FTBOA

FTBOA Members:
Your telephone calls, emails and letters are needed BEFORE Thursday, November 17 to say "NO" to Florida’s recent approval of "pari-mutuel barrel racing."

If pari-mutuel barrel racing is allowed to replace traditional horse racing in Florida, the State's horse racing industry will be severely impacted, because racetracks will be allowed to conduct low-cost "pari-mutuel barrel racing" instead of legitimate Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse or Standardbred Racing.  This means lost jobs and lost revenue for Florida horse racing and its people.

The FTBOA is supporting pending litigation against pari-mutuel barrel racing that the Governor is set to consider next week.  We MUST have immediate emails, telephone calls and any other communication to  Florida Governor Rick Scott  and his legal counsel,  Charles Trippe  and Carrie O'Rourke BEFORE Thursday, November 17, 2011.  (Click on any of the email hyperlinks in this letter to automatically send a letter to the Governor and above contacts.)

Please also contact your State Representative and State Senator and let them know you want the Governor to say "NO" to pari-mutuel barrel racing in Florida!

A sample letter is suggested below:

Dear (Governor Scott or Name of Legislator):

As someone who is employed because of Florida’s Thoroughbred racing industry, I am respectfully writing to ask you to please say NO to "pari-mutuel barrel racing."

The ONLY goal of "pari-mutuel barrel racing" is to replace our great sport and its people with poker, card rooms and slot machines, all of which employ fewer people than Florida’s horse racing industry. That means people like me will lose their jobs.

Whether it’s Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses or Standardbreds, Florida horse racing industry jobs, livelihoods and families depend on your making sure that legitimate horse racing and its integrity is maintained in Florida.

I ask that you say NO to "pari-mutuel barrel racing" because it represents an entirely new form of gambling that takes advantage of the law under which the rest of us have to live every day. Florida voters did NOT ask for this new form of gambling, nor were the proper laws and regulations observed in creating it.

Florida’s racing industry is internationally famous and the pride of our State. Why let "pari-mutuel barrel racing" lawbreakers put people like me out of work?  Even the barrel racers don’t want it!

I am counting on you to please say "NO" to "pari-mutuel barrel racing" and save my job in Florida’s horse racing industry.

Sincerely,
(Your Name and Contact Information Here)

If you choose to write your own letter, we recommend that it be simple and direct.
You might use the suggested talking points below:
*    Pari-mutuel barrel racing is not horse racing.
*    Pari-mutuel barrel racing is unlegislated, unregulated, unlawful expansion of gambling
*    Save horse racing and horse racing jobs by saying "NO" to pari-mutuel barrel racing
*    Save our agricultural equine industry created by horse racing worth over $6.3 billion annually.
*    Allowing pari-mutuel barrel racing to replace horse racing will cost Florida jobs, not gain jobs.
*    The National Barrel Horse Association doesn’t even want pari-mutuel barrel racing!
*    The people of Gadsden County and Florida were promised legitimate horse racing and all its associated jobs and green space.  Keep that promise.