Horses, The Tax Bill, And 2028: A Conversation With Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear

[Wandering Eyes]

The TDN always strives to remain scrupulously non-partisan and confines its occasional attention to the world of politics to such opportunities and concerns that directly affect the Thoroughbred industry.

Recently, for instance, we spent time with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he stepped in to support the campaign against decoupling in that state. A few days ago, Chris McGrath was given the opportunity to sit down with the Governor of the Bluegrass State itself, Andy Beshear, a figure increasingly on the national radar as a potential White House contender in 2028.

Here are their exchanges on Governor Beshear's love of the horse, the importance of our industry to his home state, his views of legislation that appears to contain both significant advantages and anxieties for investors in Thoroughbreds, and the lessons that a Democrat Governor of a traditionally red state might take forward on a wider stage.

Chris McGrath: Horse country: for you, it's not just conceptual. I believe your own family and upbringing exposed you to horses.

Gov. Beshear: All my first jobs were around horses. I mucked stalls before school and through the summers. I taught horseback riding lessons. I even ran a camp in my teens. My mom is an equestrian. My brother's a vet in Virginia. My daughter is an eventer. So half of our family spend every moment with horses and I guess the other half of us are governors.

Chris McGrath: And do you feel that kind of exposure gave you a connection to rural America?

Gov. Beshear: Absolutely. It's the hard work that occurs on a farm, but then there's also the love and the comfort of the animal itself. I'm comfortable around horses. I know what I'm doing around them, and I also appreciate them. You know, when you spend that much time taking care of these animals, you get to know them on a very different level, and there's something really special about horses and how they bond and connect with human beings. I still remember the last horse that I owned, and I would go off to college and I'd come back and it would actually follow me around in the field. Only one I've had that would do that though. Had one that if you didn't have food would try to kick you.

Chris McGrath: Food always helps. I don't know if you're as comfortable with bourbon, but these are our signature industries, right? And I'm sure you would say that anyone who holds your office, any form of leadership in Kentucky, you need to be an advocate for horseracing.

Governor Andy Beshear at Churchill Downs for the Derby | Getty Images

Gov. Beshear: Absolutely. The horse industry is so critical. It's over 60,000 direct and indirect jobs in Kentucky, billions of dollars in our economy, and it draws people in. And when you think of the horse industry, I actually think it's the intersection between agriculture, and now gaming, which is so important in it, and tourism. And for us to maximize it, what at least I try to do from a leadership perspective in Kentucky is to make sure we're maximizing each piece. It's understanding that it's farmers who bale the hay that are also a part of this industry. Family farms are supported by it. On the gaming side, how it's important to make sure that if that's what's bringing people in, we have a way at that track or at that parlor to introduce them to the sport itself. And finally, that tourism piece. I think bourbon is a good example of how you can develop a year-round booming tourism industry around something that people are passionate about. The Bourbon Trail 20 years ago was hardly a thing, and today it is one of the biggest draws in the country. So when you look at what Kentucky Downs is doing with their hotel and the attractions that they're putting up, when you look at what the Derby Museum means for Churchill, it means that those are year-round draws that bring people into the Commonwealth.

Chris McGrath: And when we speak of advocacy among political leadership, that extends across the divide. And a Republican congressman has worked very hard to get a great concession as part of this bill. And obviously, when everything is bundled together, it's going to contain good things and bad things. So I'm sure you welcome the depreciation scheme's extension, but there are other aspects of that bill that I know you find concerning.

Gov. Beshear: Well, there are some parts of that bill that help certain industries in Kentucky, and so I'm glad that they're there, but this is the reason that you don't put everything into one big bill, because for every good thing for an industry in that bill, the trillion-dollar-plus cut to health care is going to lay off 20,000 Kentucky health care workers. It's going to boot 200,000 people off their health care coverage. It may close up to 35 rural hospitals which are the second-largest employers in their communities and what that means is you're going to have fewer people that have the dollars in their pockets to be able to go to the tracks, to be able to go to the races. So understanding the health of the economy is important for the horse racing industry. It's important for people to be doing well, and we don't want to sacrifice the number of fans, the number of people that could be out there, you know, in a giant bill because it has some things that are good.

 

Gov. Andy Beshear meets storm victims in Pikeville, Kentucky last February | Getty Images

Chris McGrath: And it also contains elements of concern with the gambling taxation.

Gov. Beshear: It does, and then if you look at another side, the SNAP cuts are going to hurt some of the very farmers that bale the hay and support the industry. They're getting hit, especially family farmers, so badly over the last six months. You saw the tariffs, which hurt the exports of especially soybeans. You see the end of USAID, which was just a big client, a big export source for farmers, especially in Kentucky. you see the end of the farm-to-cafeteria program, and now you see this SNAP cuts will again be one less ultimate client for them. And so I think the horse industry is also served by having more family farms that aren't under the pressure to sell out to the bigger commercial farms that are less interested in supplying the horse industry.

Chris McGrath: You know horses, you know horsemen: you know they can be hard-headed, if not cynical. In big picture terms, your anxiety is that with tax breaks for the wealthy and so on, the emphasis is all wrong. But they're going to say to you, 'Well, guess what? My clients are wealthy people. This is good for my business.'

