(Austin, Texas - Saturday, January 16, 2016) - The Texas Horsemen's Partnership recently received a letter from Chuck Trout, Executive Director of the Texas Racing Commission (TxRc). The purpose of his letter was to notify the racetracks, horsemen's organization and breed registries that he was directed by Chairman, Rolando Pablos, to develop a plan to responsibly shut down the Texas Racing Commission in the event that the TxRc is not funded beyond February 29, 2016. Trout stated that without funding, all live and simulcast racing would cease on February 16, 2016. Trout states in his letter, that if funding has not been guaranteed past February 29th, the TxRc will need to shut down the agency two weeks in advance, in order to complete drug testing, disburse the assets of the agency and finalize other aspects of a shut down.

Click here to read the letter.

Sam Houston Race Park is the only track which will be conducting a live meet on February 16 and they are investigating remedies to the threat described in Trout's letter.

There is no cause for horsemen to panic as a result of this letter. We feel confident that funding for the agency will be forthcoming. If we are successful in our injunction hearing on February 3rd, the TxRc will be funded. If we are not successful, there will be a meeting of the TxRc Commissioners in early February at which the funding will be discussed.

Of course, we are hopeful that we will prevail in our lawsuit, and that the TxRc will finally receive its funding. If that is the case, there would be no compelling reason for the Commissioners to repeal the Historical Racing rules and we would be allowed our day in court on the appeal.

We wanted to share the information about Trout's letter with our members so that no misunderstandings, misinterpretations or rumors could cause unnecessary harm to horsemen or to the racetracks.