Daniel Wallach

After this past spring's failed attempt to get a controversial bill passed in the Florida legislature that would have stripped a 40-days-minimum live racing requirement from its casino licensure, the owners of Gulfstream Park have filed a lawsuit against the Florida Gaming Control Commission (FGCC), alleging that the 2021 statute that allowed all classes of pari-mutuel licensees except Thoroughbreds to "decouple" from live racing as a condition of operating slot machines is an "unconstitutional special law and violates the equal protection clause of the Florida Constitution." Daniel Wallach, a Florida-based...

Starting next week, the TDN will begin a weekly roundup of key official rulings from the primary tracks within the four major racing jurisdictions of California, New York, Florida and Kentucky. The task, however, of collecting these rulings has wrenched the curtain back on the fractured way in which the industry polices its own and then makes those rulings public--or not, as is often the case. The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) provides something of a gold standard, thanks to a centralized, easy-to-use database containing all stewards rulings from across...