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Amplify Introduces Mentorship Program

Amplify Horse Racing, founded in 2019 as an initiative to welcome and educate newcomers about the Thoroughbred industry, has launched a mentorship program aimed at pairing young adults with Thoroughbred industry professionals. Objectives include improving accessibility into the Thoroughbred industry and developing understanding of what it is like to work in the sport by leveraging the experience of current industry professionals. The program is open to individuals between the ages of 18 and 22 who have a strong interest in a career in the Thoroughbred industry. No experience is required.

The initial pilot program will pair 10 mentors with mentees through two mentorship approaches. The first is in person, with five mentees based in Kentucky paired with mentors who are also in the state. The second, designed to limit geographic barriers, is virtual with five mentees from anywhere in the U.S. paired with suitable mentors.

“Ever since Amplify Horse Racing started in 2019, the goal of its founders and early supporters has been to offer a mentorship program,” said Annise Montplaisir, president of Amplify. “Throughout Amplify's growth and assessment of how best to recruit newcomers, it has become evident that mentorship has had an important role in getting many young professionals and industry leaders involved in the sport. We hope that through the creation of a formal program, we can make that process easier for others.”

The pilot program will take place from August through October. Mentorship program applications are available at amplifyhorseracing.org/mentorship. For more information or to learn how you can become a mentor, contact Annise Montplaisir at info@amplifyhorseracing.org.

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Amplify Horse Racing Launches Mentorship Program

Amplify Horse Racing, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to amplify education and careers in the Thoroughbred industry, has launched a mentorship program aimed at pairing young adults with Thoroughbred industry professionals.

The objectives of the program are to improve accessibility into the Thoroughbred industry, and develop understanding of what it is like to work in the sport by leveraging the passion, knowledge and experience of current industry professionals.

The initial pilot program will facilitate 10 mentor-mentee pairings through two mentorship approaches:

In-Person: Five mentees based in Kentucky will be selected and paired with mentors who work in the state. This pilot will focus on in-person meetings and engagement.
Virtual: Five mentees will be selected from anywhere in the U.S. and paired with suitable mentors. These pairs will meet virtually, removing geographic or transportation barriers that could limit interested young adults from connecting with the Thoroughbred industry.

The Amplify Horse Racing Mentorship Program is open to individuals aged 18-22, who demonstrate a desire to learn and a strong interest in working in the Thoroughbred industry. There are no restrictions based on academic achievement or Thoroughbred industry experience.

The initial mentorship program, which Amplify Horse Racing is using as a pilot, will take place from August through October 2021. Upon completion of the program, feedback will be gathered from participants to assess the viability of offering the program multiple times annually and including youth mentees.

“Ever since Amplify Horse Racing started in 2019, the goal of its founders and early supporters has been to offer a mentorship program,” says Annise Montplaisir, president of Amplify Horse Racing and equine education coordinator for the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP). “Getting involved in the Thoroughbred industry can feel like a winding path without a clear first step. Throughout Amplify's growth and assessment of how best to recruit newcomers, it has become evident that mentorship has had an important role in getting many young professionals and industry leaders involved in the sport. We hope that through the creation of a formal program, we can make that process easier for others.”

Mentorship program applications are available at amplifyhorseracing.org/mentorship. For more information or to learn how you can become a mentor, contact Annise Montplaisir at info@amplifyhorseracing.org.

The post Amplify Horse Racing Launches Mentorship Program appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Next Generation with Annise Montplaisir

Annise Montplaisir has come a long way from her childhood racetrack, North Dakota Horse Park. The 25-year-old is a Godolphin Flying Start graduate and is now pursuing her passion for educating newcomers in the industry. Montplaisir is the co-founder of Amplify Horse Racing, broadens her outreach through a Spanish racing talk show, and is the project manager for a new educational alliance called Together For Racing International. TRFI is an initiative which came out of the 2019 Godolphin Forum for Education, where attendees worked on developing strategies to grow and develop the Thoroughbred industry. The initiative launches later this week, when more details are expected to be revealed.

KR: How did you first get interested in horse racing?

AM: I guess I became interested in the industry when I was around 12 or 13 years old and I saw the movie Ruffian. I was really captured by the emotions of the story and just how incredible of a horse she was. I actually was fortunate to live very close to a tiny racetrack called the North Dakota Horse Park. All of my summers were spent going out and volunteering there and then eventually I got my first job in racing at the North Dakota Horse Park.

KR: What drew you to the sport?

AM: The thing that probably drew me the most to horse racing was the stories and the personalities behind the sport. I think there’s something really inspiring and capturing in that. You know, the horse is at the center of all of this, but it’s really the horse-human connection that keeps it going and there’s the different backgrounds of all the people involved at the different levels.

KR: Could you take us through your career path in the industry?

AM: My pathway in the industry started with my first volunteer role as a racetrack ambassador at the North Dakota Horse Park. They had a retired racehorse named Barracuda Boy who was their track mascot. I would stand by the front gates as people would come into the track with his past performances and people would come up and pet him.

