From the Jockey Club
SARATOGA Springs, N.Y. (Aug. 1, 2024) — In the keynote address of The Jockey Club’s 72ndAnnual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing, which concluded earlier today, Todd Gralla, principal / director of Equestrian Services of Populous, a global design firm focusing on sports and entertainment, discussed how integrating modern consumer tastes into the redesign of racetracks can retain the history of racing while enhancing the fan experience and keeping our horses safer.
“Honoring this history and looking to the future, as well as putting horses front and center with experiences and intimate connections between the patrons, horses, jockeys, trainers, and owners, has become our design philosophy driving our horse racing projects.”
The conference was held at the Excelsior Springs Event Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, and streamed on jockeyclub.com. The Jockey Club Chair Stuart S. Janney III presided over the conference.
Meghan Rodgers, senior vice president of Public Affairs, National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), gave an overview of the success of the national Safety Runs First campaign and how we all must work together to promote the sport.
“It is our responsibility to continually inform and reassure the public that horse racing today is the best and safest it has ever been, and a deep-rooted love for these magnificent Thoroughbreds is at the core of the sport,” Rodgers said.
Gary Fenton, chair of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing, and a member and steward of The Jockey Club, presented on the present and future of California Racing from Del Mar via Zoom.
Fenton explained the importance of California racing to the industry and what is next for the state. “California is actively seeking ancillary revenue streams within and outside our state to increase purses and lead to the economic growth for both California and the rest of the country,” he said. “It is priority number one, but our goals are also more expansive and organic — like increasing the awareness of our sport.”
Dionne Benson, chief veterinary officer, 1/ST Racing, shared insight into how California has improved the safety of its athletes, namely through a new program called Racehorse 360, geared toward helping the racing offices, trainers, veterinarians, and stewards.
Benson highlighted the changes Racehorse 360 has made in regards to equine safety, “In January and February of 2024, …we had zero racing fatalities. We saw a 40% decrease in training fatalities from 2019 to the first two months of 2024.”
“To date, we’ve completed two re-trainings of the AI program. The improvement in identifying horses with issues has been impressive from my perspective. As of today, of the clips sent by Track Optics, approximately 75% of those are determined to be worth following up by track veterinarians.”
Joe Asher, the chair of the board of the Wilson Center and the former CEO of William Hill US and president of IGT’s PlaySports business, highlighted the similarities and differences between horse racing and sports betting.
Asher touched on the effortless task of sports betting, a significant contrast to betting on horse racing, especially for beginners who are not up-to-date on the industry. “You have the content; it’s just a matter of getting it in front of people with a proclivity to gamble and an easy way for them to form an opinion on what to bet,” he said.
James L. Gagliano, president and COO of The Jockey Club, discussed initiatives The Jockey Club has taken to improve the sport and strategies is it taking to help support it in the future.
“Our team has modernized the organization from its role as a breed registry, into a technical and data driven organization whose products and services have been essential to the growth of interstate and international trade,” Gagliano said. “Going forward, The Jockey Club and our related companies are embarking upon a series of new projects and services.”
Gagliano also expounded on the rebranding of several of The Jockey Club’s technology companies into TJC Innovations, including the purchase of TLore and an agreement with Halo.
In his closing remarks, Janney mentioned the three elements that affect horse racing are safety, integrity, and finance, and that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is taking care of the first two.
“Finance, on the other hand, is not within HISA’s purview,” Janney said. “It is shared across a broad spectrum of groups and entities: sales companies, owners/partnerships, trainers, and our partners in state government and, through the tax code, the U.S. government.”
He also mentioned challenges facing the industry, such as stagnant purses, sunsetting of IRS tax incentives, and pitting tracks against each other for purse levels, stakes schedules, and post times, and said that The Jockey Club is addressing them.
“I predict we will work on every one of these issues and many more,” he said. “We can’t do it and don’t want to do it alone. We need you.”
A video replay of the Round Table Conference will be available on The Jockey Club website and an official transcript of the proceedings will be available next week.