Race-day medication front and center at Pan American Conference

NEW YORK – Bring together a group of executives, administrators, and overseers of racing and breeding, and the topic of medication is bound to be front and center. So it was Friday at the inaugural Pan American Conference held in New York City on Thursday and Friday.

Much of the second half of the day’s agenda was devoted to medication, both existing enforcement worldwide as well as visions for a race-day medication-free world, notably in the U.S.

Insofar as U.S. interests are concerned, the major speech about the future of medication and racing was presented by Stuart Janney, vice chairman of The Jockey Club, which co-hosted the conference with the Latin American Racing Channel. More than 300 representatives from 27 countries attended.

As a follow-up to calls by The Jockey Club in recent years to ban the race-day use of the diuretic furosemide, Janney said The Jockey Club is still in favor of federal intervention. U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko plans to introduce the Thoroughbred Horse Racing Anti-Doping Act of 2015 to establish uniform standards for drugs and medication in Thoroughbred racing, a move The Jockey Club endorses, and it wants testing to be turned over to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“Our position is compelled by the situation we find ourselves in,” Janney said. “Our medication policies are inferior to the rest of the world. We are one of the few countries permitting race-day medication. Our fans are concerned about the integrity of the sport, and we are divided on exactly how to reform our medication policies.

“I will also add that while we are asking the federal government for help, USADA, our chosen solution, is not a government entity and works very effectively with many private enterprises from the Olympics to major-league sports. The Jockey Club – acting on our belief that horses should only compete when free from the influence of medication – introduced in 2011 the Reformed Racing Medication Rules to provide a national medication rulebook to keep our equine and human athletes healthy and safe.”

Janney said the lack of progress on uniform medication rules being adopted in all 38 racing jurisdictions leaves the sport little choice but to push for outside intervention. He said all polling on medication shows the public wants race-day medication to be abolished.

“Two recent national surveys conducted by Penn Schoen Berland, a Washington, D.C.-based market research firm, show that 98 percent of horse-racing bettors, 96 percent of occasional horse-racing fans, 91 percent of animal welfare supporters, and 91 percent of likely voters support national uniform medication rules,” he said.

“Bettors, who are the lifeblood of our industry, understand the value of an independent, science-based organization to ensure racing integrity. By a 15 to 1 margin, bettors say they bet less when they believe there is performance-enhancing drug use, and 77 percent believe there is.

“This is why Dinny Phipps, chairman of The Jockey Club, announced last August The Jockey Club’s intention to pursue federal legislation. We think that a relationship with an independent and well-respected body like USADA can bring credibility, integrity, and objectivity to our sport.”

Preceding Janney to the podium was Mayra Frederico, equine veterinarian and manager of races at Jockey Club Brasileiro in Brazil, who talked about the medication policies in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, and Mexico. The countries have collectively worked on a ban of race-day medication in all black-type races for years and have effectively eliminated it this year. It was phased out over several years, and Frederico reported that the affected black-type races did not see a drop in average number of starters when race-day medication was banned.

“The message,” Frederico said, “is that if we can do it, you in the U.S. can do it, too.”

Earlier in the day, both David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is based in Montreal, and Louis Romanet, chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, called for international adoption of medication-free racing and stricter testing of horses worldwide.

The WADA, which gets its funding from both private and public sources, is the leading organization for drug testing in the world, though U.S. sports do not participate. The IFHA has been the leading proponent in Thoroughbred racing for medication-free racing, and, as Romanet noted, “Betting is based on integrity, so it is essential to have clean activity in racing.”

Frank Stronach, head of The Stronach Group, was the keynote speaker for the day. In an extemporaneous talk, he spoke about his goals for racing, one of which is medication-free racing, something he has promoted for several years.

“The most important thing in any business is integrity,” Stronach said. At Stronach Group tracks, “our top priority is to eliminate any cheating. Race-day medication should be a no-no. This should start with 2-year-olds, and there is no reason we can’t start this in 2016. Older horses you can phase out of the system.”

The first panel on Friday was on jockeys and the worldwide phenomenon of Latin American jockeys, with the discussion moderated by Dr. Rita Rocca of HRU, Maronas, and she talked with John Velazquez, Ramon Dominguez, and Chris McCarron.

In making the transition from Latin America to the U.S., both Velazquez and Dominguez said communication with trainers is a key, and they did not really get a foothold in their profession until they learned English. It took Velazquez 1 1/2 years before he could speak English.

“Communication is important to explain to a trainer how they can improve the horse,” Velazquez said. “If you don’t have that communication, it’s not going to take you anywhere.”

Said Dominguez, “My mother was an English teacher in Venezuela, but I did not want to learn English from her and did not learn any till I got to Florida. For a jockey to be successful, they need to learn finances, nutrition, and have communication skills. That will help them in their career and afterward.”

McCarron also talked about the need for good communication, and said that if a jockey cannot tell a trainer how the horse did, he will not have the confidence of the trainer and might not get a return call on the horse. McCarron also gave his thoughts about whipping and said he would like to see racing executives address this issue.

“The use of the crop has been a controversial topic in recent years,” McCarron said. “I’d like to see judicious use of the whip and would like to see stewards come up with rules regarding use of the whip. I’d like to see authorities much more strict and tell jocks to put the whip away if the horse is beaten.”

Another Friday session was devoted to a discussion of customer service and what racing media companies are doing to take advantage of new technologies and meeting the demands of new customers in terms of delivery of information and services.

Kip Levin, chief executive of U.S. Betfair, owner of TVG, said he has seen a strong increase in mobile access to TVG’s services, which now accounts for half of its broadband traffic, and that mobile is the only way to reach a younger audience.

Levin also noted that after the purchase of HRTV by TVG, TVG has provided a 20 percent increase in live races across the two networks in the past two months.

Richard Cheung, from the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the moderator of the panel, said 35 percent of his racing organization’s handle now comes via mobile, and 25 percent via PC. He noted that all the growth for the racing club today comes from mobile, and the HKJC spends about 40 percent of its marketing money on nonracing media for customer acquisition.

John Hartig, chief executive of the Daily Racing Form, talked about how a 120-year-old company is making the transition from being a newspaper to a digital company by offering its core products – past performances and news – through mobile, desktop, and tablets, as well as changing the news cycle to provide actionable content in real time.

“Our plan is reinvention of the customer experience,” Hartig said. “We want to cultivate new players, help existing players make intelligent bets, and we put the player first in everything we do. We have to treat racing as a game, which it is. It’s fun, and we need to treat it that way.”

Hartig noted that tournaments, a relatively new and increasingly larger business for DRF, has proven to be a good source of new players, as some 25 percent of the tournament players say they are new to racing.

The desire of bettors to receive critical information close to a race is what prompted the development of DRF Live a little over a year ago, Hartig noted.

“Eighty-five percent of handle comes within five minutes to post,” Hartig said. “People want timely information.”

In the morning session, former NBA Commissioner David Stern spoke about sports and marketing and about issues racing should address. For that article, click here.