Leading executives in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the American Quarter Horse Association and the United States Trotting Association were asked their thoughts on horse racing in five years. Some highlights:
Rooney: Moving forward '… and it's not at the expense of one part of our industry for the benefit of another'
Tom Rooney, the former Congressman who recently became NTRA president and CEO, noted that his family owned regional Thoroughbred, harness and greyhound tracks that now are closed, with the exception of Yonkers Raceway, now a racino owned by the MGM conglomerate.
“So I understand where we've been in this industry,” said Rooney, whose family most famously owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. “… I am optimistic, but I'm also realistic as to where we could be. I've come to learn also that horse racing is a very small town. You know, people talk people behind each other's back. It doesn't take long for it to get back to people. There's animosity, almost like tribalism in our industry. But then there's also some very good people who are looking out for our future and what's best for us: How we can get from where we are now to a better place in five years?”
Rooney said he's spent his first months on the job going around to racetracks and just listening.
“To listen to people like you (the state regulators) and understanding what your concerns are,” he said. “I know there are a lot of very strong opinions in this room. It's my job to understand what those are, so that together we are moving toward where we are in five years — and it's not at the expense of one part of our industry for the benefit of another. It's for all of us to move forward.”
Rooney said he knows from his time in Congress that even if HISA enacts laws that will apply across the country, states can still add more regulations on trainers or racetracks.
“That's absolutely part of our Constitutional system,” he said. “So the relevance of the racing commissioners, and how you conduct your business state by state is not any less important. What is the law is that there are uniform standards and uniform basic requirements. So that when a horse goes state to state, a trainer knows at the very least that these standards in place in Florida are going to be the same standards in New York or Maryland.”
Rooney concluded saying that horse racing must become part of the expansion of legalized sports wagering.
“My son is a sophomore at Lehigh University,” he said. “He'll tell me, 'Dad, people are betting on women's Chinese basketball at 3 a.m. because they're allowed to. Or Bulgarian tennis.' If horse racing isn't part of that, that's a huge problem. We can have great days at the Sunland Derby, the Preakness, the Travers or whatever. But we also have to be in the conversation when he's betting the Sixers or Villanova – 'Dad, who's going to win the Florida Derby today? If I parlay that on my $20 bet, it will boost (the potential payoff) to $1,000.'
“We have to be part of that. If we aren't, we're going to miss out on a whole new generation of bettors who are getting involved with FanDuel or Draft Kings or any of the other platforms out there. We have to adapt.… It's our responsibility together to make sure horse racing is part of the future and not part of what we've seen happen too often in this country in the past” with closures.
VanBebber: Keeping cheaters out of entries proves good for business
Janet VanBebber, the former trainer who is the AQHA's director of racing, said there is a lot of good news to report in Quarter Horse racing. She said that in 2021, a total of 123,727 mares were submitted on stallion breeding reports, a 16-percent increase over the previous year and marking the first time since 2012 that more than 100,000 mares were bred. More than 93,000 American Quarter Horses were registered last year, with those geared for racing seeing “exponential growth,” reflected in part by explosions in those engaging with the AQHA's racing social-media platforms. Purses and betting have increased the past two years, with sales for Quarter Horse racehorses also up, she said.
VanBebber attributed the growth in part because people “are pretty happy with our measures that we're doing to protect our sport and to lift up our sport.” She said that includes requiring hair testing as a condition of entering a race.
“That's really important to our breed, because horsemen were taking advantage of drugs that they could get a performance-enhancing effect out of but that could still pass (the post-race test) in blood and urine,” she said. “If we could keep them from being eligible to enter … then we could level the playing field, which is what we want as horsemen and what the gambler wants as a bettor.”
VanBebber said Oklahoma's Quarter Horse racing totaled 40 positive drug tests for performance-enhancing drugs in 2017.
“After implementing these past four years condition-of-entry hair testing, they only reported three” last year, she said, adding it was the horsemen's association urging the measure. “What that tells you is we're keeping the cheaters from crossing the entry box. Do we still have areas that need improvement? Of course. But the good news is we are actively collaborating toward improvement.
“… Do we have concerns moving forward? Yes. We have concerns about our smaller jurisdictions. Are they going to be able to take on the expense of operating that might be prohibitive?” she said, referencing the additional costs to implement HISA's structure and regulations for those tracks running both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. “I'm concerned about that. That's why we're here at the table, to discuss these things and to see what we can do to make it better.”
VanBebber, raised in California, said it's not just small tracks that could be effected. “I grew up loving Hollywood Park,” she said. “I just thought Hollywood Park would be there for the rest of my life. So a track as large and successful as Hollywood Park that's no longer there (closing in 2013) – that's where the Super Bowl was held this year – it's reflective to me what can happen to any smaller jurisdiction.”
Tanner: Consolidation of wealth hurting small barns
Mike Tanner, the USTA executive vice president, echoed the worry of track closures. Hitting the harness world hard is the closing of the iconic Pompano Park, a victim of Florida's recent legislation that allows racino owners to stay open for casino gaming without having to stage horse racing.
He said consolidation didn't just apply to racetracks but, as with Thoroughbred racing, more and more horses being controlled by fewer and fewer people.
“Last year there was $439 million in purse money that was distributed,” he said. “Three trainers accounted for 8 percent of those earnings. There were 2,900 trainers who made at least one start last year. Three of them accounted for 8 percent” of total starts.
“… We get calls all the time from smaller trainers saying, 'I can't compete with these guys. How do you expect me to stay in the game if I cannot compete?' That's a question we don't have an answer to. The big trainers aren't doing anything wrong; in fact they're doing quite well. But there's a consolidation of wealth in our game amongst a very small percentage that gives them a greater influence as far as horses they get to train. And good horses win races.”
Tanner did have some good news: an ongoing increase of USTA members and mares bred. He said yearly starts-per-horse has remained steady at an average of 18 races for each of the last four years. “Our horses are hearty, they're durable,” he said.
“If you ask me where are we in five years? I think we're probably strong at the high end of our sales. I think the horses will continue to improve and get better. I think it's going to be very appealing to a small segment of society, but I fear that we will have fewer racetracks and I fear we'll have fewer participants…. We're going to do all we can to address that and to assure our prosperity going forward.”
Martin: Hoping in 5 years 'we're not fighting with each other'
ARCI's President and CEO Ed Martin batted cleanup to the luncheon panel. He said that in five years, “I'd like to see a sport where we're not fighting with each other over things, policies,” emphasizing there's so much wonderful about horse racing.
Martin noted that the HISA legislation was attached to a “must pass” bill, in this case the $1.5 trillion COVID relief omnibus bill approved by Congress in December 2020. Drawing on his 10 years as a senior aide on Capitol Hill earlier in his career, Martin said such must-pass bills are known as Christmas trees. “And we'd try to hang a Christmas ornament on it,” he said.
“It was part of a must-pass piece of legislation that most members probably didn't digest the details,” Martin said in follow-up comments. “But what troubled me most was that it was attached to a $1.5 trillion spending bill where the federal government was literally throwing money out the window at all sorts of things, and the sponsors of the bill didn't provide one penny for horse racing (to implement the federally mandated HISA). If they had provided funding, say $50 million, it would have really helped the sport, would have helped HISA. But Senator (Mitch) McConnell didn't give it a dime.”
He noted at the panel that the federal government gives the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency $9 million a year “to do like 13,000 drug tests. What are we doing? Over 200,000 drug tests?” he said.
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