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Kentucky Lasix Suit To Continue After Judge Reverses His Own Order

The civil suit in Franklin County Circuit Court over a partial Lasix phaseout in Kentucky will continue after a judge granted a motion from the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association to set aside, vacate, alter or amend an earlier judgment dismissing the case.

In June, Judge Thomas Wingate had denied a motion from the KHBPA for a temporary injunction to stop Churchill Downs and Keeneland from writing races for 2-year-olds requiring Lasix to be given 24 hours pre-race, rather than the typical four hours. The tracks had begun carding those races while waiting for regulations approved by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (also named as a defendant in the suit) to go into effect. The KHBPA contended that the tracks don't have the legal power to card no-Lasix races, since medication regulation is supposed to be made and enforced by the commission.

The tracks and commission argued that existing rules do permit racetracks to card no-Lasix races.

Part of the reason Wingate dismissed the case in June was due to a technical point about associational standing on the part of the KHBPA; “associational standing” in a legal sense refers to whether the organization represents members who had grounds to bring a suit in their own right, whether it is seeking to protect interests relevant to its members and whether the claims it makes require participation of individual members to the suit.

In an order this week, Wingate wrote “the Court understands the Plaintiff's position that it was not given adequate time, once standing was raised, to sufficiently address the issue prior to the Court dismissing the Complaint for lack of standing.”

Now, Wingate wrote, it's likely the matter will be decided on the strength of competing motions for summary judgment from each side in the suit. Wingate ordered the parties involved to set a date for oral arguments in the case within 10 days of granting the KHBPA's motion to vacate on July 29.

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‘Long-Term, That Land Gets Sold’: Churchill CEO Casts Dark Future Over Arlington Park

Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen made headlines in Illinois on Thursday after comments about the CDI-owned Arlington Park during a quarterly earnings call with investors, reports the Chicago Daily Herald.

“The long-term solution is not Arlington Park. That land will have a higher and better purpose for something else at some point,” Carstanjen said. “But we want to work constructively with all of the constituencies in the market to see if there's an opportunity to move the license or otherwise change the circumstances so that racing can continue in Illinois. For us, we've been patient and thoughtful and constructive with the parties up in that jurisdiction, but long-term that land gets sold and that license will need to move if it's going to continue.”

Churchill declined the chance to pursue casino games at Arlington last year, despite having the opportunity to apply for a slots license at the Chicagoland track last year. Initially CDI had planned to conduct sports betting at Arlington, but now those operations in Illinois will be restricted to Rivers Casino.

The Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association released the following statement in response to Carstanjen's comments: “For Churchill's CEO to say preposterously that Churchill has been 'patient' with other stakeholders speaks to the height of Churchill's contempt for the elected officials and working families of Illinois. The very least that Churchill could do is be honest about its true intention: the company cares only about maximizing profit and is happy to sacrifice the spirit of Illinois law and the livelihood of working Illinoisans to serve its greed.”

Delayed first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by a contract dispute with the ITHA, Arlington began a 30-day meet without fans on July 23.

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Kentucky Derby Delay Causes $149 Million Loss For Churchill Downs

In Thursday's quarterly earnings call with investors, Churchill Downs' chief executive Bill Carstanjen explained that the decision to delay the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks to September cost CDI $149 million, reports the Courier-Journal.

“The Derby long term has not been damaged in any way, (but) we are going to do what's right by our customers and our sponsors,” Carstanjen said.

To that end, Churchill has stopped selling general admission tickets to the Sept. 5 Derby.

“We're still well under the capacity that we've discussed with the governor. But we've stopped (selling general admission tickets) anyway because we want to make sure first and foremost that when our customers come to the event, that they feel safe,” Carstanjen said.

‘Thankful To Not Be Sick’: Florent Geroux Out Of Quarantine, Resumes Riding Friday At Ellis

Jockey Florent Geroux was getting on horses at Churchill Downs Tuesday morning for the first time since a positive test for COVID-19 put him on the sideline for two weeks until he tested negative. Geroux resumes riding races Friday at Ellis Park.

“I never had any symptoms, I'm thankful for that,” he said. “I was not sick. You can see in our country and the rest of the world, some of them, it's not very pretty. I was just thankful to not be sick. I missed a couple of weeks of racing, but that's the way it is, and I had to stay home in quarantine.”

Several of Geroux's scheduled mounts won in his absence at Ellis Park.

“It's never a good time, but it's better last week and two weeks ago than happening Kentucky Derby Week,” he said. “And I have some good mounts coming up now.”

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