Luster, a 3-year-old filly, won the 167th King’s Plate at Woodbine last weekend. And, understandably, track announcer Robert Geller couldn't help but declare that "Luster's full of shine" as she closed out the race.
It was an important day for Woodbine, which reported its fifth-largest handle ever for the day's racing card and its largest-ever win pool for the King’s Plate specifically.
However, horse racing more broadly has experienced a few controversies of late that could cost it some of its lowercase luster. And, at a time when betting on horse racing is already declining, these controversies raise the risk of costing the sport something even more tangible, such as money.
- Horse racing has endured a turbulent summer amid declining betting on the sport.
- A new six-race Thoroughbred Championship Series will debut in 2027 without the Preakness, while the Preakness is also being moved, creating uncertainty around the traditional Triple Crown.
- Further controversies risk damaging trust in a sport whose financial ecosystem depends heavily on wagering.
On Monday, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) announced it had charged a "Covered Person," Marshall Gramm, with multiple violations of rules “arising from unauthorized access of confidential horse health information.”
According to a press release, past performance data reports (PPs) for two horses that included confidential "horse health data" were posted on social media this June by someone who had no connection to the horses.
"Luster's full of shine!" - @WoodbineGeller
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) August 15, 2026
#1 LUSTER very special in the $1 million King's Plate at @WoodbineTB. @ljlmvel in the irons for @jcarrollracing on the daughter of Knicks Go. pic.twitter.com/t4EHQ6EdMd
HISA said it investigated and alleges that Gramm "deliberately and methodically misappropriated" confidential information from its web portal over a six-week period in May and June, which he used to create the PPs shared on social media. Gramm also allegedly participated in handicapping contests, betting, and claiming horses during this period.
“When confronted with the findings of these investigations, Mr. Gramm admitted that he is the source of the PPs for Deterministic and Griffin’s Wharf,” the release added. “The harm that Mr. Gramm has caused to the Thoroughbred racing community is significant.”
HISA said it has begun enforcement actions against Gramm for the alleged rule violations. Additionally, the organization said it will look into “all available remedies and claims arising from the harm caused to horse owners, trainers, and veterinarians who rely on the confidentiality of the HISA Portal, Mr. Gramm’s fellow contest participants and the wagering public.”
My statement on HISA Matter
— Marshall Gramm (@marshallgramm) August 17, 2026
HISA has unfortunately decided to pursue disciplinary proceedings against me regarding data I accessed through the HISA Portal. I made a good-faith effort to resolve this matter with HISA, and we came very close to doing so.
Ultimately, we could not…
Gramm, meanwhile, posted on X that he intends to “vigorously defend" himself in the HISA proceedings, which followed a nearly successful “good-faith effort” to resolve the issue with HISA.
“I am a college professor and data analyst, and gathering and analyzing large datasets is something I have done throughout my career, including extensive work with horse racing data,” Gramm wrote. “The information at issue was available through my authorized HISA account. It was a large dataset, and at the time I accessed it, I had not fully reviewed its contents or understood the scope of the information it contained.”
Gramm added that he had never tried to conceal his identity or circumvent HISA’s security systems.
“Where I exercised poor judgment was in not bringing the vulnerability to HISA's attention sooner after it became a public story,” he wrote. “I should have done so, and I regret that I did not. I want to apologize for the difficulties this situation has caused.”
So, there are at least two different takes on what transpired. Either way, the matter has generated significant headlines and chatter among horseplayers and throughout the racing world.
Melting salt cubes
It’s also a controversy playing out as betting on horse racing in the U.S. continues to decline.
Equibase figures for July showed that wagering on U.S. thoroughbred races fell to $908.8 million last month, down almost 4.5% from a year earlier. As of the end of July, $6.4 billion had been bet on U.S. races, which was down 4.5% compared to the first seven months of 2025.
There’s simply not as much betting on horse racing as there once was. And it's been an ongoing trend, as total wagering in 2025 was $11 billion, down 2.1% from 2024, a year in which wagering fell 3.35%. Meanwhile, the findings from a Gallup survey on gambling habits released this week suggested only 2% of Americans bet on a horse race in the past year, down from 6% in 2016.
All of this is to say that it’s not ideal timing for any alleged “harm” to horseplayers, who may already be betting less on a sport that derives significant funding from wagering. It probably doesn’t help attract more casual bettors either, assuming they’re even aware of what’s been reported this week.
