Tag: My RTIP Story

California Retirement Management Account (CARMA) executive director Lucinda Lovitt remembers a time when a career in the Thoroughbred racing industry was the furthest thing from her mind.

An Arizona native who grew up riding competitively on the show circuit, what she remembers from her early work with horses was her passion for the animals, and her passing disdain for a sport with an often-maligned public reputation.

“I think like most young girls who end up riding horses, I became fascinated with them at a very young age,” said Lovitt. “I was seven when I started taking riding lessons, having nagged my parents enough into a summer camp package. That led to more serious riding, and I did that competitively from the time I was seven until I finished college competing primarily in Arizona and all over the southwest.”

The University of Arizona was the only college choice for Lovitt, whose family now boasts four generations of graduates. As an animal lover, her plan from the jump had been to take the pre-veterinary track, but it was soon clear that path wasn't exactly what she wanted.

“I was sure that I wanted to be a horse vet,” said Lovitt. “Then I looked at the first semester course load for pre-vet, and I thought, 'Maybe this is not for me.'

“I was actually introduced to racing through my connections in riding because I rode at the same barn of Wendy Davis, the former director of the Racetrack Industry Program. I didn't know what to do for my major and it was at a horse show that Wendy said, 'You should take my intro to racing class that I teach.' I kind of scoffed at the time and said, 'Oh, horse racing is horrible Wendy, you know that, and we all know they're mean to their horses.' But she was firm, and she said, 'Just take my class and tell me what you think.' I had no major, no idea what I wanted to do, so I took her class, and I was fascinated by it. So, I took another class and another and another …”

Four and a half years from that first class, Lovitt was set to graduate from the RTIP. The only missing component was her internship, a critical piece of the program that she had yet to complete. At the time, Lovitt was still convinced that her future career would lead her away from racing, despite her continued interest in the sport.

“I was still riding and competing, but I hadn't done and internship with the RTIP which is a big component of the program,” said Lovitt. “Finally, Wendy said, 'I'll set you up, but you need to do an internship. You can go to Turf Paradise, go up there for the last three months of their meet, and hop through all the departments.' So that's what happened. But while I was up there, a job posting came into the office for Thoroughbred Owners of California which was looking for an owner's liaison. Wendy called me and said, 'I have the perfect job for you in racing.'

“I was still thinking that I wasn't going to work in racing, that I was going to go back to Tucson to work for my dad. But Wendy told me that a woman from TOC was coming to town, and she wanted me to interview with her. I said yes, but I didn't take it at all seriously. I didn't have my resume so while I was at Turf Paradise, I had to recreate it from memory and fax it off to them. Then I was late to the interview because I couldn't find parking and my parking permit had expired … it was a comedy of errors, but I got the job. They flew me to California, I met with John Van de Kamp, the president of TOC. I was 22 and it was the scariest thing I'd eve done in my life. I took the job, left the internship halfway through, packed up my stuff and I moved to California. That's how I got into horse racing – completely unintentionally.”

Lovitt spent 14 years with TOC moving up the ranks from assistant liaison to taking on more and more responsibility in the organization. The skills that she had been taught at the RTIP — the same skills that had once seemed so abstract — were indispensable in helping her build relationships with colleagues and horseman in her adopted state of California.

“The longer I was at TOC, I went from assisting owners to licensing and other basic tasks, to managing programs and committees working with the board, negotiating race meet agreements between horsemen and racetracks, and providing support to board members working with conditions or house rules, etc.,” said Lovitt. “If I hadn't had classes that made us create a fictitious two-week condition book, I wouldn't have been able to work through that effectively.

“Those classes helped me feel like I had the basic knowledge of the racing industry, in particular on the business side. For someone who isn't a gambler and who is not someone who comes from a history of racing, those business classes were critical. For my job, I needed to understand what simulcasting was, what takeout was, what a condition book was and how to build one. Until you get into a job and are working it in real time, things you learn in the classroom are theoretical. What you learn in the job is so much more than what you learn in the classroom, but the RTIP is a well-rounded introduction into what racing really is. It's a niche business and this program fits that. You have the opportunity in the RTIP to dive in as deep as you want to dive.”

While Lovitt's passion for the industry of racing grew, she never forgot her first love: the horse.

In 2007, after a conversation with Thoroughbred owner and advocate Madeline Auerbach, Lovitt helped found CARMA, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which raises money for retired racehorses.

