A year and a half after being signed into law, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is expected to kick into action Friday, meaning a new uniform set of medication rules and safety standards that everyone can abide by–that, at least, was the plan. The execution has somewhat thrown those intentions to the wind [...]

Every week, the TDN publishes a roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky. Here's a primer on how each of these jurisdictions adjudicates different offenses, what they make public (or not) and where. California Track: Los Alamitos Date: 06/24/2022 Licensee: [...]

The simmering stand-off between the Texas Racing Commission and the powers behind the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) bubbled higher Monday, when the commission's executive director issued a letter warning Texas will prohibit the import and export of pari-mutuel simulcast signals at its racetracks if the Act goes into effect on July 1 with [...]

At a special Arizona Racing Commission Meeting Wednesday, Turf Paradise's equine safety record was once again a serious bone of contention, with commissioner Rory Goree calling the track's equine fatality numbers “deplorable.” In her routine track safety report, Sue Gale, the Arizona Department of Gaming's chief veterinarian, explained that 22 horses have died at Turf [...]

California's purse and handle numbers are in, and after the pandemic-stricken figures of last year, there's plenty of reason for encouragement. A 13% increase in California races over 2020 translated into a 17% increase in all source handle and a 19% increase in purse generation. “Handle is up everywhere, including Southern California, which generated really [...]

Given Jeff Blea's high-profile position as equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), news last week that the California Veterinary Medical Board had issued an interim suspension of his veterinary license set the latest alarm bells clanging across the industry. Certainly, the accusations leveled against Blea appear a damning indictment of his [...]

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), for years a vocal proponent of federal legislation to bring the sport under a single governing entity, announced in a press release Thursday morning that it has been unable to reach an agreement to become the enforcement agency for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the broad non-profit umbrella [...]

   In this TDN series, we curry lessons and wise counsel from veteran Californian figures who, like gold nuggets panned from the Tuolomne River in the High Sierras, have unearthed career riches on arguably the toughest circuit in the States.    The series started with John Shirreffs and continues here with Art Sherman, son of [...]

Four years ago–almost to the day–when Arkansas native Staton Flurry sat down for a tête-à-tête with the TDN, his trainer Brad Cox took the opportunity to indulge in a little divination. “He's out for good horses and wants to win stake races,” said Cox at the time, before pointing to their as yet unfinished greatest [...]

In a hearing conducted Friday in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer–barred from The Stronach Group (TSG)-owned facilities since June of 2019 due to a number of equine fatalities in his care amid the well-publicized Santa Anita welfare crisis–was not granted a prohibitory injunction to be able to enter and race horses [...]

As springboard–or tripwire–before the ultimate Breeders' Cup showdown at Del Mar this November, Santa Anita's opening weekend sure ticks a lot of boxes. “Really happy with the job my staff did putting all these races together,” said Santa Anita racing secretary, Chris Merz, on Thursday morning. “Stakes coordinator James Kasparoff did an outstanding job.” In [...]

The John Sadler-trained Flagstaff (Speightstown) has been disqualified from a second-place finish in last September's GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship S. after testing positive for clodronic acid, a bisphosphonate otherwise known as Osphos, according to a steward's ruling from Saturday. According to the ruling, the $40,000 in prize money earnings awarded to owners Lane's End [...]