A group of racetracks and racing industry organizations has set a goal of raising $1 million in contributions by June 15 in order to aid 60 permanently disabled jockeys, racing officials said Wednesday.

The fund raising campaign grew out of several discussions over the past two months between the racing organizations and the Jockeys' Guild, a riders' organization that has struggled with its finances for several years.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority unanimously approved on Monday an advisory to horsemen stating that the painkiller naproxen should not be administered within 120 hours of a race.

All-sources handle on U.S. races climbed 3.7 percent in the first quarter of 2006 compared with the first quarter of 2005, reversing a downward trend that began two years ago, according to statistics released by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Equibase on Friday.

Handle in the first quarter was $3,590,607,272, compared with $3,461,489,365 in 2005, according to the statistics. Last year, the first-quarter handle was down 6 percent from the first quarter in 2004.

In an effort to try and maintain field size when turf races are moved to the main track, the New York Racing Association plans to raise purses of off-the-turf races by 20 percent provided that at least eight betting interests remain in the field.

The plan, which goes into effect with the opening of the Belmont spring meet on May 3, does not apply to traditional or overnight stakes races.

Seldon Ledford, an Illinois-based harness trainer at the center of a blood-doping investigation in New Jersey, was suspended Wednesday by the New Jersey Racing Commission for 10 1/2 years and fined $12,000.

John Roark, the president of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, and Tom Metzen Sr., the association's central region vice president, resigned on Wednesday in order to pursue the formation of a company that will seek simulcasting contracts for U.S. races in foreign countries.

The Maryland Racing Commission on Tuesday approved an agreement between the state's racetracks and horsemen that dictates how revenue from alternative gaming and simulcasting are to be divided, according to state racing officials.

B. Giles Brophy, a co-owner of 1991 Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold, died Sunday while visiting farms in South Carolina, according to family members. Brophy, 68, had been battling cancer.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A bill that would raise the takeout on Kentucky races in order to fund workers' compensation insurance for jockeys has little chance of passage during the last days of the state legislature, according to a state senator and racing lobbyist.

Robert F. Flynn, a member of the New York Racing Association Board of Trustees since December 2004, resigned from the board on Thursday, citing the need to concentrate more on his job as executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

Flynn has been executive director of the horsemen's association for 12 years.

"If you have two jobs and one pays a salary and one doesn't, you have to select the one that pays the salary," Flynn said.