THE ASPIRING HORSEPLAYER

What a week it’s been!  I’m officially back from Las Vegas after attending the NTRA Marketing Summit where members of the fan-based online task force I was a proud member of presented our 48 page report.  The intent of the report was to assist in developing a strategic marketing plan to position the sport to new and emerging audiences. 

Before I go any further, I’d like to take a brief moment to acknowledge the folks I’ve had the honor of working with over the last 6 weeks.  It’s hard to believe we came up with this stuff in just 6 weeks time – and in our “spare time” at that as we all have day jobs and other responsibilities.  I’ve only briefly mentioned some of these people before, so let me express my absolute thanks to the following people:

• Dana Byerly
• Jessica Chapel
• Norma Jean Fullmer
• Lisa Grimm
• Alan Mann
• John & Bev Passerello (of Passarello Thoroughbreds)
• Patrick Patten
• Dr. Troy Racki

I’ve also got to give a major hat-tip to the wonderful folks over at SocialSphere Strategies, and in particular John Della Volpe and Jonathan Chavez.  Let me just say that the word “brilliant” doesn’t begin to do these guys justice.  If you ever get the chance to meet them, trust me – you’ll see what I mean.  I should point out that Chavez was one of the lucky few who actually picked Da’ Tara on Belmont Day.  See- I told you these guys were smart!

The week started off in rather humorous fashion.  Having not met any of my teammates before, I decided I’d sport a baseball cap of my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide (“roll tide!”) during my flight to Vegas to help stick out like a sore thumb.  After all, how many ‘Bama fans could there be in Vegas?  Perhaps I should’ve looked at my flight itinerary a bit closer as I was unaware that I’d have a quick layover in Birmingham.  The result of said layover was that I was now 1 of roughly 100 people departing my flight in Vegas in Crimson Tide gear.  I can’t say I minded at all the volume of gratuitous “roll tide!!!!” shouts I got throughout the week while wearing the hat – whether in the casino or at the airport.  It’s amazing what a resurgence to the top 10 rankings of the NCAA polls can do for a fan base that’s been waiting to thump it’s chest proudly for years. 

I quickly met up with Patrick Patten of handride,who as you may know was the leader of our online task force and also serves as the leader of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance that I’m proudly affiliated with.  After a quick scare with our luggage, it was off to the luxurious Red Rock Resort.  Any fears we had of being perceived as “too young” or illegitimate were quickly diminished as our Somali-born cab driver proceeded to tell Patrick how “smart looking” he was.  We took this as a good omen and hoped that others would fall under his sway while we were presenting our report to the NTRA (note: if this had failed, I was prepared to advise Patrick to use his Jedi mind-powers, wave his hand in front of our captive audience, and calmly mention “this IS  the online task force report you’re looking for”).

The next few hours we spent participating in the kickoff handicapping tournament.  I’ve got to toot my own horn here a bit so for those who abhor gratuitous horn tooting, you may wish to skip to the next paragraph.  Patrick and I arrived with about 20 minutes until 1st post.  The contest consisted of 10 races from Emerald, Arlington, Golden Gate, and Fairplex.  You selected 1 horse in each of the 10 races, and had a theoretical $2 win/place wager on each of your horses.  Whoever had the highest payout total at the end of the day was the winner.  There were approximately 35 people participating, and I’m proud to say I came in 2nd place – defeated for top honors by a measly 20 cents!  It was all great fun as I was able to pocket $250 in prize money for the 2nd place finish.  I’d also like to think that in some small way it helped legitimize our online task force in the eyes of people who did not already know us.

My prize for 2nd place in the Handicapping Tournament

The rest of the evening was spent socializing with many of the other guests and NTRA Representatives.  Keith Chamblin of the NTRA took us out to dinner and gave us our final pep talk, and then we retired to our rooms for one final practice run at our presentation.  By now we were all incredibly nervous.

Tuesday morning arrived and we proceeded to the conference room where the meeting would be held.  John Della Volpe and the folks from SocialSphere put on a great introduction, including a little video with some pictures and information about each one of the members from the online task force.  After that – it was show time.

