Fenced-In Horsemen Fight Calder Eviction

By T.D. Thornton 

Facing a Jan. 1 eviction with nowhere to stable as many as 400 of 600 horses currently fenced in behind the main barn area at Calder Casino & Race Course, Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association president Phil Combest said his organization will fight the banishment by refusing to leave, and, if necessary, denying simulcasting rights to landlord Churchill Downs Incorporated. 

“I basically told our horsemen we have nowhere to go,” Combest said. “We have to stick together. Come Thursday morning, we’re still going to be there. What are they going to do? Are they going to take our 600 horses down to the police station? They can’t exactly throw us out, but they will make it uncomfortable for us to remain there.” 

The bizarre standoff, in which Combest characterized the horsemen as victims in a clash between gaming industry rivals Calder and Gulfstream Park, has escalated in the past month with the erection of chain-link fencing, the closure of access roads to the racetrack, and squabbles over the location and scope of temporary tent stabling. 

Combest said he fears Calder management, at the behest of corporate parent CDI, will make good on its threat to seal off the lone remaining road to the racetrack on Thursday, cutting off training access to any horses not transferred to the tents or removed from the property entirely.

Combest said all the HBPA is asking for is a 100-day extension. 

Neither Bill Carstanjen, CDI’s chief executive officer, nor John Marshall, Calder’s vice president, returned voicemails on Wednesday prior to deadline for this story. 

“We’ll stay and just fight them,” Combest said. “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. We’ve been through this a couple of times with [CDI], where we were in a bad situation and we had to pull the [simulcast] signal. And it hurt us greatly, no question about it. But in the end there was a resolution. Hypothetically, and I don’t want this remotely to come across as a threat, what we could do is pull the Gulfstream signal from CDI tracks and TwinSpires.” 

Tim Ritvo, president of Gulfstream, did not return a voicemail seeking comment. 

Combest said the conflict began six months ago with what at first appeared to be a solution to Calder and Gulfstream, only eight miles apart, running head to head. 

On July 1, Gulfstream agreed to lease Calder for a 40-day autumn race meet. Rebranded “Gulfstream Park West,” the dates satisfied Calder’s statutory requirement to maintain casino operations, while giving Gulfstream control over Thoroughbred racing in south Florida.

Combest said everyone involved knew the main stabling area at Calder was to remain open only though Jan. 1. After that, Gulfstream and the horsemen would have the right to use only 430 stalls that are closer to the track, but separate from the main stabling area, for six more years (the length of the HBPA’s gaming-revenue agreement with Calder). It was also public knowledge that 150 new stalls would be built at Gulfstream, but that they would not be ready until mid-February. 

Combest said he approved the Calder-Gulfstream deal fully aware there could be some displacement at Calder if a main stable area lease extension was not arranged before then. As summer turned to autumn, he voiced these concerns, but said Gulfstream management repeatedly assured him, “Don’t worry about it, we’ve got the negotiations going, we’ll be fine for the winter.” 

Around Dec. 1, Combest said, the fence went up around the main barn area. 

About 10 days ago, Combest said a member of Gulfstream’s upper management showed him an e-mail from Carstanjen that allegedly read, “under no circumstances would stalls be leased at any price.” 

“That’s when the panic set in,” Combest said. 

Since then, Combest said Calder has closed off two of the three access roads leading to the track. Horses in the past few days have been forced to share the only road in or out with vehicle traffic. Combest said he was informed on Tuesday that this lone remaining road would be closed on Thursday. 

Combest said he initially thought Gulfstream’s offer to set up tent stabling in a Calder backstretch parking lot would be acceptable because the area has racetrack access. But, he added, “Now that I’ve seen the tents and inspected the stalls in them, I don’t want to put my horses out there. My concern is it’s just jamming 200 horses into a parking lot with guy-wires and stakes. Someone is going to get hurt. There’s no question about that.”

Last weekend, Gulfstream contracted for a separate tent encampment to be erected in a larger Calder parking lot. Combest said he felt sure Marshall had okayed this, but he claimed Marshall then revoked his permission after the tent company had already run electricity and plumbing lines. So those tents came down on Tuesday. 

Combest said even with the use of Calder’s non-fenced-in stables and adjacent stalls in backstretch tents, “There would still be 400 horses behind the fence,” Thursday morning. 

Combest said the most frustrating part of the eviction is his belief that CDI has no immediate plans to build anything on the fenced-off Calder stabling area. 

“That’s the great secret of the Western world,” Combest said. “They have no permits. They have no contracts. They don’t have any plans to do anything until the summer. This is a punitive measure, pure and simple.” 

Combest said he has checked with four different attorneys about the possibility of obtaining an injunction against CDI’s eviction. All four said the HBPA has no legal standing to stop the process. 

“Truthfully, the [option] that we’ve landed on is to just sit there like a tenant, refusing to be evicted,” Combest said. “They can’t completely close us off back there. They’ve got to let the vets in, the food in, the bedding and the manure trucks in. But they may shut us off to the racetrack. They’re a gaming company. We’re fully aware of that. They’d love nothing more than to be separated from the horsemen.”