“The nomenclature we use now to talk about aftercare did not exist before Madeline and I and the board members at TOC started talking about what to do with horses once they're finished racing,” said Lovitt. “It really started as a conversation with Madeline saying, 'I have a stakes-winning gelding, Lennyfrommalibu, who is retired and I'm not sure what to do with him. He earned me a lot of money and he gave us so much. I want to do right by him, but do we have anything in place for him?' We realized if Madeline didn't know what to do, then none of us knew.

“She found him a home, but she knew she was in a position where she had more resources than others and it was still hard to find somewhere he would be safe and cared for. She knew that there were a lot of people who could not afford to do that. From that point we started working to fix that problem, and aftercare really grew into its own industry organically.”

As the system for aftercare expanded, Lovitt eventually left TOC in 2011 to work for CARMA full-time. While she loved her time with the TOC, Lovitt says she's incredibly proud of her work with the non-profit and their efforts to make aftercare a more prevalent part of the racing conversation — a gift she would never have found if she hadn't found racing.

“I'm really grateful that I was in on the ground floor of the movement and of it becoming the important piece of the conversation that it is today,” said Lovitt. “It's valued by the industry and I'm grateful to have been a part of that revolution and to watch that evolution. We have a long way to go, but from where we started, we have made so much progress.

“I stumbled into this. I didn't have a passion for it, my parents weren't really fans, and I didn't know anyone in the industry. It just happened that I knew someone who was teaching classes at the RTIP, and it ended up working out fabulously. I've been blessed to work with so many amazing individuals in my career and I think that is the great thing about racing. It puts up in contact with people we otherwise wouldn't get to interact with, and that is invaluable.”

The post My RTIP Story: College Program Pivots Lovitt’s View On Racing, Leads To Key Role In Aftercare appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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There is an old adage in American society that says, “you can never go home again.” It's a saying that speaks of nostalgia, how the places and the memories we made in childhood are always cast in a rosier hue than reality remembers.   

But sometimes, just sometimes, home is exactly how one remembers it and the places and the things we learned to love as children thrill us even more as adults.  

Andrew Offerman is one of the lucky few in Thoroughbred racing whose career led him right back to the racetrack to the place he fell in love with racing. 

“I didn't expect I would come back, and I was open to pretty much any opportunity,” said Offerman, who grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis and now works as the senior vice president of racing at Canterbury Park. “It just so happened that things transpiring around the time made it possible to come home, and those same changes helped me progress into the role I'm in today.”  

It was at Canterbury Park where Offerman first discovered racing through his grandmother and aunt, who owned and ran horses out of the Minnesota track.   

“I was at the races with them from a young age and I enjoyed everything that went into race days and the excitement that it brought,” said Offerman. “I have pictures of me in the winner's circle from when I was just a couple years old. My aunt still races horses, but my grandmother passed about 10 years ago.   

“Those times were what spurred my interest in the track, but that was really my only true exposure to racing though through high school and even college. It was just what I knew as my home track. I started working at Canterbury as an intern in 2005 doing media and PR. I did that throughout undergrad while I was going to school at Gustavus Adolphus College.

“For whatever reason, I was captivated by horse racing in general. I did a lot of journalism work as an undergraduate and I was heavily involved in my college newspaper, so I always found the tack to be a fascinating microcosm of society. I loved the totality of the track and all the experiences you could have there. But not having much exposure to the industry outside of Canterbury, I didn't really have a broad perspective about what kinds of opportunities were out there.” 

Upon graduating with his undergraduate degree, Offerman found himself — as so many young people do — not quite settled in terms of where his professional life would take him. While he tooled around with professional programs like law school and other continuing education opportunities, he found the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program and was hooked.   

“Hearing about the RTIP, I knew I was interested because it was an opportunity to get that full picture of what the industry had to offer and it was the chance to get a master's degree while learning more about an industry that I was passionate about,” said Offerman. “It was the natural step to blend my skills and interests. Knowing how niche the industry can be within even the states it participates in, it seemed like the best place to get a broad perspective of how it all works.” 

True to his hopes, the RTIP provided Offerman with a plethora of networking opportunities and a broad swath of skills. What he wanted from the program, he discovered, was the kind of opportunity — the kind of job — that would allow him to work behind the scenes creating the experience that so many racegoers crave. It was the kind of job in the industry that could be parlayed into a career at any track across the country, and could possibly require him to relocate once the program had ended.

“I knew I wanted to be on the operational side of the business,” said Offerman. “I'm fascinated by the business itself and especially how the facilities work.”

