Claiming races currently are not eligible to have Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) supplements added to their purses.

“You need claiming horses in order to provide the opportunities for allowance and stakes horses,” said Rick Hiles, president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (KHBPA). “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 Kentucky, claiming races make up about half of the races but account for only 17% of total purses. The KTDF supplements, which often comprise 25 to 50% 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.

Thayer explained the best way to implement the policy was through legislation enabling the expansion, but the KHRC and KTDF advisory committee would oversee the parameters.

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. Claiming horses also provide a stream of revenue to the state's General Fund via the six% 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.

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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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“D. Wayne and Dale: A Conversation” is set for 11 a.m. Central in the Ellis Park beer-garden pavilion. The free event kicks off a big weekend at the track, with the RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Derby and four other stakes taking place Aug. 15.

The public and media members will have the opportunity to ask questions after Lukas and Romans' unscripted conversation. Commemorative postcards will be on hand for fans to get autographs, for which donations will be accepted to benefit Second Stride, a TAA-accredited aftercare facility that retrains and adopts out retired racehorses for second careers.

John Hancock, the third generation Henderson horseman alternately described as the Mayor or Godfather of the Ellis backstretch, will introduce Lukas and Romans.

Lukas is often called the most transformative trainer in horse racing's modern era, meshing a corporate-focused business approach with a tireless work ethic to the inexact science of training horses.

His first of four Kentucky Derby victories came in 1988 with Winning Colors, only the third filly to wear the roses. Lukas' 14 Triple Crown victories (including six Preaknesses and four Belmonts) were a record until Bob Baffert surpassed the mark. Lukas remains the only trainer to sweep the Triple Crown races in one year with two different horses. His 20 Breeders' Cup victories remain a record, as do his 25 individual horses voted Eclipse Award champions.

The Lukas “training tree” is the most comprehensive in American racing and includes his former assistant Todd Pletcher, who this year follows his mentor into the Hall of Fame. Lukas' former assistants' former assistants also are of note, headlined by Brad Cox, who worked for Lukas' one-time assistant Dallas Stewart, and Michael McCarthy, who worked for Pletcher.

The life-long Louisvillian Romans grew up not far from Churchill Downs and spent summers at Ellis Park with his dad, owner-trainer Jerry Romans. Diagnosed at an early age with severe dyslexia — Romans prefers the term “learns differently” — the fractional times of races helped him learn math and race charts and the Daily Racing Form helped him learn to read. Lynn Romans refused to let her son fall between the cracks, making a deal with him: “Just get through high school and be the best horse trainer you can be.” That led Romans to replacing Bill Mott, who held the record for 31 years, as Churchill Downs' all-time winningest trainer in 2017. Romans now is No. 2 behind record-setting trainer Steve Asmussen.

“We wanted something special for the public as a prelude to Ellis Park Derby Day,” said Jeff Inman, Ellis Park's general manager. “Wayne is on the short list for the all-time great trainers, and we're fortunate that for the first time he's stabled with us this summer. We want our fans to get the chance to not just see him saddling a horse or in the winner's circle, but really up close and personal. The same is true with Dale.”

“These aren't just two of the best trainers in racing, but two of the best story-tellers,” said Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky HBPA. “With Wayne and Dale going one-on-one, there's no telling where this impromptu conversation will go.”

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During the Jan. 26 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting, Tyler Picklesimer, Turfway's director of racing and racing secretary, was asked to update the board on how the new Tapeta surface was performing.

Picklesimer told the board members via teleconference that, “We've had no complaints. Everybody's been happy with the surface. It's performed well within the cold, actually better than the Polytrack did in severe cold weather. But no, so far so good–everybody's happy.”

Bill Landes III, the chairman of the KTDF advisory committee, then asked Marty Maline, the executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (KHBPA), if that assessment squared with the general consensus of his organization's membership.

Maline responded by saying, “The horsemen are just elated with the surface [and] its drainage. It's running really true to form.”

But then Maline added: “We had a little hiccup about a week or so ago. A horseman actually brought a couple of rocks [from the racing surface] in to the office, and it, of course, started a panic of sorts.

“But right away the [Turfway] track man explained that when they were actually getting the surface into the front-loader [when installing it], they actually had chopped off a couple of pieces of blacktop,” Maline said. “And so it was a very limited situation.”

Maline said that right after the discovery, KHBPA board member Bill Connelly walked the circumference of the one-mile oval to inspect it, adding, “at about 15 F degrees, [he's] a stronger man than I am.”

Maline said after that inspection, “there was about two or three of these pieces of blacktop, and they were taken care of. [Tapeta Footings executives Michael Dickinson and Joan Wakefield] came in and reviewed it, and explained it wasn't the bottom, because the bottom is all [a different type of uniform-sized] rocks. And so everything died down. There wasn't any real problem with it.”

Maline closed out the subject by reiterating his overall positive impression that the Tapeta track has “been a godsend, really. It's a great surface.”

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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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Now, the KHBPA's attorneys say, that decision was unfair. Part of Judge Wingate's order focused on the organization's standing, which had been questioned by the defendants just before a hearing in late May. The KHBPA says the judge's order referred to affidavits from KHBPA members which were never intended to address the legal question of standing. The question of standing can include questions about the identity of a party, as well as whether a plaintiff can demonstrate they have suffered an injury as the result of actions by defendants.

Parties in the case are expected to appear before the court on July 29 to hear arguments surrounding the KHBPA's latest motion. Prior to the June dismissal of the case, The Jockey Club, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Breeders' Cup were all permitted to file amicus briefs in support of the defendants in the case.

At a meeting of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission this week, equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard reported that so far this meet, Churchill Downs has held eleven 2-year-old races without race-day Lasix. Those races have included a total of 107 starters. None of them experienced epistaxis (bleeding from the nostrils), according to the commission's records.

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