Damon Thayer Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

[Wandering Eyes]

During his 22 years serving in the Kentucky State Senate, Damon Thayer was known as a fierce advocate for the horse racing industry. Thayer decided not to run for re-election in 2024, but that doesn't mean that he stopped trying to help the sport, using his considerable political acumen to do so. Thayer has accepted the job as the senior advisor to the Thoroughbred Racing Initiative–a group formed to try to fight off efforts to decouple the racing and casino and card room licenses in Florida.

To talk about his work on behalf of the Florida racing industry, Thayer was the guest on this week's edition of the TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented by Keeneland. He appears as this week's Gainesway Guest of the Week. With his vast experience in state politics, Thayer, perhaps better than anyone lese, explained how he felt the efforts to decouple have gotten as far as they have.

“Gulfstream Park has contributed over $300,000 in campaign contributions since the end of 2023 to Tallahassee politicians and their campaign committees,” Thayer said. “And for whatever reason, (Belinda Stronach) got the House Budget Committee Chairman, Chairman Lawrence McClure, to be a big supporter of decoupling as well as Representative Adam Anderson, who has part of Tampa Bay Downs in his district. Anderson agreed to sponsor the bill. The only other thing we can find out is one of those guys is really good friends with Gulfstream Park's lobbyist. Those two factors, the campaign contributions and the friendship, are the only motivation that we can find. The House Budget Committee chairman wants this. And nobody wants to make the House Budget Committee chairman mad because he controls the line-item appropriations in the budget.”

While the bill has advanced in the House, it has yet to be introduced in the Senate. Thayer said he thought the racing industry will fare better when dealing with the Senate.

“When we got in, we knew that the skids were greased in the House, although we seem to have slowed it down a little bit,” Thayer said. “But our plan has always been to defeat the bill in the Senate. That's where we are right now. We had a really good week last week, but we're in a new week and we're almost to the halfway point of the Florida legislative session. And we're pouring it on. We're pushing this message, that this is a $3.3 billion industry. And it has nearly 33,000 jobs. It's bigger than college athletics. It's as big as the ports and is on a similar footing as the citrus industry. I'm still just aghast that an industry like this would be under attack.”

While Thayer would like to see nothing change at Gulfstream and have the track continue to run 200 days a year, he knows that's not going to happen. Much of his work involves finding an alternative plan for Florida racing should Gulfstream close.

“In Florida, you're going to need a white knight to come in and buy Gulfstream Park and operate it as a racetrack,” Thayer said. “I'm not sure that (Stronach) would sell it as a racetrack. The long-term future of Gulfstream Park is probably in question as a racetrack, even if we kill the decoupling bill. So let's talk about all the options.”

He mentioned re-opening Hialeah, giving the prime winter dates to Tampa Bay Downs, building a new track north of Broward County, moving racing to Ocala and The Jockey Club and the Breeders' Cup pooling their substantial resources to open a new track.

But what if they do succeed in killing the bill? What would prevent The Stronach Group from following through on its threats to close the track down immediately, Thayer was asked?

“They can threaten to shut the place down,” Thayer said, “but then they'd have to shut down the casino. They've got 500 slot machines. By the way, under the law, they could put in 2,000 slot machines and they've only been operating 500. But their average gaming revenue out of those machines is $39 million a year. So if they want to shut Gulfstream Park down, they've got to shut down the money train that is their casino.”

In our “Fastest Horse of the Week,” segment, sponsored by WinStar, the show featured WinStar stallion Heartland. The fastest horse of the week was Touchuponastar (Star Guitar), who got a 109 when winning the GII New Orleans Classic run at the Fair Grounds.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, the KTOB, 1/ST Racing and 1/ST TV, the team reviewed last weekend's major Derby preps and looked ahead to this week's action, topped by the GI Arkansas Derby and the GI Florida Derby. One of the main topics was whether or not 'TDN Rising Star' Cornucopian (Into Mischief), as talented as he is, can win the Arkansas Derby for Bob Baffert in just his second lifetime start and his first beyond six furlongs.

To watch the podcast, click here.

To listen to the audio version, click here.

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