The Warner Jones award recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to Kentucky racing and sharing the passion exemplified by its namesake. Maline, who ranked among the country's most-respected executive directors of any racing organization, will be feted at the KTO's annual awards dinner, Saturday Nov. 18 at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

“The biggest part is that with the people I have known and respected who have received that award, it was very touching to me and I'm really honored that they would even consider me,” Maline said. “Many, many years ago somebody told me 'This isn't your position; this is your life.' And he was right.”

For more information on the event, contact Marlene Meyer at 502-458-5820 and click here for a list of past winners.

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Under the new statute–the bulk of which goes into effect on July 1–business owners with 25 or more employees must use E-Verify to confirm the immigration status of new hires, and be subjected to enforceable penalties for employing undocumented workers, as well as stricter penalties for sending undocumented workers across state lines to work in Florida, among other provisions.

When enforced, the new stringent laws are highly likely to impact everyone in the industry from trainers, farm managers, and the workers themselves. The TDN reached out to several stakeholders either based in Florida or who regularly race there. Some were unaware of the new law, while others downplayed its impacts.

According to Julio Rubio, backstretch services coordinator and Hispanic liaison for the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, an unusual amount of backstretch workers have recently come to Kentucky from Florida.

Rubio has also fielded calls from trainers in Florida who have already lost employees. “Some of them left for South Carolina. Illinois. They're just getting out of there,” Rubio said.

Immigration experts warn that the bill contains key provisions that employers should be aware of if they're planning to do business in Florida.

According to Will Velie, an immigration attorney with many clients in the racing industry, what is startling about the bill is that it co-opts state governmental agencies into enforcing federal immigration laws.

“The state is creating its own role in this which is unprecedented,” Velie said. “This is by far the biggest incursion of state law into the federal immigration domain.”

For trainers shipping horses into Florida to race from out of state, a notable provision under Senate Bill 1718 is the criminalization of “knowingly or willingly” sending into Florida an undocumented individual across state lines–what could amount to a state felony.

According to Albany-based immigration attorney, Leonard D'Arrigo, of the law firm Harris Beach, the language of the bill is frustratingly vague. For example, the bill states that the employer would only be at risk of prosecution if they know, or “reasonably” should have known, that the employee is undocumented. Nevertheless, he recommends that employers take nothing for granted.

“You have to be thinking about, 'who are we driving into the state if they get pulled over by the police and asked for documentation to prove legal status?'” said D'Arrigo. “If they're unable to prove legal status, there's liability–the employer could ultimately be responsible.”

Another key change is that employers with 25 or more employees must now use the electronic employment verification system, E-Verify, to check the immigration status for all new employees. If the system red-flags the individual as undocumented, then the business employs that person at its own risk.

Importantly, an employer must retain a copy of the documents used by an employee to prove their immigrations status, along with the official verification generated by E-Verify, for at least three years.

This requirement for employers is important. The bill authorizes the state to request any copies of documents used for employment verification purposes from business owners. And come July 1 next year, state law enforcement will be able to perform audits of businesses it believes isn't following E-Verify requirements.

According to D'Arrigo, the added layer of paperwork from E-Verify will likely hamper hiring practices for trainers and farm owners in Florida. This is a state where 25% of the workforce are immigrants, and where about 65% of agricultural and equine-related jobs are filled by immigrant workers.

Furthermore, there are estimated to be over 710,000 undocumented individuals in the Florida workforce. A 2021 report found that some 42% of Florida's farm workers are undocumented.

“They've been getting by for years without this additional scrutiny,” said D'Arrigo, of the current system whereby immigrant workers present “I-9 documentation” to illustrate proof of work status–what often proves a “good faith” arrangement.

“Now, employers are going to know immediately whether those documents are fake or whether they're real,” D'Arrigo said, who emphasized how the new E-Verify requirements only apply to new hires.

The possible sanctions aren't exactly chump change.

For employers who fail to use E-Verify as required three times in any 24-month period, for example, the state can impose fines of $1,000 a day “until the employer provides sufficient proof to the department that the noncompliance is cured.”

Furthermore, the new law also creates incrementally more serious violation sanctions to business owners pinned to the number of undocumented workers employed there and frequency of violations, said D'Arrigo. In a worst-case scenario, the employer could lose their state business license.

