Penn National announces equine health and safety initiatives

Penn National Gaming Inc., the second largest owner of pari-mutuel racing facilities in North America, Tuesday announced the implementation of several initiatives intended to ensure the continued health and safety of equine participants at its racetracks. These initiatives include limiting the height of toe grabs on front shoes worn by race horses, endorsing rules for new riding crops for Thoroughbred jockeys, and recommending, at a minimum, the adoption of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) model rule regarding Androgenic Anabolic Steroids.

The initiatives follow the recently issued recommendations of The Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Safety Committee.  Founded in 1894, the Jockey Club is dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing and is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. 

“Penn National Gaming endorses and embraces The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Safety Committee’s recommendations which are sound steps toward ensuring the health and welfare of our equine participants,” said Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming. “We have outlined a plan to introduce several of these recommendations at our horse racing facilities over the next few months.  In addition, we will actively promote the adoption of permanent rules and regulations for these items with regulators in every one of the six jurisdictions where we conduct racing.  We have identified several other areas where information, uniformity and cooperation are needed to achieve additional results to benefit the industry and expect that other responsible pari-mutuel facility owners and industry leaders will follow our actions.”  

Penn National Gaming owns and operates gaming and racing facilities with a focus on slot machine entertainment.  The Company presently operates nineteen facilities in fifteen jurisdictions, including Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New

Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ontario.  Penn National is the second largest owner of pari-mutuel facilities in North America and conducts over 1,000 dates of live racing annually.   Total wagering at its pari-mutuel facilities on live and simulcast racing totaled nearly $850 million in 2007.  (PNG)

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