Pennsylvania Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association

Todd Mostoller, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (PHBPA), painted a dire economic picture of the state's Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing industries on Tuesday when he told commissioners at the monthly meeting of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission (PHRC) that the 20-year-old legislative funding mechanism for purses has become "cannibalized" by increased competition among casinos that is harming the state's Race Horse Development Fund (RHDF). "The business model that was created by Act 71 [the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act of 2004] that...

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...

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association donated $150,000 to the Equine Pharmacology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's (Penn Vet) New Bolton Center that will support continued research in equine biomarkers. The new round of PHBA funding will bolster three key research initiatives focused on improving the health and safety of equine athletes and enhancing integrity in racing. One area of research seeks to identify novel mRNA biomarkers that can help proactively predict if a horse is at risk for injury, even for injuries that are difficult...

In an ongoing dispute over whether Presque Isle Downs (PID) has been steering on-track patrons to make bets through advance-deposit wager (ADW) platforms controlled by its corporate parent and then not counting those bets as on-track wagers that provide better revenue for purses, the Pennsylvania Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (PAHBPA) swatted back in federal court with a Sept. 7 counterclaim to claw back at least $75,000 in disputed funds. PID had fired the first salvo of litigation on June 24 in the form of a civil lawsuit that sought...