David Milch has been attending horse races for over six decades and as a Thoroughbred owner his charges have won two Breeders’ Cup races. He also is the creator and writer of the blockbuster television series NYPD Blue and Deadwood.

Milch’s current project is an HBO nine-episode series called Luck that premiers on January 29, 2012 at 9 PM EST. The show focuses on life around a racetrack. The characters include owners, trainers, jockeys, and gamblers. The cast has well-known actors like Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, as well as former jockey Gary Stevens, who was in the movie Seabiscuit.

There was reportedly some conflict between Luck’s creator/writer Milch and the show’s acclaimed executive producer Michael Mann over how much the series should use the jargon of the racetrack. Mann feared that too much adherence to the special language and cultural nuances of the racetrack would risk losing the audience, whereas Milch wanted a close approximation of the real thing.

The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch presented a preview of the series, wherein reporter John Jurgensen called the program “slow-moving.” He said it will “try viewers’ patience” because of the racetrack lingo. However, another reviewer said that the series begins to move faster in episodes three and four, once the characters and setting have been established for the audience.

Readers of horse-racing websites like this one tend to underestimate just how arcane the world of the racetrack can be for people who are outsiders. While it is easy for a neophyte to understand that the objective in horse racing is to come home in front of the pack, handicapping is a much different matter. First-time racetrack attendees are apt to wonder about references to furlongs, maiden special weights, and bugs—and possibly never come back. Similarly, as the recent Jockey Club/McKinsey & Company study vividly illustrated, the intricacies of betting online can be an intimidating turnoff for newcomers.

While Luck is intended for entertainment, it may provide education about horse racing to many people who know little or nothing about the sport–and thereby stimulate some viewers’ interest in visiting a racetrack or watching racing on television. However, Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic wrote (see below for the link) that the series paints a wrong and dishonest picture of horse racing (and thus could be a deterrent to creating fan interest).

Here is hoping that Luck is a big winner in the ratings! Thanks, Mr. Milch for taking a chance.

Click here to access the Luck homepage.

Click here for the Wall Street Journal MarketWatch video that reviews Luck.

Click here to read a negative view of Luck by Andrew Cohen from The Atlantic.

Copyright © 2012 Horse Racing Business

WELLINGTON, FL. This small city in Palm Beach County has long been associated with the equestrian lifestyle and equestrian sports like hunting/jumping, dressage, and polo. 2012 is the 33rd year for Wellington’s Winter Equestrian Festival.

In 2006, businessmen Mark Bellissimo, Dennis Dammerman and Roger Smith—and their wives—formed a partnership to transform Wellington into the premier equestrian community in the world, where both horse owners and spectators can enjoy equine sports. Later, the partnership was expanded to include 20 families, who so far have invested more than $200 million. (An antigrowth group has emerged to oppose this ambitious vision.)

Outside the 500-acre showgrounds, the Wellington community is dotted with small horse farms and impressive-looking residential areas. The International Polo Club is nearby, where polo matches are held from early January through late April.

The Breeders’ Cup can only wish that it could attract the international participation that the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington does. The three-month event—January through March–typically draws more than 5,000 horses and 2,800 riders from 49 states and 30 countries. When one walks around the well-kept grounds, you can hear a potpourri of languages and see the flags of diverse nations on display in the multiple show arenas and at the barns.

Vendors in tents and buildings offer a variety of clothing, food, and horse accessories.

Another area in which the Wellington events excel is in attracting corporate sponsors, with a vast number and array of companies represented.

Horse-racing leaders like Will Farish and the aforementioned Dammerman are involved with the Wellington equestrian scene. Moreover, some of the most prominent trainers in Thoroughbred racing got their start with horses and events like those on display in Wellington. For example, Roger Attfield, James Day, Rodney Jenkins, and Michael Matz were once exceptional riders of jumpers and C. V. Whitney and Farish were accomplished polo players.

If you are in South Florida, a trip to Wellington is well worth the trip. Consult these websites for the calendar of events and information for visitors: Equestrian Sports Productions and International Polo Club Palm Beach.

Copyright © 2012 Horse Racing Business

The Kentucky General Assembly plans to consider legislation in 2012 that would require Kentucky residents to pay a tax on bets they place with advance deposit wagering companies. The proceeds would benefit the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. Under existing law, a portion of Kentucky on-track bets go to the KTDF, whereas bets made via online wagering sites are not assessed. The size of the KTDF has been shrinking in conjunction with the decline in wagering at physical facilities.

(A competing bill, already filed, would allocate 85 percent of the additional revenue from the tax on ADW wagers to racetracks, with half going to purses.)

While this legislation is well intentioned, it is apt to have unintended consequences for Kentucky racing interests should it become law. National and state laws pertaining to intangibles like betting services can often be circumvented via the Internet.

Pari-mutuel wagering already extracts a takeout percentage higher than most betting and gaming alternatives. Adding even a small increment to the amount that Kentucky residents pay will either encourage some customers to curtail their betting on horse racing or find other places to do business.

Kentucky bettors will be incentivized to use ADW providers with no land-based facilities in Kentucky. Further, the proposed law might violate the U. S. Supreme Court ruling in 1992 that an online vendor is not obligated to collect state sales taxes on purchases if the vendor does not have a physical presence in the state in which a customer resides.

The magnitude of the takeout percentage matters most to the relatively small number of people who account for the lion’s share of all betting handle. Kentucky bettors in this category would be likely to bypass the proposed law by simply patronizing ADWs in another state or off-shore. Kentucky firms like Twin Spires and Keeneland Select would undoubtedly lose Kentucky customers and the KTDF would be no better off.

When elected officials carefully weigh the long-term costs and benefits of a tax on a major industry, they often come to the conclusion that it is not sound economic development policy to burden home-grown companies operating in a hyper-competitive global environment.

Recently, for example, the Moore County Council in Tennessee asked the state legislature to approve a referendum on the issue of whether the county’s largest employer, Jack Daniels, should pay a per-barrel whiskey tax that would have yielded about $5 million per year to county coffers. After further deliberation of the potential deleterious effects on Jack Daniels—and by extension, on the local community–the Council voted 10-5 to abandon the tax proposal.

In today’s integrated worldwide Internet-based economy, a state or local tax that is meant to help an indigenous industry can have precisely the opposite outcome.

Copyright © 2012 Horse Racing Business

Originally published in the Blood-Horse. Reproduced with permission.