Minutes
Ohio HBPA Board Meeting
11:00 am, Thursday, January 30th, 20
Ohio HBPA Main Office, Grove City, OH
Members Present:
President Joe Poole Directors: Bobby Cline, Doug Cowans, Jeff Jarvis, Mark Kuntz, Dick McCall, Mike Rone, John Royer, Robin Schuster, Kristi Tumblin and Kim Williams
Members Unable to Attend: Susan Anderson
Others Present:
Executive Director Dave Basler, OHBPA Lobbyist Tom Pappas, John Engelhardt and Daryl Duncan OTBO
Call to Order/ Approval of Minutes:
President Poole called the meeting to order. After review President Poole moved and Director Rone seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the December 5th, 2019 Ohio HBPA board of directors meeting. Motion passed.
Special Order of Business
OHBPA Lobbyist Tom Pappas updated the board on the current status of sport betting legislation in the state informing the board that leadership in both the house and senate weren’t in any hurry to get any bill passed on the issue.
Pappas also shared with the board a handout with his recommendations for the OHBPA in terms of 2020 PAC fund contributions.
President’s Report
President Poole brought up that he had received numerous complaints regarding a lack of conditioned claiming races for Ohio-breds. Extensive discussion followed regarding the Ohio Thoroughbred Fund program. The board came up with several points that they instructed the executive director to communicate to the Thoroughbred Advisory Board.
Executive Director’s Report:
The executive director updated the board regarding negotiations with Belterra Park management on revising the track contract detailing that progress had been made during several conference calls with Belterra Park management in December and January. Discussion was held regarding those negotiations and the Ohio HBPA’s strategy moving forward.
Director McCall moved and Director Royer seconded a motion that the executive director was authorized to communicate to Belterra Park management that it is the intent of the Ohio HBPA board of directors not to grant export approval for the 2020 Belterra Park meet until such time as both the new track contract and VLT revenue sharing agreements had been signed by both parties.
Basler updated the board on the latest Ohio State Racing Commission meeting informing them that the board had approved the 2020 OTF program budget with no changes to the supplements paid by the program. The OSRC also approved the HBPA sponsored plan of having a Best of Ohio type stakes program at each track for 2020.
Basler provided the board an update on the most recent ARCI meeting held in December at which the ARCI passed two model rules significantly reducing the use of certain medications. The first restricts the use of one of the three allowed NSAID’s to a 48 hour restricted administration time with no other NSAID being allowed to be present in the post race sample at any level or a stacking violation would be called.
The second model rule restricts the use of any of the approved corticosteroids and joint injections to at least 14 days prior to racing.
New Business:
Purses and Wagering
Basler updated the board on the current status of the purse accounts at all three Ohio thoroughbred tracks which showed the purse accounts at all three tracks ahead of where they were at the same points last year and discussion was held regarding the numbers.
Basler went through handouts provided to the board showing VLT revenues for the state’s seven commercial racetracks which showed that the net win at Thistledown for December, 2019 came in at $12,184,123 up over 11% from the previous December. Mahoning Valley recorded a net win of $10,790,890 in December up approximately 7% from the December, 2018 net win figure at the track. The net win at Belterra Park in December, 2019 was $7,650,810 which was up nearly 9% from the prior year figure.
Budget and Finance
Following extensive discussion the motions below were made regarding 2020 Ohio HBPA contributions from the Industry Initiative Fund.
Director Rone moved and President Poole seconded a motion that a $40,000 contribution be made from the Industry Initiative Fund to the National HBPA which would cover 2020 dues, Horsemen’s Journal assessment, winter convention registration fees and winter convention sponsorship. Motion passed.
President Poole moved and Director Rone seconded a motion that a $10,000 contribution be made from the Industry Initiative Fund to the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center in support of the equine research of Dr. Tobin. Motion passed.
Director Cline moved and Director Rone seconded a motion that a $55,000 contribution be made from the Industry Initiative Fund to the Ohio HBPA Scholarship Fund to cover OHBPA sponsored scholarships on track as well as to the FFA and 4 H. Motion passed.
President Poole moved and Director Cline seconded a motion that a contribution of $20,000 be made from the Industry Initiative Fund to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. Motion passed.
Director Cline moved and President Poole seconded a motion that a contribution of $50,000 be made to New Vocations in support of the retraining and rehoming of Ohio thoroughbreds. Motion passed with Directors McCall, Tumblin and Cowans voting no.
Director Tumblin moved and Director McCall seconded a motion that a contribution of $25,000 be made to the Van Wert Fair in support of thoroughbred purses at the fair in 2020. Motion passed.
President Poole moved and Director Rone seconded a motion that a contribution of $35,000 be made to the Belterra Park Purse account from the Industry Initiative Fund to support Quarter Horse purses at the track in 2020.
President Poole moved and Director Cline seconded a motion that a contribution of $25,000 be made from the Industry Initiative Fun to the OTBO to support the operations of that organization. Motion passed.
President Poole moved and Director Tumblin seconded a motion that a contribution of $24,000 be made to the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America from the Industry Initiative Fund to support the salaries of the chaplains at Belterra Park and Thistledown for the 2020 meets at those tracks. Motion passed.
President Poole moved and Director Cline seconded a motion that a contribution of $1,000 be made to sponsor the Race Track Superintendents Conference. Motion passed.
Director Tumblin moved and President Poole seconded a motion that a contribution of $1,000 be made to sponsor the Regulatory Vets Conference. Motion passed.
President Poole moved and Director Rone seconded a motion that a contribution of $5,000 be made to sponsor the Ohio Farm Bureau Annual meeting. Motion passed.
Discussion was held regarding the next meeting date for the board with the date set for Thursday, March 19th beginning at 11am.
Adjournment:
President Poole moved and Director Tumblin seconded a motion to adjourn. Motion passed.