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One of my favorite sayings in covering the horse racing industry is this: A good fiction writer couldn't make up this stuff. So the week before Christmas, word comes from West Virginia that Janene Watson, already barred from Charles Town Races & Slots, has been stripped of her honorary membership in the Charles Town Horsemen's Benevolent and ...

It was all gloom doom when the Churchill Downs fall meet ended in late November, and Kentucky racing moved north to Turfway Park. Winter racing can be unpleasant at times in Northern Kentucky, and the current state of the Kentucky racing industry only makes it worse. So how bad is it? That depends on your outlook. On opening day, a Sunday, ...

The following was submitted by David Carrico, who spent 16 years with Churchill Downs, four years with TVG, and also was a consultant. Carrico said he's now an ''observer'' of the industry and believes there is more than meets the eye to a recent development: a pari-mutuel tax refund in Kentucky. This is an interesting take on takeout, which is ...

The following was received via e-mail from W.M. Mac DeHart, a member of the Kentucky Racing Commission from 1980-84. His take on the racetrack gaming issue in Kentucky is shared by others in the state. ''Why does Kentucky need slot machines? ''Because our racetracks have not been able to fulfill their obligation to promote the sport in their ...

“We’ve been on a death march for two days. Is (horse racing) valuable? If you don’t believe it is, it’s time to look for a different job. We need to educate ourselves about the things that work in this industry. We have a lot of strength and things going for us if we can get our crap together. I don’t think it’s dead or dying—or at least it ...

It was somewhat awkward attending live racing at Keeneland for the first time in 1994. Being from the Northeast, I was used to spending time at ''betting factories''--functional racetracks that weren't much to look at. Atlantic City, Delaware, and Monmouth were an exception, as was the second coming of Garden State until it fell into ...

Watching Dr. Bryce Peckham, the state veterinarian in Kentucky, go from stall to stall doing pre-race examinations on horses entered to race on a recent evening at Turfway Park wasn't my idea of a day at the track. But the 90 minutes or so spent in the receiving barn opened my eyes (even if it numbed my brain) to a few things: Peckham and ...

Enough already. It's a nice gesture for Betfair/TVG to step up and offer $400,000 to bring the Beldame Stakes purse up to $1 million in an attempt to get Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta to square off. But we already have the forum for the match-up. It's called the Breeders' Cup World Championships. There's a $2-million race Nov. 6 that would ...

This is pretty encouraging for a racino state: a marketing scheme for horse racing with a heavy online component. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which oversees horse racing in the state, has launched the campaign, which is geared toward a younger demographic. It's called TrackPackPA. The campaign mentions hanging out at the ...

 (The following was submitted by Jessi Pizzurro of Pennyroyal Stables. She is based at Mountaineer and spent part of the morning of July 29 watching Mine That Bird gallop. ... Thanks for the first-hand account.) The racing surface at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort, normally closed for training on Wednesdays, was ...