It appears the simulcast signals from Arlington Park and Calder Race Course could be pulled from other Indiana wagering outlets, this time at the urging of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission.

The commission is scheduled to meet Aug. 21, and one of the topics of discussion will be the recent decision by Churchill Downs Inc. to pull the two tracks’ signals from Indiana Downs’ Evansville satellite wagering facility.

IHRC executive director Joe Gorajec confirmed the item is on the agenda. He also said he would recommend to the commissioners that they withdraw their consent for the import of the Arlington and Calder signals throughout the state.
 
“I will recommend to the commission that should Churchill Downs continue to withhold the signal, that commissioners act under the federal Interstate Horseracing Act and refuse to consent to any outlet in Indiana to receive any signal from Arlington or Calder unless these signals are made available to all outlets in the state,” Gorajec said.
 
CDI, through TrackNet Media Group, stopped exporting the Arlington and Calder signals to the Evansville OTB parlor beginning Aug. 15. According to a CDI press release issued one day earlier, the company said it negotiated with Ellis Park, which it sold to businessman Ron Geary last year, to continue sending the signals to the southern Indiana facility. A compromise could not be reached.

Ellis Park in western Kentucky is located several miles from the Evansville OTB parlor.

Signals have been withheld from Indiana Downs’ satellite facilities in Evansville and Clarksville in recent years. Currently, the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association withholds Thoroughbred signals from both outlets. Indiana Downs officials have fought unsuccessfully in the past to ask the IHRC to ban the Kentucky Thoroughbred signal from the state entirely.

This time, however, the IHRC appears poised to knock the Arlington and Calder signals out of the state.
 
“I think there are substantial differences between these two issues,” Gorajec said of previous decisions and the current situation involving CDI and Ellis Park.