By T. D. Thornton
The bizarre, two-year odyssey of whether historical race gaming should be legal in Texas took another unexpected turn on Tuesday when a state district judge served the Texas Racing Commission with a temporary restraining order just before the start of a highly anticipated meeting that kept the agency from voting on the issue.
Historical racing–which involves slot machine-like betting on already-run horse races that have been stripped of identifying markers–is the long-term crux of the squabble between Texas politicians who oppose it and racing commission members who believe they have the authority to enact it. Horse and greyhound interests have contended that they need revenue from some form of expanded gaming for Texas racing to remain competitive, or even in business.
But the immediate future of the state's tracks is also at stake, because lawmakers who are against historical racing recently retaliated by withholding funding for the racing commission. As currently budgeted, the money is expected to run out by the end of February, and the commission last month gave notice to Texas tracks that all pari-mutuel operations would have to cease by Feb. 16 because there would be no money to pay for the agency's oversight.
That shut-down date still hasn't been lifted, and both the racing agency and the state's tracks are still in limbo, Robert Elrod, the racing commission's public information officer, told TDN.
“Nothing that happened today has any impact on our funding. We're funded through the end of this month,” Elrod said. “We don't really know anything at this point. We just have to wait for this legal process to play out. The [approval for continued funding] would come from the Texas Legislative Budget Board.”
Elrod said the commissioners called Tuesday's meeting to order and went through a few items of “routine business.” Then, when they got to agenda item titled “Report on the Executive Director's Plan to Close the Agency in the Event that Additional Appropriations are not Approved,” chairman Rolando Pablos announced the meeting was going to be adjourned because a restraining order had been served prior to the start of the meeting.
The order specifically restrains the defendant (Texas Racing Commission) “from voting to repeal the Historical Racing rules.”
The court order was a result of a lawsuit filed by the Texas Greyhound Association. Published news reports in Texas had speculated prior to the meeting that newly installed members of the racing commission might be likely to bow to the wishes of elected leaders and flip the agency's long-held support of historical racing.
The court order also read, in part: “Harm is imminent, and if the court does not issue the temporary restraining order, Plaintiff will be irreparably injured because a repeal of the rule will cause the Texas Greyhound Association to have lost the expenditures, time, and other resources used in the preparation of, study of, and ultimate passing of the Historical Racing.”
The next step is a Feb. 18 hearing on the temporary injunction, but Elrod said “that may change. There may be a hearing that happens before then, but that's what's on there for right now.”
Sam Houston Race Park is the only Texas track running Thoroughbreds at this time of year. “We have been told that racing will continue through at least the end of February, and that our plan is just to continue as we have been,” Jamie Nielsen, the track's marketing director, told TDN. “We plan to keep racing, and just let the court decide.”
The longer-term implications of the court order were viewed as favorable by some in the Texas racing industry.
“This is definitely a victory for the horsemen today,” Wes Melcher, who owns the Double Infinity Ranch in Sulphur Springs, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The most important thing is we get more time. This is all about political maneuvering and so many people's lives and jobs are at stake.”
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