Matthew Ennis

The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission (PHRC) on Tuesday voted to grant Thoroughbred racing dates for 2025 that will feature 150 programs at Parx, 105 at Penn National, and 76 at Presque Isle Downs. Prior to the vote on the dates, however, executives from each track were asked to do something rarely required by racing commissions in this country: Principals from each venue were requested to explain the rationale behind the 2025 takeout rates that accompanied each licensee's dates request. Takeout rates, the per-bet pricing structure that tracks and states impose...

Presque Isle Downs will eliminate four dates from its 80-day racing season this year by slicing four late-summer Thursdays off its schedule. The track received unanimous permission to do so during Tuesday's Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission meeting. Presque Isle's director of racing, Matthew Ennis, described the track's reasoning for dropping the dates. "We always take a hard look at our purse funding as we're going throughout our offseason to make sure that we have competitive purses for the upcoming meet," Ennis said. "We suffered a very poor January as a...

A longtime racetrack employee and the current Clerk of Scales at Churchill Downs Inc.-owned Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pennsylvania was suspended by the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission's Bureau of Thoroughbred Horse Racing for 30 days beginning Jan. 8. Danny Hamilton was found by the stewards to have neglected to weigh-out jockeys before the eighth race Oct. 11. Director of Enforcement Jason Klouser, who led the investigation, said, "The Racing Commission's investigators observed Danny Hamilton failing to weigh-out the jockeys for race 8, which is a violation of numerous...