What I realized on Wednesday on the College of Arizona Race Observe Trade Program’s International Symposium on Racing – Day Two.
Whereas the opening panel discussions on Tuesday have been about as cheery as a Dostoevsky novel, Wednesday’s classes have been decidedly extra uplifting – for essentially the most half. Assembly among the college students and listening to shows from people who find themselves making an attempt to make a constructive distinction jogged my memory of how I felt concerning the Symposium once I first started attending some 30 years in the past. At its finest, the annual gathering is an concept manufacturing facility, giving individuals one thing to take dwelling with them after they return to their jobs.
Following are some notes and opinions from Wednesday.
—RTIP Senior Capstone Shows. Ben Atkinson and Eric DeCoster kicked off the day with a pair of shows that have been as completely different as night time and day.
Atkinson examined methods of constructing racing a extra common and approachable sport by way of using quick movies, or reels, which might be more and more common on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube. He cited analysis saying individuals’s consideration spans have decreased by 25 p.c over a 15-year interval (not coincidentally, when smartphones began rising out of our palms). The quick movies are supposed to introduce racing individuals – jockeys, grooms, and plenty of others – to the general public in simply digestible interviews.
DeCoster had extra of an “inside baseball” presentation on how one can modernize the situation e-book, adapting a handicap ranking system like these utilized in different international locations and revising how claiming races are written. A survey he performed confirmed that even racing secretaries, trainers and homeowners discover the way in which races are presently written to be complicated.
Racing can use extra individuals like Atkinson and DeCoster to guide us into the sunshine.
—“Racing’s Success Tales – The 12 months in Overview,” adopted the coed shows and, not like most of Tuesday’s panels dominated by getting older, white males (like me!), this group seemed and sounded completely different.
There was moderator Annise Montplaisir, co-founder and president of Amplify Horse Racing, whose mantra is “Making Tracks for the Subsequent Technology” by way of schooling, mentorship and profession alternatives. Kirsten Inexperienced, govt director of the Retired Racehorse Undertaking, reviewed the great development of the Thoroughbred Makeover that options former racehorses exhibiting their expertise in different disciplines. Hallie Hardy, govt director of Horse Nation – which facilitates excursions for most of the people of working horse farms in Central Kentucky – relayed how these visits can change perceptions of how Thoroughbreds are cared for. Kyle McDoniel, chief working officer for Equibase, urged that expanded information assortment may also help racing meet up with how different sports activities use statistics to interact their followers. And Jodie Vella-Gregory, vice chairman of trade relations for 1/ST Racing and Gaming, supplied a promising report on the expansion of the just lately fashioned Horse Racing Ladies’s Summit.
With the attainable exception of McDoniel and Equibase, none of those initiatives are designed to have a right away affect on wagering – which stays an important short- and long-term financial indicator for the game. However all of them, in their very own means, could make a distinction in public opinion and on racing’s social license to function. Each certainly one of them is a helpful asset for the trade.
—A 3rd panel on Wednesday morning handled a troublesome topic that till just lately was taboo. “Out of the Shadows – Shining a Highlight on Psychological Well being and Emotional Wellness” featured energetic jockeys Trevor McCarthy and Kyle Frey, and retired rider and present filmmaker Nathan Horrocks. Additionally talking have been three individuals devoted to serving to others get by way of troublesome instances: Epic Threat Administration facilitator Ryan Tatusko, a former skilled baseball participant who tried suicide whereas coping with a extreme playing dependancy; Judy Beck, a licensed scientific social employee with the Backstretch Worker Service Crew at New York Racing Affiliation tracks; and Dr. Ciara Losty, a sports activities psychologist who works with Irish jockeys on psychological well being points. The panel was deftly moderated by retired jockey and NBC Sports activities reporter Donna Barton Brothers.
A screening of Horrocks’ quick movie, “The Fail,” a gripping emotional story of a steeplechase jockey coping with the aftermath of a high-profile fall, adopted the session.
McCarthy and Frey have been extraordinarily candid concerning the pressures they’ve confronted, with Frey admitting that he “wanted a psychological well being break” and was away from racing for 2 months this summer season after experiencing “a full-blown panic assault.” He entered a 12-step program for what he known as “untreated alcoholism,” citing Southern California’s Winners Basis and the racetrack chaplaincy for getting him the therapy he wanted.
