Penny Breakage

Outgoing Kentucky State Senator Damon Thayer has been named the recipient of the 2024 Warner L. Jones Jr. Horseman of the Year Award by the Louisville-based Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners (KTO), which will be presented on Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Kentucky Derby Museum, the organization said via a release Thursday morning. The KTO's Warner Jones award recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to Kentucky racing and sharing the passion exemplified by Jones, who spent 50 years on the Churchill Downs board, including eight as chairman during the track's resurgence in the...

Emerald Downs will offer Penny Breakage on all wagers Emerald Downs commencing with its 55-day 2024 season that begins on Saturday, May 4. Historically, wagers were rounded down payouts to the nickel or dime which made sense when most wagers were made with cash on track. However, the change was made because of the evolution of account wagering and vouchers on track. Emerald Downs estimates that penny breakage will return approximately $400,000 in additional payouts to bettors. Also starting in 2024, Emerald Downs will offer a "Dynamic Morning Line." The...

Kentucky State Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, (R-Georgetown), a staunch supporter of horse racing in the Bluegrass, will not seek re-election for the 17th Senate District and allow his term to expire in December 2024, the Commonwealth of Kentucky Senate Majority Caucus said in a release early Wednesday afternoon. "I have decided not to seek re-election to the state Senate in 2024," Senator Thayer said. "The end of my current term next year will mark 22 years in the Senate and 12 as Majority Floor Leader. After conversations with...

Courtesy Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Winning horseplayers at Churchill Downs and around the world betting into the pools across Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby days enjoyed more than an additional $1 million in winnings thanks to an amendment to Kentucky law which now rounds winning bets to the penny. The practice, known as breakage, has been in effect across all of American racing, relatively unchanged, for more than a century. But Kentucky's legislature passed an amendment to existing laws in March 2022. The measure took effect in July of last year,...

Another year is in the books, and it featured the usual combination of good news and bad news. Flightline (Tapit) wowed us, even if it was for just three races. The impossible victory by Rich Strike (Keen Ice) in the GI Kentucky Derby was an unforgettable moment. Then again, the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act went off the rails and the acrimony surrounding it turned even uglier. With more guilty pleas and sentencings during the year, we still haven't been able to fully escape the nightmare that is Servis-Navarro....

Courtesy Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Horseplayers at the 2022 Breeders' Cup enjoyed more than $545,000 in additional winnings from just the win, place and show pools thanks to the revised Kentucky law that pays pari-mutuel winnings down the penny. "The two days of racing at Keeneland were sensational, but it was made that extra bit better thanks to penny breakage increasing payouts to players," said Patrick Cummings, Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF). In no race was the impact greater than the Breeders' Cup Classic won by Flightline. Under...

Through the conclusion of racing at Keeneland Sunday Oct. 15, more than $1.1 million has been returned to bettors since the introduction of penny breakage--rounding pari-mutuel winnings to the penny and not the dime--less than two months ago, according to a blog post from the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF). TIF was a vocal supporter and champion of the penny breakage provision, the first of its kind in North America as part of broader legislation designed to standardize pari-mutuel taxation. "The total is even higher than $1.1 million, that is just...

After failing to properly calculate Kentucky's newly implemented penny breakage at two Standardbred race meets in July, the totalizator services provider United Tote Company has been fined and ordered to "seed" a future exotic wagering pool with $4,445.77, which equals the amount that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) determined should have been paid out to bettors had the calculations been correct. According to an administrative ruling dated Sept. 12 and signed by Waqas Ahmed, the KHRC's director of pari-mutuel wagering and compliance, United Tote "provided improper totalizator services" on...

The ever-expanding business of betting in America is in a difficult-to-predict flux right now, and one entity's risk is another's potential reward. "The gaming industry, generally, and horse racing, as a part of that, is one of the most dynamic industries on the scene today," Patrick E. Brown, a New York-based attorney who specializes in gaming and public policy, told TDN in a phone interview. "There's the obvious increase in sports betting and fantasy wagering, plus new technologies and advances making it so easy to wager. It's also way more...

As the New York State Gaming Commission's Equine Medical Director, Dr. Scott Palmer is responsible, more than anyone else in the state, for horse safety. It's a responsibility Palmer takes very seriously, and with new wearable biometric technology called StrideSafe, Palmer and his team are doing revolutionary work in detecting potential musculoskeletal injuries, which lead to the majority of horse fatalities, in their earliest stages. Tuesday, Palmer joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to explain the technology and process of...

From the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Bettors wagering on racing from Kentucky will enjoy returns paid to the penny beginning Friday, July 15. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission confirmed to the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) the shift will take effect this week, three months after legislation enabling the change to penny breakage was passed by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed into law. "This is a welcome and long overdue shift in pari-mutuel wagering to pay bettors the entirety of their duly deserved winnings," said Patrick Cummings, TIF's Executive Director. "Kentucky...

Kentucky State representative Adam Koenig (R-Erlanger) introduced four new gaming-related bills Monday, including one (HB 607) dealing with pari-mutuel wagering taxation that includes a provision whereby dividends on pari-mutuel wagers would be rounded to the nearest penny, rather than the nearest $0.10. "This is an exciting step for horseplayers, not only in Kentucky but really anyone in America or around the world who bets into the pools offered on Kentucky racing," said Pat Cummings, Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, which has been a staunch advocate for a switch...