SEOUL, South Korea – Racing authorities around the world should collectively agree to unite behind principles of a “global brand” in order to protect the sport in the face of rapidly changing economies and the evolution of consumer tastes and spending patterns throughout the world, speakers at the Asian Racing Conference said during presentations on Tuesday, the opening day of the international forum. The term “global brand” was first brought up at the conference by Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the chairman of the Asian Racing Federation, following a detailed look at changing demographics around the world that had been presented by Bernard Salt, a founder of an international consulting firm. That data suggested racing needs to be fully cognizant of the way that aging populations in advanced economies and the rapid economic advancement of Asian territories – such as the country playing host to this year’s conference, South Korea – will produce sea changes in how consumers spend their money in a globalized economy. Engelbrecht-Bresges stressed that racing was in need of unifying around new core principles due to the rapid globalization of racing itself over the past decade, stressing that weaknesses in one jurisdiction can have spillover effects on the reputation of the sport in other territories. And his call for the unification suggested that racing needs to quickly shed its reputation as a “gambling game” in favor of an approach that emphasizes the sport as “leisure entertainment” based on changing consumer tastes. “The perception of our brand is dominated, in the view of many people, as gambling,” Englebrecht-Bresges said. “We have to change that perception if we want to reach out to the next generation.” Engelbrecht-Bresges presented the results of recent research showing that racing is now ranked 25th on a list of the most popular worldwide sports, but he said that it is possible to “reverse” that slide with a new emphasis. At the Hong Kong Jockey Club, that has meant focusing marketing efforts on younger customers by promoting racing as a social experience in which a day at the races is considered far more than an opportunity to bet. (To be clear, the HKJC has had recent large increases in handle due far more to the targeting of rebated computerized wagering teams than a shift in marketing.) “It’s very clear we have to broaden our fan base, and we clearly have to shift from gaming as the main brand to one of leisure entertainment,” he said. Engelbrecht-Bresges was not specific in his presentation on what principles would be used to unite racing jurisdictions around the world, which have differing cultural affinities and often disparate levels of per-capita gross domestic product. But he was very clear that the Asian Racing Federation views the “integrity of racing” as one of its core principles, and he specifically cited the use of “raceday medication” as one of the factors that would inhibit racing from moving forward under a united brand. The topic of raceday medication is raised frequently at international racing conferences as a point of pressure on the U.S. and Canada, the most prominent major racing jurisdictions in the world to allow for the raceday use of the diuretic furosemide to treat bleeding in the lungs of horses. While other racing jurisdictions continually hammer the U.S. on the policy, the debate over the raceday use of the drug shows no sign of being resolved in North America, where supporters and opponents have hardened into two camps that have each refused to give ground on the issue. Salt, the marketing consultant, said that all industries are coming to terms with the rapid ascent of the Asian nations – he called the nexus of emerging economies in the region the “fastest-growing wealth-generation region in history” – and he said that successful industries would pivot to capitalize on their growth. Specifically, he called attention to the rise in spending on luxury goods over the past several years, a growth category that typically serves as a leading indicator for increased leisure spending in the future. “When I look at what is growing, households are spending more on tailored, articulated, leisure activities,” Salt said. Racing could position itself to take advantage of that growth, Salt said, based on its core product, and he also said racing has a distinct advantage over other sports in that racing is often viewed as “inclusive,” with elements attractive to both men and women. But that view was also challenged indirectly by several other presentations later in the Tuesday program, which focused on increasing the diversity of the sport – in the executive suite, on the backstretch, and in the grandstand. Anna Seitz Ciannello, who is well known in the U.S. as the founder of the It’s All About the Girls racing syndicate, gave a presentation on her efforts to get more women involved in racing, and she stressed it is a segment of the market that racing has overlooked to its detriment. “I knew there were a lot of women who loved the horses and the excitement and pageantry, but they were all missing from the ownership side,” said Seitz Ciannello, who grew up on a farm outside of Lexington, Ky., and has worked in multiple jobs in the racing industry. “It seemed there was an enormous market that racing hadn’t tapped into.” Seitz Ciannello has turned that opportunity into a somewhat stunning success, with her syndicates already campaigning two multiple graded stakes winners, including the Australian champion Global Glamour, since she put her first all-women group together in 2012. That has led to entreaties from women around the world to form syndicates in their own countries, Seitz Ciannello said. Seitz Ciannello said she stresses to her potential partners that it is very difficult to make money racing horses, and so she instead focuses on the socialization aspects of the partnerships, in comments that echoed the remarks put forth by men earlier in the day. “This is more of a lifestyle decision, similar to joining a country club,” Seitz Ciannello said. Seitz Ciannello was followed by Megumi Ichiyama, the chief of staff for the publicity department of the Japan Racing Association, who was tasked in 2012 with increasing the levels of female attendance at JRA tracks. At the time, women represented only 14 percent of the customers at the JRA’s tracks. “The image of the racecourse was a place only for men,” said Ichiyama, speaking in English, her second language. “Even if females had an interest in racing, it was very hard for them to say, ‘I want to go to the racetrack’ in public.” Ichiyama gathered together a group women at the JRA who are in “their 20s and early 30s” as the sole members of her task force, and the team has since come up with marketing plans that have attempted to create a brand around the idea of “female horseracing fans” using the Japanese portmanteau Umajo, a combination of the word for horse and a shortened term for women. The same strategy has been used in Japan for female fans of baseball and sumo, she said. Over the past five years, the number of female fans has increased from the 14 percent number to 17 percent, Ichiyama said, perhaps due to the fact that young women were the driving force behind putting the campaign together. “It’s the same demographics as our target,” she said. She concluded her remarks by saying that if racing wants to attract women, then its programs need to be developed “by the ladies for the ladies.” While the presentations by Seitz and Ichiyama had encouraging takeaways, a presentation by Susannah Gill, a member of several task forces in the United Kingdom examining diversity in the country’s racing industry, had more sobering conclusions in an outline of the steps that racing needs to take so that its management and worker ranks more properly reflect the populations of its markets. Racing in Britain continues to be perceived as a “white rich man’s sport” despite the huge diversity of both its fans and the workers who are directly and indirectly employed by the industry, Susannah said. That may be because the upper management of the racing industry is in fact dominated by white rich men, according to Susannah. “Yet we rely on people who are not white, rich, or men,” Susannah said. To address that imbalance, UK racing groups have agreed to fund research on the issues underlying that lack of diversity and use the results to develop plans to address the imbalances. The research is due out in June, Susannah said, at which point the committees will come up with goals that the industry should attempt to attain along with the criteria that will be used to measure progress annually.  Racing will be better for it, Susannah said, because increasing the levels of diversity in the industry will send a signal to the next generation of workers that racing will give them opportunities to excel. “British racing needs to attract the brightest and best and retain them, in an economy with nearly full employment,” Susannah said. “We have to be seen as open for business.” (Editor’s note: The Korean Racing Authority, which is the host of the Asian Racing Conference, paid for the reporter’s travel to Seoul and hotel accommodations there.)