Whether you watch this year's Breeders' Cup in the stands at Del Mar, in an owner's suite high above the track, or on television at home, you will spend much of the event surveying the work of Dora Delgado – you just may not know it.
Delgado was named last month to the Sports Business Journal's Game Changers list, which recognizes women with senior leadership roles in sports. Making the Game Changers list was a pleasant surprise for Delgado, who has worked for Breeders' Cup for 38 years.
“That was really unexpected,” she said. “It's rare that I'm at the forefront of things at Breeders' Cup and I prefer that. I prefer to be in the background, working on logistics and operations. I like to pick things apart and put them back together. I haven't really been front and center … so to get recognized by a publication like the Sports Business Journal was a thrill.”
In a way, inclusion on the list was the outside world recognizing Delgado for innovations she had led quietly within racing with relatively little fanfare.
Her formal title at Breeders' Cup is Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Officer, and if those sound like catch-all roles, it's because she juggles a wide range of tasks to make the event happen each year. Delgado's duties at Breeders' Cup include event logistics, operational set-up, coordinating with commissions and federal authorities, managing equine security, recruiting international competitors, promoting foal and stallion nominations, and overseeing the organization's Veterinary Panel and Field Selection Panel. Though many people may not realize it, it was Delgado who administers the Win and You're In Challenge Series which has become the dominant schedule-maker for summer racing.
All of this, from what was supposed to be a temporary job in 1983, the first year of Breeders' Cup. Delgado remembers taking on a role as administrative assistant for the organization when it was still housed in a few cramped rooms in the basement of the old Blood-Horse building in Lexington, Ky. The whole staff was just a handful of people then, and everybody did a bit of everything. She recalls sitting at the table in the kitchenette, helping D.G. Van Clief Jr., decide what to call the various divisions.
“We had a little bit of freedom because what we were doing was wholly original,” she said. “It was something that had never been done before, so it did give you a little bit of room to be inventive and creative and think outside the box.”
Still, Delgado admits few of them probably dreamed the event would grow in all the ways it did.
“We had really high hopes,” she said. “We knew it was a really good idea and so needed – a year-end championship to say, 'Here's the season-ending game.' The Super Bowl, the World Series, the Olympics all rolled into one … what we didn't anticipate, I don't think, was the long-lasting effect it would have on the racing schedules and racing calendars.”
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Delgado's grandfather had been a trainer, and the family often traveled to wherever he was on the circuit, so she knew the racing life. When she took the job with Breeders' Cup, she had just graduated from high school and was looking for summer employment. She had done clerical work at the local Thoroughbred auctions, but hadn't thought of racing as a career option – nor had she decided what she wanted to do. As Breeders' Cup grew, so did her position, providing her the chance to travel as she helped stimulate interest in the races from international contenders. At some point, the temporary role became her career path and she expanded it whenever she could.
“I'm a doer,” she said. “I've always been one to roll up my sleeves and get it done. The more responsibilities I take on, I like to have my hands in it.
“I think it's been critical to my success, my attitude along the way of taking more and more. Let me take that from you, I'll handle that, I'll do that. I say that to people all the time who come to me for advice and mentorship – don't stay in your corner. Go outside the lines. Take on more skills, learn to do other things. Be the person who volunteers each time. Not only does it give you a wide variety of skills, but it shows you're such a team player and you're helping everybody rise.”
While there are more women at the top in American racing than there used to be, it's not yet commonplace to see them in C-suite roles at major racing organizations or tracks. In the modern era, Delgado does believe women are treated differently than men, though she isn't sure there are many men in hiring positions who would consciously exclude a woman from advancing specifically or solely because of her gender. Delgado sees the ongoing gender disparity as coming from a different drive.
“Would it have taken a man 40 years to go from administrative assistant to chief racing officer? Probably not,” she said. “But there's a dirty little secret in all businesses that if you do a job especially well and you prove yourself invaluable in that position, there is a certain reluctance to move you out of that position because then who are they going to get to do that work.”
“I think it's probably a slower trajectory for women in this business, because she's so good at her job and what are we going to do if we don't have her there? I was really fortunate though, at Breeders' Cup. Pam Blatz-Murff, before she passed away, was a tremendous mentor to me and really gave me a lot of opportunities. Every president we've had has given me chances to advance. You've just got to be willing to take the leap and show you can do the job.”
That willingness to leap in at every opportunity does require Delgado to keep a lot of plates spinning at once. She jokes that she doesn't work 24/7, but 18/7 may be an accurate description – although she stresses those long hours are matched by a dedicated team.
Racing, alongside many other industries, is now having to face the fact that many people don't necessarily want 18/7 schedules. Delgado admits that it has come with sacrifices – time away from family being a big one. If anything, she hopes that the push toward remote work hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic will make it easier for new employees to commit to the weekend-heavy schedule that is working on a major stakes festival in racing. It has become more accepted now for people to catch up on weekend race results using smartphones while spending time with kids or spouses, or pursuing their own hobbies.
Delgado has her eye to the future. She is hopeful that more major events and tracks will begin using Breeders' Cup safety and integrity protocols as a base for their own best practices – something that has already begun happening. Also, at the age of 56, she is keenly aware that she needs to begin passing on her knowledge and perspective to the next round of industry professionals. That means making sure that people find a career at the Breeders' Cup as exciting as she did years ago when she realized that was her path.
“I know there's a lot of conversation in the industry about recycling people, that we just rehash the same ones over and over again,” she said. “There needs to be opportunities to learn from people, but there's also got to be equal opportunities to promote from within. You've got to prepare the way. You can't keep it at a certain age or a certain gender. If you don't keep expanding the ranks you won't have anybody left to try to take these jobs.
“It's very important that we create an environment that we're fostering younger minds and people that are going to take this over. It can't all rest in my head, it's got to be something that my racing staff and nominations staff and the whole company takes pride of ownership in.”
Delgado is hopeful the implementation of the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority (HISA) and continued efforts by racing stakeholders at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion can make people already in the sport feel good about trying to recruit young people to make their careers in it, too.
“I've been a little discouraged by the number of breeding families whose younger generations don't show a lot of interest in pursuing the sport and keeping it going,” she said. “We've got to keep building on the legacy those farms have created. If their younger families don't want to, we need to bring more people in. I love Thoroughbred racing. I don't want it to wither and die on the vine. It can't come down to two or three racetracks and three or four max trainers …
I think we're on the cusp of really revolutionizing Thoroughbred racing in a good way.”
It won't be the first revolution she has seen.
The post ‘Go Outside The Lines’: Game Changer Delgado Built Her Own Role At Breeders’ Cup appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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