The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has greatly increased transparency within the sport through updates to its own website which include daily reports published by the stewards at each of the state's tracks. The reports, which include explanations of decisions from inquiries or objections, details regarding late scratches, vet list additions, rulings on licensees, changes in wagering and other information, are a significant improvement for the sport in its natural American home.
Reports can be viewed HERE and are segmented by track. The published reports date to the beginning of the 2020 spring meet at Churchill Downs (May) and have been updated for racing at Keeneland and Ellis Park. Individual stewards' decisions are also published on each track's website as incidents occur.
"The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Executive Director Marc Guilfoil and the Stewards are to be commended for adopting this updated standard of reporting. This is a win for transparency and a win for all stakeholders across the sport, particularly horseplayers," said Patrick Cummings, Executive Director of TIF.
In August 2019, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) published "Seeking Transparency," a white paper aimed at increasing the daily reporting of in-race incidents and related matters from stewards to the public.
"Our sport isn't going to get there overnight, but small improvements over time, similar to these from the regulators in Kentucky, are appreciated and are improving the state of affairs in racing. We must continue to push for the sport to take itself more seriously, and with steps such as these from Kentucky, we are moving in the right direction.
"It should be noted," Cummings added, "that a few jurisdictions have done this reporting either at present - like California and Ontario - or in the past, like New York. Unfortunately, consistency in publishing such reports has not been maintained in New York, where outside of one month, weekly racing reports from the state's tracks have not been updated by the New York State Gaming Commission since April 2018."
Stewards' decisions are reflected on the New York Racing Association website for each track as it is running, but more detailed stewards' minutes are not otherwise available.
Examples of the reports are posted below in images taken from the KHRC website and reflect the variety of elements covered in the reports.
