Chauncey Morris

The ninth installment in the 2024 OwnerView webinar series was held on Nov. 5 and discussion covered the various ways state incentive programs approach supporting the equine industry, especially when it comes to a declining foal crop, according to a Friday Jockey Club press release. The panel consisted of Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association Inc., the Maryland Million Ltd., and the Maryland Horse Foundation; Roger Heitzmann, secretary and executive director of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association; Steve Koch, the associate vice president of operations for...

Tickets are still available for the annual Kentucky Thoroughbred Association's Kentucky Derby Trainers' Dinner, a popular event featuring all of the Kentucky Derby trainers in an atmosphere of a good-natured roast. The event is scheduled to be held Tuesday, April 30 at the First Turn Club at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Cocktails begin at 5 p.m. with the dinner slated for 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available by clicking here. "Our sponsors, directors and Churchill Downs are working to make something special befitting the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby...

The opening months of 2019 were still fresh in California lawmakers' minds when they passed a bill that summer giving the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) emergency authority to suspend racing at a track without the hitherto required 10-day public notice period. The precipitating event, of course, was the spate of equine fatalities that had covered Santa Anita, and the racing industry in general, under a pall of public condemnation--the exact same kind of scrutiny Churchill Downs has faced these past few weeks, culminating with the announced switch of racing...

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association are jointly funding a $25,000 grant directed to a catastrophic injury study conducted at the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Center. The study will seek to identify horses at risk for catastrophic injury through the use of mRNA expression analysis of blood samples. Drs. Allen Page, Emma Adam and David Horohov of the Gluck Center previously developed an approach for identifying horses at risk for catastrophic injury through the use of mRNA expression analysis of blood samples. It was...

LEXINGTON, KY--Kentuckians across the Commonwealth woke up with a text on Saturday morning: 'Are you okay?' For most, it was an uneventful night aside from perhaps being awakened once or twice to the sound of high winds. But for some, unimaginable destruction and immeasurable damage occurred overnight as a catastrophic tornado hit western Kentucky. As of Friday, 77 Kentuckians have lost their lives due to a storm that is expected to have affected an estimated 227 miles, according to WLKY News. Bradley Boyd, a professional Quarter Horse trainer based in...

David Richardson, M.D., a distinguished Kentucky-based surgeon who owned and bred Thoroughbreds for nearly half a century and was known as a thoughtful, cerebral racing regulator whose zeal for the sport shone through in his volunteer service on numerous industry-related boards, died Sept. 7 in Saratoga Springs, New York, after developing pneumonia related to COVID-19. Richardson had been briefly hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Saratoga Hospital; he was believed to be 76 years old. Chauncey Morris, the executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners...

A special legislative committee charged with studying the taxes and rates paid by Kentucky racetracks, including the tax rates on profits from Historical Horse Racing (HHR) machines, seems set on recommending the status quo rather than a tax increase. That's good news for the state's racing and breeding industries, which have flourished since HHR machines were introduced in the state some ten years ago. The Pari-Mutuel Wagering Taxation Task Force met Monday and the meeting turned into something of a cheerleading session for the sport, its economic impact and the...

Still reeling from a decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court that ruled that Historical Horse Racing (HHR) machines are illegal, the racing and breeding industries in the state have continued to work behind the scenes to find a way to keep the gaming machines operating. The machines have proved so popular that they handled $2.2 billion during the most recent fiscal year and contribute tens of millions annually to purses. The court ruled that the machines, which resemble slot machines, did not fall under the legal definition of pari-mutuel gambling...

With an eye on bolstering the available pool of labor, several Kentucky horse farms, along with other industry organizations, have come together and donated $322,000 to the Fayette County Public Schools, which will be creating an all-encompassing equine training program for middle school students and high school students attending the Locust Trace AgriScience Center in Lexington. While Fayette County might seem like a natural breeding ground for future farm employees that wasn't necessarily the case, said Chauncey Morris, the executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, which spearheaded the effort...

Breeders' Cup in conjunction with The Jockey Club announced Thursday a new national advertising campaign called 'Still. Running. Strong.' to promote Thoroughbred racing as spectator-free racing resumes in various markets around the country during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. KTA and TOBA issued the following joint statement late Thursday evening. "KTA and TOBA have made contributions to support to a newly created national advertising campaign titled "Still. Running. Strong." The campaign was announced [Thursday] by The Jockey Club and Breeders' Cup Limited. As representatives of Thoroughbred owners and breeders...