At the same time, a worker found to use false identification to gain employment faces a possible $5,000 fine and a five-year prison sentence.

While the new E-Verify requirements apply only to companies with 25 or more employees, D'Arrigo cautions for smaller businesses and their workers to be mindful in other ways.

Trainers and farm owners near the 25-employee cut off need to be vigilant if they exceed that threshold at any time, as this will dramatically affect their hiring practices.

Another important wrinkle in the new immigration landscape in Florida concerns the ability to legally take to the road. According to D'Arrigo, the state Department of Motor Vehicles is expected to maintain a list of drivers' licenses that other states issue to undocumented individuals. Why is this important?

The new law bars counties and municipalities from issuing identification documents like drivers' licenses to individuals unable to prove their legal immigration status. At the same time, Florida law enforcement officers will be ordered to issue citations to anyone using one of the out-of-state licenses listed by the DMV who is unable to prove legal immigration status, said D'Arrigo.

“It's only going to come up if somebody gets pulled over in the normal course of a traffic violation. At that point, the law enforcement officer is directed, if it's one of those out-of-state licenses, to ensure that the person is legally in the U.S.,” said D'Arrigo. “If not, they're to issue them a citation.”

Then comes the issue of workplace injuries. “If somebody gets injured at the track and they're undocumented, they can usually get emergency aid,” said D'Arrigo.

As of July 1, Florida hospitals accepting Medicaid are required to collect patient immigration information on administration or registration forms. These same hospitals are also required to provide a caveat on forms stating that the response will not affect patient care or result in a referral to the immigration authorities. But that's still not enough to allay workers' fears, warned D'Arrigo.

“Although the law says that they cannot share that information, it's still possible it will be shared nonetheless, and potentially transmitted to immigration authorities,” said D'Arrigo. “So, [undocumented] workers are now going to be hesitant to get the medical care that they need because they're going to be fearful from being on the record.”

For Velie, the most chilling provision in the law is that it opens the door for individuals to report to the authorities a “good faith” belief that certain employees are unauthorized. Such a report would require the Florida Department of Economic Development to investigate the complaint–a new dynamic that is likely to generate a “climate of fear” among businesses and immigrant workers, said Velie.

“If I'm [someone looking to make trouble], all I have to do is say with a good faith belief that there's somebody employed without authorization [on the backstretch], and the Florida Department of Economic Development has to investigate,” said Velie. “If somebody's just bent on causing problems, they've got a good way to do that.”

When asked about the immigration climate in Florida, Tom Rooney, National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) president and CEO, pointed to the H-2B guest worker program as a labor safety net.

Because of the sheer demand for H2-B visas and the limited supply, however, it's unlikely to prove an adequate fix to Florida's immigrant labor gaps.

“The National Thoroughbred Racing Association has long advocated on the Federal level for solutions for the industry, like a permanent returning worker exemption, and will continue to do so,” wrote Rooney in an email, pointing to long-identified problems with the H-2B system.

“For those trainers with over 25 employees for which this law applies we will continue to work diligently at the federal level with our partners in the H-2B Coalition to push for more workers to help fill the need,” Rooney added.

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Chip Bach, Turfway's general manager, reported the projection during the Sept. 28 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting. He also disclosed that Kentucky's recently rebuilt winter racing venue–with its new grandstand and updated stabling–will be shifting Saturday post times from early evenings to afternoons this season.

Bach said Turfway will card 24 total stakes worth $4.35 million in purses over the course of its holiday (19 dates over Nov. 30-Dec. 31) and winter/spring (48 dates over Jan. 1-Apr. 1) meets.

Turfway's signature race, the GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks S., will see a purse boost from $600,000 to $700,000, Bach said, noting that management is “not only adding stakes, but we're also putting a little bit more meat on the bone for those stakes as well.”

Night racing will remain a staple at Turfway on Wednesdays through Fridays, with an expected 6:15 p.m. first post, Bach said. The afternoon post time for Saturdays is listed as 12:45 p.m. on Turfway's website.

Rick Hiles, the president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, expressed a minor quibble with the timing of the first races on the evening cards. He said 5:30 p.m., which had been used in previous years, worked much better for both patrons “and the horsemen shipping, especially in inclement weather.”

