Global Symposium on Racing Speaker: Damon Thayer
Damon Thayer championed Kentucky’s two iconic industries during 22 years in the State Senate, including the last 12 as Majority Floor Leader. Having retired from the General Assembly Dec. 31, 2024, the Georgetown, Ky., resident continues to advocate for the horse and bourbon industries, including as an active participant.
Thayer is a popular consultant in several racing jurisdictions, including currently serving as senior adviser to the Thoroughbred Racing Initiative, which fights to preserve live racing, starting with South Florida. His knowledge of racing and breeding, as well as his legislative expertise, puts Thayer in a unique position to advise horsemen and states on legislation and strategies that permit the industry to invest in itself.
Thayer’s signature legislative initiative was shepherding through the 2021 passage of Senate Bill 120, which updated the state’s definition of pari-mutuel wagering specifically to include historical horse racing (HHR) gaming. Kentucky has since emerged as the premier year-round racing circuit, offering America’s highest overall purses, with the racetrack communities benefiting from billions of dollars in economic development and job creation.
Thayer’s first racetrack job was walking hots, grooming and cleaning stalls at Hazel Park and Detroit Race Course as a teenager in his native Michigan for his friends and mentors, trainers Mike and Patty Vance.
While majoring in communications at Michigan State University, Thayer worked summers in the publicity department at Detroit Race Course. He skipped his senior year mid-term exams to work on the media notes team for the 1988 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs.
Upon graduation, Thayer served as publicity director at Thistledown, followed by a similar post with the Maryland Jockey Club. He heard Jerry Carroll speak at a conference in Baltimore, and his cold call to the Turfway Park majority owner led Thayer to Kentucky in 1992.
His communications role at Turfway expanded into overseeing virtually every department. He also oversaw the operation of Kentucky Downs after the renamed Dueling Grounds was bought out of bankruptcy by a partnership that included Turfway and Churchill Downs in 1997.
Thayer left Turfway to work as Vice President/Event Management for the Breeders’ Cup Ltd. — running for the State Senate in 2003 with the blessing of then-Breeders’ Cup President D.G Van Clief Jr. - before leaving the Breeders’ Cup and opening Thayer Communications and Consulting LLC in 2007.
Thayer also worked with key allies across the aisle and in both legislative chambers to legalize sports betting in Kentucky (structured so corporate bookmakers have to partner with racetracks), to create breeders’ incentive funds that benefit all Kentucky horse breeds with funding from the 6-percent sales tax on stud fees and to strengthen the Kentucky-bred incentive programs for both thoroughbred and standardbred racing. His work was vital in standardizing the parimutuel tax rate across the board, from HHR to online betting platforms, simulcasting and on-track wagering. That legislation also required tracks to pay out on bets to the nearest penny rather than rounding down to the dime and — in a policy change near and dear to Thayer — allowing Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund purse supplements to be applied to claiming races.
These days, Thayer is also a horse owner as a partner in a group of horses campaigned by CJ Thoroughbreds, including two-time Grade 2 winner and 2024 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf starter Hang the Moon. His ownership interest also includes the stakes winners Keep It Easy, Tom’s Magic, Miss Alacrity and Amanzi Yimpilo.
He also is heavily involved in Kentucky’s bourbon industry. With Central Kentucky equine lawyer Andre Regard, Thayer led the brand revival of the Kentucky Senator very small-batch bourbon line. Each year a new bourbon is released and named for a U.S. Senator from Kentucky. The sixth year’s release in 2025 is named for John Edwards, Kentucky’s second U.S. Senator and a resident of Bourbon County.
Thayer is only the eighth legislator ever to receive the 100 Proof Award – and the only senator to receive the award four times. Presented by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, the 100 Proof Award is the highest honor that the bourbon industry gives to elected officials who promote and protect Kentucky’s home spirit. On September 16, 2025, Thayer was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.