funding

Edited Press Release The Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) today announced the funding of a three-year post-doctoral fellowship research project "Micro RNAs as Sensitive Biomarkers for Detection of Drug Administration in Horses." This promising project was submitted by Dr. Camilo Jaramillo-Morales with the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate group at the University of California, Davis. Assessment of RNA or protein biomarkers offers an alternative, and potentially more sensitive approach to the detection of prohibited substances administered to racehorses. The overall goal of the current study is to develop an alternate...

Both Churchill Downs ($120,000) and Keeneland Race Course ($100,000) are projecting maiden special weight (MSW) purses this autumn to be level with the money paid out at the same meets in 2022. Those figures were revealed by representatives of the two tracks Thursday during a meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory committee. The Churchill MSW purses for this year's two fall meets (Sep. 14-Oct. 1 and Oct. 29-Nov. 26) have been unchanged since 2020. In 2020, Churchill offered split MSW purse values in September-$97,000 during the pandemic-rescheduled...

The Riding A Dream Academy has been awarded three years' funding by the Racing Foundation to expand its programmes. The year-long Khadijah Mellah Scholarship for talented riders and a rider-based Residential Week which acts as an introduction to British horse racing is already operating under the Riding A Dream Academy umbrella. Plans for the expansion include a non-rider Residential Week to cater for the large numbers of young people who have applied, but lacked access to horses and sufficient riding experience, and Regional Weeks to take the Academy out to...

by Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Editor's note: The following open letter to the industry was submitted by the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, a think tank and advocacy group which aims to improve the sport of Thoroughbred racing for all stakeholders. The passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) would signal a prominent turning point for Thoroughbred racing in America. Regardless of where one has stood on the merits of the legislation over the years, its passage will bring to an end a generation of discord between industry participants, enabling our...

Support has been pledged for jockeys to help mitigate the impact on their livelihoods from the coronavirus outbreak. Racing in Britain is on hold until the end of April and jockeys at the lower end of the earnings scale are likely to soon feel the effects of being out of work. Paul Struthers, Chief Executive of the Professional Jockeys Association, said, "I think the situation for jockeys is bleak, in the same way that it's bleak for racing and the same way it's bleak and worrying for the rest of...