If there ever were a time for horseplayers to stand up and
be counted with one loud, unified voice, it is now.

It also was Wednesday afternoon in Florida, where 16 state legislators
who do business as something called the industries and professional-activities
subcommittee gathered in a sterile-looking room full of sweeping pine desks and
tall leather chairs to hear two items.

The first 50 minutes were spent hearing about the evils of
selling booze and smokes to kids. Such polarizing controversy. That might as
well have been followed by a PowerPoint presentation on whether the government
can reduce blindness by urging citizens not to stare at the sun.

Expanded decoupling sails through Florida subcommittee.

Then it was horse racing’s turn. Time to get the first
formal hearing for the contentious proposal to decouple. That term sounds more
like someone is pulling the pin to let the caboose roll on its own while the
rest of the train speeds away. Hey, I think I just stumbled into an allegory.

House member Adam Anderson is the sponsor of the bill. He is
a first-term Republican whose constituency includes 300 parking places just
west of the white fence in front of Tampa Bay Downs. No lie. That is where the
line runs on the east side of his district.

“There’s nothing in the bill that that would prevent any of
the permit holders to continue or begin racing,” Anderson said.

The CC on my screen streaming The Florida Channel went crazy.
Not the closed captioning. It was the crap counter.

I have to give credit to the Horse Racing Nation
commenter who said, “That’s like saying to someone, ‘Well, it’s time for you to
sink or swim on your own. Nobody says you aren’t allowed to swim.’ And then
dropping the someone in a pool full of hungry sharks.”

This tank had too many Mr. Wonderfuls and not enough Lori
Greiners. Disingenuous did not begin to describe the subcommittee’s breezy
belief that this marriage of slot-machine revenue and horse-racing purses was
something other than an outdated accounting oversight. The $6 million that
Gulfstream Park purses get every year from those spinning lemons? Fuhgeddaboudit.
This was a divorce in need of a public decree.

Doubling down on that premise, subcommittee member Brad Yeager
threw another log on the fire with his lookie-here amendment.

“It removes live-racing requirements for Thoroughbred permit
holders who are card-room licensees,” he said. “So this will bring in Tampa Bay
Downs.”

So said another first-term Republican who lives a short
drive north of the track. That explains why this proposal that seemed to be
focused solely on freeing the casino-minded Stronach Group from the
inconvenient truth of its racing obligation at Gulfstream Park had the grimy
fingerprints of Tampa Bay area politicos all over it.

“This is a friendly amendment,” Yeager said, getting 11 nods
of approval from his stablemates. With that kind of compassion, who needs hate?

Almost immediately, the “friendly amendment” was declared by
subcommittee chairperson Mike Giallombardo to have been adopted. Fourteen
minutes later, perhaps after someone reminded the second-term Republican he
could not unilaterally do that, a voice vote was taken. Harumph, harumph,
harumph, same result.

The ayes had it. The die for the day was cast. For decoupling
denizens in the room, that meant they did not have to speak. 1/ST Racing
executive Steven Screnci was there just in case he had to say something on
behalf of the Stronach Group. So was lobbyist Cameron Yarbrough, representing
Tampa Bay Downs. No doubt a friendly lobbyist. When called on, they said never
mind, you got this. Why add another foot to the mouths of those who say their
warnings of possible racetrack shutdowns are not threats?

Trainer Jena Antonucci and horsemen’s executives Lonny
Powell and Jan Meehan got up and spoke. Emotionally. No one stood up from the
capricious collective that represents Gulfstream Park horsemen by whatever name
or opinion it is going by this week.

Yvonne Hayes Hinson put up the good fight. A second-term
Democrat whose district includes the breeding farms in Ocala, she sounded like
the only member of the subcommittee who knew the issues involved.

“This decoupling of gaming from live horse races will
eliminate 112,000 jobs supported by Florida’s world-renowned horse industry,”
she said. “It may well be a death knell for Thoroughbred racing nationwide.”

It turned out Antonucci and Powell and Meehan and Hinson
were spitting into the wind of gale-force posturing. Twentieth-century
commentators used to have a term for this sort of role playing in which
everyone knows the outcome. That term is out of favor in the new millennium,
even if the script is not.

In Florida, Republicans have a super majority in the
legislative branch. And the executive. The 12-4 vote right down party lines, a
fact little noted away from this website, pushed decoupling for Gulfstream Park
and Tampa Bay Downs to the House commerce committee, where lather-rinse-repeat instructions
await on a date to be determined. The same goes for the full House this spring.

I have heard from three people who are plugged
into all this that the bill will fly through the House, but the sledding is uncertain
in the Senate. However, it seems the same person has spread that hope to all
three of the people with whom I spoke. Call them one source and maybe two
acolytes.

Other than Gulfstream Park being represented by Jason Pizzo,
a Democrat who is the minority leader in the Senate, I do not see where decoupling
will meet any real legislative resistance between now and governor Ron DeSantis’s
signature in June. That does not mean that this is not worth a fight.

Which brings me back to horseplayers standing up and being
counted. Because our kind were not mentioned even once in that meeting
Wednesday. We were rudely ignored. There was nary a mention of the hundreds of millions of dollars we collectively
bet in that state, and how we get back only about 80 cents on them if we are
lucky and don’t have fancy computer software available to us.

My hope is that sterile meeting rooms and galleries would be
full of trainers angry with a legislature that ignores the impact of
decoupling. And presuming they cannot be bothered again to join Antonucci in
Tallahassee for the next hearing and the next one after that, then how about a hall
bulging at the seams with railbirds? Make that loud, angry railbirds.

Instead of dribbling out the clock, just keep shooting
threes and committing fouls to prolong this game. Force the right honorable
chairpersons who follow Mr. Giallombardo to put a few dents in their gavels. I
am not talking about a repeat of Jan. 6 here, but within reason, make such an indelible
impression that local news stations have to do stories that start “you won’t
believe what happened at the state capitol.” Besides, they have made enough of
a lazy living on Florida man and 15 minutes of weather.

I get that this may be a losing fight, but this should not
be like a 16 seed going up against Auburn. If it was worth getting into a near
fistfight at the end of a horsemen’s meeting last month at Gulfstream, then
take some of that passion up to Tallahassee. Expedia says one-way flights are as
low as $84. I think some high-roller trainers can afford that to make it known
they would like to continue wintering in South Florida.

The same goes for horseplayers. We racing lovers may be
fewer than we were a half-century ago or even when governments more recently married
racing and slot machines to have and to hold in sickness and in health. But we
still can raise and lower the volume of our money.

Maybe I am missing the bigger, better picture here. Maybe
Florida racing and breeding will go away. There is, after all, a shining light
on the western horizon. Californee, here we come. 

Oh, wait.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse
Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed,
encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.