New York's Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Racing plans to develop three separate requests for proposals to operate the New York Racing Association's three racetracks and a casino at Aqueduct beginning in 2008, a spokesman for the committee said Monday after a meeting in New York City.

Santa Anita Park and Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. have reached a settlement of a lawsuit in which Pincay claimed that the track was negligent in treating injuries he sustained in a 2003 accident at the track that eventually led to his retirement, Santa Anita's president, Ron Charles, said on Monday.

Charles declined to provide details of the settlement, but said that attorneys for Santa Anita and Pincay had reached the general terms of the agreement on Monday. Pincay's lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial on May 9.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority unanimously adopted a set of withdrawal guidelines designed to help horsemen avoid post-race positives at a meeting on Friday at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington.

The authority was acting on a unanimous recommendation of the Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council, which met earlier in the day. The withdrawal guidelines were put together by two racetrack veterinarians, Dr. Jorge Colon and Dr. Andy Roberts, who said during both meetings that they had distributed drafts and redrafts of the guidelines to dozens of veterinarians and chemists.

The New York Racing Association intends to satisfy an outstanding $1.125 million tax debt to the state of New York after a $20 million loan package is approved by the state legislature, NYRA's chief executive, Charles Hayward, said on Thursday.

On Tuesday, New York's Department of Taxation and Finance issued a tax warrant against NYRA, claiming that the association failed to pay taxes on parimutuel wagering for two 30-day periods in late 2005. The warrant was attached to NYRA's property as a security against the debt.

Lou Raffetto, the chief operating officer of the Maryland Jockey Club, has been named the president of the MJC, the jockey club announced Thursday.

Veteran jockey Mark Guidry has been named the winner of the 2006 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, Santa Anita announced on Thursday.

The award has been given annually since 1950, and is voted upon by jockeys in reflection of a rider's character and personal accomplishments.

Guidry, 46, has won more than 4,700 races. He will receive the Woolf Award in a presentation at Santa Anita on March 12.

Guidry is riding at Gulfstream Park in Florida and will be based in Kentucky later this year.

The state of New York issued a tax warrant against the New York Racing Association on Tuesday that claims the association owes $1.125 million in taxes from a two-month period late in 2005.

The warrant is for taxes on parimutuel receipts from 30-day periods ending on Nov. 15 and Dec. 15, according to a spokesman for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Michael Bucci.

The Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that slaughterhouses in the United States would be able to pay fees to allow federal inspections of horsemeat at their facilities.

The program, to begin March 10, will allow the three slaughterhouses in operation in the nation to continue to process horse meat this year. Last year, Congress passed a bill that prohibited the agriculture department from providing funds to inspect horsemeat at the facilities for a one-year period beginning in 2006.

The Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association has formed a special committee to investigate charges of wrongdoing leveled against the organization's leadership, but the association's president, Joe Kasperski, continues to insist that the accusations are baseless.

The committee, formed at a board meeting Monday, will be headed by Steve Holland, a prominent local owner, and will meet with a dissident faction of the horsemen's group to sort through the charges.

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has nominated the mayor of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and two state legislators as his appointments to the Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Racing, Silver announced Tuesday.

One of the nominees, Valerie Keehn, was sworn in as mayor of Saratoga Springs in January. The other nominees are Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, chairman of the assembly's Racing and Wagering Committee, and Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, chairwoman of the Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee. Pheffer's district includes the location of Aqueduct.