A large-ranging wagering invoice that may legalize fixed-odds betting on horse racing in Kentucky sailed by the Kentucky Home of Representatives March 19 on a 79-15 vote, with an modification added that might have an effect on the state’s breeding business. It now goes to the Kentucky Senate for consideration.
READ: Kentucky Invoice Filed to Legalize Mounted-Odds Wagering
Home Invoice 904—titled the Wagering Shopper Safety Act—touches upon quite a few elements of the state’s betting panorama, from fixed-odds horse racing wagers to fantasy contests and charitable gaming. The up to date model of the invoice that heads to the Senate consists of two amendments, together with one that may restrict The Jockey Membership, North America’s breed registry, from imposing numerical limits on stallion books or declining to register foals primarily based on what number of mares have been bred to a given sire—until such restrictions are first authorized unanimously by the Worldwide Stud E book Committee.
Additional, the measure stipulates that any foal assembly present registration standards couldn’t be denied entry if born in Kentucky, even when broader limits had been contemplated however not universally adopted internationally. The invoice additionally requires any registrar to undergo Kentucky jurisdiction, strengthening the state’s regulatory attain.
If the present registrar, on this case The Jockey Membership, doesn’t comply, the modification stipulates that it shall get replaced by one other on the number of the state regulator, the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Company.Join BloodHorse Each day
The up to date invoice additional supplies for authorized motion if an unauthorized stallion cap is enforced, doubtlessly permitting events to get well 3 times the damages they incurred in consequence of the cap.
This response by the Kentucky Home mirrors laws initiated in 2022 after The Jockey Membership introduced a 140-mare cap on North American stud books. Shortly thereafter, The Jockey Membership rescinded the coverage, and the laws didn’t go ahead.
The modification’s addition comes after Everett Dobson, chair of The Jockey Membership, mentioned March 4 throughout the Nationwide Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protecting Affiliation Convention about wanting to satisfy with stud farms to revisit the problem of a possible cap on the variety of mares {that a} stallion can breed in a season.
The Jockey Membership beforehand cited declining range inside the Thoroughbred gene pool as a foundation for the restrict, however some farms opposed the cap, together with a number of—Spendthrift Farm, Ashford Stud, and Three Chimneys Farm—who joined in submitting a lawsuit. They argued {that a} cap acted as an anti-competitive restraint that threatened to disrupt the free market.
In line with The Jockey Membership’s 2025 Report of Mares Bred, 52 stallions exceeded the 140-mare threshold final yr, some by solely a restricted quantity. Eleven stallions bred 200 mares or extra.
Whereas the breeding modification has drawn important consideration to the invoice, the invoice’s core stays anchored in its wagering parts, which additional tackle fantasy contests and prediction markets.
Rep. Matt Koch, a Republican from Paris, and Rep. Michael Meredith, a Republican from Oakland, are sponsors of HB 904, which creates a type of betting that units the chances on the time a wager is positioned, and people odds don’t change.
Mounted-odds wagering on horse racing is authorized in just a few states: New Jersey, Colorado, and West Virginia.
