Najja Thompson, a marketing and communications employee of the New York Racing Association for the past nine years, has been hired to head up the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., the non-profit organization announced on Tuesday.

Thompson, whose most recent position with NYRA involved recruiting new employees, will fill a post recently vacated by Jeffrey Cannizzo, the executive director of NYTB for 13 years prior to his resignation in October to take a position with NYRA as its senior director of government affairs.

Joe Appelbaum, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, has been re-elected to a second term, the association announced on Tuesday, along with the election results for its board of directors.

Appelbaum was first elected in late 2017, taking the post held by the longtime president, the late Rick Violette, who retired from the position while dealing with late-stage cancer. Votes in the election for president and members of the organization’s board are cast by owners and trainers who race at New York tracks.

Robert Hess Sr., a fixture among Northern California trainers for decades, died early Saturday of complications resulting from the COVID-19 virus, according to his son, trainer Bob Hess Jr.

Hess was 86. He was recently hospitalized after contracting the virus. Hess tested positive in November and was hospitalized for a few days before he was released. Hess was readmitted to the hospital days later and was hospitalized at the time of his passing.

“We felt he could get the best care there,” Bob Hess Jr. said Saturday afternoon. “I talked to him two days ago.

Total handle on U.S. races dropped 6.3 percent in November compared to the same month of last year, according to figures released on Friday by Equibase, but the overall decline shrouded a sharp gain in average handle per-race due to a substantial drop in the number of races held in the month.

The number of races held during the month plunged 28.8 percent compared to November of last year, from 2,730 in November 2019 to 1,945 this November, according to the figures. As a result, average wagering per race jumped 31.5 percent, from $350,126 last year to $460,321 this year.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment announced Friday that the shortened 2020 Thoroughbred meet at Woodbine produced an all-sources handle of $462,041,545, down more than $54 million compared to the 2019 meet handle of $516,189,419.  

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A medication committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved a proposal that would extend the withdrawal time for clenbuterol from 14 days to 21 days and require a horse to test negative for the bronchial dilator before being allowed to race again.

BetMakers, an Australian gambling company with a toehold in the U.S. market, has reached a deal to purchase Sportech, a U.K.-based company that provides bet-processing services to a number of major racetracks and account-wagering companies in the U.S.

Del Mar completed a 15-day autumn meeting with all-sources total handle of $195.9 million, a gain of 33 percent over a 13-day meeting in 2019.

This year’s five-week meeting included the lucrative simulcasts of the Breeders’ Cup races from Keeneland on Nov. 6-7, ideal weather compared to a 2019 season that lost two days of racing to rain, and an increase in field size.

Last year, the Breeders’ Cup was held at Santa Anita the weekend before the start of the Del Mar autumn meeting

Paul Williams, the chief technology officer at The Stronach Group since 2018, has been made chief executive officer of the company’s new racing technology division, the company announced Friday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment has announced that Sunday afternoon’s thoroughbred card will be the track's final one of the year. The Ontario government announced Friday that Toronto will enter the province’s gray ‘lockdown’ phase of coronavirus-related restrictions, which allows for training but no horse racing.

Sunday is the 97th day of a scheduled 109-day meet that began on June 6 and was to conclude Dec. 13.