Don Ball’s skills, outreach boosted Ky. racing

Don Ball was the consummate Republican. He dressed the part, feeling comfortable in his gray suit and red tie. He acted the part, too, fitting right in with the well-to-do. He and wife, Mira, often hosted fund-raising events that attracted the best and brightest from the business community and the top donors.

Don didn’t say much. Didn’t have to. You always knew where he stood in the room, and on the issues.

I, on the other hand, was easily recognized as a Democrat. The long hair was a tip. And I wore my short temper like a badge of honor to every fight that I decided was worth fighting.

A funny pair, we must have made to those who found us chatting about the things we loved the most: horses, politics, Habitat for Humanity, sports, government and how best to help the poor and downtrodden.

We first met in the late fall of 1988. I was selected to follow the charismatic and politically polished Nick Nicholson as executive vice president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders’ Association. As fate would have it, Don was the incoming president of both associations.

While not born into the Bluegrass Thoroughbred aristocracy, he found himself as the next person to step up and lead. As he always did, he stepped up.

So, we were suddenly thrown together in a blender of a Thoroughbred industry world that was tumultuous, rapidly changing and controversial.

I was nowhere near ready to handle the job. Don, on the other hand, was ready, willing and able. And, he relished it the job, the controversy and the opportunity to mentor a young man hell-bent on making his mark. Who would know that this shotgun marriage would turn out to be one of the most rewarding, most educational, most exciting and the most difficult times of my young life.

At the time, the horse-racing world was just embarking on the idea of televising races and sending the signal to other racetracks around the world in the form of simulcasting. And, as crazy as it might sound today, that scared most everyone in the business.

Churchill Downs saw it as a grand opportunity to make more money and increase public awareness. The Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association saw it as a grand opportunity to make Churchill squirm — since the track had to have its permission to send the signal. Each year, the HBPA would threaten to hold the signal hostage until it got more money, more concessions and more liberties. Out of the midst of that controversy came the KTA.

However, Don Ball, you see was a brilliant man. Other than allowing a young Thoroughbred to get too close and nip off the tip of his forefinger when he was a youngster, he didn’t make many mistakes in judgment or many errors in character.

Born in Henderson County to a family that didn’t have electricity in the home, he made his own way in the world. Paid his own way through the University of Kentucky. Ran for state representative in an area that was predominantly poor and led by minorities. Became the youngest member to ever serve in the General Assembly at the time. And was the lone sponsor of a sales-tax increase that became known infamously as “Louie’s Nickle” — after the late Republican Gov. Louie B. Nunn.

He knew politics and how to play the game. He knew life and how to play that game, too. Most of all, though, he knew people and how to play them. And, the combination of all those qualities, gave him the upper hand — even though most people didn’t understand him, or give him much credit.

Instead of fighting the HBPA, he reached out to them and developed lifelong friendships. Instead of fighting the Standardbred industry, over which the Thoroughbred interests had the easy upper hand, he developed a working relationship. And, instead of trying to convert me from my political faith, he told me to follow my own path, build my own relationships.

In 1989, we helped pass legislation that would speed the way toward simulcasting of in-state race signals to all other tracks in the commonwealth — despite the objections of Tom Meeker. president of Churchill Downs at the time.

In one encounter in the Capitol Annex cafeteria, Meeker, an ex-Marine, seemingly challenged Ball to a fight right then and there. Ball, knowing then he had already won, snickered. Meeker asked: “I’m going to kill your bill. What are you going to do about that?”

Don, never looking up from his lunch plate, mumbled: “Whatever I am big enough to do.”

We won. And, it instantly doubled the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund and helped increase purses at all Kentucky tracks.

Throughout that legislative session and legislative battle, I would give Don daily updates. More often than not, I would deliver the somber news first.

Don always would come back with his favorite line: “Nothing is as good as it looks, or bad as it seems. It is always somewhere in-between.”

He was right, of course. And, it applied to more things than just legislation. It applied to life.

A few years later, Don was not as excited about the possibility of passing legislation to allow for “whole card simulcasting.” I, on the other hand, was a determined believer. For one of the first times, we locked horns. I worked the board to get the votes to support legislation; he worked diligently to get the votes to contest any such legislative approval.

Just before a huge board of directors meeting, he leaned over to me and said: “Do you have your votes?”

Flustered, because I didn’t even know he knew that I was working to get them, I stumbled long enough that I didn’t have to answer. “If you are as good as I think, you do,” he said, with a sly smile.

I did. And, we passed that bill, too. After the bill was signed into law, Don called me and said: “You were right. Good job.” It was one of the greatest compliments I ever received. The next year, we passed legislation to allow for off-track betting for the first time.

Over the past 20-some years after I left the organizations, Don and I would sometimes fight from afar. He was a steadfast opponent to expanded gaming. I worked for a collection of people that supported it. To date, he has won that one.

But as we say goodbye to our friend, ally, opponent, contrarian and humanitarian, I would love to tell him that I appreciate all that he did for me and how much I admire the man he was, and the man who always did what he was “big enough to do.”

Yet, I am sure if we had that exchange, he would look back at me and say: “Nothing is as good as it looks, or as bad as it seems. It is always somewhere in-between.”

And, we both would smile, knowning that we truly did jive. At the core. At the heart. At what mattered the most.

This story was originally published March 27, 2018 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Don Ball’s skills, outreach boosted Ky. racing."