“I think if we kill it this year, the legislature will be tired of dealing with it,” TRI senior advisor Damon Thayer tells Steve Byk. “There will be new members next year, and I think the remaining members will be ready for a new and positive outlook for the future of Florida racing. Our coalition is ready to offer those solutions.”
But, Thayer said, “we cannot sleep” and advocacy in Florida isn’t cheap. Consider donating to our cause of preserving live thoroughbred racing in Florida and creating a better future. How to donate at thoroughbredracinginitiative.com/donate
TRI senior advisor Damon Thayer was on Steve Byk’s “At The Races” satellite radio talk show Wednesday morning, seeking to assure industry participants that while Gulfstream Park’s decoupling legislation has zipped through Florida House of Representatives committees, it’s nothing that wasn’t anticipated — same as a year ago. Thayer said that again the fight will be in the Florida Senate, where he believes the horse-racing industry is better positioned than during the 2025 session. Here are excerpts:
“They keep changing the bill. They make it better, they make it worse. They make it worse than it was before. The current version of the bill — despite the fact that Gulfstream Park recently signed a contract with our partners, the Florida HBPA — would allow for almost immediate decoupling, which means the 20-year law, local referendum and horsemen’s agreement would be nullified when it comes to Gulfstream Park having a slots-machine casino at the racetrack. They’d no longer be required to run racing and keep their 500 slot machines, which generate $6 million a year for purses at Gulfstream Park.
“I’m trying to tell everybody: Try not to get too upset or exasperated, because this is all expected. We killed the bill in the Senate last year. Also we had strong support from Gov. Ron DeSantis…. He’s terrific. He’s come to the aid of horse racing every time we need him to do so. And I expect him to do so again if necessary. However, in the last year we have strengthened our relationship in the Florida Senate. They understand the damage that decoupling would do to the Florida horse industry and the negative effect it would have on horse racing’s North American ecosystem. I was in Tallahassee a week ago meeting with a key legislator. And right now I have no reason to believe the wall we have built in the Senate has any weak building blocks.
“We’re probably going to get another week of bad news. It’s going to pass the House. I think that Gulfstream Park is a little more desperate than they were last year. This is a budget year so there are other things legislators in Florida have their mind on, getting their stuff in the budget, which all legislators care about whether they are Republican or Democrat. So the bill has a little less juice than it had last year. Our group, Thoroughbred Racing Initiative, and our coalition of breeders and owners and trainers — including both the Gulfstream and Tampa HBPA — and (Ocala Breeders’ Sales), we’re all working cooperatively, cohesively. We are all aligned to oppose any version of this decoupling bill as we go forward.”
Host Steve Byk: “My exasperation is over an organization that clearly doesn’t want to be in the (horse-racing) business …. My exasperation is also people thinking, ‘Oh, Gulfstream is closing after the Florida Derby.’ You go through all of this last year and people don’t understand how it’s going to work and where it goes from here.”
Thayer: “I know everybody is tired of hearing ‘decoupling.’ But that’s the Stronach Group. That’s 1st Racing. That’s Gulfstream Park. That is Belinda Stronach. That’s the situation we unfortunately find ourselves in. I saw the statement that 1st Racing put out on the Pegasus telecast, ‘We are working in good faith with all sides to reach an agreement for the best interests in the future of horse racing in Florida.’ I mean, what a load of crap. They aren’t working with any side. They’re going to Tallahassee with their allies trying to single-handedly ruin horse racing in Florida, which would have a cascading effect on North American racing’s ecosystem. Our coalition is united. Everybody but Gulfstream is united to fight this bill.
“We feel if we can kill it this year, because of Florida’s term-limits law, in this situation helps us. Because some of these (decoupling) allies will be leaving the legislature. Which is why Belinda and her people are working so hard and desperately to pass it this year…. It is very frustrating that we find ourselves in a situation where a Canadian owner of two of America’s greatest and most historic tracks (Gulfstream and Santa Anita) is basically taking steps to extricate herself from both of them.
“By the way, Mike Repole has basically said he would buy Gulfstream Park as is and would operate it under a couple racing and gaming situation. I think Mike would spend $1 billion to buy it… She won’t talk about selling it to anybody for a racetrack.”
Byk: “… For an industry, it’s grossly unfair for people who have to make decisions about where to drop foals with their mares because the season is upon us. Not that racing is going to go away immediately in Florida. But it’s just maddening. There’s not worse, especially for regional programs, than indecision or uncertainties. That played out in New York several years ago. Pennsylvania had a couple of brushes with that scenario. This is part of what makes things hard.”
Thayer: Uncertainty to commercial markets “roils them and causes people to vote with their feet and their wallets… You’re breeding today for a three-year down the line product, and because of all the uncertainty that decoupling has caused has absolutely roiled the Florida breeding marketplace… I’m a Kentucky guy … but I’m also very cognizant how important regional markets are. It can’t just be Kentucky. Florida is so critical. We sold $500 million worth of yearlings at Keeneland in September. We estimate 80 percent of those horses are now in Ocala getting their pre-training and early lessons.
“…. The bill will have to go through three committees in the Senate. Very unique system, but that is to our advantage. Last year it passed one committee and then it was killed in the second by our ally, Sen. Jason Brodeur. We’re hoping that can happen again or keep it from even coming before the first committee. There’s a long way to go before we sleep. We cannot rest on this. Lobbying and being active in Florida is a very expensive place to operate in politics. If people want to help us, you can go to thoroughbredracinginitiative.com.
“We have told our legislative allies that we’re ready to pivot away from killing decoupling to looking at future of the Florida racing circuit. … We’d rather work in a positive, proactive position where we’re trying to change legislation next year to help set the predicate for the future of Florida racing instead of continuing to be in this defensive mode to try to kill decoupling.
“I think if we kill it this year, the legislature will be tired of dealing with it. There will be new members next year, and I think the remaining members will be ready for a new and positive outlook for the future of Florida racing. Our coalition is ready to offer those solutions.”