|
1800 SW 3 Street,
Pompano Beach, FL 33069
954-972-5400 Fax: 954-978-9070
Page down for listings of horses eligible for the 2009 Florida Stake
races.
|
Legislative
Update
By
Christine Garrity
After unprecedented lobbying by our group,
including three lobbyists and a number of our members contacting
Representatives and Senators, the Florida legislature decided to
exclude the standardbred industry from parity with the
thoroughbreds again by not adopting amendment
language that would have mandated the track management to have a
binding contract for slots revenues to enhance purses. Although
the language was included in the House version of the
pari-mutuel budget conference bill,
the Senate refused to accept the House version of the bill and
rejected the language that would have granted the FSBOA the
language that would have required a contract for slots revenues.
The same bill will
reduce the Isle’s slots tax to the State from 50% to 35% and
also grant the Isle extended card room hours from 12 hours to 18
hours during the week and up to 24 hours on the weekends.
Current Florida statutes mandate that 47% of net card room
profits shall be used to enhance purses with 3% of net card room
profits used to supplement breeder awards. Therefore, there
should be some additional revenues available to infuse purses
and breeder awards. The required 140 days of racing to maintain
a card room license and 100 days of racing to maintain a slots
license remained unchanged.
Although the inclusion of
the language by the House was the farthest we’ve come to
obtaining our goal, we still came up short. The very simple
request for parity with the thoroughbreds should have been
eagerly accepted by both Chambers to simply right the wrong that
the legislature created in 2005. The Isle’s lobbyists and
management were in Tallahassee vigorously lobbying against our
efforts of course. It appears that the Florida legislature
truly doesn’t care about our sport or about our multi-million
dollar industry. You are encouraged to let your disappointment
be felt by talking to or emailing your local Senator and House
Representative and encourage them to support equity and fairness
in the horse racing industry in Florida by taking our plight
seriously and helping us right this wrong at the earliest
possible legislative opportunity. We must fight back and let
them know that the standardbred industry in Florida will not
stand back and continue to be left out of legislation that we
need to save our industry. We gained some traction this time and
we need to seize on that traction and continue to move forward
until we achieve our goal.
THIS ISSUE IS NOT DEAD! YOU CAN STILL
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR AND ASK THEM WHY FLORIDA
STANDARDBREDS WERE NOT GIVEN THE SAME BENEFITS (PARITY) AS OTHER
RACING VENUES ! (Find your legislator using the following
link)
http://myflorida.gov/taxonomy/government/legislative%20branch/
|
|
What benefit would expanded gambling and
lower tax rates have on the Florida Standardbred community?
by
Jim Ripoll and Mike Deters
That is the $64,000 dollar question! Unless
management at Pompano Park is willing to sit and talk about a contract
with the standardbred horsemen and include them in the added revenue
from gambling and expand the number of live racing days--probably
nothing!
It looks like the only way to have the State
approve the Senate's version of expanded gambling is to have the
Florida House of Representatives relent and approve all or parts of
the plan as advocated by the Senate.
The next question is, should Florida horsemen mount
a letter/email campaign to Florida House members to support the Senate
version of new gambling legislation? We know that PPI, Inc., has lobbyist in Tallahassee but, can those lobbyist convince those
legislators representing districts north of the I-4 corridor,
incidentally where many horse farms are located, to help their
constituents in the horse industry? The FSBOA is ready, willing,
and able to sit with management to discuss options. Management must
understand that it was because of the efforts of the FSBOA and the
Standardbred racing community throughout the State, and especially in
Broward County, that they were able to build the casino (Racino). As of
this point in time, the horsemen in Florida have NOT
benefited. It is now up to management to take the next step.
With some form of cooperation between
Pompano's management and Florida horsemen, hopefully the answer to
those questions can be addressed before the Florida legislature
adjourns in May.
|
|
FOAL
LISTING INFORMATION
This Web site will list foals
born in 2008 in the FSBOA newsletter and on the FSBOA Web site, free
of charge, all standardbred foals born in Florida. Owners can telephone,
fax, email or mail the required information about the foal. The
information that we need is as follows; date foaled, color, sex, sire,
dam, and owner or owners.
Please
forward the information to us as the foaling takes place. Do not
wait until the end of the foaling period of the year, as space available
can be a problem.
[
Page Top ]
|
|
The Florida Standardbred Breeders and Owners
Association, Inc., is a non-profit organization with objectives of promoting the
Standardbred horse-breeding and racing industry in Florida. The FSBOA maintains a registry of
Florida-bred Standardbred horses to promote and determine the eligibility of such for
Florida-bred preferred races.
This web site contains information about stallions standing in Florida, special
Standardbred events taking place
throughout the year, stake race information, including payment schedules, eligibilities,
purses, and results. This site also will publish advertisements, at minimal cost,
relating to Standardbred services and articles offered for sale. |
Board
of Directors
|
|
Mike
Deters, Pres
Tom Audley, VPres
George Birkhold, Sec.
Marc Aubin
Peter Blood
Jake Huff
Frank Smith
Jay C. Sears |
|
Christine Garrity, Vice Pres.
Jean Bryar, Treas.
Anthony Amante
Melvyn Aylor
Jamie Marra
Dave Myrick
Gary Piontkowski
|
|
Email the FSBOA: fsboa@att.net |
[ Page Top ] | |
