Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) have reached an agreement to resolve a dispute over dues the racing company owes to the authority, according to a notice posted on HISA’s website and a legal filing by Churchill Downs, both on Tuesday.
The fatality rate at North American racetracks that participate in the Equine Injury Database (EID) fell in 2025 to its lowest level ever recorded, at 1.07 per 1,000 starts, according to statistics released Tuesday by The Jockey Club, which maintains the database.
The 1.07 rate is a 47 percent drop in the rate since injury and fatality data began being collected by the Thoroughbred industry in 2009. The rate that year, when the U.S. racing industry began to be put under enormous pressure to improve its safety record, was 2.00 per 1,000 starts.
Churchill Downs Inc. has requested a stay of an order issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority requiring the track to pay nearly $5.3 million in unpaid dues and interest, officials of HISA confirmed on Friday.
CDI has also appealed the ruling, but the stay is expected to be argued within the next week, according to the officials. Under the order, CDI had 10 days from the issuance of the order on Monday night to appeal.
The Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit will return in 2026 and be held on June 29-30 at the Keeneland Sales Pavilion in Lexington, the sponsors of the conference announced on Wednesday.
The summit, which was last held in 2024, will include presentations on the latest analysis of the Equine Injury Database, the jockey scale of weights, vet scratches, pre-racing equine surgeries, track surfaces, and other topics, according to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. The entire Tuesday morning schedule will be devoted to the use of diagnostic equipment.
A panel of board members of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has issued a ruling requiring Churchill Downs Inc. to pay approximately $5.3 million in unpaid dues and interest within the next 10 days or lose its ability to send signals from its racetracks to out-of-state locations.
The ruling can be appealed by Churchill Downs Inc. to the full board within 10 days, according to HISA.
A former employee of the Penn National racing office has been arrested and charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the racetrack, according to records filed by the state police.
Jennifer Petrillo, a former bookkeeper in the racing office, was arrested on March 12 and charged with felony counts of forgery and counterfeiting.
The Florida legislature adjourned its regular 2026 session on Friday without the state Senate taking up a bill that would have allowed Gulfstream Park to decouple its racing and casino licenses, the second straight year that a decoupling measure failed to win approval.
Sam Calvario, who tied for first in the trainer’s standings at the Golden State Racing meeting at Pleasanton in the fall of 2024, was suspended by Santa Anita stewards for an outstanding debt on Feb. 28, according to a published ruling.
Reached at his home in Richmond, Calif., on Thursday, Calvario said he has left racing. He said he plans to spend more time with his family.
The ruling stated that Calvario owes David Hatanaka’s Dave’s Hay Barn $51,340.
A New York appeals court has sent a nearly four-year-old case involving an overage for a regulated medication in a horse trained by Todd Pletcher back to the New York State Gaming Commission for a new hearing.
The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled unanimously that a hearing that resulted in a 14-day suspension for Pletcher was “fundamentally unfair” because it relied on “hearsay” evidence on the reliability of the drug tests that were used in the case. The ruling mandated that the NYSGC hold a new hearing in the matter.
