Final Turn : alex waldrop

Crisis, Danger, and Opportunity - By Stacy V. Bearse

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:20:00 GMT

The climate is as bad as I’ve seen in my 19 years with this publication. Racing and breeding, already facing serious challenges going into the recession, now face an even larger and more daunting list of crises. The time to act is now, before Thoroughbred racing retreats to county fair status or goes away altogether.

The majority of our readers have an economic stake in the business, so I don’t need to detail the predicaments we face. Suffice it to say that Thoroughbred racing is on life support. Investment and operating capital have evaporated and the four major sources of replenishment—handle, new-owner investment, racetrack entrepreneurship, and credit—are bone dry.

What can be done? Simple. Make racing fashionable once again, rebuild the fan base, and return racehorse ownership to a proud and profitable venture.

Well, perhaps it’s not so simple. The various associations that shape this industry have chipped away at these objectives for two decades with little success. However, Americans are notoriously fickle and impressionable. There’s no reason why a professionally managed, well-funded, long-term national marketing and public-relations effort couldn’t rekindle America’s love affair with Thoroughbred racing. When I was a kid, we avoided eating pork due to the fear of trichinosis. Today, thanks to a terrific, long-term marketing campaign, pork is the “other white meat,” a healthy alternative to beef.

Of course, properly prepared, pork is a tasty experience. A newcomer’s visit to the typical racetrack is not. But cleaning up the racetrack experience shouldn’t be too difficult. Just look at the vibrant environment already pulsing on the casino side of today’s racino facility.

Can we set a goal of doubling the popularity of the sport? Why not? Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, recently told me there are some 7.4-million core racing fans in the United States. Doubling this number is within the realm of reason and would lead to a surge in handle and a much-needed bump in purses.

And speaking of handle and purses, it’s time for owners to stand up and demand their fair share of the take-out. In the days before simulcasting, tracks and horsemen shared take-out equally. But racing was late to the Internet revolution and allowed crafty offshore hubs to highjack a substantial portion of the wagering pie. Today, third-party bet-takers siphon off unconscionable fees, leaving a pittance for horsemen. The time has come to change the pricing model and more fairly compensate Thoroughbred owners for their financial risks.

Increasing the popularity of the sport and improving financial opportunity would help lure new owners to the game. But we must go further. Although progress has been made since the star-crossed 2008 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), many issues of integrity are yet to be resolved. Some problems are chronic; the specter of illicit drugs continues to haunt the backside. Other challenges are looming; past posting is growing more common thanks to our 30-year-old tote-system infrastructure.

The capital provided by Thoroughbred owners is a crucial factor in the survival and growth of our sport. Improving the economic opportunity and taking racing to a new level of popularity and integrity—making it “cool” to own a racehorse—would attract a wave of new owners and interesting personalities to the sport.

Of course, none of this will happen without strong leadership. Decisive, empowered leadership is the key to making any sport prosper and grow. The new sport of “Ultimate Fighting” comes to mind. It has experienced incredible growth because it has a single point of management control. In contrast, racing is out of control. Like a driverless car racing down a mountain road, it careens uncontrollably toward some ugly fate. In the past, we’ve made two half-hearted stabs at supporting a national racing commissioner. Unfortunately, in both cases their organizations spent more time putting out intra-industry fires than exercising the bold leadership so desperately needed.

Shall we give this approach one more try? I confess that I don’t have the answer. But I do know that unless we come together as an industry, our future is bleak. In a 1959 speech, Sen. John F. Kennedy opined that, “When written in Chinese the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.” The crisis is upon us. We are in danger. Let us seize the opportunity.

Stacy Bearse is president and CEO of Blood-Horse Publications.

Unprecendented Progress - by Alex Waldrop

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:07:00 GMT

It was just a matter of time.

Even though the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) is a month away, the spotlight is shining brightly on safety issues relating to Thoroughbred racing. Recent media accounts provide ample evidence that over the next two months, and perhaps for a much longer period, we are going to be under the microscope like in no other time as we near the one-year anniversary of Eight Belles’ tragic accident and the controversial events surrounding last year’s Triple Crown.

Expect well-organized, well-funded animal rights activists—the same ones who recently worked to ban dog racing in Massachusetts and fox hunting in England—to portray our sport and those of us who derive our livelihood or enjoyment from it as inhumane, uncaring, and greedy. When possible, they will seize upon sympathetic news outlets and legislators to advance their agenda. They will be joined by a small but vocal group of opportunists seeking to promote their own agenda in what has become an annual rite of spring.

