{"id":553,"date":"2025-04-28T12:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T12:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:09:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:09:39","slug":"florida-house-passes-bill-that-puts-thoroughbred-racing-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/28\/florida-house-passes-bill-that-puts-thoroughbred-racing-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida House Passes Bill That Puts Thoroughbred Racing at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>House approves \u2018decoupling\u2019 bill allowing tracks to drop live racing<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Legislation backed by Stronach Group, which wants Gulfstream Park casino <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>DeSantis has criticized the bill as harmful to Florida\u2019s racing industry<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tampa-bay-downs-commits-amid-threat-to-live-racing-in-florida\/\">A bill<\/a> that would likely spell curtains for thoroughbred racing in Florida, if passed, was approved by the state House Friday by more than a two-thirds majority.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_350728\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-350728\" data-style=\"width: 1039px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-350728\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DeSantis-858x571-1.jpg\" alt=\"Florida horse racing, Decoupling, Gulfstream Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Ron DeSantis, Thoroughbred racing Florida\" width=\"1039\" height=\"691\" \/><figcaption>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) meets and greets during a visit to the Ocala Breeder\u2019s Sales auction last week, where he took the opportunity to criticize the \u201charmful\u201d decoupling measure. (Image: OBS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>House bill 1467 would allow the state\u2019s two operational thoroughbred tracks, Tampa Bay Downs and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gulfstream-park-claims-canal-pollution-lawsuit-is-horsecrap\/\">Gulfstream Park<\/a>, to \u201cdecouple\u201d from live racing. Under the current rules, the tracks must offer a quota of races to operate other gambling activities such as slots or poker.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The decoupling measure is backed by Gulfstream Park\u2019s owner, the Stronach Group, which ultimately wants a casino license at the venue without the live-racing requirement. The measure has been tagged onto a wider gambling package that would, among other things, give law enforcement greater powers to prosecute illegal gambling and ban gambling regulators from accepting lobbying jobs for a certain period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>House Republicans voted 70-6 in favor of the Stronach position, while all 28 Democrats were opposed.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>DeSantis Bombshell<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was an outcome that was widely expected by opponents of decoupling, who believe they have enough support in the Senate to defeat the measure.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has indicated he would likely veto a bill that allowed decoupling, although the legislature could override him with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>On this issue with the horses, it seems to me they\u2019re proposals that have the effect of harming the industry here in Florida to basically benefit one special interest,\u201d DeSantis said while visiting the Ocala Breeders\u2019 Sales (OBS) auction last week. \u201cThat\u2019s not how you do good policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The legislative session in Florida was scheduled to end May 2, but will be extended because of disagreements over the state budget.<\/p>\n<p>The version of the bill in the Senate would need to be approved by two more committees before going before the Senate for a full vote, which seems unlikely due to the timeframe and the legislature\u2019s preoccupation with the budget.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Death of Harness Racing <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Decoupling proved to be the final nail in the coffin of harness racing in Florida. The state\u2019s last harness track, Caesars-owned\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-harness-racing-lawsuit-claims-pompano-park-decoupling-unconstitutional\/\">Pompano Park<\/a>, ceased live racing in 2022, less than a year after the state passed enabling legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Defenders of the thoroughbred racing industry, such as the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association and the National Horsemen\u2019s Benevolent and Protective Association, don\u2019t want history to repeat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>They emphasize that the thoroughbred industry generates an estimated $3.2 billion in economic impact and supports more than 33K jobs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a February statement, Tampa Bay Downs affirmed its commitment to offering live racing \u201cfor many years to come.\u201d It noted in the statement that it didn&#8217;t initiate the legislation, but didn\u2019t say whether it supported it in principle.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/florida-house-passes-bill-that-puts-thoroughbred-racing-at-risk\/\">Florida House Passes Bill That Puts Thoroughbred Racing at Risk<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House approves \u2018decoupling\u2019 bill allowing tracks to drop live racing Legislation backed by Stronach Group, which wants Gulfstream Park casino DeSantis has criticized the bill as harmful to Florida\u2019s racing industry A bill that would likely spell curtains for thoroughbred racing in Florida, if passed, was approved by the state House Friday by more than a two-thirds majority. Florida Gov. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}