KHRC dates committee to take up competing applications for new harness track, casino

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The race dates committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has scheduled a meeting for this Tuesday in order to discuss three separate license applications for a new harness track and casino near the Tennessee border and the Fort Campbell military base, according to an agenda it distributed on Friday.

The commission meeting includes agenda items to discuss the live-racing dates sought by existing racetracks and the discussion of the three new license applications, which have been filed by a partnership of Churchill Downs and Keeneland; Kentucky Downs; and Players Bluegrass Downs, a Kentucky Quarter Horse track that is owned by casino giant Ceasars Entertainment.

All are seeking to open a small harness track near Oak Grove, Ky., that would also be the site of a casino operating historical horseracing machines, devices that are similar to slot machines that use previously run races to determine payouts to winners.

The race dates committee last met three years ago, in October of 2015. Since that time, the chairman of the commission has left haggling over race dates to Kentucky’s racetracks and the state’s horsemen, and each year, the tracks have reached an agreement that left the sides mostly satisfied.

The three new applications have added a wrinkle to those talks, in that the three parties are all seeking a license for a track in an out-of-the-way area that could only likely support one track-casino operation. In addition, Kentucky Downs has stated its outright opposition to a track in the area in years prior, contending that a casino in Oak Grove would cannibalize its existing casino operation. Oak Grove and Kentucky Downs are equidistant from Nashville.

Technically, the partnership of Churchill and Keeneland is seeking harness race dates for 2019 at Churchill’s Trackside training center, where a casino with historical horseracing machines opened earlier this month. But that license would then be transferred after 2019 to the proposed Oak Grove location, according to the partnership’s application.

The scramble for a new racing license is underway as casino operators eye Kentucky anew due to the declining popularity of Gov. Matt Bevin, who will face re-election next year. Bevin has been opposed to the authorization of casinos, but other gubernatorial candidates are expected to be more open to the idea of legalizing them.