racing

The states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana-which for the past five years have been unable to prove their allegations that the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) is unconstitutional at either the United States district court, federal appeals court, or the Supreme Court levels-are now petitioning the Supreme Court for a yet another chance to make their case that the law purportedly gives a private corporation too-broad powers to regulate Thoroughbred racing. This latest petition for a "writ of certiorari" (the formal term for asking the Supreme Court to...

The fallout from Parx Racing's decision to deny nine trainers stalls at the track for no apparent reason continued to play out in confusing fashion Tuesday when the track's racing office accepted entries for next Monday. Trainer Mary Pattershall, one of the trainers told last month they would be denied stalls at the Pennsylvania track, said she made an entry Tuesday morning for Kevin's Strike, a four-year-old gelding whose last seven starts have been for the trainer. "They said, 'if anything changes, we'll call you immediately,'" Pattershall recalls, of the...

On May 5, 2026, the Light Up Racing Board of Directors announced the organization's decision to sunset following Breeders' Cup 2026, in the absence of a long-term organizational home and sustainable funding structure for the work. The following observations are not made from the sidelines. They come from being inside the work. There Is No Silver Bullet One of the most common questions we heard from leaders was simple: what is the solution? The campaign. The message. The strategy that will finally "fix" public perception. The honest answer is that...

The New York Racing Association will host a job fair for individuals interested in securing employment during the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, which opens Friday, July 3, and continues through Monday, September 7, NYRA announced Thursday. The job fair will take place Thursday, May 21, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. inside the 1863 Club at Saratoga Race Course. Applicants should enter through the Wright Street entrance (Gate 8) with parking available in the adjacent lot. Available positions include mutuel clerks, cashiers, merchandise clerks, customer service, maintenance and...

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) released its 2026 First Quarter Metrics Report Tuesday with a new low 0.95 racing-related fatalities per 1,000 starts for the quarter. During the first three months of the year (January 1-March 31), racetracks operating under HISA rules reported that 99.91% of starts occurred without a fatality. Of the racing-related fatalities recorded this quarter, 81% were attributable to musculoskeletal causes, 16% to sudden death and 3% to other causes. This quarter marked the inaugural safety impact of the HISA Equine Recovery Foundation (HERF), an...

An increase in race days in April 2026 led to bumps in both wagering and purses across the United States compared to April of 2025. The month saw 2,170 races (+2.99%) across 259 race days (+2.78%) which pushed wagering totals to $898,254,315 (+2.23%). Purses were also up, with paid purses jumping to $95,634,866 (+9.14%). Average wagering per race day dipped slightly to $3,468,163 (-0.53%) while field size also fell to 7.30 (-5.38%) and starts dropped to 15,837 (-2.55%). Year over year, available and paid purses remained in the green at...

Light Up Racing, a program launched in 2024 meant to address issues in the sport head on through conversation, will cease operations following this year's Breeders' Cup at Keeneland, the organization announced Tuesday. In a letter submitted by Light Up Racing's interim executive director Amy Brin, the program reflects back on what was built and how messaging can be disseminated in the future, saying, "From the beginning, the work was based on a simple principle: confidence in the sport cannot be manufactured through messaging; it has to be earned through...

The 2025-2026 Oaklawn Park racing season concluded Saturday with across-the-board gains, the track announced Tuesday. Across 62 race days, Oaklawn conducted 627 races, an increase from 621 races last season, while distributing $54,477,160 in purses with a daily average purse of $878,663. With an average of just over 10 races per day, Oaklawn put an average of 8.81 starters in the gate per race. The average daily handle rose to $6,938,183, an increase over last year's $6,737,332, generating a total meet handle of $430,167,353--surpassing last season's total of $417,714,571. On-track...

The scene is unmistakably Hong Kong. A field of high-class Thoroughbreds thunders down a lush turf straight, the pounding of hooves echoing against a grandstand and a large diamond-vision screen. To a casual viewer with no sound on, this is racing at Sha Tin. But as the horses pull up, no skyscrapers loom over the backstretch, and the stands are desperately empty. There is no Shing Mun River here; it is a barrier trial at Conghua, and for the horses involved, the transition between these two worlds has become part...

Arioneo, a French company which specializes in the development and marketing of analysis solutions for the performance and health of equine athletes, has created a new study aimed at the deployment of a new generation of automated ECG-analysis algorithms capable of detecting cardiac rhythm abnormalities, including atrial fibrillation (AFib), across training, racing and resting conditions. In a press release Tuesday, the company states that the study is "powered by an artificial intelligence engine trained on one of the largest exercise ECG datasets in the racing industry, [which] enables, for the...

I read with optimism HISA's 2025 fatality rate report showing a gradual but steady decline in the rate since 2009. However, I feel that it still doesn't address a major issue affecting U.S. horse racing (as touched upon by Mr. Sonbol in his letter), namely the extremely high level of short-term and long-term injuries suffered by US racehorses. There have been widespread commentaries (and potential solutions) recently by industry leaders regarding the major concerns affecting our industry, including the fatality rate, the rapid decline in the horse population, the extensive...

Equibase has added new gate-to-wire timing to all racing result charts, the company announced Thursday. The gate-to-wire times will be in addition to the fractional and official final times already included in charts. Per their report, gate-to-wire times include the run-up distance, which is the untimed, extra distance horses travel from the starting gate to the designated point where the official race distance begins and the timer starts. Official final times do not include the run-up distance, which can vary from zero feet up to a sixteenth of a mile...