Offerman's internship took him to Belmont Park and Saratoga, where some of the grandest racing in the country takes place. But after four months in New York, with his internship complete and his degree in hand, the opportunity Offerman had been hoping to find was in the exact place he had left; home in Minnesota as the live racing coordinator for Canterbury Park.

“There was, I think, an understanding in the RTIP that opportunities can be few and far between based solely on the number of racetracks that are out there,” said Offerman. “It just happened to work out that I was able to come back. I'm one of the fortunate few that gets the chance to live and work where they grew up, but also where they first experienced horse racing which is really, really cool. Any time you have an opportunity to go home in this industry you have to be grateful.”

In the decade since he joined the Canterbury Park team, Offerman has climbed several rungs on the ladder to arrive where he is now as senior vice president of racing operations.

“The way the RTIP helps you is two-fold,” explained Offerman. “The broad experience of the different things you go to see and participate in is unique. You receive a wide breadth of knowledge in the industry which presents itself in terms of opportunities to show employers and coworkers that you could do a lot of different things and contribute to the overall organization.

“There is also an amazing network that you establish early on in your career. If you take advantage of that during the program you can leave with an amazing catalog of people who can be very helpful in getting information to you and that can connect you to people you don't know in short order. In a complicated industry with a lot of moving pieces, and where things can sometimes go wrong, that is invaluable.”

While he credits the RTIP for the connections he made in establishing a career at home, Offerman was additionally lucky during his time in Arizona to meet his partner, Jen Perkins, who works as the Veterinarian Services Director for the Stronach Group and is also a graduate of the program.

Back where it all started, Offerman counts himself lucky to spend his days at the track that started it all for him and works to create that same sense of excitement and anticipation for Canterbury Park patrons that helped him fall in love with the sport.

“When people visit a racetrack, they can connect the dots in terms of thinking, 'OK, there is the stable and those are the people who take care of the horses. Here I can also see the kind of day-to-day work that goes into getting a horse ready for the races.' That is maybe not completely intuitive, but people have a cursory understanding of that,” said Offerman. “But when you look at trying to understand what goes in to getting those horses to the races, coming up with how races are put together, how information gets to the public, how wagering transpires, what actually goes on to putting on the show each day including asking the question, how do we get people to come out and ensure they have a good time? … All of those facets of the industry are a unique blend of gambling.

“It's like a minor league sport operation and that's always been fun for me to think about. It's not just about horse care or gambling, it's about how the pieces come together to entertain and ensure horse people putting on the show are getting the most out of the experience, that the horses are being put in the best conditions to be safe and successful, and that we're doing all we can to create a fun environment and ensuring people come back. It's a way to help expose new customers to the sport, to the same kid that I was at one point, and to have the opportunity to create a life-long fan. Making sure that the whole model works is what really appeals to me.”

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As the general manager of content management solutions for NYRA (New York Racing Association), Joe Longo understands a thing or two about what it takes behind the scenes to keep racing running.

“What I do is business development for NYRA, and I represent 16 different racetracks in buying and selling content on their behalf, including NYRA,” said Longo. “That's the negotiation of host fees, wagering initiatives, post-time coordination — which is of course everyone's favorite subject — and I'm also on the board of the TRA (Thoroughbred Racing Associations) and the TRPB (Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau). The great thing about NYRA is there is a small team so there is a lot of collaboration, but there is a lot going on.”

As busy as he is today, it would be hard to imagine that Longo once struggled to find a job, any job, in racing.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Longo's first exposure to racing came from his uncles, who he recalls as having questionable childcare tactics.

“Basically, my uncles are horrible babysitters,” joked Longo. “They would drag me to the Meadowlands with them despite my parents saying, 'This might not be the best idea.' And then, when summer rolled around, we'd go to Monmouth Park, and I just absolutely fell in love with it.”

But as enamored as Longo was of the sport, he didn't exactly feel the love in return. With no family or connections with direct ties to the industry, there seemed little chance that he would be admitted to the club. While he remained an avid fan, Longo moved into different professional circles, leaving racing on the back burner.

“I always wanted to be involved with racing, but I grew up in in inner city New Jersey in Elizabeth, and it was a pipe dream,” said Longo. “I went to state schools, first Rutgers then Rider. I graduated with a background, my undergrad is accounting, and I worked in auditing and did my MBA in finance.

“After I'd been in public accounting for about 12 or 13 years, I kept thinking about racing and I finally told myself, 'I'm going to do this.' At some point you need to bet on yourself. I had spoken to several tracks out here and offered to work for free, but I didn't get the opportunity. So, my thought was, 'I will show you why I'm worth the full-time head count.' That's when I found the RTIP (Race Track Industry Program).”

