Page 86 - Speedhorse December 2019

“It’s an application process.
The way it works is 70 percent of the money goes toward purses. That money goes to the racetracks to use as purses – period. It can’t be used for anything else. There’s 30 percent that any of the breed registries that are named in the Texas Racing Act can apply for, and it can be used for any event that furthers the Texas horse industry.”
- TQHA Director of Racing Rob Werstler
races or any type of event that supports and furthers the Texas equine industry.”
It’s estimated the 30 percent earmarked
for non-racing events could equate to about $7.5 million, which will be available to the recognized breed registries to enhance incentive programs or events to enhance the horse industry. The recognized registries eligible for the money include the Texas Thoroughbred, Texas Quarter Horse, Texas Arabian Breeders and Texas Paint Horse Breeders associations.
“It’ll be interesting to see what everybody applies for,” Werstler said. “We have seen a lot of interest. It’s going to be hard to put numbers on it. In January, we will pull data and compare 2018 to 2019 to see when we got broodmare applications and such. But just from the numbers that I see coming in on a daily basis, plus the phone calls from people who have never been members of Texas Quarter Horse Association and have never accredited a horse before, to the other ones who have left and gone to Louisiana – a lot of them are coming back from Louisiana.
“They have had their mares over there or had studs over there or have basically raced over there and want to come home and get back into Texas racing,” he added. “And you know, they’re 100 percent correct when they say it wasn’t economically feasible to race horses in Texas. Now it appears it’s going to be.”
Texas horsemen’s optimism is leading the field.
“We’re just excited that people haven’t even seen any of the money yet or haven’t seen a condition book, and they are wanting to know more,” Werstler said. “The Thoroughbred condition book is out for Houston – which they’re at least doubling their purses, so they can see that. The Quarter Horse people haven’t seen it yet. It’s basically from what they’ve read and
from word of mouth. In our industry, a lot of people take a wait-and-see or ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ type attitude.”
Werstler doesn’t fault the doubters.
“You can’t blame them after all these years. Hopefully, once the condition book comes out and they see that, it should be huge for our program,” he said. “What will even be better is when we make our first Texas accredited bred payout for the Sam Houston meet. When people start seeing those checks, I think it will really snowball then.”
Asking for support isn’t new for the Texas racing industry. Texas legislators meet every two years, and for the past few sessions, Texas racetracks, horsemen and others in the industry have been lobbying – or more accurately begging – for laws to be changed to put Texas on more equal footing with its neighbors.
“The Texas horse industry has been asking for help for years, but it’s always been in the form of ‘give us something that surrounding states have’ such as slot machines at racetracks,” Werstler said. “For years, we tried to get that and were always turned down. Then came historical racing, which we asked for and were turned down.”
The idea of diverting taxes back into the industry from which it was collected isn’t new
– even for the equine industry in Texas. In November, Texas voters passed a constitutional amendment allowing taxes collected on camping and outdoor gear to be given to the state’s park department.
“Several other industries have utilized this concept, and this money is based on a tax on equine goods, so where that was normally going to the general fund, it’s now going into these horse funds,” Werstler explained. “Seventy percent is for purses and 30 percent for other equine events.”
PLAY NICE
The racing industry came together in 2019 and worked to get the much-needed legislation passed.
“Everybody was on the same page,” Werstler said. “This time we weren’t fighting, and hopefully everybody has learned their lesson that we’re going to get a lot more done if we all get along.”
Desperation in the industry might have been the driving force behind the teamwork.
“We were about in a death spiral in my opinion,” Werstler said. “I don’t think we were going to last another five years.”
Werstler pointed to the Racing Commission’s funding as an example of the troubles in the industry. The Commission’s funding had
come under fire in past legislative sessions, and legislators didn’t understand that the state’s racing commission relies on the industry that it regulates for funding.
“That sounds a little suspect, but the industry is giving money to the regulators,” Werstler said. “It sounds like a great idea when everything’s hitting on all cylinders, but that’s not exactly functional if things aren’t going well. Once we started having these licenses being given up, the Racing Commission’s budget wasn’t getting any smaller, and the racetracks basically are what funds the Racing Commission through the racetrack fees that they pay – the licensing fees each year. The licensing fees were increasing on the racetracks that are still here.”
In 2016, Laredo Race Park, Longhorn Downs and Saddlebrook Park gave up their pari-mutuel licenses, which equated to almost $700,000 in license fees annually being lost. The remaining active license holders had their license fees increased to cover the Texas Racing Commission’s resulting budget shortfall. The high license fees, combined with no other ways to keep purses competitive with neighboring racing jurisdictions
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