Tom LaMarra

Tom LaMarra, a native of New Jersey and graduate of Rutgers University, has been news editor at The Blood-Horse since 1998. After graduation he worked at newspapers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania as an editor and reporter with a focus on municipal government and politics. He also worked at Daily Racing Form and Thoroughbred Times before joining The Blood-Horse. LaMarra, who has lived in Lexington since 1994, has won various writing awards and was recognized with the Old Hilltop Award for outstanding coverage of the horse racing industry. He likes to spend some of his spare time handicapping races.

Articles by: Tom LaMarra

Call Goes Out to Fund Testing Consortium

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium expects to have enough money to carry it through 2006, but officials with the group indicated not all members are on the same page on how to fund the organization in the future.


The consortium

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Change in Kentucky Drug Rules Could Trigger Lawsuit

The Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) could file a lawsuit to prevent implementation of a new race-day medication policy in the state.


Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher signed the more restrictive rules Aug

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U.S. Equine Economic Impact Study Released

The horse industry in the United States contributes $39 billion in direct economic impact and generates about $102 billion in total spending, according to a detailed economic impact study released June 28.

“The Economic Impact of the Horse

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Kentucky Can’t Pinpoint Origin of Strangles Cases

Kentucky legislators received assurances July 13 the state is well equipped to handle future equine disease outbreaks, but they got no answers to questions about the origin of the strangles cases earlier this spring at the Churchill Downs

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Expansion of Critical Kentucky Lab About to Begin

The long-awaited expansion of the University of Kentucky Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center, made possible through an $8.5-million appropriation from the Kentucky General Assembly this spring, is about to begin and could be completed in about

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Study: Horse Industry Produces $102B in Spending

The horse industry in the United States contributes $39 billion in direct economic impact and generates about $102 billion in total spending, according to a detailed economic impact study released June 28.


The Economic Impact of the

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National Economic Impact Study to be Released

The release of what is being called the most comprehensive study ever done on the horse industry in the United States will be released June 28 in Washington, D.C.


The study, called “The Economic Impact of the Horse Industry in the United

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Officials to Discuss Polytrack Surface at Turfway

Keeneland racetrack in Lexington, Ky., and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., plan a joint press conference April 27 to discuss installation of the Polytrack surface, now used on Keeneland’s five-eighths-mile training track, at

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Precautions Taken After Trackside Strangles Case

Churchill Downs is taking precautionary measures at its Trackside training facility in Louisville, Ky., after a Thoroughbred racehorse was diagnosed with strangles, a contagious bacterial disease.


Rumors began circulating the weekend of

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Kentucky Breed Development Incentives Almost Home

A proposal to create breeders’ incentive funds and a modification of the tax on yearlings and 2-year-olds was slated for passage March 8 as part Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s tax modernization and budget package.

The House and Senate left the horse industry benefits intact when they each passed the measure. The incentives then survived a conference committee meeting that lasted until

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Kentucky Panel: Adopt Model Medication Rules

The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council set in motion major changes in the state’s medication and drug-testing policies when it voted Feb. 4 to recommend adoption of the model rules devised by the national Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.

The drug council voted 7-1 in favor of the model rules. The lone dissenter was Susan Bunning, president of the Kentucky Horsemen’s

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Drug Consortium Moves on Violations, “Milkshakes”

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium has set a deadline for adoption of recommended uniform medication violations and testing protocol for “milkshakes,” which are mixtures of bicarbonate of soda and a liquid given to a racehorse before it competes.

The consortium met Jan. 24 for about eight hours in Southern California. It set a deadline of March 1 for adoption of the rules an

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Kentucky Equine Drug Panel Gets New Members

The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council, which hasn’t met since the fall of 2003, has been officially reconstituted. The council serves in an advisory capacity to the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority.

The terms of members of the previous council expired this summer. Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced the new appointments Nov. 23 in a release.

Connie Whitfield, vice chairwoman of

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Above the Surface: Polytrack

Polytrack–polypropylene fibers, recycled rubber, and silica sand covered in a wax coating–has been used for training and racing for years in Great Britain, but Keeneland is the first U.S. facility to install it.

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