All-sources handle was down but average daily handle was up at New York Racing Association tracks in 2020, a year when operations were dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
All-sources handle on 157 racing cards at NYRA’s three tracks - Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga - in 2020 was $1,813,935,091, a 14 percent decline from $2,108,126,369 wagered on 217 cards in 2019. However, average daily handle in 2020 was $11,553,727, an increase of 19 percent compared to $9,714,868 in 2019.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Former jockey Luis Leon, who went on to work in the jockeys' room as a valet for decades, died Tuesday near San Diego, according to Santa Anita's publicity department, which learned of the death from Leon's son's, David.
Leon was 90. He recently suffered a heart attack, was hospitalized, and died in the hospital of COVID-19, according to the track's press notes.
A federal legislative package including a bill that creates a national regulatory body for racing was signed into law on Sunday night by outgoing President Donald Trump.
The signature was the last remaining hurdle for the legislation. With its adoption, the clock begins ticking on an 18-month process to set up the regulatory body and put its policies into force.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Administration of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide, known by the trade name Lasix, will be prohibited within 48 hours of all stakes races conducted at New York Racing Association tracks in 2021, NYRA announced Wednesday.
This year, all 2-year-old races at NYRA tracks – Aqueduct, Belmont, Saratoga – were run without Lasix.
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday night urged the state legislature to pass bills in 2021 legalizing sports betting and sanctioning gambling devices in use at state racetracks known as historical horse racing machines.
You would think, on the surface of things, that a horse coming off a win in the Breeders’ Cup Mile would have an edge over a Hong Kong-based horse who never has even raced in a Group 1 or Grade 1. But there is something about the rhythms and dynamics of Hong Kong races that lends considerable advantage to horses based on the circuit, and Golden Sixty, the big local hope for the Group 1, $3.23 million Hong Kong Mile on Sunday at Sha Tin, is no ordinary local hope.
Pennsylvania’s racetracks will be allowed to continue holding live race cards despite an order issued Thursday night by Gov. Tom Wolf for many businesses to sharply curtail their activities to mitigate a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the state, according to a top state racing official.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved new rules further restricting the use of clenbuterol, the bronchial dilator that has been at the center of numerous allegations of abuse for more than a decade.
