Horse Racing Women's Summit scheduled for Sept. 28-30 at Santa Anita

Networking for women currently working in or hoping to break into the racing industry, and empowerment to make changes on a personal or grassroots level, will be two of the themes for the inaugural Horse Racing Women’s Summit, set for Sept. 28-30 at Santa Anita.

In a wide-ranging conversation, members of the planning committee behind the event acknowledged that the racing industry has many strides to make regarding inclusivity, and that its own group will continue to work on diversity and accessibility for this and future events, but hopes that the summit is a starting point for conversations, rather than a single event in itself.

"I've always felt, having built a start-up before at Grand Slam and working with a start-up at MyRacehorse, I think that perfection is the enemy of progress," said Shona Rotondo, co-founder of the Grand Slam Social marketing group and currently head of marketing for the micro-share racehorse partnership. Rotondo, and her fellow members of the committee planning the inaugural summit, hope that the event will lead to continued networking for women in racing – either at upcoming events organized by this committee around major racing events, which are currently under discussion, or at smaller meet-ups organized by the participants themselves.

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"I think that we all came together, and we're not trying to make this perfect the very first year, but we know what needs to be done,” Rotondo said. “We wouldn't want to prevent creating something like this, an opportunity for everyone to come together, because we're spending so much time defining exactly what it is. I think that at the very core, it's an opportunity to connect women and create a network that doesn't exist right now.”

The idea for the summit was born when owner Stephanie Hronis, in her work with the Thoroughbred Owners of California board, organized luncheons for women at Del Mar. She got feedback from attendees that they would welcome opportunities to meet and network with others.

"There's a lot of amazing women currently in the industry working really hard that it would be great to recognize them and give them a seat at the table and give them the opportunity to network -- and there's ones wanting to get in the industry," Hronis said. "So it went from there."

Hronis became the committee chair of a planning group that also includes Jodie Vella-Gregory, director of the office of innovation at 1/ST Racing, which is hosting the summit at its Santa Anita Park, and which is a presenting sponsor for the event, along with FanDuel TV. East Coast-based Rotondo joining the group was key, as the organization, which has tickets priced at $475 for the weekend, hopes to make inroads outside of California, and perhaps to hold other events in the future.

“It started out as a California initiative, so there was that discussion of, do we take it outside of California, can we do this East Coast to West Coast?” Hronis said. “So once we really spent some time on that and identifying our goals and our mission, we decided, definitely, let’s do that with connecting the two coasts, bringing in the various racing jurisdictions, and having the summit and in the future, also going outside of California.”

The inaugural summit kicks off with a welcome reception on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 28, before the bulk of the programming takes place on Thursday, Sept. 29. That day's programming begins with a keynote address from Susan Packard, the first woman to join the board for directors for Churchill Downs, Inc. The day also includes three panels, with the titles "Thriving Through Challenges," "Looking Ahead: Opportunities for the Industry," and "Industry Integrity and a Brighter Future." While the panelists are women, the summit topics are intended to appeal to all. Spotlighting women’s voices, which may be marginalized in some areas of the industry, is presented as an opportunity to grow racing rather than giving in to the self-fulfilling prophecy of hegemony.

“There’s a trickle effect that comes from the top down when it’s all guys,” Rotondo said. “Just because the industry has more men involved doesn’t mean we should create marketing materials that appeal to men more. … Why wouldn’t we invest in bringing more women into the game? It’s a great game to be a part of. … I think growing females as owners in the game is really important, and the best people to do that are women who are already in the industry who know how we think.”

The summit concludes on Friday, Sept. 30, opening day of Santa Anita's fall meeting, featuring a handicapping seminar with Christina Blacker of FanDuel TV. Santa Anita simulcast host Michelle Yu will serve as emcee for the event.

The welcome reception, as well as breakfast, lunch, and dinner events, will provide opportunities to network more informally. Rotundo hopes that women will be inspired by one another and will learn from their various intersectional experiences – for example, learning about issues that impact women on the backstretch versus the front side of racing, or learning about challenges women of color face, specifically – which will then motivate women to work to make changes on an individual level.

"I think awareness is the first part, and then if we have these conversations, [for example], going back to my role at MyRacehorse as someone who is a leader at that company, I can say, 'OK, we really need to focus on diversification, we need to focus on inclusivity, what are our efforts going to be to make that happen?'” Rotondo said.

“The first step is awareness, and the second step is action. We don't have to wait until we present a perfect plan as the women's summit [platform] .... It's on us to bring everyone together to discuss everything that needs to happen, and then empower and inspire everyone to go back and say, 'OK, at my organization, here are the moves I'm going to make, here are the steps I'm going to take.' "

Continuing on, both with immediate actions and with future meet-ups and discussions, will be the next challenge both for summit attendees and for the planning committee.

“I think when we started talking about this, one of my biggest concerns was [that] things like this tend to fizzle in the racing world,” Vella-Gregory said. “I think by the end of the summit, our goal is to have a plan of where we’re going from here, what we’re going to do … how we’re going to engage people, be it East Coast, West Coast, [in between], all over racing. … We’re just going to have to keep it going. This has to stay moving to have the most growth.”