Legislation to address an unintended consequence of a law enacted earlier this year to modernize the state’s horse racing industry that has held up more than $6 million in payouts to winning thoroughbred horse breeders and owners won House passage on Monday.
The bill, approved by a 192-0 vote, now goes to the Senate where proponents are hoping for quick passage before that chamber adjourns next week.
The legislation would allow cash awards to be distributed to owners and breeders of top finishing Pennsylvania-bred thoroughbred at Pennsylvania horse tracks using the formula that had been used prior to the modernization law’s enactment in February. That formula would apply retroactively to payouts owed from February through the remainder of this year.
But in 2017, the bill calls for the awards to be distributed under a new formula that increases the percentage of the purse that breeders of the Pennsylvania-bred horses sired by Pennsylvania sires that finish in the top three places to 40 percent, from the current 30 percent.
Brian Sanfratello, executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, said that change will result in $1.2 million to $1.3 million more going into horse breeders’ pocket.
His organization supports the legislation. He said its enactment will move Pennsylvania “back to having one of the best breeding programs in the country.”
The delay in releasing the funds due to the horse breeders and owners created some financial nightmares for horse breeders, pushing some to the brink of having to close their farms down.
The horse racing modernization law was passed in a rush to prevent the shutdown of horseracing in the state. A provision in it that led to the delay in breeder and owner payouts wasn’t detected until after that law was enacted. It inadvertently changed the eligibility rules for breeding fund payouts to permit payments to go to horses sired in Pennsylvania but foaled out of state.
The horse breeders organization, which represents the interests of the state’s 500 horse breeders, complained this change allowed money to flow to out-of-state breeders, which defeats the purpose of the breeders program intended to support and incentivize horse breeding in the commonwealth.
So the commission and state Department of Agriculture put a halt to the release of payouts from the breeders fund until this got straightened out legislatively.
But with this fix in the pipeline, agriculture department spokesman Michael Smith said steps are being taken to preposition payments to expedite them once this legislation is signed into law.
In addition to addressing the payout problem, the legislation moves the horse racing modernization law out of the Administrative Code and into the state’s Agriculture Code, which is hoped will address a concern raised in a legal challenge filed in August against the state by Churchill Downs Inc. and a subsidiary.
It also states that if at any time the breeding fund receives an additional $10 million, it would be split 50-50 between owners of Pennsylvania-bred/Pennsylvania sired horses and owners of Pennsylvania-bred horses.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Martin Causer, R-McKean County, said in an earlier interview the legislation is the product of negotiations with the Senate that occurred earlier in the summer. He is hopeful the Senate acts swiftly to send this bill to Gov. Tom Wolf, who has pledged to sign it into law.
He said the breeder awards are intended to encourage horse breeding in Pennsylvania, which not only reaps benefits for the Pennsylvania economy but also helps to preserve open space across the commonwealth.
Source: PennLive, Jan Murphy