Ky.’s 6th a different kind of key race

The fantasy world of Thoroughbred racing reaches peak excitement this coming week with the renewal of the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, an event that offers distractions galore. Still, it is impossible to keep cold, hard reality at bay. Barely 60 hours after the Breeders’ Cup Classic is official next Saturday night, national midterm election day dawns on Nov. 6, with considerably more at stake than a handful of Eclipse Awards.

Breeders’ Cup visitors will discover that Kentucky politics are in the crosshairs of both parties, the national media, and any bookmakers crazy enough to lay odds on what might happen. At the center of the target is Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, which encompasses the counties most commonly associated with the breadth and depth of Thoroughbred racing history.

Andy Barr, the three-term Republican who represents the 6th, won reelection in 2016 by 22 percentage points. This time around, Barr is being challenged by Amy McGrath, a retired U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel making her first foray into politics.

With 12 days left in the campaign, the race appeared to be a virtual dead-heat, with barely a percentage point separating the two candidates in reputable polls.

“It is hotly contested, very expensive, and very, very close,” said Tom Fortus, the Louisville Courier-Journal’s bureau chief in the state capital of Frankfort. “Turn on the television in central Kentucky right now and you’ll get the ads flooding in from both sides.”

The Kentucky nail-biter understandably has political observers in rapt fascination, since nothing less than the U.S. House of Representatives is at stake. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to regain control of the lower chamber, and Kentucky’s 6th has been listed as one of 70 battleground districts currently held by Republicans.

What’s this got to do with Thoroughbred racing? Glad you asked. Earlier this month, the super PAC Friends of Racing funded a TV ad to the tune of $100,000 extolling Barr’s support of all things Thoroughbred. Barr also is co-chairman of the Congressional Horse Caucus, which is really a thing, sharing the gavel with co-chair Paul Tonko, an upstate New York Democrat whose district includes Saratoga Springs.

Barr and Tonko were the original co-sponsors of the much-debated Horse Racing Integrity Act, which, among other things, would establish a national set of medication rules and place all drug testing under the control of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The legislation, which has the support of a large segment of Thoroughbred breeding interests in the 6th district, still languishes in committee.

By comparison, McGrath has had to introduce herself to Thoroughbred interests, which she has done to a certain extent in a video on her campaign web site entitled “Kentucky Derby” and a story set in the early days of the Afghan war, during which she was deployed as an F-18 fighter jet weapons officer. Finding herself alone in the camp’s ready room, she commandeered the single TV set to watch the Derby show unfold, and stood – according to family tradition – for the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home.”

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m really glad that there’s no other Marines in this tent, because I don’t want them to see me cry,’ ” McGrath recalls.

McGrath said she would vote for the Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2017, which has 218 co-sponsors, including Barr, but is also stalled in its House committee.

“I believe strongly that horses are bred in our country as companion and sport animals, not for human consumption,” McGrath stated through a campaign spokesperson. “I support this legislation, as it would effectively outlaw the sale and transport of horses for the purposes of slaughter.”

The candidates also agree that the current administration’s tightening of the H-2B visa program for immigrant labor has had a negative effect on horse racing.

“The industry badly needs Congress to address comprehensive immigration reform including an expansion of H-2B visas for those who are a backbone of our industry,” stated McGrath.

When it comes to the Horse Racing Integrity Act, however, McGrath describes it as, “… a step in the right direction, but needs improvement.”

“I’m concerned that the bill designates the Federal Trade Commission, which has had no experience in the regulation of drugs in horse racing, as its new regulatory body, and was not crafted with the input of smaller owners, trainers, breeders, and racetrack veterinarians,” McGrath stated. “They need to have a seat at the table on all of these issues.”

Barr, on the other hand, maintains the legislation “… would eliminate the perception of unfair competition and enhance the reputation of U.S. racing on both national and international levels.”

Because no mainstream Kentucky candidate would ever fail to kneel at the altar of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, the 6th District election will be decided on all the other issues that make up the political stew. Barr, endorsed by the United Mine Workers of America and the NRA, has the advantage of incumbency and the backing of a large swath of the business community. McGrath, who has the support of groups like VoteVets.org and End Citizens United, gets a push from her successful military career and being a fresh voice on the scene in a restless season.

As a contest, McGrath vs. Barr is a classic pick‘em. The only sure bet is that the results of the 6th race on Tuesday will reverberate a lot longer than Saturday’s 11th at Churchill Downs.