A bill that would allow Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., to run its casino without any statutory obligations to racing was amended on Monday in a committee hearing to guarantee live racing at the track for at least five years. The bill, which had already passed out of a House subcommittee, was passed by a 13-7 vote of the House Commerce Committee after amendments were attached to the bill that would require a three-year notice of any plan to cease live racing and that would allow existing Thoroughbred track owners to transfer their racing permits to different facilities. Under the amendment, the three-year notice could not be issued prior to July 1, 2027. Although the amendments appeared crafted to address concerns by horsemen that Gulfstream would immediately fold up its racing operation if the track was allowed to decouple its racing and casino licenses, leaders of a lobbying effort put together to oppose the bill called the changes “terrible” on Tuesday morning. “Our goal remains the same, to defeat decoupling,” said Damon Thayer, a former Kentucky Senate Majority Leader who is the senior consultant to the group, which is called the Thoroughbred Racing Initiative (TRI). “Then we can begin to negotiate on Florida’s racing and breeding future. But we’re not going to do that with a gun to our head.” Thayer said that members of the TRI’s board had a conference call on Tuesday morning to rehash the hearing, and he said that the members agreed that the vote indicated that support for the decoupling bill was waning. During the hearing, several members of the committee said that they had planned to support the bill but changed their minds after 15 members of the racing and breeding industry testified against the bill, versus zero in support. “We feel better today than we did yesterday,” Thayer said. “We still have a fight on our hands, but we think our message is getting out there.” The bill is sponsored by Rep. Adam Anderson, a Republican who represents a district encompassing part of the Tampa Bay metro area. He is the managing partner of MRA Capital Partners, a privately held real estate development firm with offices in Florida and New Jersey. Gulfstream Park sits on extremely valuable land in the Miami-Dade metro area. Earlier this year, officials for Gulfstream’s owner, 1/ST Racing and Gaming, told horsemen that they needed the decoupling legislation in order to obtain financing for improvements to the property, citing the cash flow provided by the casino. In January, 1/ST and the horsemen’s group representing Gulfstream owners and trainers announced that they had a deal to support the decoupling legislation under a guarantee that live racing would continue at the track for three years. The announcement set off a revolt among rank-and-file trainers and within Florida’s breeding community that eventually led to management changes at the horsemen’s group and a decision to reverse its approval of the legislation. According to published reports, Anderson led off the House Commerce Committee hearing by saying that he had amended the bill that had passed out of the subcommittee after meeting “with a number of industry stakeholders.” He said that the amendments, which also gave the state’s gambling regulator the authority to distribute purse and breeding subsidies from the casino, were a “trifecta of support to the Thoroughbred industry.” Thayer said that the comments about consulting industry stakeholders was one of a number of “factual inaccuracies” made by Anderson. “That’s just plain wrong,” Thayer said. “We have everyone on board at our group, and not one of them met with him or were involved in any of these discussions or amendments.” The bill will now head to the House of Representatives. Thayer said that the group feels reasonably confident at this point that they can defeat the bill in the Senate. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.