Keep the Watch
Having served many years on the board of directors for the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, I have witnessed great dedication from the staff, board members and membership in making our organization flourish. The officers of the board serve additional duty on the executive committee and, along with key staff members, invest considerable time and energy to keep our organization focused and vibrant.
Acknowledgements
I will take this opportunity to give our outgoing officers some well-deserved recognition. They are First Vice President George Russell, Second Vice President Francis Vanlangendonck, Treasurer Joseph O’Farrell III and Secretary Nick de Meric.
We also recognize our outgoing board members Paul Bulmahn and Laurine Fuller-Vargas, who served the past six years as committed, thoughtful additions to our board.
And I am grateful to our entire board for being vital to the association and the industry as key stakeholders and leaders.
Decades of work have culminated in a recent string of beneficial legislation for the Florida Thoroughbred industry and the Association. Lonny Powell and his team, our outgoing lobbyist Matt Bryan and our outgoing legal-mind Warren Husband, were at the heart of it.
Our advance planning with legislators once again provided the roadmap. We thank all our Tallahassee supporters for recognizing the tremendous value of a strong Thoroughbred breeding industry in Florida. The fruits of the recurring $33.5 million in annual state funding have already been felt in the pocketbooks of Florida breeders, stallion owners, racehorse owners and at the tracks and in the sales arenas.
At our gala in March, we honored longtime FTBOA lobbyist Matt Bryan with the creation of the Matt Bryan Distinguished Advocacy Award. For more than three decades, Matt has been instrumental to numerous legislative wins for the Florida Thoroughbred industry. Matt’s many achievements with the FTBOA’s Tallahassee team include simulcast tax reductions and the advent of full-card and nighttime simulcasting, breeder award increases, clarified medication reporting at the horse sales, tax free track admissions, stallion awards eligibility for dual hemisphere stallions, Florida owner awards, uniform medication rules, and repeatedly beating back decoupled gaming at Florida Thoroughbred racetracks for nearly the last decade. To capstone his career, Matt helped land $33.5 million in annual state incentives to render highest-ever Florida state breeder, stallion and owner incentives.
Sharing the decades-long call to arms with Matt, outgoing FTBOA legal counsel Warren Husband, spent bottomless energy reviewing and crafting legislation for the best of our industry. Warren further served the Association by working closely with the board, CEO and management on a wide variety of mission-critical initiatives to keep this organization and its leadership focused on our core mission.
Advancements
In the last two Florida legislative session, we have secured an unprecedented $33.5 million in recurring incentives to enhance purses, sustain breeder and stallion awards and defray costs of federal regulation. I believe we have leveled the national playing field. This means, for our breeding business—both broodmares and stallions, the potential for higher auction prices, and more national and international, attention on Florida racing.
As the manager of a historic property at Bridlewood Farm that stands stallions, trains racehorses and raises a crop of 50-plus Florida-breds for ourselves and clients; this critical infusion is the start of many years of meaningful growth for those in our business and for those poised to invest with us.
The FTBOA’s goal will forever be to continue these incentives for years to come. Most of that pathway goes through Tallahassee, and that is why the FTBOA has focused so much effort on creating, cultivating, and strengthening the strongest network possible in our state capital.
Welcome Aboard
At the FTBOA’s annual meeting in October we announced four new board members for the 2024-2027 three-year seats. There were five board-nominated candidates for the five director vacancies as provided in the Association’s bylaws, and no self-nominated candidate submitted an application. As a result, no member vote was required.
You can refer to the October issue of The Florida Horse magazine (pages 24-26), which includes photos and biographies for each continuing and incoming director on the Slate.
As a current director, I will be serving another term, and I am happy to be joined by four new board members: Beth Bayer, Dr. Tiffany Atteberry, Richard Heysek, and Colin Brennan.
Beth Bayer has been a longstanding and well-respected member of our industry and will provide valuable insight to our discussions. She was a 2022 Joseph O’Farrell Memorial honoree for her success in selling top Florida-breds.
Dr. Tiffany Atteberry brings experience as a veterinarian and breeder to our boardroom.
Richard Heysek took home an armful of FTBOA honors in 2023, including Small Breeder of the Year and breeder of Horse of the Year—Speed Boat Beach. Heysek’s knowledge of the industry and his successful nonprofit that helps veterinarians fund “in need” cases will provide excellent reference points for us.
And, Colin Brennan, part of the Brennan family dynasty, brings horsemanship, international experience and insights from the various advisory boards he serves on.
Communications
Through 2024 our award-winning Florida Equine Communi-cations has posted record distribution and readership for our Florida-bred original content—in print, digital, at FTBOA.com, through The Florida Horse Podcast and on social media. The podcast has more than 750,000 views and counting. The proprietary newsfeed at FTBOA.com, driven by the 3,000-strong daily Wire to Wire distribution and our unique Florida-bred entries-results news service, generates more than 17,000 page views every month. And, our social media numbers have exploded as we’ve expanded into the Spanish-speaking marketplace, a rapidly growing owner/breeder demographic.
Keep The Watch
We’ve enjoyed a clean trip in 2024, but as we round the turn into a new legislative season, I remind my fellow horsemen to be forever vigilant against the ominous specter of decoupling—that oft-recurring legislative push enabling racetracks to offer gaming without regard for live horse racing.
The last major push for decoupling in 2021 was defeated—I hope forever. Through that victory, however, we uncovered that some leadership in the horsemen’s groups had been misled into support for decoupling or remaining significantly silent.
Let’s make no mistake, decoupling means that a Florida track would have no requirement under state law to offer a single day of live racing even as they continue to operate and profit from slot machines and poker rooms.
That road inevitably leads to only one place—a dramatic reduction in live Thoroughbred racing in Florida, up to and including the potential for no live racing at all, with total purses and breeder awards dropping off a cliff.
No one has yet explained to me how a dramatic decrease in Florida racing opportunities and purses is good for trainers, for owners, for breeders, for the state, or for the horse racing fans that make our industry work.
Florida Thoroughbreds are an industry on the rise with record incentives and the FTBOA at the helm. The FTBOA will keep up the watch for lurking threats, such as decoupling, so that you may invest with alert confidence.
