KHRC to Consider New Rules on Workout Reporting

In a pair of moves it believes will be bettor friendly, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Rules Committee approved recommending changes that would require additional reporting of official workouts for horses entered off layoffs and will reduce the number of coupled entries in races.

In another move, the rules committee also approved a recommendation that will impose "jail time" for horses claimed at Kentucky meets.

The KHRC rules committee met largely in a virtual format Feb. 1. It's expected to make these recommendations to be considered at the next KHRC meeting Feb. 15.

Rules committee chairman Mark Simendinger credited the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation for getting the ball rolling on changes to the reporting of official workouts for horses entered off a layoff. The TIF advocates for horseplayers and horse owners.

Under the recommendation, horses entered off longer layoffs will be required to have more than one workout reported. The current rule requires a horse off a 45-day rest to have at least one reported workout within 20 days of entry. The rules committee backs updating that rule to require at least two works (one within 20 days of entry) for horses off a 90-day rest and three works (again, one within 20 days of entry) for horses entered off a 180-day break.

It was noted during discussion that one of those works could occur after entries were taken for a race but before the race.

Commission members, track representatives, and horsemen's group representatives noted that besides giving horseplayers added information, the new requirements also would help improve equine safety.

In terms of coupled entries, Kentucky currently allows horses with a common trainer or ownership entered in the same race to compete as different betting interests. The rules committee voted Tuesday to recommend opening that to all races as long as its approved by the racing secretary. In practice, this is expected to eliminate coupled entries from Kentucky races with the exception of a race where a trainer enters two horses but only plans to start one of the two.

In another action of note from Tuesday's meeting, the rules committee will recommend new standards that will require connections who claim a horse in Kentucky that wish to race outside of the state to wait 30 days from the date of the end of the Kentucky meet where the horse was claimed. 

"In a nutshell, section one, paragraph five is amended to read that a claimed horse will not be able to race outside of Kentucky for 30 days from the end of the meet during which the horse was claimed," said KHRC general counsel Jennifer Wolsing.

Kentucky previously has faced challenges in court over such rules, including a case brought by owner Jerry Jamgotchian that went to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which ruled that, "a Thoroughbred owner's ability to race a horse that he or she claimed at a Kentucky track are not protectionist in any meaningful way."

On Tuesday Wolsing expressed confidence that the new rule would pass any court scrutiny and noted that other racing jurisdictions also have been moving in this direction.