HBPA

Wyoming and Kansas thoroughbred horsemen have officially joined the National HBPA, the organization announced Saturday. The Wyoming HBPA and Kansas HBPA were unanimously approved for full membership at Saturday's board meeting of the National Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association, which concluded the annual conference at Oaklawn Park. The Wyoming HBPA, which represents horsemen at Wyoming Downs in Evanston, is a new member while Kansas returned to the HBPA following a 17-year hiatus after live racing ceased in 2008 with the closure of The Woodlands. Made possible by legislation permitting historical...

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots has added two additional  race dates to the 2025-26 meet, the track announced Tuesday. The additional days, which were "inspired by the strong performance of purse sources" according to the release, will be Monday, March 9, and Monday, March 16. "Following the purse meeting with the Louisiana HBPA and Racing Commission, all parties involved were confident that the addition of two race days fits within our current projections and reflects a shared commitment to the strength of the meet," said Jason Boulet, senior director...

Heaven and Horseshoes, A Worship and Community Center, is preparing to officially open Friday, Feb. 6. The 7,000-square foot facility is located just outside the entrance to the backstretch area at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racing and Casino and will provide space for numerous events for Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing participants. The building will be occupied by the Indiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) along with Quarter Horse Racing Association of Indiana (QHRAI). "We are very grateful to Caesars Entertainment for providing the property and funding for this project," said...

Making his 13th start of the year and 100th of his career, the 11-year-old gelding Surprsinglyperfect (Perfect Soul {Ire}) has been named the National HBPA's 2025 National Claiming Horse of the Year, the horsemen's organization said in a press release on Friday. Based at trainer & co-owner Justin Evans's main bases of Turf Paradise in Phoenix and Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington, Surprsinglyperfect finished 2025 with seven wins out of those 13 starts, along with three seconds and a third for career-high season earnings of $94,230. The Kentucky-bred son of...

Both Charles Town Races (165 dates) and Mountaineer Park (125 dates) got approval Dec. 16 from the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) to finalize live racing schedules for 2026. The awarding of race dates in West Virginia is annually an outdated, several step process. A state statute requires Charles Town to apply for 220 programs every year, and Mountaineer is required to apply for 210 dates. But those quotas haven't been reached for quite some time. So what has ended up happening in recent seasons is that after the initial...

The live racing card at Woodbine set for Thursday, Dec. 11 will begin one hour earlier to accommodate the new card after the Dec. 4 program was cancelled following one race, Woodbine Entertainment has announced. The 10-race Thursday card will start the final week of live racing for the 2025 season at the venue, and will now kick off at 4:30pm local time. Cold weather bringing plenty of snow rolled through the area earlier in the week, and the cancellation was agreed upon by the Jockeys' Guild, the HBPA, and...

Everett Dobson, the chair of The Jockey Club of America, will deliver the keynote address at the annual National HBPA Conference hosted by Oaklawn Park Mar. 4, according to a press release from the horsemen's organization on Wednesday. Dobson is a telecommunications entrepreneur from Oklahoma City who is a horse owner/ breeder and partner in the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. "I'm very honored to get a chance to address the National HBPA. I'm very much looking forward to it," Dobson said. "It will largely be around a message...

Next Saturday's Claiming Crown under the Twin Spires, with $1.1 million in purses spread over eight events, was created to give American racing's everyday workhorses--and their owners and trainers--a day in the spotlight, according to an NHBPA release on Sunday. Churchill Downs is the Claiming Crown's host track for the third time in four years. Registered Kentucky-bred horses will race for an additional $130,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, with the per-race supplement ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. The event was created in 1999 by the NHBPA and TOBA....

Hundreds of Kentucky HBPA-member trainers will now be eligible to sign up for a workers' compensation policy that covers their stable employees at a possible substantial savings. In a statement released Thursday morning, the Kentucky HBPA noted that "Kentucky HBPA members are now eligible for an existing partial self-funded workers' compensation program created and managed by horsemen. The insurance eligibility and procedures will be under HBPA Insurance Workers' Compensation. The partial self-funded program is administered by Gallagher Risk Management and insured by Bridgefield Casualty Insurance Company, which is an A+...

Kentucky's HBPA teamed with Kentucky Downs to present $100,000 checks to three industry non-profit organizations during Saturday's card at the turf track in Franklin, Kentucky, the horsemen's outfit said via a Saturday press release. The assistance will provide funding to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, Stable Recovery and the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund. The local HBPA chapter and the track donated $50,000 each.

Two weeks after Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) threatened to pull out of racing at Fair Grounds in New Orleans and one week after the gaming company extracted purse-cut concessions from the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (LAHBPA), the Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) on Tuesday approved 76 November-through-March race dates for the 2025-26 meet at historic New Orleans track. CDI had informed the commission by letter June 9 it wanted to voluntarily surrender its Fair Grounds license because a March state Supreme Court decision and two recent pieces of...

An immigration raid at Delta Downs racetrack Tuesday morning resulted in the apprehension of 84 undocumented individuals, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The surprise morning raid at Delta Downs—currently in the middle of a Quarter Horse meet—involved multiple law enforcement agencies including ICE, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Louisiana State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI. Those undocumented individuals taken into custody, said ICE, were processed for administrative immigration violations before being taken to the Lake Charles Border Patrol Station in...