Racing Symposium: Handle growth, lower fatalities, robust sales cause for optimism

Executives of the U.S. racing industry’s leading racetracks said at an afternoon panel at the Global Symposium on Racing that they see several reasons for optimism about the growth prospects of horse racing over the next several years, citing industry progress in reducing injuries and the growth of sports betting across the country.

The rosy comments seemed somewhat out of place for an industry that has been on the ropes for years due to high-profile medication scandals, catastrophic injuries, and the ongoing controversy over Medina Spirit, the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner who tested positive for a regulated medication after the Derby and who died one day prior to the symposium at the end of a workout. At the same time, however, racing handle numbers have grown for the past two years after a long period of stagnation, bloodstock values have increased, and, despite the headlines, overall fatality rates have declined over the past decade.

The executives on the panel, representing Del Mar, Keeneland, the New York Racing Association, and 1/ST, said that some of their optimism was rooted in the challenges that the industry has recently faced, including the coronavirus pandemic, which led many racetracks to improve their relationships with other industry constituencies, including horsemen, as they navigated an ever-changing environment in an effort to stay open for business.

“It’s amazing how horsemen, tracks, and racing fans stuck together through what might have been the most catastrophic event we all might have experienced,” said Craig Fravel, the president and CEO of 1/ST, the private company that owns Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Golden Gate, Laurel Park, and Pimlico Race Course. “So I have an enormous amount of hope and faith that we are going to build on that camaraderie and faith and build on that sense of purpose.”

Shannon Arvin, who became the president and CEO of Keeneland, a not-for-profit company, in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic, in late 2020, said that the upheaval forced the track to “find opportunities and overcome all kinds of challenges.”

“In some ways, it’s been liberating,” she said. “It’s taken us out of our comfort zone.”

It wasn’t just Arvin who was new to management at Keeneland. The track made numerous changes in its management ranks during the pandemic to bring in younger executives, and while the track still has not been able to return to its pre-pandemic days, with grandstands filled to capacity, she said that her staff is “energized” to capitalize on what she said was pent-up demand to be part of a sporting event.

“We have to seize this opportunity,” she said. “We’ve got to grow our sport. We’ve got to energize, invigorate, and grow the fan base. I am so tired of the narrative that the sport is dying. We have to change that to this sport is thriving.”

Josh Rubinstein, the president of Del Mar, also a non-profit, said that California racing interests have had to come together over the past three years in order to address widespread concerns over catastrophic injuries at racetracks in the state, pushing through new regulations and implementing new protocols. While many of the changes have faced pushback, at least temporarily, the fatality rate in California has been cut in half over the past two years, even if pushback from anti-racing groups in the state and elsewhere remains as strident as ever.

“We definitely have seen a change in our culture in California,” Rubinstein said.

Fravel, who has deep roots in California, echoed that view.

“It can’t be just a racetrack, it can’t be just a regulator, it can’t just be a horsemen’s group,” Fravel said. “It has to be everybody. The most important lesson we have learned in California is that you can make a difference.”

David O’Rourke, the president and CEO of NYRA, which is a not-for-profit that operates the state’s three major Thoroughbred tracks under a lease with the state, said that he sees the most growth opportunity for racing in the dramatic expansion of sports wagering in the United States. O’Rourke has been positioning NYRA’s mobile-betting operation to share space on sports-betting applications for several months, and has also expressed support for the establishment of fixed-odds betting on racing.

“Now is the time for us to become extremely aggressive,” O’Rourke said. “There are opportunities in front of us, including sports betting, which probably offer us a once-in-a-generation opportunity. … As these sports books grow, acquire customers, that’s just a huge distribution channel for us.”

The four panelists also expressed support for the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority, the national rule-making body that was created by legislation late in 2020 and is set to go into effect on July 1 of next year. Support for HISA is in no way unanimous in racing – several horsemen’s groups and state racing commissions have sued to prevent the authority from going into operation – but the racetrack executives contended that it represented the best opportunity for racing to demonstrate that it was serious about confronting critics of the sport’s practices.

“It’s not easy,” said Arvin. “And it’s not a silver bullet. It’s going to have to evolve. It’s not going to come out on July 1 and be what we all want it to be. But we have to do something different than what we have been doing for the past 40 years to take [racing] to the next level, to be a mainstream sport.”

Fravel contended that the “independent” aspects of HISA’s rule-making and enforcement activities would go a long way to countering critics who contend that racing is too fractured and insular to address its problems.

“The public is no longer willing to accept that lack of transparency, and spin doesn’t work like it used to,” Fravel said. “Let’s face it, you can’t paint dead in a good color. That color doesn’t exist.”