When Tampa Bay Downs Thoroughbred trainer and Massachusetts transplant Laurine Fuller-Vargas recently heard that Florida legislators were considering the possibility of decoupling horse racing from slot machines, she put her anger into immediate action, walking the businesses in her hometown of Morristown, knocking on doors and distributing literature on NoDecoupling.com to spread the word among her fellow horsemen that their livelihoods could actually come to an end if Florida were to enact the misguided policy.
Her online petition directed to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner and others generated hundreds of signatures in less than 24 hours and hundreds of comments from horsemen nationwide, echoing the shock and desperation of Florida’s horsemen who have made their living and employed thousands in the Sunshine State for decades.
“I see absolutely NO benefit to “decoupling,” Fuller-Vargas said in her heartfelt letter to elected officials. “Should this pass through the Legislature, it is going to have a devastating effect on the horse breeding and racing industry that I love, and that has supported my children and family for decades. Being from New England, I have already gone through the heartache once of watching the breeding program and horse racing industry in a state fall to pieces, and because of this had to leave my life, farm and family in Massachusetts behind. Should we lose horse racing in Florida as a result of “decoupling,” I personally would need to find homes for or relocate 40-plus horses, sell my family farm that we have called home for over 20 years, and uproot my children from all that they have known and loved so far.”
As the number of signatures on Fuller-Vargas' petition grew, the comments from around the nation and statewide flooded in:
- “This is my livelihood, Governor Scott and this is the only work I’ve ever done. Please don’t take my job that I love from me,” wrote Jennifer Lewis, a horsewoman originally from New Mexico.
- “I think the governing bodies need to do their due diligence and realize what a mistake this would be,” said Joanne McNamara from Louisville, Kentucky.
- “Decoupling will take away my livelihood as a trainer in Florida and the jobs of 10 people that I employ,” explained Tamara Levy of Fort Lauderdale.
Determined and working around the clock to mobilize the legions of horsemen in Marion County and the Ocala area before the Florida Legislature acts, Fuller-Vargas recollected on her family’s 50-year history in Thoroughbred racing and her own “Run for the Ribbons” horse show charity work to afford new careers to retired racehorses.
“For more than 20 years my family has owned and operated Cedar Lock Farm South, here in ‘the Horse Capital of the World,’” she said. “ . . . because of the possibility of ‘decoupling,’ my future, along with thousands of others in Central and South Florida is being put at risk.
"The Thoroughbred breeding and racing industry has such a positive economic impact on the Sunshine State and putting this beloved industry at such great risk is absolutely terrifying to myself, family, friends and the thousands of people who dedicate their lives to the thousands of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that call Florida home.”
NoDecoupling.com is an advocacy outreach by United Florida Horsemen, which comprises nearly 350,000 horsemen from the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association, the Florida Quarter Horse Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, Florida Standardbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, American Quarter Horse Association, U.S.Trotting, the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association andOcala Breeders’ Sales.
