Birmingham

Lauren Keen-Hawkins, an amateur jockey who sustained a serious head injury in a fall at Worcester earlier this month, has been moved out of intensive care. Hospitalised in Birmingham, the winning rider and member of Kim Bailey's team, was visited by Bailey's assistant Mat Nicholls this week. Bailey wrote on his stable blog, "Mat went to Birmingham to visit Lauren Hawkins yesterday and was pleased to see how she looked. "Lauren has been moved out of ICU and into a ward and although still not fully conscious, she does seem...

Birmingham Race Course, a former Thoroughbred track in Alabama that has exclusively run greyhounds since 1995, has announced it will no longer be in the business of live racing, making it the first North American pari-mutuel venue to close in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report by the Associated Press, management wants the track to remain open for simulcasting and historical horse race gaming, which it launched last autumn. Birmingham last raced live Mar. 18, but the facility has been closed since then because of a...