News from the South - Kentucky News Feed

Study in contrasts: Racing, breeding shine in Kentucky as sport dims across America

Published

2 months ago

April 28, 2025

kentuckylantern.com – Tim Sullivan – 2025-04-28 04:50:00

by Tim Sullivan, Kentucky Lantern
April 28, 2025

Beyond Kentucky’s borders, horse racing is a sport in steep decline. Within the commonwealth, however, wealth is common.

Though no fewer than 48 American racetracks have closed since 2000, Kentucky operators continue to invest hundreds of millions in their facilities and are reaping an outsized return, and not only on the first Saturday in May.

For instance:

Churchill Downs Inc. reported record net revenue ($2.7 billion) and net income ($427 million) for 2024.

Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale netted a record $427.9 million.

The 2006 races run in Kentucky in 2024 paid an average purse of $112,648, 20% higher than the second most lucrative state (Arkansas).

September’s seven-day all-grass meet at Kentucky Downs in Franklin paid out $490,789 per race, easily the highest total ever recorded at a North American track.

“Retreat to Kentucky if you want a future in racing,” California horseplayer Andy Asaro tweeted on April 15. “Things are moving fast.”

Whisper Hill Farm paid $5 million at the September 2024 Keeneland sale for a then-unnamed yearling colt by Curlin out of Cavorting by Bernardini. (Keeneland photo)

Beyond the Bluegrass, things are moving mostly in reverse. Jockey Club data shows the number of Thoroughbred races run in the United States has dropped by more than 50% since 1995, and the size of the national foal crop has been falling even faster, from 34,358 in 2007 to an estimated 16,675 last year. The Sonoma County Fair recently announced it will forego live racing for the first time since 1936 because of a shrinking supply of horses in Northern California. Last month, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled the state’s historical horse racing machines unconstitutional, prompting Churchill Downs Inc. to project a 25% cut in purses at its Fair Grounds racetrack.

Slots-lite a double-edged sword

Meanwhile, “decoupling” legislation that could free Florida gaming operators of the obligation to stage live racing as a condition of their licenses has been stalled, but may only represent a temporary reprieve from redevelopment of major tracks. The Stronach Group’s 1/ST Racing, which owns Gulfstream and Santa Anita, has threatened to sell both tracks while showing a pronounced inclination to divest rather than invest in its properties. Last year, the company closed Golden Gate Fields near San Francisco and cut a deal that turned over Baltimore’s Pimlico, the home of the Preakness Stakes, to the state of Maryland.

Against this gloomy backdrop, and in contrast to its own contentious closure of Arlington Park near Chicago, Churchill Downs Inc. continues to spend aggressively on its flagship track. Plans for new capital projects with a projected cost of $920 million were put on pause last Wednesday, ostensibly in response to the uncertainty surrounding tariffs and trade disputes, but recent improvements to the paddock and the addition of Homestretch Club and Turn One Experience cost in excess of $300 million and speak to management’s long-term bullishness.

While these investments are largely attributable to the singular appeal of the Kentucky Derby, they also reflect the thoroughbred industry’s political influence in Frankfort and, in turn, the gushing revenue stream historical horse racing (HHR) terminals have unleashed.

Since their 2011 introduction at Kentucky Downs, the slot-like historical horse racing terminals have reinvigorated racing in the state. Programmed to pay out based on the results of races previously run, Kentucky’s HHR machines generated more than $9.6 billion in handle during the 2024 fiscal year, accounting for $99 in bets for every $1 wagered live at the state’s thoroughbred and standardbred tracks.

They contributed $55.5 million to Kentucky’s Thoroughbred Development Fund during that 12-month period, fueling the growth of purses that have more than doubled since 2017. Consequently, Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, refers to HHR’s proliferation as racing’s “golden ticket.”

A terrace at Churchill Downs. (Churchill Downs photo)

When HHR’s legality was challenged in 2018, Ellis Park General Manager Jeffery Inman said the loss of that revenue would “likely threaten the very survival of one of Kentucky’s iconic racing venues.” Though opposition was vocal, it was handily outvoted. Attorney Ryan Roark, in an article published in the Kentucky Law Journal, wrote that the legislature settled on a definition of pari-mutuel wagering “not shared by anyone outside Kentucky … to allow for the powerful horse industry to exclusively run their slot-like gaming systems.”

