be priced at $3.25, Youbet.com said in a release, a discount of 23 cents compared with the price of Youbet shares on Monday morning. The company will use the cash to pay for its acquisition earlier this year of United Tote, the bet-processing company.
Trainer Todd Pletcher's 45-day suspension did not start on Monday as expected, according to the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.
A board spokesman on Monday said that the board will most likely take up Pletcher's case at its monthly board meeting on Thursday, at which point "it is anticipated that the board will set Dec. 27 as the start date for his 45-day suspension," said board spokesman Daniel Toomey.
Pletcher's name does not appear on the board meeting's agenda for Thursday, though Toomey said it could be added.
Arravale, a Kentucky-bred owned by Bob Costigan and trained at Woodbine by Mac Benson, was the solid choice in both the Horse of the Year and turf female categories in the balloting conducted by the Jockey Club of Canada.
A total of 61 voters participated, naming their top three choices in each division, with points assigned on a 4-2-1 basis.
True Metropolitan, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Bob Cheema and trained by Terry Jordan, was second in the Horse of the Year voting and was a hands-down choice in the older male category.
Santa Anita and Golden Gate will begin common-pooling with Canadian jurisdictions effective Dec. 28, the Woodbine Entertainment Group announced Thursday.
Woodbine will match Santa Anita's takeout rates for win, exacta, quinella and daily double pools. Takeouts for the remaining pools will be similar to those used for other commingled tracks, but the exotic pools will also reflect the mandatory California tax of 0.5 percent for common-pool participants.
Santa Anita will allow Canadian bettors to meet their wager minimums, which include a $2 pick six, in Canadian dollars.
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority has entered into an agreement with Television Games Network giving the network exclusive television and account-wagering rights to the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park, the authority and TVG announced Saturday.
The agreement is formally effective Jan. 1, but TVG was scheduled to begin televising and taking bets on Meadowlands races Saturday.
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium recommended Thursday that the racing industry immediately prohibit the use of anabolic steroids, citing the potential for the drugs to damage the perception of racing.
The recommendation was made by Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director of the California Horse Racing Board, during a panel at the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming and is certain to be controversial.
Christopher McErlean has resigned as vice president of racing operations of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, effective Jan. 5, 2007, to join Penn National Gaming Inc. as vice president of racing. McErlean, 39, will oversee racing operations at Penn National's six racetracks and six offtrack wagering facilities.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Bet-processing companies are increasingly looking to develop ways to allow bettors to use their own devices to hook into the racing industry's wagering network, officials of totalizator companies said Wednesday at the University of Arizona's Symposium on Racing and Gaming in Tucson.
Jockey John Velazquez has been re-elected chairman of the Jockeys' Guild to a new one-year term as a result of voting at the guild's annual meeting in Las Vegas on Monday.
Velazquez, a two-time Eclipse Award winner as the nation's top rider, was first elected interim chairman of the guild in November 2005, when the guild's membership replaced many of its board members in order to fire its chief executive, L. Wayne Gertmenian, and Gertmenian's management company. Velazquez was formally elected earlier this year.
TUCSON, Ariz. - State racing regulators and a racetrack-funded investigation group remain at odds over the best strategy to monitor the racing industry's bet-processing network for fraud, according to officials who spoke Tuesday morning at the University of Arizona's Symposium on Racing in Tucson.