Bach promised he'd look into a possible change to 5:30 p.m. But he added that “Turfway has changed. I can't base things on what happened six or seven years ago, because we had some really tough racing going on there. We used to really get killed in those first two races, going up against a lot of tracks that were going on at that time.”

However, Bach also stated that Turfway's quality of racing has evolved to a point where it might be better able to withstand the competition in that tight bridge-signal simulcast window.

“I think our product, it should be very good right now,” Bach said. “Again, that's why we're stepping into the afternoons on Saturday. We feel we can compete. It's going to take some time to win back some of the handicappers out there that aren't used to seeing us during the day. But I think we have a great opportunity to get back to where we were.”

Last season, Turfway paid out $62,000 in MSW purses. The dual meets were conducted with temporary trackside amenities as the multi-year grandstand rebuild was nearing completion.

The previous season of 2020-21, Turfway paid just $32,000 for MSW races, and the dual meets were heavily compromised by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the initial phases of the grandstand rebuild that kept the northern Kentucky oval closed to on-track spectators.

During the 2019-20 season, Turfway paid MSW purses in the $46,000-$48,000 range.

Separately, Austin Schmitt, the vice president of finance at Churchill Downs Racetrack, told KTDF board members that for his track's November meet, “Our purse levels per race type are planned to be similar as we are executing upon in September, so our [MSW races] are about $120,000.”

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Track executives disclosed the pre-condition book figures during Tuesday's Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting.

“The MSWs for older horses are going to be $100,000. And the [MSW races for] 2-year-olds are going to be $80,000,” said Keeneland's vice president of racing, Gatewood Bell.

At Keeneland's 2021 spring meet, the comparable MSW purse levels were $79,000 and $60,000.

Mike Ziegler, the senior vice president and general manager at Churchill, told KTDF board members that, “We have yet to finalize our purse structure for the upcoming meet. I expect them to be probably right in line with where they were in the fall, which was at $120,000 for [MSW races].”

In the spring of 2021, Churchill carded two levels of MSW money. For the lead-in to the GI Kentucky Derby, the purses were $115,000. After that, those races were written for $100,000.

Bell also outlined the allowance purse structure for Keeneland's April meet: Starting at the 1x condition, purses will be $110,000, with consecutive bumps upward of $10,000 for each the 2x, 3x, and open allowance levels, maxing out at $140,000.

Rick Hiles, the president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said, “I think it's great. Just don't leave out the claiming races. Make sure the guys that are running their horses in the claiming races every day are well-compensated, too.”

Bell said he agreed, and that Keeneland's condition book–which will come out later this week or sometime next week–will reflect claiming purse increases “just to help bolster those races that [don't] qualify for the KTDF funds.”

When prodded by KTDF advisory committee chair Bill Landes, III to give a glimpse of what purse levels might look like in the fall when Keeneland hosts the Breeders' Cup, Bell said the “hope [is] that it'll carry from the spring right into the fall and look fairly similar.”

When Churchill follows Keeneland in the spring rotation, it will open this year with a new turf course in place. Construction and seeding of that surface prevented Churchill from carding grass races last fall.

Ziegler noted that Churchill will be adding three Wednesday programs in June, making for two five-date weeks of racing and one six-date week that concludes with a Monday, July 4, holiday card.

It was not discussed at the meeting how that outlying six-date final week might adversely affect the available horse population at Ellis Park, which has a scheduled July 8 opening.

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Rick Hiles, president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (KHBPA), said that while Kentucky's racing industry is thriving on many fronts, the exception comes in the claiming races, especially at Ellis Park and Turfway Park. Claiming races, the blue-collar backbone of American racing, currently are not eligible to have Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) supplements added to their purses. Hiles told the Kentucky Legislature's Parimutuel Wagering Taxation Task Force that it's time to change that so that all horsemen benefit from the country's most successful state-bred incentive program.

“You need claiming horses in order to provide the opportunities for allowance and stakes horses,” Hiles said later. “It's time to acknowledge their important role and to let all horses born in the state and sired by a stallion in the Commonwealth benefit from being a Kentucky-bred.”

In claiming races, one of the conditions (along with distance, surface, age, gender, eligibility based on numbers of wins or earnings) is a price for which licensed owners can submit a “claim” before the race to buy the horse for that price. If successful, the new owner does not get money earned in that race but afterward takes possession of the horse. In Kentucky, claiming prices range from $5,000 up to $150,000.