The result, says Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen, has been a “juggernaut.” According to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, gross HHR commissions for Churchill Downs’ two Derby City Gaming locations exceeded $224 million for the 2024 fiscal year, nearly 12 times the total commissions from on-track wagering at all of the state’s racetracks.

To the extent this disparity underscores the industry’s reliance on revenue sources that require no physical horses, it inevitably raises questions about racing’s sustainability and the best use of its real estate.

A yearling on the way to the sales ring at the 2024 Keeneland September sale. (Keeneland photo)

“Racing is on life support in Southern California, Florida, Delaware, Pennsylvania etc. and exists almost everywhere else only with the support of non-racing revenues from slots, casinos and state supplements,” Kenwood Racing founder H. Robb Levinsky wrote in a January letter to Thoroughbred Daily News. “Instead of embracing innovative ideas to make the sport more attractive to a new generation of racing fans and owners, the focus continues to be on protecting those non-racing revenues. An industry where 80-90% of purse money comes from slots instead of wagering on the core product is simply not viable in the long run.”

Signs of progress in New York, Maryland

In the short run, at least, the growth of Kentucky’s purses has led to a higher quality of horses competing in the state, more interest among bettors and a breeding boom running contrary to national trends. As Ed DeRosa documented for Horse Racing Nation, Kentucky passed both California and Florida in total handle in 2024 after trailing both states annually since 2007.

“We’re the only jurisdiction (among the top four states) that has grown since 2020,” said Chauncey Morris, executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. “The rest have contracted.”

And as cash incentives for Kentucky-breds have increased, so has the state’s share of registered foals. When HHR was introduced at Kentucky Downs in 2011, Kentucky produced 29.2% of the national foal crop. In 2023, the most recent year for which statistics are available, it was 42.2%.

Damon Thayer (LRC Public Information)

“In states where racing has a good relationship with state legislators, racing is in good shape,” said consultant Damon Thayer, formerly the Kentucky Senate’s majority floor leader. “In states where they have not cultivated a long-term relationship with the legislature, horse racing is either in a declining state, a crisis state or a questionable state.”

In addition to Kentucky, there are pockets of progress. New York and Maryland have committed nearly a billion dollars to renovations at Belmont Park and Pimlico. Multiple industry executives cited developments in Wyoming, the nation’s last populous state, as a basis for bullishness. Yet their optimism is tempered by unsolved problems in larger locales, including the most populous state, California.

Without supplemental income from other forms of gambling, California’s racing and breeding businesses have been contracting for decades. Efforts to enhance purses through HHR remain at the discussion stage in view of Native American tribes’ virtual monopoly on the state’s casino gaming. Unless some accommodation can be reached, racing columnist Ray Paulick warns, “racing in California is history.”

“You can put 1,000 HHRs in at Santa Anita and it would change California racing overnight,” Thayer said. “They’d be wildly popular. You’d direct the money to purses and breeders reward programs and it would be a huge success. It seems like some sort of attempt should be made to cut a deal with the Indians and convince them that 1,000 HHRs at Santa Anita is not going to damage their land-based casinos. . .

“Like Cyndi Lauper used to say, money changes everything.”

Iconic image from “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports.” (Churchill Downs)

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Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

The post Study in contrasts: Racing, breeding shine in Kentucky as sport dims across America appeared first on kentuckylantern.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The content provided primarily focuses on the state of horse racing in Kentucky and the economic factors surrounding it, without overt political ideologies or agendas. It presents factual data regarding revenue, investments, and industry trends while addressing challenges faced by the sport in a straightforward manner. The analysis includes both positive developments (such as revenue growth) and negative trends (such as declines in racing overall), indicating a balanced approach. While there are mentions of legislation and the influence of the horse racing industry on politics, these elements are presented contextually rather than as a critique or endorsement of specific political positions. Thus, the piece maintains a centrist tone.

