LEXINGTON, Ky. — Marc Guilfoil’s love affair with horses started
well before he hocked his high school senior ring to have money to go to
Keeneland one afternoon while attending the University of Kentucky. He
correctly figured he’d miss being at the track more than he’d miss the ring.
“I was thinking about that today when I was driving somewhere and
passed the pawn shop,” Guilfoil said with a laugh. “If I could find just a
little bit of money in my pocket, whether it be the Red Mile or Keeneland, I
was there every day I could get there.”
The executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s
fascination with the sport and industry traces to his youth in Glasgow, Ky.,
the son of a large and small animal veterinarian whose equine practice mainly
included quarter horse but also some thoroughbreds and standardbreds. For
Guilfoil, the appeal is the love of the animal and those working with horses;
he does not bet on the tracks he helps regulate.
Having worked in an array of capacities at the track has served
Guilfoil well as a regulatory administrator. Those efforts were recognized
recently with fellow executive directors voting him recipient of the
Association of Racing Commissioners International’s 2018 Len Foote Award for
exemplary service and contribution to racing integrity.
The late Len Foote was an investigator who became the long-time
executive director of the California Horse Racing Board. The award bearing his
name is the highest honor an executive director can get. Guilfoil was nominated
for the award by Maryland’s Mike Hopkins, the 2017 Len Foote winner who is the
new ARCI chair.
“I was completely caught off guard, very surprised,” Guilfoil said
of receiving the award on the closing day of ARCI’s 84th annual Conference on
Racing Integrity and Equine Welfare in Hot Springs, Ark. “It means a lot,
not as an individual but it means a lot as any person in my shoes. We’re trying
to get common sense interjected into racing as much as possible. There are a
lot of ways to go about things, but any time you can plug some common sense
into the equation, you likely have the best solution. This award is not just
about me; it’s about people who think like me that makes me so happy and
honored to receive it.
“If you count the years the people in that organization have been
executive directors, that’s a lot of years there. That means a lot too, that I have
the respect of those guys. And it means a lot that Mike Hopkins thought enough
of me to nominated me.”
Said Ed Martin, ARCI president
and CEO: “Marc has worked his way up through the chairs and has the ability to
differentiate between right and wrong, all while being fair to all he comes in
contact with. He calls it like it is and is not afraid to do the right thing,
even if there are those who might disagree.”
That forthrightness shows with one of Guilfoil’s major goals: not
only attaining uniform medication rules across the country but uniform testing.
He says the industry can’t have true uniformity until every jurisdiction tests
to the same levels and uses the same methodology. Guilfoil also strongly
believes that can be achieved in the current regulatory structure, with
regulators, lab directors and the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium
working together.
Speaking as an individual and not for the KHRC, he says he has “no
problem whatsoever” in Kentucky joining the multi-state compact spearheaded by
the Mid-Atlantic states “if it solves the problem with uniform labs. We’ve got
to get the uniform labs before we can have uniform medication regulations.”
Guilfoil, a 1987 graduate of the University of Kentucky with a
degree in agriculture and emphasis in communications, has a diverse portfolio,
including being an accredited official for all three breeds of horse racing.
He spent his collegiate summers working as an intern in the
Kentucky Department of Agriculture under equine program manager Rusty Ford. His
first racing job came shortly after graduation with the old Kentucky Harness
Racing Commission in 1988 as director of facilities. Soon thereafter, he
completed the United States Trotting Association’s judges school to become the
youngest presiding judge in history.
“I’m sure it’s been surpassed now, but back then I was,” he said,
adding cheerfully, “Because back then, if you didn’t have gray hair and
glasses, you didn’t belong in the stand.”
Guilfoil stayed on as director of racing and a racing official as
the harness and thoroughbred commissions were merged in 1992 under Gov.
Brereton Jones.
“The only thing I really haven’t been at the track is racing
secretary,” he said. “I’ve done everything from charting races to the whole
nine yards. Any kind of racing position there’s been, if there’s an opening
somewhere or somebody needs someone to fill in, I’m there. I was sort of a
catch-all guy, jack of all trades.”
Guilfoil, who had retired briefly from state government to operate
a business, became deputy director under the late Lisa Underwood, the
2009 Len Foote recipient. Guilfoil’s original six-month commitment to return to
the commission has stretched to a decade and counting.
“That’s another thing that means a lot to me about that award:
Lisa got it, and I was her deputy when she got it,” he said. “To be in the same
sentence as some of the people who have received that award is a pretty big
deal to me.”
Guilfoil was appointed the KHRC’s top administrator two years ago
after Gov. Matt Bevin took office. But he long has been a go-to person through
many gubernatorial administrations and versions of the Kentucky commission.
“You have to have thick skin and
broad shoulders to start with,” he said. “You can do a lot of good. When you’re
trying to make a decision, if you put the horse at the center of your decision,
you’re going to make the right decision. We’re the voice of the horse.
“There are very few cheaters. I’ve been around long enough that I
think I’ve earned the right to say that, where some people might think the
sport is dirty. It’s not. Like anything else in life, whether baseball,
football or whatever, there’s going to be someone trying to get an edge. There
are very few people in this sport that way.”
Going back to his roots, Guilfoil raises cattle on the farm where
he lives with wife Elisabeth Jensen, the executive vice president of the
Kentucky Equine Education Program and president of the Race for Education
program.
“This is all I’ve done since the day I got out of college, all
I’ve done my whole life is mess with horses or livestock,” Guilfoil said. “I’ve
got cattle now, too, and cattle is my second love. I guess if I wasn’t doing
this, I’d hopefully be trying to raise a very competitive purebred black Angus
herd.”
Guilfoil says the one thing he misses often being in an office is
the camaraderie of the racetrack.
“When I am in the office, and I’ll get a call from somebody at the
track and they’ll go, ‘You don’t understand,’” he said. “I go, ‘Whoa, hold on.
I was 23 years on the racetrack. Don’t tell me what I don’t understand. I know
exactly what’s going on.’”
