- 7/21/2025
In this exclusive interview, Chris McGrath sits down with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to discuss the state of horse racing in Kentucky, his vision for its future, and how his family’s ties to the sport have influenced his political rise.
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00:00There's been a lot of talk recently about Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear as a potential
00:10runner for the White House in 2028. But we've come here to Frankfurt to talk to him about
00:15something dearer to all our hearts than politics, the horse.
00:22Horse country, for you, it's not just conceptual. I believe your own family and upbringing exposed
00:28you to horses. All my first jobs were around horses. I mucked stalls before school and through
00:36the summers. I taught horseback riding lessons. I even ran a camp in my teens, which probably
00:41shouldn't let people do today. My mom is an equestrian. My brother's a vet in Virginia.
00:49My daughter is an eventer. So half of our family spend every moment with horses. And I guess the
00:55other half of us are governors. And did you feel that kind of exposure gave you a connection
01:02to rural America in particular? Absolutely. It's the hard work that occurs on a farm. But then
01:08there's also the love and the comfort of the animal itself. I'm comfortable around horses. I know what
01:15I'm doing around them. And I also appreciate them. When you spend that much time taking care of these
01:23animals, you get to know them on a very different level. And there's just something really special
01:28about horses and how they bond and connect with human beings. I still remember the last horse that
01:35I owned. And, you know, I would go off to college and I'd come back and it would actually follow me
01:41around in the field. Only one I've had that would do that, though. Had one that if you didn't have food
01:47would try to kick you. Food always helps, definitely. Now, I don't know if you're as comfortable with
01:52bourbon, but these are our signature industries, right? And I'm sure you would say anyone who
01:56holds the office, any form of leadership in Kentucky, you need to be an advocate for the
02:02horse industry. Absolutely. The horse industry is so critical. It's over 60,000 direct and indirect
02:08jobs in Kentucky, billions of dollars in our economy, and it draws people in. And when you think of the
02:16horse industry, I actually think it's the intersection between agriculture, now gaming,
02:21which is so important in it, and tourism. And for us to maximize it, what at least I try to do from
02:28a leadership perspective in Kentucky is to make sure we're maximizing each piece. It's understanding
02:34that it's farmers who bale the hay that are also a part of this industry. Family farms are supported
02:40by it. On the gaming side, how it's important to make sure that if that's what's bringing people in,
02:48we have a way at that track or at that parlor to introduce them to the sport itself. And finally,
02:54that tourism piece. I think bourbon is a good example of how you can develop a year-round
03:02booming tourism industry around something that people are passionate about. You know, the bourbon
03:08trail 20 years ago was hardly a thing. And today, it is one of the biggest draws in the country. So when
03:15you look at what Kentucky Downs is doing with their hotel and the attractions that they're putting up,
03:21when you look at what the Derby Museum means for Churchill, it means that those are year-round draws
03:26that bring people into the Commonwealth.
03:29And when we speak of advocacy among political leadership, that extends across the divide.
03:36And a Republican congressman has worked very hard to get a great concession as part of this
03:44bill. And obviously, when everything's bundled together, it's going to contain good things and
03:51bad things. So I'm sure you welcome the bonus scheme, depreciation schemes extension into permanent
03:59form. But there are other aspects of that bill that I know concern.
04:02Well, there are some parts of that bill that help certain industries in Kentucky. And so
04:07I'm glad that they're there. But this is the reason that you don't put everything into one
04:13big bill. Because for every good thing for an industry in that bill, the trillion-dollar-plus
04:20cut to health care is going to lay off 20,000 Kentucky health care workers. It's going to boot
04:29200,000 people off their health care coverage. It may close up to 35 rural hospitals, which are
04:34the second largest employers in their communities. And what that means is you're going to have fewer
04:39people that have the dollars in their pockets to be able to go to the tracks, to be able to go to the
04:45races. Even with this economy, I think we started seeing some numbers shift or change around Derby
04:53and around other major times. So understanding the health of the economy is important for the
04:59horse racing industry. It's important for people to be doing well. And we don't want to sacrifice the
05:06number of fans, the number of people that could be out there in a giant bill because it has some
05:13things that are good.
05:15Yeah. And it also contains elements of concern with the gambling taxation.
05:19It does. And then if you look at another side, the snap cuts are going to hurt some of the very
05:26farmers that bale the hay and support the industry. They're getting hit, especially family farmers,
05:34so badly over the last six months. You saw the tariffs, which hurt the exports of especially soybeans.
05:42You see the end of USAID, which was just a big client, a big export source for farmers.
05:49Especially in Kentucky. You see the end of the farm to cafeteria program. And now you see this snap
05:58cuts will again be one less ultimate client for them. And so I think the horse industry is also served
06:05by having more family farms that aren't under the pressure to sell out to the bigger commercial farms
06:11that are less interested in supplying the horse industry.
06:14You know horses, you know horsemen, you know that they can be hardheaded, if not cynical.
06:20What's your message then when they, you know, in the big picture terms, the anxiety is that,
06:26you know, tax breaks for the wealthy and so on, that the emphasis is all wrong. But they're going
06:32to say to you, well, guess what? My clients are very wealthy people. This is good for my business.
