“It helps Prairie Meadows, it helps the Iowa agricultural economy, it helps everybody,” Palmer said. “It’s a great bill.”
The bill needs to be signed by Gov. Branstad to become law. The pluses for Prairie Meadows are removing the need for a referendum every eight years to continue casino gambling and changes that are expected to reduce its racing expenses by more than $2 million per year.
Horse breeders get more certainty. The purse fund — money paid to owners of the first five horses in a race — that would have expired in 2021 would become permanent. And the bill guarantees that the Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse racing season will get no shorter than the current format of 67 days for Thoroughbreds and 26 days for Quarter Horses.
Standardbred owners will no longer race at Prairie Meadows, but they will get approximately $1.8 million from the purse fund for their county fair races. Currently, Prairie Meadows is paying $900,000 toward the fair races as a charitable donation and there is no certainty that the donation will continue forever.
“It’s huge,” said Deb Leech, president of the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders Association. “I’m hoping that it will turn breeding around a little bit and the foal crop will start going up again. From Prairie Meadows’ standpoint, they’re glad the referendum is gone. The purse fund’s grandfather clause is gone. It’s good for all of us.”
For Prairie Meadows, which is funding a $32.9 million hotel addition and wants to add a parking garage, removing the referendum vote would allow it to use long-term borrowing instead of having to repay each loan in eight years or less.
It should
help us a
lot,” Palmer
said. “It
should
entice
(retail)
development
from
outsiders.
Before, they
would see
the
referendum
and were
afraid that
we could be
closed down
in a couple
years. Now,
they don’t
have to
worry about
it anymore.”
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