East Coast-based McCarthy talked concerning the countless grind that jockeys endure and the worry of shedding enterprise in the event that they dare to take day without work. “Jockeys do not get day without work to reset, to present their our bodies a break,” he mentioned. “Now we have to be disciplined on a regular basis, one year a 12 months.”
He shared a narrative about discovering pleasure from a driving accident that left him with a damaged wrist as a result of he realized he would lastly get a break. “I used to be happier than a pig in poop,” he mentioned.
McCarthy additionally mentioned he is taken a prolonged break from social media after getting right into a battle with individuals on Twitter final summer season.
The dialogue got here within the wake jockeys Avery Whisman and Alex Canchari taking their very own lives earlier this 12 months.
—The remaining classes targeted on how racing can and is coping with financial and societal pressures that jeopardize its very future.
Alan Foreman, moderating a panel entitled “From Knowledge to {Dollars} – Understanding Horse Racing’s Financial affect as Racing’s Future Is Questioned,” opened with some grim however real looking feedback: “It’s not being quietly requested: Is it time to finish horse racing?” Foreman known as the reliance for survival on state and federal lawmakers “the elephant within the room that we dodge,” including that these in denial concerning the risk ought to “simply ask the Greyhound trade,” which has been eradicated in state after state.
The rest of the panel helped reply Foreman’s query of whether or not the economics of the horse trade can overcome the anti-racing sentiment that appears to be extra vocal than ever. Julie Broadway, president of the American Horse Council, previewed outcomes of a 2023 financial affect research that’s used to exhibit the importance of the horse trade when it comes to jobs, assist of small companies, and vital contributions to the economic system. When it comes to racing, Householder mentioned, in her conversations with federal legislators, “We additionally speak so much about what we do with the horses after they come off the monitor.”
Nationwide Thoroughbred Racing Affiliation president and CEO Tom Rooney – a former member of Congress who now works in Washington, D.C., to raise racing’s profile – mentioned coping with the present Congress is “extraordinarily troublesome. Whether or not or not something goes to get completed within the subsequent 12 months for our trade or anyone is doubtful to foretell.” He added that lots of at this time’s politicians “are extra excited about clicks or turning into well-known than getting issues performed.”
Najja Thompson, govt director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, and Lonny Powell, CEO of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ & Homeowners’ Affiliation, each confused the significance of financial information in assist of the trade to achieve assist of their state capitols. “Financial affect research should be relatable to legislators,” Powell mentioned. He cited three states he is labored in, saying in Washington he was in a position to present that the horse trade was greater than ship-building; in Arizona, racing was the third largest vacationer attraction; and in Florida, it’s greater than Main League Baseball’s spring coaching season.
Powell additionally roundly criticized racetrack executives for not taking part within the AHC financial survey, saying solely 4 tracks responded. “How are we going to inform our story if nobody is even making an attempt?” he requested. “I do not get it.”
—Turf Publicists of America’s Mark Kaufman Workshop targeted on “Communications and Protocols for Equine and Jockey Accidents,” providing some insights on how one can get the message out to media and the general public that racing is enhancing its security document for horses and riders. Amy Zimmerman, senior vice chairman at Santa Anita Park, urged racing individuals ought to reclaim the time period “animal activist,” as a result of nobody cares extra about horses that the individuals who work with them every day. “I am an animal activist,” she mentioned, calling those that oppose the game “racing abolitionists” and “extremists.”
Chip Tuttle, a associate with CTP in Boston that advises numerous racing organizations, mentioned it’s as much as the game to get out the message that accidents are lowering general regardless of some high-profile incidents prior to now 12 months. “Racehorse deaths generate clicks and eyeballs,” Tuttle mentioned. “If we would like the extra constructive narrative, we actually should shout it from the rooftops ourselves.” Tuttle mentioned the NTRA has performed job placing collectively info on its web site exhibiting the numerous security protocols for horses however that the general public is unaware of lots of these efforts.
–Integrity points dominated the ultimate two panels, with the primary session spotlighting regulatory investigation groups used for main occasions and the second that includes a wide range of individuals from the Horseracing Integrity and Security Authority and the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit. The latter included info on how a lot of the info now being collected on horse well being is being utilized by HISA, how HIWU’s investigation unit goes about its work, and the progress being made in drug testing and harmonization of laboratories contracted with HIWU to conduct pre-post, post-race and out-of-competition testing.