Then from there, I was able to do a little bit of everything. I’d say that’s the value of tiny racetracks like that is I started working as a pony rider, and then I assisted the director of media relations, I learned to gallop, I was the official clocker one year and then worked my way up to becoming the director of communications one summer. Whatever I wanted to get me hands on, they threw me right in.

Then a big step along the way was interning for the Saratoga Special newspaper as a staff writer. During my time in Saratoga, I was introduced to everyone at Fasig-Tipton. When I moved down to Kentucky after graduating from North Dakota State University, I interned with Fasig-Tipton and then for Keeneland in the Communications department.

Another great experience I had was doing yearling sales as Mill Ridge Farm before I was accepted into the Godolphin Flying Start program which I spent the last two years doing and I graduated remotely this July.

KR: What was the most challenging part of being a newcomer in the industry?

AM: I would say the greatest struggle for most newcomers to the sport is finding information about the industry. It’s pretty spread out. We have a lot of amazing educational and workforce training initiatives, but if you didn’t grow up in the industry it can be difficult to figure out how to get started.

That was what spurred the start of Amplify Horse Racing, which I co-founded in 2019. It’s meant to be an education platform for a newcomer that googles how to get into Thoroughbred racing, so they can find organized lists of resources and initiatives about careers that might not be what most people think of, but some that are more on the periphery like benevolence, marketing or media.

Last year we had a chance to do some pretty cool pilot projects- doing some enhanced educational tours, collaborating with a few different initiatives to enhance their programming and expand the promotion of it.

This year has been a bit different for everybody in terms of in-person engagement, so as everyone has we had to pivot. I’ve been hosting monthly virtual hangouts. Every month is focused on a different sector of the industry. We host a panel of industry professionals and they talk about their own educational pathways in the industry and what their current job entails.

KR: Could you tell us about your current position?

AM: Amplify has been a great launch point for my current role working as the Project Manager for Together For Racing International (TFRI). This is a global alliance to promote and progress education, community engagement and workforces that connect people to the Thoroughbred industry around the world. TFRI has been developed through a network of global steering committee members from Australia, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan and the US, who represent a multitude of educational and workforce organizations.

The launch of the TFRI website will be on Nov. 20, which we’re very excited about.

It will be an amazing platform to showcase the stories and the positivity that is coming from these programs. It really speaks to a wide array of audiences. Industry members and stakeholders can come to this and learn about some of the programs that even they might not know about. Students, parents and educators can come and see how the Thoroughbred industry is assisting with educational attainment and how different regions are engaging with their communities to solve different issues.

KR: If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

AM: If I could change one thing about the industry, and actually this is something that I feel like is already in progress of being changed, it would be improving the number of Spanish resources that we have within the US industry. We have a large population of immigrants working in the industry, specifically Hispanic immigrants, so I think we need to provide more for them to consume within the sport to learn about the industry.

One of the projects I’ve been involved with for the last few months is co-hosting a web show called La Trifecta with Claudia Spadaro and Darwin Vizcaya. We talk about horse racing in Spanish and English and it’s really the feeling of three friends who are getting together to talk about racing. We’ve had viewers from all different countries across Central and South America and Mexico, so it’s really fun.

KR: What’s your all-time favorite racing moment?

AM: I think one of my favorite moments in racing was when I was on Flying Start in Australia, my externship was with Chris Waller, which was pretty cool. I had never really worked with a trainer before and so a moment that really stood out to me was when I had the opportunity to saddle a horse named Mister Sea Wolf (Ire) (Amadeus Wolf {GB}) before he went on to win a million-dollar race called The Gong at Kembla Grange. They threw me right in and let me get my hands on as many things as possible, so to saddle a horse for a million-dollar race was pretty cool.

The Next Generation is an ongoing video series featuring young people who were not born into the Thoroughbred business, but are now excelling within the industry.

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The Next Generation with Shayna Tiller

The TDN has partnered with Amplify Horse Racing to present “The Next Generation,” an ongoing video series featuring young people who were not born into the Thoroughbred business, but are now excelling within the industry.

Growing up next to Laurel Park, 24-year-old Shayna Tiller always felt a strong attraction to horse racing. But it wasn’t until she was in college that she decided to pursue a career in the industry.

On a whim, she applied for an internship with the Saratoga Special. After spending one summer at the Spa, she was hooked for life. Over the past four years, Shayna has been on a whirlwind tour of the industry- doing everything from foaling out mares, chasing down a story on the Saratoga backstretch, working as an exercise rider, and interning for Fasig-Tipton.

Last year, she graduated from the Irish National Stud course. She now works as the Director of Sales for Mill Ridge Farm, and also shares her passion for promoting the stories of the people behind the sport through the ‘Riders Up’ Podcast she created with roommate Autry Graham.

KR: How did you get involved in horse racing?