Accepted into the RTIP's two-year master's program at the University of Arizona, Longo packed up everything he knew and made the long cross-country drive to The Grand Canyon State in pursuit of what he felt would be the best opportunity to get his foot in racing's door.

“It was like another world because I'd never been to Arizona before,” said Longo. “It couldn't have been more different, and I drove across the country to get there.”

As soon as he quashed his culture shock, Longo discovered that the RTIP was the perfect location to build his skills in business to apply them to the racing industry model.

“I knew that the business side was where I wanted to be,” said Longo. “Being an auditor, you audit a lot of companies across many industries, and you realize how a business shouldn't be run. When I came into racing, I viewed everything differently. I found that the best path forward for me was still in business while having the goal of one day being the CEO or something equivalent of a racetrack.

“We learned so much. Doug Reed was there my first year as the racing secretary from Arlington and he brought so much experience. We also had Liz Bracken, who was great, and it was just one big family. People were so willing to give me an opportunity and I know that that is all I ever wanted. I just wanted a shot.

Along the way, Longo built up his network of colleagues and contacts and to his surprise, found that the doors to Thoroughbred racing weren't actually closed, they just required the necessary password.

“In those two years in the program I worked in the racing office at NYRA with Martin Panza, so I lived on the backstretch at Belmont Park, I worked in the office in the morning, and I also went out to Saratoga,” he said. “I became close with another RTIP graduate named Sean Perl, who was our assistant racing secretary at that time. When I was trying to line something up for after the program, he just made one call over to Monmouth Park and they offered me a job in the racing office sight unseen. It was during my time with them that a spot then opened with NYRA, so I negotiated with them and then moved back over to New York.”

Longo's status as a relative outsider who doggedly paved his way from the periphery of the industry to its heart remains one of his greatest strengths. On top of that, his experiences as an avid and active fan have allowed him to apply new methods of action to a business that can sometimes be unwilling to let go of its traditions.

“It's great to have people out of the RTIP who aren't born into the industry per se, because sometimes I think when you are, it's easy to fall into a group think mentality,” said Longo. “When you come from a different background, a new set of eyes always help. In racing there are a lot of people that know racing and there are a lot of people that know business, but they can't always marry the two. I'm also a horseplayer, so I understand the gripes and the outcries customers have because I am one of them. My work has been great in that regard because I get it.”

In his work at NYRA, Longo has found a fulfilling career that he continues to approach each day with the same childish enthusiasm he first found with his uncles on their trips to the racetracks of New Jersey. He continues to credit the RTIP as the key to his success in the industry, without which he might have never found his way in.

“The RTIP is instant credibility. It's the rubber stamp of the industry approval,” said Longo. “It didn't just open doors, it blew them apart. You go from knocking on the front door of the industry and within two years you're at the dinner table asking for seconds.

“But when it really comes down to it, my favorite part of the work I do now is the people. My coworkers aren't just coworkers. They're my friends. I love racing, I love the organization, and I'm passionate about the work I do and the people I work with. I don't know what it is but horse people, racetrack people are a unique breed. To be able to come to the track and deal with fans who are like the types of people I grew up with and to work with other people who share my passion for this sport—it is phenomenal.”

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In the decades since Ann McGovern made her first professional foray into the Thoroughbred horse racing, the New Jersey native and avid horse lover has seen the industry pass through several iterations.

A racetrack manager for much of her career, McGovern has weathered the highs and lows of racing, acquired a lifetime of experience in navigating its politics, and helped build and institute change that she hopes will bring about a better future for the sport. Throughout it all her passion for racing, its people, and most especially its animals — a passion that began on the horse farms of her childhood — remains unwavering.

McGovern's history with horses started in her home state of New Jersey. Growing up in The Garden State, she took riding lessons early and eventually began showing hunter/jumpers.

“I've loved horses since I was a little kid,” said McGovern. “But in high school, I worked at a racehorse farm as a hot walker, a groom, and an exercise rider. That was what first piqued my interest in racing.”

With no direct ties in her family to racing, it was a friend of McGovern's father with interest in Standardbreds who approached her about a program at the University of Arizona called the Race Track Industry Program. Having graduated from West Virginia University, the program was exactly what McGovern needed to open doors in racing.

“When I went into the program, I wasn't sure where it would take me,” said McGovern. “That being said, as I went through the program and met more and more people in racing, I naturally gravitated toward management.”