Claiming horses are an essential part of American racing, filling out the race programs for the allowance and stakes horses. In Kentucky, claiming races make up about half of the races but account for only 17 percent of total purses. While no one advocates that claiming purses rival those of straight maiden, allowance and stakes races, Hiles said it's important that owners of those horses also have a shot to recoup at least part of their investment. That encourages owners and trainers to add horses, leading to added jobs for their care as well as increasing demand for Kentucky-breds.

The KTDF supplements, which often comprise 25 to 50 percent of a non-claiming race, are paid out only to registered Kentucky-breds. Those are horses born in the commonwealth and sired by a Kentucky stallion — a population which accounts for the vast majority of horses racing in the state and throughout much of the country.

While the other race purses have seen dramatic growth in Kentucky thanks to the implementation of historical horse racing, the money for claiming races has been largely stagnant in some areas. Ellis Park is the most impacted, being at a competitive disadvantage for those horses with Indiana Grand, three hours away, and this summer with many Kentucky stables deciding to race at Virginia's Colonial Downs. Ellis Park staged only eight races most days because of an inability to get enough entries to have full fields for claiming races. If those purses increased significantly, it would keep and attract horses to the state.

“If the KTDF were used to beef up claiming purses for Kentucky-breds, not only would I race a lot more horses at Ellis Park, I'd bring up horses from my Southwest and Louisiana divisions to run in the state,” trainer Bret Calhoun said earlier.

The concept was well-received by task force members Rep. Adam Koenig and Sen. Damon Thayer, who serve as committee chairs, as well as Rep. Al Gentry and Rep. Matt Koch.

“I agree with everything you said,” Koch, a breeder, told Hiles. “Especially the part about it costs just as much to keep a $5,000 claimer as it does an allowance horse. That's absolutely true. So many of the people who own those horses, they can win that month and the purse doesn't even cover the training and vet bills you have…. You go to Turfway Park this winter, those are the people keeping this industry running right here.”

Said Thayer: “This is not a new idea, but it's an idea whose time has come.… Not every horse becomes a stakes horse. Not every horse becomes an allowance horse. (Claiming races) are the bread and butter, the backbone of the sport. I think it's time we changed the statute and allow some of those KTDF monies to be used on Kentucky-bred horses that run in claiming races.”

Thayer advocated, and Hiles agreed, that the best way to implement such a policy would be through legislation enabling the expansion but with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and its KTDF advisory committee establishing the parameters. Koch cautioned about making claiming purses too high, to where it might incentivize someone to run an unsound horse. While agreeing that no one wants that, Kentucky HBPA executive director Marty Maline later observed that there are safeguards in place, including additional veterinary checks, to keep unsound horses at any level from competing and that horses making a significant drop in class get special scrutiny.

The Kentucky HBPA projects that KTDF on claiming races would add between $5 million-$10 million a year to those purses, if applied at the approximate percentages of other races. That is more than offset by the growth of historical horse racing, with no cannibalization of money offered on existing KTDF races, the organization said.

Claiming horses also provide a stream of revenue to the state's General Fund via the 6-percent state sales tax applied every time a horse is claimed. Through Nov. 13, a total of 923 horses had been claimed in Kentucky for a total of $22,400,500 with 27 days of racing left in the 2021. That accounts for $1,362,030 in sales tax.

“Anything that makes the sport stronger and more accessible, I'm for,” Gentry said of his support for KTDF expansion.

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After rule language reflecting the 24-hour Lasix administration in 2-year-olds went into effect in August, Wingate ruled, the question became moot.

“The Court must again begin this Order by stating that it is not concerned with any scientific or humanitarian argument in favor of or against the use of Lasix in horses,” Wingate's order read. “This zealously debated topic is not the issue before the Court. Instead, the Court is merely addressing a legal challenge brought by the KHBPA regarding what it alleges is an improper delegation of statutory authority to associations, such as Keeneland and Churchill, by the KHRC.”

The KHBPA had also challenged plans to push back pre-race furosemide administration in stakes races in 2021. Wingate indicated any claims about the legality of that action were not yet “ripe” since stakes races for older horses have not yet been carded under these circumstances.

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