Keeneland's Arvin elected to chair of NTRA board of directors

Shannon Bishop Arvin, the chief executive officer and president of Keeneland, was elected chair of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s board of directors at a meeting on Thursday, according to the NTRA.

Arvin, who took the helm at Keeneland at the beginning of 2021, succeeds Bill Thomason, who was also Arvin’s predecessor at Keeneland. She is the first female chair of the NTRA’s board in the organization’s 23-year history. The board has 16 members, with several slots reserved for various racing constituencies that provide funding for the association.

Also at the meeting, Tom Rooney, the NTRA’s new president, informed the board that Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs have agreed to join the organization, according to the NTRA. Rooney also told the board that the association has identified an office space in Washington, D.C., that should be “fully operational” this summer.

Rooney is a former U.S. Congressman from Florida. The NTRA’s duties have increasingly involved lobbying the federal government on issues important to the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.