At the same time, many sincere, well-meaning people—who are tired of current medication policies, who are frustrated that not enough progress has been made, or who support federal intervention as the only means to reform the industry—will find themselves in an odd marriage of convenience with these extremists and opportunists.

The better approach in my view and one we are striving to follow at the National Thoroughbred Racing Association is healthy debate combined with transparency and collaboration. This is the process that led to the formation of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance. Nonetheless, our customers, media, and even industry participants have every right to be skeptical about meaningful reform within our industry. Let’s be honest: We are a sport rich in tradition that historically has not embraced change. That is, until recently.

In the past 10 months alone anabolic steroids have been effectively banned in the racing jurisdictions representing 99.6% of pari-mutuel handle on Thoroughbred horse races.

Nearly 80 racetracks are participating in a new national injury reporting system that will provide comprehensive data for the scientific research our industry is proactively supporting to foster a safer racing environment.

National standards have been adopted with regard to horseshoe and hoof care that will lead to fewer equine injuries and greater health and safety for both horse and rider.

Virtually every major racetrack in North America—along with owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, veterinarians, regulators, and even fans—have pledged their support to the NTRA Alliance. A rigorous accreditation process, similar in structure to those utilized in other fields such as health care and education, is under way.

Four-term Wisconsin Governor and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson has been retained to measure the industry’s progress and ensure transparency.

What astounds me is the number of people in our industry who either don’t understand or refuse to acknowledge the unprecedented progress the industry has made on the medication front over the last several years. Race-day medications have been virtually eliminated nationwide. Testing protocols have vastly improved, and there is promise of even more progress soon.

The perceived lack of progress on the medication front is no doubt due to our industry’s lack of consensus on one single issue—the race day administration of Salix (furosemide). This is easily the single-most divisive medication issue in this industry and one that will not be easily or quickly resolved.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether our work to improve safety and integrity goes far enough or has happened fast enough. These are legitimate questions. Important strides, however, have been made toward improving the health and safety of our human and equine athletes.

Rest assured you will read or hear a lot about what is wrong with our sport over the coming weeks. A less sensational, but more accurate, portrayal is one that acknowledges the strides we have made in the adoption of uniform policies involving safety and integrity matters. Ultimately, our customers will determine whether we are following through on our pledge to reform.

In the meantime, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of progress.

Alex Waldrop is the president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association

A Higher Standard - by Alex Waldrop

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:07:00 GMT

The health and safety of our human and equine athletes, and the integrity of our sport are our highest priorities. These fundamental principles will guide the newly formed National Thoroughbred Racing Association Safety and Integrity Alliance.

The formation of the Alliance is the culmination of several months of feedback received from virtually every segment of the industry, including fans. The reforms fall into five key areas: medication and testing; a safer racing environment; injury reporting and prevention; safety research; and aftercare of our retired racehorses.

Fifty-five tracks and every major horsemen’s association in North America have joined the Alliance. Many owners, breeders, horsemen, and jockeys have expressed their support, and a plan for enlisting added support is in development. Alliance members are aware of the significant financial costs the industry will incur by implementing these reforms. But to their credit, Alliance members have come to the realization that doing nothing would, in the long run, be far more costly.

Despite broad industry support of the Alliance and assurances that reform costs would not be pushed off on our customers in the form of higher takeout, I would speculate that overall fan reaction will range from cautious optimism to a healthy dose of skepticism. Should we be surprised? After all, many of our fans feel like they have seen this movie before.

Nearly six years ago to the day, a group of former students at Drexel University almost pulled off the biggest heist in the history of our sport when they manipulated the wagering data of the Breeders’ Cup Pick Six. The NTRA hired a high-profile individual, along with a talented team of security experts, to assess our industry’s tote system. The result was an outstanding set of recommendations to improve the industry’s tote infrastructure, many of which have yet to be enacted. In fact, six years later, we continue to operate under a fundamentally flawed assumption: that our customers will tolerate the changing of odds well after the horses have broken from the starting gate. In hindsight, we should also have had Mayor Rudolph Giuliani hold our industry’s feet to the fire until we enacted the important reforms his team recommended.