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News from the South - Kentucky News Feed

Franklin man charged after marijuana operation found in home

Published

8 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Staff Editor

www.wnky.com – Amelia Brett – 2025-07-10 14:04:00

SUMMARY: A Franklin, Kentucky man, Terry Moss, 60, was arrested following an investigation by the South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force on July 10. Authorities discovered an indoor marijuana cultivation operation at his residence on South Main Street. Moss faces multiple charges, including marijuana cultivation (five plants or more) with firearm enhancement, marijuana trafficking with firearm enhancement, drug paraphernalia possession, and first-degree possession of controlled substances including hydrocodone. The search uncovered several marijuana plants, processed marijuana, two firearms, drug paraphernalia, prescription pills, and U.S. currency. Charges will be presented to a grand jury. Multiple local law enforcement agencies assisted in the operation.

Read the full article

The post Franklin man charged after marijuana operation found in home appeared first on www.wnky.com

News from the South - Kentucky News Feed

100 years after John Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution, education is again on trial

Published

18 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Staff Editor

kentuckylantern.com – Berry Craig – 2025-07-10 04:40:00

by Berry Craig, Kentucky Lantern
July 10, 2025

Today I’m remembering what Lela Scopes told me about her famous brother for my Paducah Sun story going on 46 years ago.

She said before John Thomas Scopes left to teach science and coach football at Rhea County High School in Dayton, Tenn., in 1924, he explained, “I’m going there because it’s a small town with a small school where I won’t get in any deep water.”

The skinny, bespectacled, freckle-faced 24-year-old from Paducah ended up the defendant in one of history’s most sensationalized courtroom battles.

A century ago this month, Scopes was convicted of violating the Butler Act, a Volunteer State law that forbade the teaching of evolution in public schools. His punishment was a $100 fine.

But the “Monkey Trial” grabbed newspaper headlines worldwide. Dozens of reporters converged on Dayton. So did tent revivalists and swarms of hucksters hawking popcorn and pink lemonade and hustling Bibles and souvenirs, including stuffed monkeys.

John Thomas Scopes, second from left, stands in the courtroom during his trial for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to high school science students in Dayton, Tenn., July 1925. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“The State of Tennessee v John Thomas Scopes” was also the first trial broadcast live on radio.

I interviewed Lela Scopes in August 1979, when I was a Sun feature writer. She also said John had worried about what their mother might think of the trial: “He was afraid it would get in the Louisville paper, Mother would read about it and think he was a hothead.”

Anyway, as Mark Twain said, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” and now is one of those rhyming times.

“Public education is once again under siege from a sustained effort by Christian Nationalists to blur the line between church and state,” warns A.J. Schumann, a youth organizing fellow with Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Like today, the 1920s were times of “rapid social, economic and cultural change,” said David Krueger, professor emeritus of history at West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah.

Scopes admitted he covered evolution when he substitute taught for the absent biology teacher. (In their zeal to ban evolution, Tennessee lawmakers failed to remove the state-approved biology textbook, which included evolution.)

Scopes believed in evolution and agreed to stand trial on principle.

The trial, which began on July 10, 1925, and concluded on July 21, was essentially a clash of competing values: urban science and modernism versus rural, old-time Protestant fundamentalist Christianity.

A historical marker stands near the entrance of Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah where John Scopes is buried next to his wife Mildred. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Berry Craig)

“The cause defended at Dayton is a continuing one that has existed throughout man’s brief history and will continue as long as man is here,” Scopes wrote in “Center of the Storm,” his 1967 memoir. “It is the cause of freedom, for which man must do what he can.”

The attorneys embodied the collision of values. Tennessee summoned William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska as special prosecutor. A fundamentalist champion, he had been a Democratic congressman, secretary of state and three-time Democratic presidential candidate.

The American Civil Liberties Union hired Clarence Darrow to lead Scopes’ defense team. Darrow was widely considered the country’s top defense lawyer. He was from Chicago, believed in evolution and was an agnostic.

Bryan and Darrow dueled like gladiators in the sweltering midsummer East Tennessee heat. The courtroom became so hot that the trial was moved outdoors to the tree-shaded courthouse lawn where the crowd of spectators grew even larger.

