OCALA, Fla.—Proposed legislation to allow gambling to continue at a major Florida facility even if horse racing is removed won’t be a finisher this year.
The regular legislative session was extended to June 6. In May, both “decoupling” bills, as they came to be known, were “indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration,” according to the bills’ respective web pages.
If the bills had become law, the measure would have allowed Gulfstream Park in South Florida to continue its casino operations without requiring it to continue being harnessed to thoroughbred racing.
The casino originally was allowed to be added to Gulfstream Park’s existing horse-racing operations. Under those conditions, some of the revenue from Gulfstream Park’s gambling operation was to be reinvested in horse racing there.
But the racetrack’s Canadian owner, 1/ST, now wants the ability to “decouple” from horse racing. 1/ST publicly endorsed the legislation and lobbied for its passage.
Horse-racing advocates in Florida worry that, with no legal requirement to keep horse racing operations going at Gulfstream Park, the track’s owner would put an end to horse racing. Then, they say, 1/ST could focus on the more profitable casino business and develop the land previously used for the horse track and barns.
The Epoch Times contacted a 1/ST spokesperson and requested a comment about the company’s involvement in the legislation or the company’s plans to continue funding the legislative effort in the future. A comment was not received by publication time.
1/ST also owns the Maryland Jockey Club and Santa Anita Park in California, which will host equestrian events during the 2028 Olympic Games in the Los Angeles area.
Some people opposed to the legislation told The Epoch Times they aren’t celebrating a victory because they’re already worried a similar effort will come back stronger in next year’s legislative session.
Had the decoupling legislation proposed in Florida become law, it would have been a fatal blow to the state’s thoroughbred industry and the many businesses and jobs that rely on it, they said.
“Gulfstream does not want to be in the horse-racing business anymore,” Barry Eisaman, an equine veterinarian and thoroughbred training facility owner in Ocala, told The Epoch Times.
“We, collectively, the horse world, need to come up with some plan for what that life after Gulfstream will look like. There’s a good chance these bills go through next year.”
For the next few months, he and other industry leaders in the state will be working on plans for how to preserve horse racing in Florida, he said. In addition to Gulfstream, there are thoroughbred racing operations at Tampa Bay Downs in Tampa. But in Florida horse racing, Gulfstream is the most important facility to the industry in the state, Eisaman said.
Plans to prop up Florida horse racing if it ceases at Gulfstream could include building new tracks in the state or revitalizing older ones, he said.
Stalled Effort
The legislation’s progress stalled suddenly after Gov. Ron DeSantis signaled in a private meeting in Ocala with horse-racing insiders that he didn’t support the legislation. At the April 17 gathering at a horse sales facility that was closed to the media, DeSantis said the economic impact on the state would be too destructive, according to people at the meeting.Ocala is part of rural Marion County in the center of the state. There, nearly half of the area’s jobs are connected to horse-related activities, according to the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
The county is home to about 75,000 horses, the association said. And equine activities there contribute $4.3 billion to Florida’s economy. Statewide, 122,000 jobs come from the equine industry, with 30 percent linked to thoroughbreds, the association said.
Horse enthusiasts visit the state from around the world each year to watch or participate in equestrian sports, according to the association. Those visitors spend about $2.7 billion annually on travel, dining, and lodging in the state, the association said.
Opponents of the proposed bills said the measure would have destroyed a key economic driver in a state that boasts having the third-largest horse population in the country and a region that bills itself as the “Horse Capital of the World.”
Betting on horse races was the only legal form of gambling in Florida from the 1930s, when the industry got its start in the state. The lottery in Florida began in 1988.
Then, in the early 2000s, proponents of expanding gambling in the state began their successful campaign. They agreed to operate pari-mutuel wagering at facilities where it would be mutually beneficial—their customers would come to gamble on multiple types of sports and games, and part of the profits would be given back to the facility and participants.
Allowing people to gamble at Gulfstream without a requirement to preserve horse racing there would have surely killed horse racing at that track, opponents of the legislation said.
Without Gulfstream Park as a racing hub, the state’s horse industry would suffer a blow it couldn’t survive, Eisaman and others told The Epoch Times. It would irreparably harm the horse-racing industry throughout the state, where horses are bred, raised, and trained to race at Gulfstream and throughout the country and the world.
On May 3, 13 horses bred or trained in Ocala raced in the Kentucky Derby, one of horse racing’s most beloved annual events.
That same day, both Florida bills were marked as dead. For now.
This “brings encouraging news for our beloved Thoroughbred legacy and the thousands of Floridians who dedicate their livelihoods to this proud tradition,” Lonny Powell, CEO of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, announced in a prepared statement.
“The FTBOA — and the many horsemen groups, individuals, and elected officials who joined our efforts — once again defended our industry from an ill-advised attempt at decoupling, just as we did in 2012, 2016, 2018, and 2021.”
But Eisaman and others remain concerned.
Sixto Ribera used to work as a jockey. Now, he makes his living repairing leather goods used in the care and training of horses, mostly racehorses. He said he was alarmed to hear that the industry could be in danger.
People involved in the state’s horse industry are right to be concerned, Eisaman said. And the race to save Florida’s horse industry isn’t over.
Proposed laws to decouple gambling from horse racing, he said, “will probably come back next year and the year after.”