A series of catastrophic injuries in high-profile events, admissions of steroid use by some top trainers, skepticism of bettors after repeat violations of medication policies, and the economy have resulted in double-digit declines in our business in recent months. I am an optimist and one who believes our industry has many good stories to tell relating to integrity. In many respects, our drug testing is better than that of the Olympics. And I believe the overwhelming majority of our horsemen care deeply about the welfare of the horses from which they derive their livelihoods. However, to overcome current negative public perceptions of our game, we must act, and our actions must be meaningful, swift, decisive, and transparent. Those aren’t my words. They are yours—pulled from thousands of interviews we have conducted with our customers.

To this point, the industry response has been encouragingly on the mark. In a short period of time, important reforms have been identified and implemented. The goal of banning steroids from racing competition by 2009 is within reach and demonstrates the industry does have the structure to act uniformly and nationally. The Alliance will lead to further structure and uniformity, and an accreditation process similar to that utilized by other state-regulated industries (think insurance and health care).

What was missing, at least until recently, was sufficient transparency. Enter Tommy Thompson, a former four-term governor in Wisconsin and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Washington, D.C., law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Gov. Thompson, a former Thoroughbred owner, and Akin Gump have been given the task of providing periodic public updates and an annual report card on the industry’s efforts to implement safety and integrity reforms.

The governor’s lone request was that he would have the independence to call it as he sees it. We agreed wholeheartedly and asked that he hold the industry accountable. It is my hope that in the not-too-distant future we will look back to Oct. 15, 2008, as the day the industry began to hold itself to a higher standard. Our customers, our human and equine athletes, and the hundreds of thousands of honest, hard-working individuals who make their living in this sport and industry deserve nothing less.

Alex Waldrop is CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association

All Aboard - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:01:00 GMT

After viewing a study conducted for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the organization’s senior vice president of communications and industry relations, Keith Chamblin, had this to say: “Our core fans are pissed.”

It is good that Chamblin did not mince words. This is not a time for sugar-coating the state of the Thoroughbred industry.

Oftentimes, organizations, including the NTRA, are accused of spinning the news. Oftentimes, those accusations are well-founded.

But there is no spin in the words, “Our core fans are pissed.”

Performed by SocialSphere Strategies, the study was commissioned by the NTRA. On its Web site, SocialSphere Strategies claims to be “helping Thoroughbred racing go from zero-to-sixty in Web 2.0.”

Since most racetracks and racing organizations had no Web 1.0 vision, SocialSphere Strategies and its founder, John Della Volpe, are talking about a quantum leap for the majority of horse players and racing officials.

From July 2-10, SocialSphere Strategies conducted interviews with about 600 core fans, 180 industry participants, and 1,200 sports fans. The company’s “confidential and proprietary report” led Chamblin to his comments.

“They are very upset with us, and the intensity of their responses is very alarming to say the least,” Chamblin told Tom LaMarra of The Blood-Horse.

SocialSphere Strategies has only recently become involved with Thoroughbred racing, but it has a firm grasp of the situation. Also on its Web site:

• Situation: The “Sport of Kings” has an aging fan base, currently limited appeal to emerging generations, and perceived integrity problems.

• Problem: Limited marketing budget, television availability, and fractured industry segment make wide-scale change difficult.

• Solution: SocialSphere created and executed Web 2.0 strategy for the industry, local racetracks, and other stakeholder groups. Our efforts included a social media audit, a blog strategy, and e-mail marketing optimization, with more to come.

Core fans, those whose handle we depend on, are concerned about drug use in horses and wagering security. Casual fans, thanks to the mainstream press blowing the breakdown of Eight Belles out of proportion, are more concerned with safety issues.

Progress is being seen in the area of medication, with many states now banning the use of most anabolic steroids. The next step should be to address cortisone, which is more harmful in masking pain. Wagering issues continue to plague the industry, with stories of past-posting and the “quick-picks” debacle in California among the latest examples of lapses.

Safety and integrity issues are also being addressed, but it is proving hard to gain a consensus on such controversial and debatable topics as synthetic surfaces, breeding practices, and the care of retired racehorses.

The NTRA has been holding meetings with officials from various organizations and racetracks to address and discuss the issues facing the sport of Thoroughbred racing. On Oct. 15, it will unveil its Safety and Integrity Initiative. NTRA CEO Alex Waldrop said he expects widespread industry support, but support is only the beginning. There is implementation, and most importantly of all, the question of how much things cost and who will foot the bill.

Horse racing has a long and storied history. But it stands at a crossroads. Waldrop says the industry “is going to change.” In fact, it must change.

Waldrop said, “the train leaves the station” Oct. 15. The entire industry better be on board, or we will be left sitting on the platform, wondering where our fans have gone.