Gov. Beshear: Well, I think it's whether you put the industry first or other interests first. You look at how tariffs are hitting this industry. You look how they're going about immigration enforcement, which hurts this industry, you know, I believe that border security is national security. I believe we have to enforce the laws of the land, but how we enforce them shows our humanity. And so what I think the big influential players in this industry need to do is be vocal leaders on fixing our immigration problem. It's not, at the end, a political problem. It's a math problem. It's that we don't have enough visas or enough slots in our work programs to fill the jobs out there that Americans otherwise aren't going to fill. And what that does is create a demand for other labor. And we can ultimately fix this, get beyond the turmoil of the day, but we've got to sit down, be reasonable, and address the math. And I think horse farm owners could do a lot. I think that other industry players could do a lot, and they've typically been people that the very powerful people in Washington will listen to. But it'd be nice to not be having some of these issues every couple years or every eight years, but to actually get it right and to be driven by the math. Now what that does mean is all the industries out there that we see in hospitality and agriculture are going to have to be willing to pay the wages that come along with those programs.

Chris McGrath: Now our community, like the whole state, embraces people of many different opinions. And we're not here to tell them who's right and who's wrong, or that there's too much yelling going on, but what we have in our community is something that draws us all together, our love of the horse. And that keeps people with radically different opinions, good friends. That's something that we don't see enough on a wider scale. And the big question for this country and for the world, it seems to me, is how can we all do a bit more of that?

Gov. Andy Beshear at the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington, DC | Getty Images

Gov. Beshear: I think what we have to do is put the goal first. We've got to care more about the horse industry than our political party. We've got to care more the country than our party. We've got to care about solving problems, who gets points for wins and losses, and it can't be a zero-sum game. A good thing that happens for the country can't just be viewed as a win for one party and a loss for another. And when we address the challenges in the horse industry, it can't just be one group that's gaining and another group that is losing. What we've ultimately got to do is lift the whole industry up and make sure that everyone does better. And I think when you approach problems that way, especially with a communal love for something like the horse, or I really wish we could get Congress to say we love the United States so much that we're going to do the hard things and we're going to compromise and we are going to find common ground. Because in the end it's not important that we move right or left. It's important that we move forward. And most times those forward steps aren't about politics at all. Now I believe that when most people wake up in the morning, they're not thinking about their party. They're thinking about their job, their next doctor's appointment, the roads and bridges they drive every day, the school they drop their kids off at, and whether they feel safe in their communities. And when you find those things, in the core parts of the equine industry you pull out, most of them don't just benefit one group or another group. If done correctly, they can benefit everybody.

Chris McGrath: To coin a phrase, united we stand?

Gov. Beshear: That's right, and even think about the Pledge of Allegiance. In the Pledge of Allegiance, we pledge to a flag and to a country, and then we pledge to keep our country indivisible. And so I think we violate that pledge when we try to divide people, when we try to create an us-versus-them. And what I've loved to see in the horse industry, especially recently, is embracing new audiences and new people. I think about Griffin Johnson and Sandman introducing horse racing to 10 million 20-somethings on TikTok. I think about the way that Coolmore works with us on economic development, introducing CEOs to Justify and American Pharaoh. I think how Barbara Banke, who supports people on both sides, really looks out for the industry, looks to use even her other ventures to lift up horse racing. Ron Winchell and all of his investments, but what he sends back to Kentucky. So I think that there's a lot of opportunity for our country. I think there's a lot opportunity for the racing industry, but I think we have to put the goal first, to step back and to say we've got to reevaluate who we support and how we support it because we can't be more worried about our friends saying whether we're a good Democrat or a good Republican as opposed to are we doing the best for Kentucky or are we doing the best for the horse industry.

Chris McGrath: So one final question. I'm not going to ask you about 2028.

Gov. Andy Beshear | Getty Images

Gov. Beshear (laughing): Everybody else does.

Chris McGrath: There aren't that many people talking common ground the way you do. So people are interested in you. People are viewing you like, you've won the Blue Grass Stakes, this guy should run in the Derby. So what I'd like to know is what you've learned from your experience, in your home state, that will animate you in whatever form of service you end up embracing?

Gov. Beshear: What I've seen in Kentucky is the temperature turned down as opposed to the rest of the country, and people generally getting along, people being excited about us breaking every economic development record in the books, and a real recognition that these good steps we've taken are good for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. In Kentucky, I see a legislature that's dominated by one party and a governor that's of another party being able to get at least the most important things done. And then, just the ability to push beyond the rancor and to have pride in who we are. I mean, right now, I think the people of Kentucky are excited and encouraged, even in a country that maybe is more pessimistic. I mean we see the country finally looking up to us instead of looking down on us. And so I think that whoever our next leader is, is going to need to be somebody who can heal the country and can bring people back together. Again, who's not worried about the boxes people try to put you in–Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Right or Left but it's more pragmatic; it says what's going to benefit everybody. And what I've seen–because I saw it between my last two elections–is if you work really hard to create a better life for everyone they come together, they're willing to cross party lines and you see less of this destructive partisanship.

Chris McGrath: We'll raise a glass of bourbon to that. Governor, thank you for your time.

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