Photo: Clint Budd/flickr.
A group that represents horse breeders, trainers, owners and drivers filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the constitutionality of a new state law that could end decades of harness racing in Florida.
The Florida Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association filed the lawsuit in Leon County circuit court, after lawmakers in May lifted a longstanding requirement that Pompano Park — the only harness track in the state — run live races to continue offering other types of gambling.
The lawsuit contends, in part, that the law violates constitutional equal-protection rights because it treats harness racing different than thoroughbred racing. The Legislature did not lift a requirement for live racing at thoroughbred tracks.
“As a result of the enactment (of the law), the harness horsemen who have historically participated in live harness racing at Pompano Park are being treated differently and in a far less financially favorable manner than the similarly situated horsemen who participate in thoroughbred racing at the facilities of Florida’s thoroughbred permit holders,” the lawsuit said. “It is FSBOA’s (the Florida Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association’s) contention that no valid reason exists for this difference in treatment among horsemen performing similar, if not identical, horse racing activities.”
The challenge also contends that the measure is an unconstitutional “special” law because parts of it would only apply to PPI Inc., which operates Pompano Park in Broward County. The constitutional prohibition on special laws, in part, is designed to prevent the Legislature from passing laws to benefit specific corporations.
The law was passed during a May special legislative session that primarily focused on a multibillion-dollar gambling deal, known as a compact, between the state and the Seminole Tribe.
The law revamped a longstanding requirement that pari-mutuels conduct live races or jai alai games if they also wanted to operate more-lucrative cardrooms and, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, slot machines. Lawmakers agreed to get rid of the requirement — a move known in the gambling industry as “decoupling” — for harness and quarter-horse tracks and jai alai frontons.
Only thoroughbred tracks were required to continue running races, an exception spurred, at least in part, by the economically vital thoroughbred industry in the Ocala area. Florida voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment that banned greyhound racing, effectively clearing the way for dog tracks to end races while keeping other gambling activities.
The lawsuit said PPI has indicated that it will end harness racing. As defendants, the case names the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering and PPI.
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