Congress in Horse Racing
 

Not a real big fan of the gov't getting involved in sports, but maybe this can actually help racing (hopefully).

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...NTPAGECAROUSEL

anything Bobby Rush is involved in... toss it straight in the trash and if you could toss him in too, you'd be doing the world a favor!

lololol common people the black panther party is all about horse racing!!

I don't know, I don't think this is all bad.

This may be the first sign of the end of horseracing.

Fact- Racing commissions may be inept but at least some have a few people who give a danm about the sport. Wait till you see who these 2 clowns pick to run the Federal commission. Guess how the feds pay for things? They raise taxes, and since horseplayers have no group lobbying for them the fist thing to be attached to the sport will most likely be a federal takeout on all bets. Sounds like a good idea still? What about if they make it 5% accross the board to pay for all the changes they want to implement? Sound good still?

Having incompetence on a national level rather than a state level and paying more for the priviledge seems like a bad idea to me.

The federal government has ruined more industries with intervention than they have helped. Horseracing has no chance to survive federal intervention. None.

As Ronald Reagan once said, the scariest words in the English language are: "I'm from the government, I'm here to help."

i couldn't agree more. look what the state of california has done. santa anita's last meet was an absolute travesty. you want something fu**** up let the government do it.

and these new rules and regulations would be paid for how? oh boy....

At the same time he paid for the Star Wars program
and spent more money
than any president up to that point.

Horse racing is heavily regulated at the state level. I believe you are being too pessimistic about the HOR getting in involved with nothing that will be a dog and ponyy show hearing in front of what ever committee holds the hearings.

Horse racing generates a lot of money to the national ecomomy. Just think about all the components that going into breeding a horse, feeding them, maintaining them. That does not include the process of selling them, housing them, etc.

I share your distrust of federal government involvement over areas where they lack the means and expertise to bring a positive result to whatever they try to do.

i always thought "if you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all." was a better measure than the ones scripted for him.

What I worry about really more than strictly govt intervention is that the people from within the industry that the govt chooses to listen to may be as dangerous as Congress. At least the congressmen just grandstand knowing they dont really understand the issues. If some of the prominent members of our industry get their way it may be worse.

Dont let facts confuse the issue here. The federal government does not belong in the conversation when it come to regulation of horseracing. The only reason that it has come up is an opportunistic congressman from KY that has had no previous interest in racing, then his wife suddenly gets the post as the head of the KY racing commission. All of a sudden he is an authority, wanting to help the poor jockeys and now wanting to clean up the game and breed better horses. Using his cue from the baseball mess and the other congressional debacle involving spygate, he gets his name in print and on tv. Congress has no interest on the whole in regulating the sport especially when they see how much it will cost. They dont care how much money or how many jobs the sport generates. Most of the tax money goes to the states anyway. This is strictly a grandstand move riding on the coattails of Arlen Specter and the demise of Eight Belles. The scary thing would be if they listen to some of the boneheads and got really involved, taxing the horseplayers (customers) into paying for the whole thing. And believe me if you want or dont but nothing they do will be positive enough to counteract the costs.

hey, i didn't say he actually did it . he just said it. they always say the right things . politicians rarely do the right thing. but the government would definetly screw up horse racing . at a time it can't afford it.

This could only be good in one way: if it finally forces the horse racing industry to voluntarily create a single governing body to regulate and promote the game. The current system of 38 different sets of rules and 38 different governing bodies has hindered the game for too long.

When other industries were faced with the threat of government intervention, they were able to avoid it by creating an all-powerful organization to self-regulate the industry. They got their act together in time to keep the government out. I hope that this will be the wake up call that the horse racing industry needs to create a single governing body for the industry.

The message should be clear: If the horsemen don't do it, then Congress will. And god help the game if it does.

You are forgetting that most important thing. We dont have the authority to create a single governing body. And honestly I dont think the Federal govt does either. It really comes down to states rights and I dont see any state surrendering control to a central authority or to the federal govt for that matter. We can jump up and down and form any organization we want but the probability of the racing commissions giving up that power (which will surely have to be done by changing laws in many states, which is never an easy thing) is remote. The racing industry has no control over its own regulation.

As long as people can wager online or over the telephone from different states, it is not a states rights issue. It is a federal government issue. The federal government could put any rules in place it wants as long as these states invite betting from individuals that do not live in their state.

That is not really true. In fact there are many legal opinions that interstate simulcasting is illegal under the HR act of 1978.

Anything at the Federal level will trump anything at the State level. If Congress wants to have a single body running racing, then I think they will be in over their head and move on. Now, I am all for states right. I guess you can call me a John C Calhoun person (minus th belief in slavery). I do not know if a single body would be better or not. All I know is that the Federal Gov't can tell the states to do whatever they want.

I don't think you've been paying attention the past eight years. How the feds now pay for things is by borrowing money from China and figuring someone else's kids and grandkids can pay it back with interest.

Is that how it works now? Maybe we can have the Chinese run racing.