re: Kentucky Conundrum

JHAM — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 21:08:28 GMT

Although horses mean far more to Kentucky’s finances than those of any other state, each and every elected official from the Commonwealth, not dissimilar to the leadership of other states, has the same thing on his mind when he wakes up as he does when he falls asleep – as in “how do I go about getting re-elected”? Unfortunately, proposing and voting to expand gambling results in lost votes to most if not all those incumbents. Granted, that spread is not as pronounced as it is in a state whose thoroughbred industry is a tiny piece of its fiscal puzzle. But the concept is the 800 pound gorilla nonetheless. Aside from those who make their living in the industry, not one in twenty otherwise unlikely voters is going to show up at the polls to cast a yes vote for expanded gaming. But rest assured that conservatives will go out of there way to vote down such measures so that conservative leaders can take full credit for keeping Kentucky free of the harmful effects of such an expansion.

Regardless of positive recent sales trends, more and more owners are situating their mares elsewhere to take advantage of incredible purses driven by electronic game offerings. Free enterprise and common business sense assure the continuance of that trend. Kentucky can brag about its bluegrass and limestone impact on equine bone structure until no one hears or cares about it anymore – at the end of the day it’s about where an owner can best position his or her assets. Kentucky lawmakers seem destined to trade votes for a passive view of its most cherished trademark’s back-end as owners and their assets vote with their feet and hooves. Any argument of Central Kentucky being forced to part with that trademark brings to mind the movie Absence of Malice and Wilford Brimley’s response to Sally Field’s statement – “Oh it’s more than possible Miss Carter … it’s damned likely”.

re: Kentucky Conundrum

EJMitchellKy — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 16:00:23 GMT

There has been some debate over the accuracy of the American Horse Council numbers, with some people involved in the most recent 2012 Kentucky study believing the AHC study's estimates were overly broad because of the methodology and available data. Bottom line, many believe the degree of contraction in Kentucky is less than $1 billion and a portion of what has contracted can be attributed to the weak economy.

There are some numbers I just recently received that do indicate other trends of concern. In 2002, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF), which provides supplemental purse money for Ky-breds, had a pool of $8.02 million. In 2011, the KTDF was down to $4.91 million. The introduction of Instant Racing helped boost the fund to $5.28 million in 2012.

The Kentucky Breeders Incentive Fund was worth $12.65 million in 2006. The KBIF dropped to $10 million in 2011. Instant Racing helped increase this fun dto $10.36 million in 2012.