The California Horse Racing Board moved forward Thursday with a plan to eliminate the coupling of entries for horses with common ownership, even though some members of the public have voiced concern over the issue.
The board is expected to meet via teleconference in early May to discuss the terms of a test period during which entries will be uncoupled for wagering purposes. The test is to take place during the current Hollywood Park meeting and the upcoming Bay Meadows meeting.
Bettors in Las Vegas were able to wager into the parimutuel pools at Hollywood Park on Thursday as the simulcast contract dispute between the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association and Churchill Downs Simulcast Network, which negotiates the rights to Hollywood's signal, was resolved.
The agreement was made official just in time for Thursday's first race at Hollywood, which went off at 1:20 p.m. Pacific.
The contract dispute between the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association and the Churchill Downs Simulcast Network stretched into Wednesday, and Las Vegas casinos had to book the races themselves on the opening card at Hollywood Park instead of participating in the parimutuel pools.
A bill that would divert 3 percent of annual gross receipts from the four biggest Illinois riverboat casinos to racetracks in the state passed the Illinois House of Representatives, 72-32, on Wednesday. The bill must still pass out of the state Senate and be signed by the governor to become law.
The bill came to the floor Wednesday in a different form than when it was defeated in the House two weeks ago. Then, language called for 3 percent of gross receipts from all nine state riverboats to go to racing.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - D.G. Van Clief, the chief executive officer of the Breeders' Cup and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, has informed the boards of both organizations that he intends to retire by the end of the year.
Van Clief will step down at a time of transition at the NTRA and Breeders' Cup, which merged their operations in 2001 and are in negotiations over the renewal of their operating agreement.
Dennis Brida, the executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., has been hired as the vice president of racing operations and industry relations for Empire Racing Associates, the horsemen's group that intends to bid on the franchise held by the New York Racing Association, Empire announced on Tuesday.
Penn National Gaming Inc., the owner of Charles Town Races and Slots, Penn National Racecourse, and 11 other gambling properties, had net income of $42 million in the first quarter of 2006 on revenue of $569.2 million, according to financial documents released Tuesday.
Penn National derives the vast majority of its revenue from its casino properties. In the first quarter of 2006, revenue from Charles Town, Penn National, and Raceway Park in Ohio was $13.6 million, according to the documents, or 2.4 percent of the company's total first-quarter revenue.
Horses whose owners missed the nomination deadline to the Breeders' Cup program can now be nominated to the program for a one-time fee, Breeders' Cup Limited announced in a release Friday.
A horse who was not nominated to the program by the deadline - Dec. 15 of the foal's first year - can now be nominated for a $150,000 late fee if the horse was sired by a nominated stallion. A horse sired by a non-nominated stallion can be nominated for a $250,000 fee.
The New York Racing Association plans to use 82 permanent stalls at Saratoga Race Course this year in its race-day security program, up from 30 permanent stalls last year.
Charles Hayward, the chief executive of NYRA, said on Thursday that most of the new permanent stalls will be located in Barn 29, which has a total of 52 spaces. Fifteen stalls each in Barns 27 and 28 that were used for the program last year will be utilized again this year, Hayward said, along with 23 stalls in a temporary structure on the backstretch.
