SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – Ruidoso Downs is asking a state regulator to allow the horse racing track to move to Las Cruces.

Ruidoso Downs General Manager Ann McGovern said Monday the track and its casino is losing money because of competition from Indian casinos.

Racing Commission Executive Director Julian Luna said there’s no timetable yet for deciding the proposed relocation. (read more here)

Driving from Kentucky to California for the Breeders’ Cup and stopping at racetracks along the way to raise money for the Breeders’ Cup Charities to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and The V Foundation for Cancer Research has been a terrific experience.

For starters, I got to go to a couple of racetracks I’d never been to before (Zia Park, Turf Paradise) and revisited two others I hadn’t been to in some time. There were a couple of unscheduled stops: Indiana Downs (though the live racing program was finished for the night) and Will Rogers Downs in Oklahoma for some simulcast betting.

One thing that stood out is that racetracks with slot machines—Indiana Downs, Will Rogers Downs, Remington Park, Zia Park—are thriving, and those without, Hawthorne, Turf Paradise and Santa Anita, where we will arrive on Thursday—are struggling. (read more here)

EAST GREENBUSH — The mailman mows the grass.

He’s been on this route for years and used to stop and shoot baskets with the Straight twins, Matthew and Michael, outside their tall brick home in a quiet neighborhood on the Hudson River.

That was back in the day, before Matt and Mike grew up and pursued their lifelong dreams together, graduating from the North American Racing Academy and moving into adrenaline-pumped careers as professional jockeys.

Before a tragic racing accident turned their young lives around. (Read more here)

California-based trainer Jeff Mullins will be prohibited from starting a horse at the New York Racing Association’s Aqueduct racetrack for the next six months under a penalty imposed by the association for an incident in Aqueduct’s race-day security barn in April, NYRA announced Friday. (read more here)

Fort Erie-based owner-trainer Michael Osborne has been suspended for nine months through July 28, 2010 and fined $1,500 for an incident at Woodbine. Osborne had shipped in Intothewilderness to run at Woodbine on Aug. 2. A random inspection of the receiving barn by Woodbine security uncovered a plastic bag containing a loaded hypodermic syringe with a needle attached in Osborne’s possession. A follow-up analysis by the Ontario Racing Commission determined liquid in the syringe to be n-butanol and ethanol both alcohol, a Class 2 medication. Osborne, 49, has been training since 1999 and has sent out 75 winners from 1,107 starts.

The civil war that broke out recently among California trainers has escalated as a result of the following email that warns horseman what could happen if California Thoroughbred Trainers is decertified. A group calling itself California Horsemen for Change is staging a palace revolt to either replace all nine members of the CTT’s current board of directors through a special election or get enough signatures from trainers to have the CTT decertified. (read more here)

SALLISAW — A jockey riding in a horse race at Blue Ribbon Downs died Sunday after he fell from the horse.

Mark Pace, 58, of Texas, died Sunday after a spill in the first race at noon at Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw.

When changes were announced prior to the start of the races, Pace was named to ride a horse that jockey Mike Bishop was originally schedule to ride, 3-year-old filly Reep What You Sow, the No. 2 horse in the race.

As first reported Sunday on tulsaworld.com, during the 5½-furlong race, the filly ran into the rail and Pace fell. An ambulance transported Pace to Sequoyah County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The track announcer, Jesse Ullery, said Pace was already dead on the track before being taken to the hospital. (read more here)

Trying to jump-start interest in a new Minnesota Vikings stadium, a Republican legislator on Monday proposed a constitutional amendment to add slot machines to the state’s two horse-racing tracks and use the proceeds to build the stadium.

Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, said his latest plan was a “little bit of a twist” to a failed effort earlier this year for a constitutional amendment to create another casino in Minnesota and put the profits toward a stadium. (read more here)

PHOENIX – One of the three remaining dog tracks in the state will soon shut it down for good.

Phoenix Greyhound Park plans to close its doors by the end of the year.

The general manager says the park would remain open for live racing until December 19 and continue to simulcast races until December 31.

Then some of the simulcast operations will be shifted to Apache Greyhound Park.

The Phoenix Park opened in 1954 and runs live races seven days a week.

However it couldn’t overcome the recent challenges including increased competition from casinos declining revenue and dwindling visitor numbers.

GRAND PRAIRIE — Most of the 3,027 fans managed to keep a firm grip on their exuberance Friday night. Even when Executive Looks won the ponderously named Classic Chevrolet Heartbeat of America Handicap, the sparse crowd maintained its composure, with the exception, perhaps, of the joyous owner, who seemed to have enough hugs to go around for just about everybody.

Opening night at Lone Star was, quite understandably, subdued. By far, Friday’s was the smallest opening night crowd in the track’s history, down more than 26 percent from the 4,101 that came out to start the quarter horse season in 2006.