Horse racing panel changing focus after director's ouster

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana Horse Racing Commission is looking for ways to boost interest in the sport and halt the decline in racehorse breeding in the state, following its firing of the agency's executive director after 25 years in the position.

Commission Chairman Thomas Weatherwax said he wants to see more promotion of the state's two pari-mutuel tracks -in Anderson and Shelbyville - and to see Indiana become more appealing for horse breeders.

"We want to build a higher standard and have more exciting races," Weatherwax told the Indianapolis Business Journal (http://bit.ly/1NrQUUI ).

Critics say former chief Joe Gorajec was too focused on enforcing regulations, including drug use and medical care for racehorses and did little to promote the horse racing industry.

The number of Indiana-bred foals has dropped by about 1,000 since 2011, when there were 2,733. The amount wagered at Indiana tracks and off-track-betting parlors has dropped by more than half in the past decade - from $190 million in 2005 to $83 million last year - although some decline is because of that because of bets now submitted via the Internet.

Gorajec, who had been the commission's director since its inception in 1990, declined to comment to The Associated Press about the circumstances surrounding his firing.

Weatherwax, a former Republican state senator from Logansport, and the other four commission members were appointed by GOP Gov. Mike Pence.

Jim Noel, a member of the Indiana Horse Council board who raises horses in central Indiana's Hendricks County, said the commission had been spending money on regulation matters that should have been used for breed development and marketing.

"It got to the point that a lot of horsemen from other states - and I'm talking thoroughbreds, standardbreds and quarter horses - wouldn't come here to race," he said. "And established operators here were fleeing for Kentucky and Ohio."

Indianapolis-based Centaur Gaming, which owns Hoosier Park in Anderson and Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, has invested in clubhouse overhauls and new video boards and promoted the ability to place bets on races via cellphone and tablets, company CEO Rod Ratcliff said.

The total amount bet from any location on races at Hoosier Park has grown from $78.7 million in 2013 to $85.9 million last year, according to Centaur. And while the amount bet on races at Indiana Grand slipped from $107 million in 2013 to $101.2 million last year, Ratcliff said it's on pace to be up at least 20 percent this year.

"We're definitely profitable at both tracks," he said.

Ray Paulick, publisher of The Paulick Report, a Lexington, Kentucky-based publication that covers horse racing, said he believed Gorajec was fired for doing too good a job in enforcing state regulations.

"He has stepped on toes," Paulick said, "and some of those toes may belong to people who have friends in high places in Indiana politics."

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Information from: Indianapolis Business Journal, http://www.ibj.com