SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Exclusions by racetracks are likely to become extremely rare due to the advent of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the lessons learned from the still-running Bob Baffert case involving the 2021 Kentucky Derby, officials at the Racing and Gaming Conference said on Tuesday afternoon at the Saratoga Hilton.
Officials of 1/ST Racing, the owner of Pimlico Race Course in Maryland, have said that they intend to start a “discussion” about the possibility of running the Preakness Stakes at a later date, a move that would disrupt the traditional spacing of the Triple Crown, officials of 1/ST confirmed on Thursday.
All of Kentucky’s racetracks with the exception of Keeneland have submitted applications to open on-site sports-betting locations starting on Sept. 7, government officials said on Thursday.
Churchill Downs, Ellis Park, Turfway Park, and The Red Mile were among the seven tracks to have submitted the license applications by Thursday. Keeneland has announced that it will forgo an on-site location and instead partner with The Red Mile, a harness track in downtown Lexington, on a retail sports-betting site.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority had a $619,000 operating loss in 2022 on top of a $2.6 million operating loss in the year prior, when it had no sources of revenue, according to tax filings that were made available by the non-profit company on Wednesday.
Welder, who is scheduled to be inducted into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame, has taken up residence at Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky., according to a press release from Remington Park.
Welder holds the track’s record for Remington wins with 16. He retired from racing in 2021 and has moved to Old Friends, as his base of Ra-Max Farms in Claremore, Okla., is closing down operations, according to the press release. Clayton Rash, who co-owned the farm, died in January 2022.
Terry Finley, president and chief executive officer of West Point Thoroughbreds, a racing partnership, has been elected to The Jockey Club board of stewards, the organization announced Monday.
Finley has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2019, and he has been active throughout his career with horsemen’s groups based in New York. Finley was elected to fill the spot vacated by Vinnie Viola, whose term had expired.
Wagering on Thoroughbred races at U.S. tracks was down marginally on a per-race basis in July when compared to July 2022, though the total amount bet dropped nearly $80 million, according to statistics released by Equibase on Sunday.
The average, $321,981, dipped 0.5 percent during a month when U.S. tracks held 3,316 races, down 6.2 percent compared to the number of races held in July of last year. During the month, racetracks throughout the Midwest and along the East Coast canceled cards due to excessive heat and the return of wildfire smoke from Canada.
Linda Doane of The Healing Place in Louisville, Ky., has been named the winner of the Dr. J. David “Doc” Richardson Community Award, with Francisco Torres of the Backstretch Employee Service Team the runner-up for that honor, an awards committee announced as it also revealed finalists for the 2023 Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards this week.
Doane will be recognized and winners in other categories named as an annual awards ceremony is hosted Oct. 17 by Keeneland.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The U.S. racing industry should use the “foundation” provided by the implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to pursue other shared goals, such as capitalizing on international markets and speaking with a unified voice on marketing initiatives, the chairman of The Jockey Club said at the close of the organization’s annual Round Table on Matters Pertaining to Racing on Thursday.