ST: I’m originally from Laurel, Maryland and I grew up 10 minutes from the racetrack there. My mom and sister are deathly allergic to horses, ironically, so no one in my family was really into it. But my parents are from Bowie, Maryland and my dad always liked to go to the track and he took me with him a couple times. I did one Pony Pal ride there, and I was sold for life.

So I rode horses growing up, and I did a school project in high school on Lasix in horse racing and I interned with some of the state vets there at Laurel and Pimlico. I learned all about it and was kind of hooked from that point.

When I was in college at the University of Maryland, we had to apply for a fake internship as part of the general education requirements. I found an ad for the Saratoga Special, and just decided to apply. So I shipped up to Saratoga, didn’t even know what a blacktype race was, and I was interviewing Todd Pletcher the next day.

They put us up in a barn apartment above the McMahon’s Farm. Ann McMahon drives a car with a license plate that says ‘Funny Cide One’ on it. They raised Funny Cide and he was my favorite horse growing up. So I thought, “Well, I want to come back and learn more.” So I spent my winters with them, and any break I had from college, I was there.

I transferred my last year of college to a smaller agricultural school in Pennsylvania to get more hands-on experience. I galloped in the mornings and interned with the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation when it was in its beginning stages. Then I was with Fasig-Tipton for a while before going to Ireland for the Irish National Stud Program last year.

So I guess as a new person in the industry who knew that I knew nothing, I wanted to get a full perspective on the industry and I was just eating it up. I think that’s what’s so cool, is that people in this industry really allow you to do anything you’re interested in.

KR: What was it that drew you to this industry?

ST: I think that it’s all rooted in a love for the horse. I went to college to be a vet, but when I was going through it, I realized I didn’t really want to do that. When you grow up as a little horse girl you think you’re either going to be a barn manager or maybe manage a tack shop or be a vet. So when I found horse racing, I just saw that you can actually go and make a career for yourself and work in a dynamic industry, and that’s what drew me in.

Being in Saratoga, it’s the most inspiring place you can be, really. I was around the top horses in the country and the top trainers- the people you see on TV. I wanted more and more of it, and it snowballed from there.

KR: What is your favorite part about this business?

ST: I really love the sales. I think what’s so cool about them is you sell horses at different stages of life and you’re trying to find where they’re going to peak. It’s also a bit of a matchmaking project with each horse, so it’s really neat seeing them grow, especially the foals to yearlings and the yearlings to 2-year-olds. You’re trying to find the perfect match of who’s going to purchase them and then you get to see them go on and win races and become big bad race horses that you’ve seen since they were babies. There’s really nothing like it.

KR: Tell us about what you do now.

ST: I’m the Director of Sales at Mill Ridge Farm. Mill Ridge was founded by Alice Chandler in 1962, which is really special for me, being a woman in the industry as well. She was just inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. So it’s kind of cool to be a female working here and carry on her legacy.

In my position, I oversee all of the sales operations, so that consists of recruiting, seeing the horses prep and placing them in sales, and then working in marketing to make sure they reach the right buyers and communicating with clients to help them succeed. I get to do a lot of different things, which is what’s so fun. No day is the same, and obviously going to the sales is a whole other job when I do that.

Another fun thing I do with my roommate Autry Graham is we started a podcast called Riders Up. We’re two young girls in racing and we like to have conversations with different people on the podcast and talk about their lives. It’s not your stereotypical handicapping podcast. You don’t want our picks. We tell the stories behind the business, and it’s really fun. You can find us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and we have an Instagram that we interact with a lot too.

KR: What are your career goals?

ST: I’ve always wanted to have my own consignment, so that’s something that I’m getting a little taste of here at Mill Ridge. I’m hoping in the next 10-plus years, I’ll be able to do that on my own.

KR: If you could change one thing about this industry, what would it be?

ST: I think if I could change one thing, it would be how we interact with the public. I come from a family that knows nothing about horse racing, so every time we have our newest public scandal or whatever the situation may be, I hear it from the public’s standpoint, rather than our standpoint as an industry. I think it’s so important for us to educate the public and tell them what’s really going on and be more transparent, because the more transparent you are, the less you have to lose.

I also think we need to work to appeal to the public. My friends all used to go to the Preakness and they wouldn’t even watch a horse race during the day, but they all got hooked on it from there, and it made them want to go back for more. It was more like a sporting event for them than a serious gambling experience. So I think we need to improve our engagement with the public.

KR: What was it like being a total newcomer in the sport?

ST: I was definitely very intimidated when I first started in racing. It just seems completely isolated and you don’t really know how you’re going to break that barrier. I got into it pretty late. I was in college when I first started, and I was around people who have grown up in it their whole lives and knew all these things that I didn’t even know were possible.

I’ve found though, in racing, how much people do embrace you once you actually get into it and show you want to learn. I have had so many great people who have helped me along the way. It’s kind of incredible. I don’t know why they’ve done so much for me. So I think that was the initial struggle, but now I just feel really lucky to be a part of it, and it’s amazing how much people help you.

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