Capitol Hill

Dale Romans announced Wednesday morning that he will be running in the Kentucky Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat that has opened up due to the impending retirement of Mitch McConnell. He realizes he is an outsider and a Democrat running in a red state, but he sees a path to victory. Romans sat down with the TDN Wednesday to discuss why he is running for the U.S. Senate, whether or not he thinks he can win and what he would do if elected. TDN: When and why did...

Two months after he won the newly upgraded GI American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs as the favorite and a week after he was scratched out of the doubly rescheduled, weather-impacted GIII Penn Mile, Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (r, 3, Ten Sovereigns {Ire}--Zindziswa, by Smart Strike) was back in the winner's circle, capturing Saratoga's $200,000 GIII Manila Stakes Friday. Owned by Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss, and Michael J. Caruso, Zulu Kingdom is now five for six since coming stateside and six for seven overall. The cut back in distance...

The 1,116-page bill the House passed early Thursday morning could have a profound effect on the horse racing industry. Currently, horse owners can only write off 40 percent of the cost of a race horse once it enters service. Under the Trump bill, the write-off, known as bonus depreciation, will be 100% for five years. With the bill now headed to the Senate, there is some speculation that the 100 percent deduction will be made permanent. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased bonus depreciation to 100% until...

4th-FG, $55K, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, 2:30 p.m. ET. A $1.15 million buy for Mike Rutherford during Keeneland September, BUNDLE (Volatile) makes her debut for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Bred by Three Chimneys, the gray is out of MGISW Love and Pride (A.P. Indy), who is responsible for a pair of stakes winners in Princesinha Julia (Pioneerof the Nile) and Bella Runner (Gun Runner). Bundle's third dam, GISW Cara Rafaela (Quiet American), produced generational sire Bernardini (A.P. Indy). TJCIS PPS 4th-GP, $94K, Msw, 3yo, 1m, 1:47 p.m. ET....

For most of the sport's history the mental well-being of jockeys was not something that anybody talked about or even thought about. But the problem could no longer be ignored when, in 2023, two jockeys, Alex Canchari and Avery Whisman, took their own lives. They were otherwise young and healthy, but the pressures of being a jockey was a burden both, apparently, could not handle. They were not alone. Jockeys' Guild President and CEO Terry Meyocks said that 230 jockeys were surveyed last year and asked about their mental health....

With a 34 to 25 vote on Thursday, May 23, the House Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, which will allocate up to $5 million in grants for equine therapy under the Veterans Affairs (VA) Adaptive Sports Program, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association said in a press release on Friday. The initiative, led by Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY) and the NTRA, will award grants by the VA to eligible organizations to plan, develop, manage and implement equine therapy programs for...

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) has officially opened an office in Washington, D.C. NTRA president and CEO Tom Rooney, a former Congressman, has indicated the office will be fully staffed and open for visitors. "I've been hired and tasked to go to Washington and be the voice of the Thoroughbred racing industry to our nation's policy makers," said Rooney. "Having spent a decade in Congress, I know how Washington works. The biggest part of that is by showing up and being in person. By opening this office, we'll be...

For many trainers around the country, their biggest practical worry from day to day isn't the patchwork quilt of medication rules and regulations, or the fear that one trainer has an unfair competitive edge over another, but whether they've enough grooms, hotwalkers and riders populating their barns to properly tend to the horses in their care. With fewer and fewer North Americans siphoning into horse racing, the sport has turned for relief, of course, with growing reliance on Central and South America--what has proven an increasingly tenuous stable of talent...