The executive committee of the National Museum of Racing has changed the process of electing members in four of the categories to the museum’s Hall of Fame.

Voters now will be able to vote for their four top choices in any pattern rather than being restricted to voting for one in each category. The categories are contemporary fillies and mares, contemporary colts and geldings, contemporary jockeys, and contemporary trainers. Contemporary in this instance means active in the last 25 years.
           
The change might result in more than one individual from a category being elected in a given year, while another category has no inductee that year. The change reflects the opinions of a number of members of the Hall of Fame nominating committee, as well as the executive committee.

Under the new system, the nominating committee will be asked to arrive at a slate of at least eight and no more than 10 candidates each year. The slate does not have to include a like number from each category. There conceivably could be a situation that a category would not have any candidate in a given year.
 
A separate committee, the historic review committee, will continue to handle the elections of participants in racing whose active careers ended more than 25 years ago. There also are no changes in voting procedures in the steeplechase categories. 

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is located in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.