06:36Well, I think it's whether you put the industry first or other interests first. You look at how
06:42tariffs are hitting this industry. You look at how they're going about immigration enforcement
06:48hurts this industry. You know, I believe that border security is national security. I believe that we
06:54have to enforce the laws of the land, but how we enforce them shows our humanity. And so what I think
07:01the, the big influential players in this industry need to do is be vocal leaders on fixing our
07:08immigration problem. It's not at the end, a political problem. It's a math problem. It's that
07:16we don't have enough visas or enough slots in our work programs to fill the jobs out there that
07:22Americans otherwise aren't going to fill. And what that does is create a demand for other labor. I mean,
07:28we can ultimately fix this, get beyond the turmoil of the day, but we've got to sit down,
07:34be reasonable and address the math. And I think horse farm owners could, could do a lot. I think
07:40that, that other industry players could do a lot and, and they've typically been people that the very
07:46powerful people in Washington will listen to, but it'd be nice to not be having some of these issues,
07:52you know, every couple of years or, or every eight years, but to actually get it right and
07:58to be driven by the math. Now, what that does mean is, is all of the industries out there that we see
08:04in hospitality and agriculture, um, are going to have to be willing to pay the wages that come along
08:11with those programs. Our community, like, like the whole state embraces people of many different
08:17opinions. And we're not here to tell them who's right and who's wrong. And there's too much yelling
08:23at each other going on, but what we have in our community is something that draws us all together,
08:29our love of the horse. And that keeps people with radically different opinions, good friends.
08:36That's something that we don't see enough of on a wider scale. And the big question for this country
08:43and the world, it seems to be, how come we'll do a bit more of that?
08:48Yeah. I think what we have to do is put the goal first. Uh, we've got to care more about the horse
08:54industry than our political party. We've got to care more about the country than our political
08:59party. We've got to care more about solving problems than who gets points for wins and losses.
09:05And it can't be a zero sum game. You know, a good thing that happens for the country can't just be
09:10viewed as a win for one party and a loss for another. And when we address the challenges in the horse
09:16industry, it can't just be one group that's gaining and another group that's losing.
09:20What we've ultimately got to do is lift the whole industry up and make sure that everyone does better.
09:26And I think when you approach problems that way, uh, when you approach it, especially with a communal
09:31love, uh, for something, uh, like, like the horse, or I really wish we could get Congress to say,
09:36we love the United States so much that we're going to do the hard things and we're going to compromise
09:41and we're going to find common ground, uh, because in the end, it's not important that we move right
09:46or left. It's important that we move forward. And most time those, those forward steps aren't about
09:51politics at all. Now, I believe that when most people wake up in the morning, they're not thinking
09:55about their party. They're thinking about their job, their next doctor's appointment, the roads and
10:00bridges they drive every day, the school they drop their kids off at, and whether they feel safe in
10:04their communities. And when you find those things and the core parts of, of the equine industry,
10:09you could pull out, uh, most of them don't just benefit one group or another group. If done
10:15correctly, they can benefit everybody. To coin a phrase, united we stand. That's right. And even
10:21think about the pledge of allegiance and the pledge of allegiance. We pledge to a flag into a country,
10:26and then we pledge to keep our country indivisible. And so I think we violate that pledge when we try to
10:33divide people, when we try to create an us, uh, versus a them. Um, and what I've loved to see in
10:38the horse industry, especially recently is embracing new audiences and new people. I think about
10:44Griffin Johnson, uh, and Sandman introducing a horse racing to 10 million, uh, 20 somethings on,
10:51on TikTok. I think about, uh, the way the Coolmore works with us on economic development, introducing,
10:57uh, CEOs to justify an American pharaoh. I think about how Barbara Banke, um, who supports people
11:04on both sides, uh, really looks out for, for the industry, um, looks to, uh, uh, use even her other
11:11ventures, uh, to lift up, uh, horse racing, uh, Ron Winchell and all of, of his investments, but what
11:18he sends back, uh, to Kentucky. So I think that there's a lot of opportunity for our country. I think
11:24there's a lot of opportunity for, for the racing, uh, industry, but I think we have to put, uh, the
11:31goal first to step back and to say, we've got to reevaluate who we support and how we support it
11:37because we can't be more worried about our friends saying whether we're a good Democrat or a good
11:42Republican, as opposed to, are we doing the best for Kentucky or are we doing the best for the horse
11:47industry? So one final question. I'm not going to ask you about 2028. Everybody else does.
11:52Everybody else does, but people aren't, there aren't that many people talking common ground
11:57the way you do and the way you've, you know, if you compare the, um, results at different types
12:03of elections in this state. So people are interested in you. People are viewing you as like, you've won
12:08the bluegrass stakes. This guy should run in the Derby. So whatever, whatever the outcome of that is,
12:14what I would like to know is what you've learned from your experience in your home state, uh, that will
12:20animate you as you embrace whatever form of service you end up undertaking.
12:25What I've seen in Kentucky is the temperature turned down as opposed to the rest of the country
12:30and people generally getting along people being excited about us breaking every economic development
12:36record, uh, in the books and in a real recognition that these good steps we've taken are good for
12:41Democrats, Republicans, and independents. And in Kentucky, I see a legislature that's dominated by
12:47one party and a governor that's of another party, being able to get at least the most important
12:52things done. Um, and then just the ability to, to, to push beyond the rancor and to, and to have pride
13:01in who we are. I mean, right now, I think the people of Kentucky are excited and encouraged, uh, even
13:06in a country that, that maybe is more pessimistic. I mean, we see the country finally looking up to us
13:12instead of looking down, uh, at us or, or on us. And so I think that, that whoever our next leader
13:19is, is going to need to be somebody who can heal the country and can bring people back together.
13:25Again, that's not worried about, about the, the, the boxes people try to put you in a Democrat,
13:31Republican, liberal, conservative, right, or left, but it's more pragmatic. It says what's going to
13:37benefit everybody. And what I've seen, uh, because I saw it between my last two elections is if you
13:43work really hard to create a better life for everyone, uh, they come together, they're willing
13:48to cross party lines and you see less of this destructive partisanship. We'll raise a glass
13:53of bourbon to that governor. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
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