Bryan got a conviction as expected. But progressives, including liberal Christians, believed science and reason had vanquished “EVIL-lution” in the court of public opinion. They pointed to July 20 when Darrow called Bryan to the stand as a Bible expert.

“There was no pity for the helplessness of the believer come so suddenly and so unexpectedly upon a moment when he could not reconcile statements of the Bible with generally accepted facts,” The New York Times reported. “There was no pity for his admissions of ignorance of things boys and girls learn in high school, his floundering confessions that he knew practically nothing of geology, biology, philology, little of comparative religion, and little even of ancient history.”

… separation of church and state is not something we can take for granted. It is a principle that must be actively defended, especially in moments of cultural anxiety and political division, when calls to return to some mythic past grow loudest.”

– A.J. Schumann, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

In “Only Yesterday,” his 1931 chronicle of the 1920s, Frederick Lewis Allen wrote: “Theoretically, Fundamentalism had won, for the law stood. Yet really Fundamentalism had lost. Legislators might go on passing anti-evolution laws, and in the hinterlands the pious might still keep their religion locked in a science-proof compartment of their minds; but civilized opinion everywhere had regarded the Dayton trial with amazement and amusement, and the slow drift away from Fundamentalist certainty continued.”

Allen and the progressives of his day missed the mark. Donald Trump and his Republican Party owe a big part of their electoral success to white Christian evangelicals of the “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” persuasion.

Schumann warned that “today’s Christian Nationalist rhetoric echoes the anti-modernist anxieties of the 1920s — fear that secularism is destroying ‘traditional values’ and that public institutions should reflect a ‘Christian America.’”

He wrote that the First Amendment safeguards all Americans “from having any single belief system imposed on them by the state,” a fact that seems to be lost on much of the GOP these days.

Schumann concluded that the Scopes “trial reminds us that the separation of church and state is not something we can take for granted. It is a principle that must be actively defended, especially in moments of cultural anxiety and political division, when calls to return to some mythic past grow loudest.”

Scopes died in 1970 at age 70. He is buried in the family plot in Paducah’s Oak Grove Cemetery next to his wife, Mildred, and close to Lela, who died in 1989 at 92. “A Man of Courage” is his epitaph. A state historical marker at the cemetery’s main entrance tells about him.

John Scopes died in 1970 at age 70. His gravestone bears his epitaph, “A Man of Courage.” (Kentucky Lantern photo by Berry Craig)

Scopes said not a word during the trial. He got his chance at the end.

After the jury delivered the expected guilty verdict and the judge fined Scopes $100, one of his lawyers pointed out that the defendant had been denied the right to speak before sentencing.

“Your Honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute,” Scopes said. “I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideals of academic freedom, that is to teach the truth as guaranteed in our Constitution, of personal and religious freedom. I think the fine is unjust.”

After Scopes finished, the judge repeated the fine. The verdict was later overturned on a technicality, Schumann wrote, but the Butler Act wasn’t repealed until 1967.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

The post 100 years after John Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution, education is again on trial appeared first on kentuckylantern.com

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content presents a viewpoint that emphasizes the importance of separating church and state and supports scientific education, framing the Scopes Trial as a historic battle between modernism and religious fundamentalism. It highlights concerns about contemporary Christian Nationalist influence on public education, particularly critiquing elements within the GOP, which indicates a critical stance toward conservative religious politics. However, it maintains a respectful historical recount and balanced tone by providing factual background and quoting multiple perspectives, reflecting a generally moderate but slightly progressive viewpoint favoring secularism and academic freedom.

News from the South - Kentucky News Feed

Hot and humid with a few PM showers for Thursday

Published

1 day ago

July 9, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – WLKY News Louisville – 2025-07-09 21:36:36

SUMMARY: Thursday in Louisville will be hot and humid with highs in the low 90s. After a break from 90-degree days, summer heat and humidity return, continuing through the weekend. Mostly dry and sunny conditions are expected Thursday and Friday, with isolated afternoon and evening showers possible. Temperatures will rise to the mid-90s Saturday and Sunday, with feel-like temperatures near 100 due to humidity. A few late-day storms may occur over the weekend but should fade overnight. The pattern of highs around 90 degrees will persist into next week, with scattered storms likely by Wednesday.