In 1988, fresh from the RTIP, McGovern was hired by DeBartolo Sports & Entertainment Corporation as the assistant director for public relations and marketing at Louisiana Downs.

“I started in the marketing department at Louisiana Downs and worked in the press box there,” said McGovern. “I have some great stories about those days when the press box was full of writers from all different publications. It was such a fun and exciting time.”

She would stay with the company for 11 years, moving into a role as assistant director of operations for Remington Park and then into the position of director of operations for the same Oklahoma track.

“The RTIP gave me the foundation to understand a lot of the different aspects of racing from how a racing office runs to mutuels, to even the Breeders' Cup,” said McGovern. “At the time I was studying, the Breeders' Cup hadn't come into play and was just surfacing as a possibility. Studying the plan for the Breeders' Cup, how it would be structured, and how it would affect racing gave me a lot of insight. It also gave me a good foundation regarding the importance of simulcasting, marketing your signal, and how that can really help purses and generate revenue. These are things you really can't learn anywhere else, and they gave me a head start when I did get my first position at a racetrack. I didn't come in completely blind, and I have been in racing management ever since.”

After leaving Remington Park, McGovern took the position as vice president of operations for Sam Houston Race Park, which she held for 13 years. She later became president of Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico before deciding to step into semi-retirement.

But the choice to move racing to the periphery didn't last long, and McGovern was soon knee deep in projects to renovate and revitalize struggling tracks.

“I did project work for friends of mine in racing which included Kentucky Downs and Arizona Downs,” said McGovern. “Arizona Downs was a great project. The owners purchased the old Yavapai Downs, which had stood vacant for 10 years and had a roof that leaked. We renovated that entire facility, which I absolutely loved doing and we got racing up and going again in Prescott Valley. That was a really satisfying project to work on for me.

“From there, I was contacted by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and jumped at the opportunity to be involved with something that I think will be really good for racing.”

Created when the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act was signed into law in December of 2020, HISA is an independent, self-regulatory organization designed to ensure the integrity of Thoroughbred horse racing as well as the safety of its horses and jockeys using national standards. Overseen by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the hope is that through the authority will be empowered to implement new standards of action that including anti-doping, medication control, and racetrack safety programs.

With so much for the industry at stake, McGovern finds she continues in her capacity as the director of racing safety for HISA to draw on the experiences she gained in the RTIP and later applied with aplomb when at the helm of racetracks around the country.

“The things I learned in the RTIP have stayed with me throughout my career,” said McGovern. “My experience in racetrack management and being hands on in so many areas of racing allow me to understand other people's points of view— like walking in someone else's shoes every day. I know what it's like to be a groom and to be an exercise rider, to park cars and to be a mutuel teller, and I equally know what it's like to manage a racetrack.  Once you understand and appreciate all those positions and their perspectives it is a lot easier to work with people and bring them to the table.

“The racing business model is very, very different from other models. To be successful in racing, you must understand that model. It's not perfect, and it's not easy to understand. There are so many factions that rely on one source of income, and everyone is vying for a piece of that. Understanding how all of that works and in turn how to maximize that revenue is not a concept that is generally taught.

“Consensus building is one of the most necessary and most difficult things I've found in racing. You must appreciate that everyone's job affects everyone else's job directly. You need to understand and appreciate that reality. I think that a collective effort is needed in racing to maximize the sport to make it as grand as it once was and as loved by the public as it once was. To do that, we must come together. I hope that HISA becomes more of a consensus building enterprise. It is a regulator, but we want to be a positive force in racing and to improve safety and integrity in the sport. It's tricky, but there are a lot of groups that have made significant progress into making this a reality. HISA wants to build on those successes.”

With a new chapter of her career already started McGovern continues to advocate for the RTIP and the students that choose to pursue a life in the industry. With the need for cooperation across racing more imperative than ever, she's encouraged not only by the enthusiasm for the sport she sees from RTIP graduates, but their passion for what truly keeps racing running.

“When I talk students, what I see is that they all have a passion for the horse,” said McGovern. “It's not simply about running a racetrack. There are those that love racing, those that love breeding, those that want to be trainers … and that's great for them because they're constantly interacting with other students who have different interests in the sport. Being able to see those other sides and hear those other perspectives is a gift the program gives to all their students.

“There are so many different jobs and racing, and everyone has to do those jobs well for everyone to be successful. It's a purely collaborative sport. But no matter what area of racing you want to be involved in, you must go out and see a horse as often as you can. They are the key to this sport and there is not a bad day that can't be made better with a trip to the stables.”

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