Merv Peters, a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, died on Tuesday after a long illness at 91.

Peters’s association with horse racing began in 1952, when he took over the Thoroughbred beat for the Vancouver Sun, where he had started as a copy boy four years earlier. He was promoted to sports editor in 1958 while continuing to cover racing at Hastings Park and Lansdowne. He also hosted the first live television shows of horse racing in the province. In 1961, he became an associate steward with the newly formed B.C. Jockey Club.

Daily Racing Form (“DRF”), a leading provider of premium data and authoritative editorial coverage to sports and horse racing enthusiasts in North America, and DRF ™, one of America's fastest-growing online and mobile wagering platforms, welcomes Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN back to the United States for this weekend’s Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

The Aramco United States Grand Prix is a Formula One motor race scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 23, at the Circuit of the Americas. DRF is a proud sponsor of Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN.

The California Horse Racing Board approved contracts between the California Thoroughbred Trainers and Del Mar and Golden Gate Fields for autumn race meets on Thursday, ending more than two years of negotiations between the horsemen and the tracks over when trainers can be prevented from racing horses or evicted from track property.

A real-estate company headed by the chairman of the New York Racing Association will partner with Caesars Entertainment to pursue a casino license in Midtown Manhattan, the two companies announced Thursday.

SL Green Realty Corp., whose chief executive, Marc Holliday, has been the chairman of NYRA’s board since 2021, said it would pursue the license for an address in Times Square, one of the most tourist-heavy locations in Manhattan. The casino would be operated by Caesars, which also is a partner with NYRA in a sports-betting app.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority informed state racing commissions this week that it will be seeking a total of $72.5 million for its operations in 2023, the first full year in which all the authority’s operations, including drug testing and investigations, are expected to be in place.

Eden Davis Stephens, the deputy director of the Kentucky Office of Administrative Hearings, has been assigned to be the new hearing officer in an appeal by the trainer Bob Baffert of a 90-day suspension he served earlier this year related to the disqualification of Medina Spirit from last year’s Kentucky Derby, according to a spokesperson for the KHRC.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has named 19 individuals to its Horsemen’s Advisory Group, a committee that was formed earlier this year in the midst of immense pushback from the training and veterinary community.

The members include trainers, owners, veterinarians, farriers, and employees of racing offices and backstretch organizations. HISA said that it considered 250 applicants for the 19 open positions, and that the starting members would serve either one- or two-year terms, to open up positions on a staggered basis.

Godolphin, the international racing and breeding operation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, honored seven employees of U.S. trainers, racetracks, and farms on Friday as winners of its Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards.

The awards are given to employees who are nominated for exemplifying the spirit of racing and breeding. The winners were announced on Friday during a luncheon at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

The U.S. government plans to issue an additional 64,000 H-2B visas this fiscal year to qualifying employers, the Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday, vastly expanding a program that is heavily relied on by trainers.

The additional visas will nearly double the number that the government made available in the last fiscal year. H-2B visas are available to immigrant workers in the non-agricultural sectors of the economy, and many trainers use the program for backstretch workers. The fiscal year started on Oct. 1.

The New York Racing Association on Wednesday announced the appointment of Andrew Offerman as vice president and general manager of operations of its three facilities -- Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga.

In this newly created position, Offerman will oversee mutuels, security, parking, programs, and cleaning. Offerman starts on Nov. 11.

Offerman comes from Canterbury Park in Minnesota, where he served as senior vice president of racing operations. In that role, he was responsible for many of Canterbury’s operational departments, including frontside racing functions.