NTRA CEO Tom Rooney Talks Immigration, Tariffs, Taxes on TDN Writers’ Room

[Wandering Eyes]

The NTRA's Tom Rooney has a lot to deal with in Washington right now, arguing on behalf of the racing industry for immigration, tax relief, and tariff relief. He appears on the TDN Writers' Room, presented by Keeneland, as the Gainesway Guest of the Week to discuss what progress is being made in Washington on those issues.

Rooney was asked first about the new 30% tariffs recently announced by Donald Trump on racing-heavy regions like the European Union, Canada, and Japan, and how that would affect racehorses. The tariffs are scheduled to go into effect August 1, unless trade deals are struck before that date. Proposed tariffs earlier in the year were postponed by the administration.

“It is somewhat frustrating to try to plan this way and to get ready to go over to one of those sales, whether it be in England or Ireland or France or wherever, and game plan and look at pedigrees and try to figure out if you're going to buy a horse, if there's going to be a tariff or not,” said Rooney. “It just is such a frustratingly moving target. We have to just keep an eye on it and see if he delays it again. I think his words were something like, `it's definitely August 1st unless he changes his mind.' And when the stock market crashes or goes down and then he delays it and the stock market goes back up, you know, you think, `okay, well, he's not going to do that again.' But then he does. So at our office are on top of what what the actual cost will be should these tariffs actually go into effect.”

Rooney also discussed the new provision in the tax bill that reduces the amount of gambling losses that can be written off against winnings.

“We heard a rumor that the reason why this happened was they were looking for money wherever they could get it,” said Rooney. “It was a billion dollars that they thought they were going to be able to (make) from this. But that begs the question if people will bet as much if they can't write off as much of a loss. But we'll see. It was one of those things that was thrown in there at the last second. We couldn't change it. Now we have our next project that we're working on.”

Elsewhere in the show, hosts Bill Finley, Zoe Cadman, and Randy Moss previewed the upcoming Haskell Saturday at Monmouth, featuring Preakness winner Journalism (Curlin), and the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. In the WinStar Fastest Horse of the Week segment, presented by the stallion Nashville, they reviewed the co-fastest horses of the week, Excellent Truth (Cotai Glory {GB}) and Malarchuk (Nyquist), both trained by Chad Brown and each of whom won stakes at Saratoga with a 102 Beyers, and discussed the impact on handle of the ongoing rains at Saratoga.

They also discussed the news of the week, including Lady Eli's son Dr. Agne (Into Mischief) being named a 'TDN Rising Star', Steve Kornacki's upcoming speech at The Jockey Club Round Table, and the strength of the JHRA sale in Japan. The TDN Writers' Room is also sponsored by 1/ST TV, West Point Thoroughbreds, and the PHBA.

To watch the video of the Writers Room, click here. To listen to the audio version of the podcast, click here.

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