Posts Tagged ‘Scott County’

By Ray Paulick
Damon Thayer, the Kentucky state senator from Scott County and a Thoroughbred industry consultant, reminds me of the fellow with one foot on a dock and the other on a boat that’s ready to set sail.

Standing with both feet firmly planted on dry land is Thayer’s good buddy, fellow Republican David “Blackjack” Williams, the Senate president who seems bent on destroying Kentucky’s signature industry. Aboard the boat are members of that horse industry, people Thayer worked alongside for years during professional stints at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky and later with the Breeders’ Cup. The boat is starting to pull away from the dock, and Thayer has to decide which side he’s on, or he’ll wind up in deep water with no one willing to throw him a life preserver.

That’s where Thayer finds himself today, having to choose between doing what’s right for the horse industry and standing up to the big, bad Senate president, or turning his back on his old friends and hiding under his mommy’s skirt.

Thayer, whose ill-conceived and poorly timed constitutional amendment calling for slot machines at Kentucky racetracks was always a non-starter, tried to redeem himself by inserting language permitting pari-mutuel Instant Racing machines in a bill being heard by the Senate State and Local Government Committee that he chairs. The committee approved the language, amending House Bill 368, sponsored by Louisville Democrat Larry Clark. That bill was designed to add a 0.5% tax on advance deposit wagers made by Kentucky residents, but the Senate committee amended it with additional language that could make Kentucky’s simulcast export signal weaker and result in even less revenue for Kentucky’s tracks and horsemen.

The Instant Racing language was added with the blessing of the Senate president, and seven Republicans including Thayer voted for the bill. Then, last night, Williams did an about face, saying the Instant Racing provisions would be removed from the bill by Thayer’s committee or it would not pass the full Senate. (So much for even attempting to disguise Thayer as anything but a puppet of the Senate president.)

Williams indicated that he wants the governor or Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to approve Instant Racing, but what he really wants is for the issue to wind up losing in a court battle, similar to what has happened with Instant Racing in Wyoming and Maryland. The legislative language proposed by Thayer would likely have allowed Instant Racing to overcome a court challenge.

Plain and simple, Williams is trying to set Instant Racing up to fail.

On Wednesday, the Senate State and Local Government Committee declined to take action on the Instant Racing provisions of HB368 because of a lack of consensus.

Where we go from here is up to Thayer and his fellow Republicans. Does the Senator from Scott County have the fortitude to stand up to Williams’ bullying tactics and tell him he is wrong? Instant Racing could be very beneficial to an industry that has been put at an extreme disadvantage by the presence of casino gambling on nearly every border of the state. The efforts that have brought the bill this far represent rare bipartisan cooperation in the Kentucky legislature.

Thayer could emerge a hero to the horse industry by telling Williams he is wrong, and by keeping the coalition together that supported the Instant Racing language in the committee vote.

Or he could end up all wet. It’s his choice.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
I’ve known Damon Thayer going on 20 years, and I don’t think he’s a bad person. But I’ve seen how good people can be intoxicated with power, and am convinced that is what is going on with the former racing industry executive who is now a Kentucky state senator from Scott County representing the 17th district.

A few weeks ago I reported on an interview Thayer did on the Horse Racing Radio Network (click here for the article), in which he complained that no one from the Thoroughbred industry was contacting him about his proposed constitutional amendment calling for a statewide referendum and local option vote to permit slot machines in Kentucky counties where racetracks are located (not necessarily at tracks, but in counties where tracks are currently located).

Woe is him.

Perhaps the reason no one is interested in calling the senator from Scott is the fact his proposed amendment is outrageous because it would ultimately lead to out-of-state casino companies and developers putting Kentucky racetracks out of business. That’s exactly what is happening in the state of Maryland, where slot machines were approved for a location not at Pimlico or Laurel but at a shopping mall owned and operated by the Cordish Company. Yes, that’s the same Cordish Company that developed Fourth Street Live in Louisville.

If Thayer’s folly is somehow approved as written (very much a longshot at best), Cordish will be salivating over the prospect of getting the slots license in Jefferson County, Kentucky, where Churchill Downs is located. Another well-funded casino company would surely end up with the license in Northern Kentucky. So we’d have Turfway Park certainly out of business as a racetrack, and Churchill Downs severely impaired financially.

But, Thayer says with almost ghoulish delight, we’ll have all that slots money going into purses, based on how his amendment is written. Yes, Damon, just like in Maryland, where there will be money for purses, but no tracks able to stay open to run the races where the purses will be offered.