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Triple Crown trouble
Yet this week’s news isn’t the only situation worth monitoring either. There’s a huge change in the works that even normies may notice, as it involves the only races of the year they may watch or wager on.
The Triple Crown of horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, is something that anyone who is even vaguely aware of horse racing should know about. And yet, the industry is tinkering with the longstanding formula.
Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association announced earlier this month that they were creating a new, six-race “Thoroughbred Championship Series” that will start next year.
The “annual season-long championship for America’s leading 3-year-old Thoroughbreds” is expected to include the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and four other races that are not the Preakness.
“A unified points system is designed to encourage the nation’s leading three-year-olds to compete against one another more frequently,” a press release explained. “In addition to individual race purses, a $5 million prize pool will be awarded based on the final standings, which will also provide owners and trainers with meaningful financial incentives to remain active throughout the championship series.”
So, more money and more reason for owners to run in these races. The same incentives do not exist for the Preakness, which is also being moved back on the calendar next year, pushing it eight days further away from the Derby (and to a Sunday, for the first time ever) and then that much closer to the Belmont.
“This extra week between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness opens the Preakness to potential participants who use modern training methods,” said Bill Knauf, president and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, in a press release
The decision comes after back-to-back Kentucky Derby winners took a pass on the Preakness, and as we are nearing a decade without a Triple Crown winner. But also, doesn’t this mean the “modern training methods” crowd would now have another reason not to run in the Belmont?
There’s the additional context of how Maryland bought the intellectual property rights of the Preakness. To do so, the state exercised a right of first refusal to match an $85-million offer that was made by Churchill Downs, which then started a new championship series that doesn't include the Preakness.
All of the above puts the Triple Crown, the three most popular events for the sport in the U.S., in somewhat uncharted waters. A lot of people are still going to want to win the Kentucky Derby, and many will no doubt look to ensure their horses run in that race first. After that, though, who knows?
I am in favor of any and all new ideas to grow racing and increase interest in our sport. So I welcome The Thoroughbred Series introduced by Churchill and the NYRA and I look forward to competing in the new series.
— Bob Baffert (@BobBaffert) August 3, 2026
But the greatest achievement in racing will always be winning…
The Preakness is obviously historically significant, and there are opportunities there for Kentucky Derby winners and losers, as well as horses who don't run in that race, to take a shot. But then, they could also opt instead to conserve their energy and resources to participate in the championship series. There's also still a chance (however long the odds may be) that the Preakness is eventually included in the new championship series.
It remains to be seen how this all nets out and whether it’s a win or a loss for the sport. But there’s now more uncertainty than there used to be - and that uncertainty surrounds three of the industry’s biggest races.
Serious stuff
Then there's some other news that is a bit more complicated but still contributing to a relatively tumultuous summer for the sport of kings.
In addition to the Gramm matter, HISA has said it is investigating five races run this month in New Jersey and New York, for which ESPN reported that bookies in the U.S. and U.K. “detected unusual betting on horses that overperformed and are linked to the same training facility.”
A trainer linked to five of the horses at the center of HISA’s investigation was then charged a few days later with an alleged violation involving a banned substance in another horse.
"We take this extremely seriously, working with all these organizations to make sure that we can determine what, if anything, happened," HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus said before the drug-test news. "And obviously, if any rules were broken, there will be serious consequences."
All I see and hear everyday is how corrupt horse racing is . How it’s dying. And all I do is just keep dumping my net worth into trying to buy grey horses who can win big races and when Im not doing that I’m losing every day betting. I gotta be the biggest moron of them all.…
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 17, 2026
So, there's still some investigating to do, but it's not an ideal situation for a sport that’s got some other concerning stuff going on right now.
Undermining trust in the sport and among its bettors would be bad because betting is what makes horse racing go. It provides a significant amount of funding for the industry through the takeout generated by its pari-mutuel wagering model. And, again, the pari-mutuel handle is already falling and bettors already had preexisting gripes, such as their frustrations with “computer-assisted wagering” groups.
Meanwhile, wagering on other sports continues to grow, and the ways you can bet them are expanding as well. That’s happening via state-regulated sportsbooks and, yes, prediction markets. There may even be ETFs soon that will give you a way to technically “bet” on an NHL team.
Do other sports have their problems? Absolutely. People just don't worry about the future of the NFL or NBA like they do horse racing. The summer of 2026 could turn out to be consequential for horse racing - and perhaps loom over the sport for a long time.
