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To members and friends of the Indiana
horse racing industry,The Indiana General Assembly is considering legislation that allows Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park to install slots, as a way to support Indiana agribusiness, to build the horse racing and breeding industry and to raise much-needed revenue that will benefit all Hoosiers. House Bill 1835 passed the House of Representatives and is working its way through the hearing and amendment process in the Indiana Senate.
It is absolutely vital that horsemen and women and those who depend on the industry for their livelihoods contact their state senator to let him or her know why passage of HB 1835 matters to them, to the many people back home with whom they do business, and to the thousands of Hoosiers like them, in and around the horse racing and breeding industry.
This year's legislation is new, and it is new subject matter to many state senators. Though we’ve been working on this issue for a long time, we haven’t gotten it in front of the Senate for a while. Senators may have seen articles about it, and they may have heard about some of the negative parts of the debate on the issue. But what they haven’t heard often enough, is how this affects horsemen and women and local commerce and employment.
Horse racing is the most visible part of the $1.3 billion agribusiness that is the Indiana horse industry. With breeders, owners or trainers in each of the state's 92 counties, horse racing provides a huge economic and employment impact to the state.
All segments of the industry will benefit from new gaming revenues through breed development funds and larger racing purses but, more importantly to the state, those benefits will feed a root system of businesses that extends through every county in the state.
A significant horse breeding industry is needed to produce horses for racing. Thousands of acres of land and many workers are needed to care, train and groom Hoosier horses and maintain the farms where they are stabled.
Millions of dollars worth of local commerce and employment are generated in the course of horses’ journey to the starting gate. The gestation period of horses is more than 11 months, and they do not race until they reach the age of two. This means that about three years of time and resources are spent on producing, maintaining and training each horse before it ever reaches the track.
Unfortunately, the Indiana horse racing and breeding industry is struggling, and no one knows that better than you. Suffering from drastically reduced purses, rising costs and plummeting horse sales and breeding revenues, our horse racing industry finds itself upside down. According to a study released in 2005, a Hoosier racehorse generated an average of $3,017 in annual revenue, but $4,136 in average annual costs.
Indiana horse racing is not keeping up with its competition. As other states have brought in alternative gaming, their purses are growing. Their industries are growing. We are falling behind.
The horse industry is an agribusiness that is, and has always been, significant in counties, cities and towns throughout Indiana. House Bill 1835 will allow the industry stop its dependence on the subsidy from Indiana riverboats and stand, compete, and win, on its own four feet.
Please contact your state senator and share your perspective on this bill. Take a moment right now to help yourself and thousands of Indiana horsemen and women by contacting your state senator. We have never had a better opportunity than we have before us this year. Together, we can get this done.
Larry Smallwood, Chairman
Indiana Horse Racing & Breeding Coalition
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