Sources tell the Paulick Report that employees of the Maryland Jockey Club are being told Laurel is going to be bought by a developer (Cordish?), and closed for live racing. Someone will operate Pimlico for 30 days during the Preakness meeting in the spring, at least as long as the walls of the rickety old racetrack grandstand don’t collapse. And that, along with a short meeting at the state fair in Timonium will be it for live racing.

If true, it will be a devastating and final blow for the once-proud Maryland breeding industry, where the mighty Northern Dancer once stood as the world’s most important stallion. Allowing Thayer’s folly to proceed will cause similar destruction to Kentucky’s signature industry.

So Thayer, in a snit because no one was calling him to discuss his ludicrous proposal, decided to drop another bomb when a reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader called him to inquire about the horse industry’s exemption on sales tax for certain horses sold at auction (the exemption, which does not apply to all horses sold, is not as comprehensive as that given to the horse industry in other states).

When asked whether the exemptions should be discontinued, Thayer said it is “certainly cause for serious debate.”

It was his way of flipping the almighty bird to a now struggling industry that is not only vital to the economic future of this state, but one that has provided him and his family a very good living for many years.

Speaking of the almighty, it’s amazing to me that a Senate committee chaired by Thayer (the State and Local Government Committee) wasted taxpayers’ time and money on Wednesday, approving along a straight party-line vote (Thayer’s Republican colleagues won the day over Democrats 7-5) something called the 21st Century Bill of Rights. Among other things, this new and improved bill of rights (as if our Founding Fathers weren’t very wise) would prohibit a ban on the Ten Commandments being posted in public buildings. If you get a chance, check out this troubling and funny video clip of a Georgia Congressman, Lynn Westmoreland, who sponsored a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public buildings. (Click here to view.) Seems the Congressman has a hard time knowing exactly what those Commandments are…which makes me wonder how Sen. Thayer and his colleagues would do on a pop quiz.

But I digress.

Thayer is essentially drunk with power, sitting on his senatorial throne while waiting for individuals in the horse industry to come to him, hat in hand, begging for some scraps. If he were a true leader, he would have been out amongst the people, meeting with horse farmers, trainers and racetrack owners who are suffering now, watching stallions, mares and racehorses being tugged away from Kentucky by states with more favorable economics and more enlightened legislators. It is the same kind of arrogance and insular thinking that we’ve witnessed most recently in the White House, where a president who was elected under the mantra of change failed to understand how deep the suffering and unhappiness is among the very people who voted for him, leading to an embarrassing defeat for the Democratic Party Tuesday in Massachusets, the most liberal state in the union.

I hold out little hope that my old friend, the senator from Scott, will understand  how wrong he is and how much help the horse industry needs. There is little to do but find and support a strong candidate to displace him from his office in 2012.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Oh, the irony. Damon Thayer, the Republican state senator in Kentucky who opposes legislation permitting slot machines that would benefit the state’s horse industry, is a former racetrack and Breeders’ Cup executive who, for now, makes his living as a Thoroughbred industry consultant.

One of Thayer’s clients is the Millennium Farms owned by former Dell Computer executive Ro Parra. On Thursday, Millennium Farms announced it was forming a partnership with Louisiana-based Moon Lake Farm and would be sending 30 of its Kentucky-based mares to Louisiana. It previously announced that two of its Kentucky stallions would move to Louisiana.

“We will likely move more mares over time,” said Parra. “We feel that the Kentucky program is not as competitive as other regional programs like the one in Louisiana.”

(Click here to see the complete press release, published by Thayer Communications and Consulting LLC.)

Louisiana’s racing and breeding programs are supported by revenue from slot machines. Kentucky’s breeders’ incentive program, developed by Thayer, is funded by the sales tax on stud fees, which are sinking almost as fast as the senator from Scott County’s approval ratings among Kentucky owners and breeders.

Thayer has opposed slot machine legislation in Kentucky though he recently announced he would be sponsoring a constitutional amendment to permit Kentuckians to vote on whether VLTs should be permitted. If that legislation is approved by the Kentucky House and Senate (a longshot at best), and the referendum is passed by Kentucky voters, the proposed constitutional amendment would then require local referendums in the counties where the VLTs would be authorized. If the measures are approved in those locales, there would then be a lengthy licensing and bidding process.

Some have estimated that, if all these measures are approved, Kentucky might not get VLTs installed until late 2013 or early 2014.

By then, you have to wonder how many stallions and mares will be left in Kentucky and how many horse industry clients Thayer Communications and Consulting will have in the Blue Grass State.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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