OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Horse racing has been slow to embrace technology and Joe Appelbaum believes that’s a problem. So, in deciding not to run for another term as president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association [NYTHA], Appelbaum, a football coach in his younger days, is going to try and tackle the issue of bringing more technology into the sport. “I really want to focus my time on kind of modernizing the way we think about horse racing as a sport,” Appelbaum said in a recent interview. “How does performance and health and safety of our athletes work with technology and what can we do to implement this stuff?” Appelbaum, 55, believes racing has modestly begun to delve into technology and how it can impact and enhance the industry. Simple tools like a GPS application on a phone paired with a heart monitor on a horse can give trainers more accurate information about a horse’s speed, stride, and heart rate during a workout or training session. “Each trainer gets an app for their phone. . . . You get a measurement of the horse’s heart rate throughout the workout, you get an electrocardiogram, and you get real time, accurate speed, and stride length and stride frequency information,” Appelbaum said. “This would be typical in any other track and field sport. You would never see an athlete go out without their heart rate monitor on. We’re just sort of catching up. “These are tools that are meant to assist trainers, not supplant them,” Appelbaum added. “I know there’s a lot of fear when technology comes in, but I think you’ve seen this in every other sport.” In 2022, NYTHA and the New York Racing Association started the Big Data Derby, a contest in which submissions regarding technology and horse racing are offered for a cash prize. Appelbaum noted that last year’s winning submission was an in-race predictor, similar to what Amazon Prime utilizes in its NFL coverage where, based on a defensive alignment, it can predict which defenders are going to blitz. In racing, the winning project came up with the capability of knowing which horse, more than three lengths from the lead, based on their in-race acceleration, had the best chance to win or be close, Appelbaum said. The runner-up submission, developed by a math teacher in Chicago, came up with a simple algorithm “that seems to pretty well show which days there’s an inside bias or an outside bias,” Appelbaum said. “We’ve been so siloed and so closed off about releasing our information that we’re not really keeping up with what’s available,” Appelbaum said. “It’s an open-sourced world out there of data and we need to be able to collect it, organize it, harness it, and then put it to use for us in a more collective and open-eyed sort of way. I think it’s very exciting.” Appelbaum, who has owned and/or pinhooked horses since 1999, is hoping to build on the relationships he’s developed during his six-year term as NYTHA president to advance his technology ideas. As NYTHA president, Appelbaum helped lower workman’s compensation insurance costs for horsemen by as much as 60 percent. “If I had sat here six years ago and I told you we’re going to lower worker’s comp by 60 percent you would have laughed at me,” Appelbaum said. “I would have laughed at myself. I was just hoping to hold it steady.” Appelbaum said costs came down due to focusing on rider safety, “particularly exercise riders, providing them better helmets, better vests, working with the outriders. Second, the company we brought in to handle our claims, Zurich, has been a really good partner.” Appelbaum had the unenviable task of following the popular and highly productive Rick Violette as NYTHA president in 2017. In addition to working on the worker’s comp issue, Appelbaum said he was proud of the way NYTHA helped navigate horsemen through COVID in 2020-21 and believes that also helped the horsemen forge a better working relationship with NYRA management led by Dave O’Rourke, the company’s president and CEO. “Typically – and New York is no different than many other states – the horsemen’s groups and the racetrack can have really contentious relationships and while we don’t agree all the time there’s a lot of give and take,” Appelbaum said. “But I think, especially under Dave’s leadership, we have a much more productive relationship. Ninety percent of the stuff we all agree on, let’s not spend all our time fighting on 10 percent. Let’s try to maximize the 90. I think the response to COVID broke down some barriers of mistrust.” Tom Morley, a New York trainer, praised the job Appelbaum did during his tenure. “I’ll be sorry to see Joe go. He’s done a fantastic job, represented the horsemen extremely well,” Morley said. “He played a pivotal role on workman’s comp and I’m happy to hear he’ll continue to assist with that.” NYTHA is in the process of holding elections for a new president and board positions. Tina Bond, an owner and the wife of trainer James Bond, and trainer Chad Summers are the two candidates for president. Five trainers and five owners will also be elected to the board. The election will be held on Dec. 27.