guncurug

Keeneland opens its Fall Meet today in a weekend whirlwind of nine graded stakes featuring five Grade I stakes, with eight of the nine races being "Win and You're In" Breeder's Cup specials.  The strong weekend of stakes masks a continuation of the downturn in Kentucky racing and breeding that has been evident since the Churchill Downs spring meet, continuing through the just concluded Turfway meet and Keeneland's September yearling sale.

For the first time in memory, Keeneland has cut purses. For this three week meet which concludes on October 30, total purse money has been cut by about $1 million and two stake races have been eliminated.  Traditionally, Keeneland has been able to weather downturns in attendance and handle because its sale revenue has served to prop up its racing revenue.  However, in the last couple of years, with sale revenue falling annually and with race revenue down, it has been unable to support its purse structure.

The picture at Turfway, which Keeneland co-owns with Harrah's, has been even bleaker.  Turfway's traditionally smaller purses have been unable to keep pace with racing in neighboring Indiana and West Virginia, both of whose tracks are supplemented by casino revenue.  In a scenario never before contemplated, Kentucky owners and trainers are forsaking the state and setting up shop at Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park, relatively new venues which had traditionally been considered no higher than the A League of racing.  However, this year, Indian even saw a Triple Crown winner run in the state for the first time as Lookin at Lucky won the Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park.

Keeneland is trying something new this weekend.  Tomorrow, for the first time, there will be an Arabian race which will be the first time in memory that Arabian horses will be running in sanctioned competition in Kentucky.  Should be interesting as Arabian were the foundation sires of all thoroughbreds.

Kentucky is even losing stallions to other states that have higher breeding incentives fueled in many cases by casino or slots revenue. While a certain number of stallions leave Kentucky every year, and a portion of those leave for overseas, it appears to many Kentucky breeders that more stallions, and more highly regarded ones, are leaving for other states in response to breeding incentive programs that Kentucky is not able to afford to match.

All of this is empirical evidence to demonstrate the need for Kentucky to act quickly if it expects to keep its place as the primary locale for its signature industry.  The Kentucky General Assembly in its session beginning in January, 2011 must pass some form of casino gaming or slots authorization legislation, everv if its no better than to place a constitutional amendment before the voters.  Since the Republicans in the State Senate refuse to contemplate casino gaming or slots in any form and refuse to allow any amendment to be placed before the voters, I would urge any Kentuckians who read this blog to vote against any Republican state senate candidate in their district who is not firmly committed to approve some form of gaming legislation.  With Senate President David Williams now campaigning for Governor, it will be even more difficult to pass legislation without a Democratic majority in the Senate or the votes of several Republican senators willing to cross their leader.  Please take this into account when you head to the voting booth.

This end your political announcement for the day.  No animals were harmed in the making of this commercial.

Okay, I can read a calendar but it's a little hectic around here right now (political campaigns we're working on are heading to the wire) so you get some reading links early:

Earlier this week, HR 2267, the bill which will repeal UIEGA, the Unlawful Interstate Enforcement Gambling Act and permit, regulate and tax online gaming.  The gaming allowed is primarily poker - sports betting is specifically excluded thanks to the lobbying efforts of the NCAA, NFL  and the major professional leagues. 

One should not get too excited about this milestone, however, as there is still a long road to passage through the whole Congress.  Even should it manage to get through the House, there is still the Senate to contend with and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is from Nevada, particularly susceptible to the entreaties of the lobbyists of Las Vegas' casinos.  So far those casinos have lined up in opposition to the bill, which I believe is the wrong approach.  They should be actively encouraging the passage of the bill with a tought regulatory scheme written to favor licenses going to existing land based casinos rather than existing online gaming operations. 

As it exists in its current form, should it become law, the winners will be the online gaming sites and the shakeout in that space has already begun.  Party Gaming announced an agreement to merge with Bwin and form a $3.3 billion company.

There is certainly a lot of movement in and around sports betting in America these days.  I just recently wrote about the fantasy game being run by the Philadelphia Daily News allowing online fantasy gaming. In addition, a sports betting hedge fund is about to be launched in the UK, not unlike one proposed several years ago by Mark Cuban, although the newer one now being organized has a broader based strategy.