The Jockey Club of America

Stephen Panus has resigned as president of The Jockey Club's Media Ventures, which oversees the America's Best Racing brand, and several other structural changes were made to the management team, said Jockey Club president and COO James L. Gagliano via a press release on Thursday. Gagliano will replace Panus, while Greg Charkoudian and Dan Tordjman have each been promoted to vice president of TJC Media Ventures. Charkoudian has been associated with The Jockey Club team since 2012 and Tordjman since 2014. "I'd also like to thank Stephen Panus for his...

The Jockey Club of America is hosting a new podcast called 'On the Lead' as part of its communications and outreach mission to the industry, the organization said in a release Thursday. Presented by The Jockey Club, the podcast is produced by the In the Money Media Network, which is owned and operated by Peter T. Fornatale and Jonathon Kinchen. The program is co-hosted by Shannon Kelly, executive director of The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation, and Fornatale. Set for a 12-episode series, the content will cover a variety of...

Equine nutritional best practices from foals to racehorses was covered in the third panel of the 2024 OwnerView webinar series held May 14, said co-hosts The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association via a press release Thursday morning. The virtual panel consisted of trainer Cherie DeVaux; Anthony Koch, Hallway Feeds; Dr. Joe Pagan, Kentucky Equine Research; and Bradley Purcell, Claiborne Farm. The guests discussed everything from the feeding late pregnant mares to the importance of water and hay intake. Click here to watch a replay of the...

The Jockey Club of America Chairman Stuart S. Janney III will be honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Dinner and Ceremony at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 25, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) said in a Friday release. "The Eclipse Award of Merit is the Thoroughbred industry's highest honor, bestowed upon an individual who has displayed a lifetime of achievement in service to the sport," reads the press release from the NTRA. "Janney's decades of involvement and leadership...

The finalists for the 2023 Eclipse Awards, recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing, were announced by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), The Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) Saturday.. Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be handed out on FanDuel TV and other outlets, during the 53rd annual Eclipse Awards, presented by FanDuel Racing, John Deere, Keeneland, The Jockey Club and the NTRA, on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The evening will culminate with the announcement of the 2023 Horse of...

Editor's Note: The TDN received this letter from Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning. 2023 was certainly a year of many challenges for the Thoroughbred industry. Much has been written and spoken about the issues we face, although very little action has taken place. As we enter 2024, I believe it is imperative we make meaningful efforts to improve our sport. Every component of the industry must pledge to do a better job. We must find common ground and set aside our egos. We must commit (at a minimum) to the following actions...

The Jockey Club's Report of Mares Bred (RMB) statistics reflects that through Oct. 18 of this year, 867 stallions covered 26,597 mares in North America during the breeding season, a decrease from 2022 when 925 stallions covered 27,163 mares, the organization said in a release early Friday. They estimate an additional 2,500 to 3,500 mares will be reported as bred during the 2023 breeding season. Kentucky traditionally leads North America in Thoroughbred breeding activity. During 2023, Kentucky's 199 reported stallions covered 16,953 mares, or 63.74% of all of the mares...

Eric Gustavson, who with his wife Tamara Hughes Gustavson own Spendthrift Farm, has been named to Keeneland's Advisory Board of Directors, the association said in a press release Thursday. Gustavson has played a pivotal role in restoring Spendthrift Farm's position as one of the world's premier Thoroughbred breeding operations. He is also a member of The Jockey Club and Breeders' Cup Board of Directors. "We welcome Eric Gustavson to the Keeneland Board, where his business skill and marketing acumen will be instrumental as we meet the opportunities and challenges of...

Under the toughest of spotlights, the industry's collective eyes often turn to the stuff under foot. At least, that's what trainer Mark Casse did in a widely-shared TDN Q&A. "I think we really, seriously, need to look at more synthetic tracks," Casse said, triggering yet another cavalcade of commentary on the conceived benefits and blights of synthetic surfaces. "I believe in them. I believe they've got plenty of data to back that up." Former TDN writer Lucas Marquardt followed it up with an analysis of race-day fatality data through The...

The Jockey Club of America has added a link online to its Equine Injury Database (EID) page which provides an analysis of racing fatalities based on surface and track conditions for 2021 and 2022, the organization said in a release early Wednesday morning. Additional statistics will be added to the EID page as they become available.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." --Daniel Patrick Moynihan Letters to the editor are, by definition, opinions. You can disagree with an opinion, but you can't exactly say it's wrong. But when "facts" that are not facts are offered in support of an opinion, that is disinformation. The writer of the July 26, 2023, Thoroughbred Daily News letter to the editor slamming HISA could be the poster child for that. Over the past week I reviewed his criticisms with executives with HISA and HIWU...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A panel on computer-assisted wagering (CAW) and its pros and cons, and another on trainers' reactions to the new Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) regulations, took center stage at the 2023 Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing held in Saratoga Springs, New York on Thursday. Patrick Cummings, the moderator of the panel on CAWs, is the Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, a racing-industry think tank. Cummings took the panel through a brief history of parimutuel wagering and the changes...