My credentials for the NTRA Marketing Summit

I’ll be honest, most of what we said on stage was a blank to me.  I remember a good deal more about what my fellow task force members said than myself.  I’m told that a podcast of our presentation will be available for those that wish to listen in.  All I can say is that Patrick, Troy, Dana, and Jess all did a wonderful job.  I was scanning the audience as they spoke and they seemed to have captured every-one’s attention quite well. 

At the conclusion of our presentation the meeting adjourned for a 10 minute break, and we began to wonder how well it had been received.  I wasn’t sure myself.  A highly skeptical lad by nature, I found myself thinking of Lincoln’s famous “this speech won’t scour” line after he delivered the Gettysburg Address.   Like Lincoln in November of 1863, I seem to have been quite wrong.  Almost immediately there were people approaching us, connecting with us – folks who represented tracks from all over the country – sharing ideas and personal information/stories.  It was quite remarkable.  In fact, where I had anticipated we’d be met with a large dose of resistance, the opposite seemed true.  Rather than being skeptical of our suggestions, the atmosphere permeating the meeting was one of acceptance and genuine interest.  In short, these folks blew my mind, and I’d like to recognize a few of them individually.

Richard Eng was the first to approach me immediately after the presentation.  Eng is the author of a book I highly recommend to any existing horseplayer, from novice to expert, called “Betting on Horse Racing For Dummies.”Don’t let the “for dummies” branding fool you – this guy set out on a noble adventure to try and explain some of the concepts of horse racing that new and prospective fans struggle with and/or are intimidated by.  In the process he wound up putting together a useful resource that I keep prominently displayed on my shelf.  I told him that the three books I consult the most are his, Davidowitz’ “Betting Thoroughbreds”, and “The One Minute Handicapper” by Frank DiTondo. 

Next up I had the pleasure of talking with Jay Cipoletti of Point-Forward.  Jay’s a younger guy with the heart of a visionary.  He’s got a host of wonderful ideas – which I’d love to share here but am not certain if it would be proper (not wishing to steal anyone’s thunder) – so let’s just say we’re on the same page about the direction the sport needs to go.   I also got to talk handicapping with him fairly in depth, and we’re kicking around the idea of doing a pick-6 syndicate to help offset the cost of such wagers.  I’d bet with you anytime, Jay.

Two people that I was overjoyed to meet with were Carrie Everly, Vice President of Marketing for the Maryland Jockey Club, and Bill Moore, Track Manager for Delaware Park.  After all, Laurel, Pimlico, and Delaware Park are 3 of my absolute favorite tracks that I feel a great sense of loyalty towards.  I probably wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.  These are folks I would do anything to help – and I’d expect nothing in return.  Just two of the most genuinely nice individuals I’ve ever met.  Being thousands of miles away from home, it brought a great deal of joy to my heart to meet these two who share a passion and love for my favorite locations.  In fact, if there’s one take away item from this week I’d like to commit myself to – it’s to helping these guys nurture and grow their fan base and communities however I can. 

Obviously this list is by no means exhaustive, and I could quite literally go on forever talking about the folks who made an impact on me.  I got to speak with Susie Sourwine from Emerald Downs and communicate to her how everything I hear about them, even all the way over on the east coast, is 100% positive.  There was also the delightful people from Churchill Downs.  I’m sad to admit here that I somehow managed to leave the conference without their names.  I had simply run out of business cards, and I haven’t been able to locate their information online (hopefully they read this, as I’d love to stay in contact with them).   Suffice to say they had some tremendous ideas that seem consistent with the direction were were advocating in our report as far as making bigger stars of the trainers and jockeys is concerned. 

By far though, the biggest surprise of the week – meeting and talking with Alex Waldrop of the NTRA.  We talked about this after our discussions with him.  I don’t know that their is one word that can sum it up for you.  Patrick mentioned that phrases like genuine, legitimate, and authentic don’t even begin to do it justice.  Folks, if you had one ounce of concern in your body that the folks running the show at the NTRA don’t have the best interest of the sport in mind (and I admit I was at one time largely skeptical myself) – all I can say is “wow!”  Alex totally blew my mind.  The man is absolutely committed to things like equine safety and the banning of steroids.  He’s a visionary.  I joked with him at the airport, where by trick of fate we happened to be entering the security line at the same time, that I’d vote for him in any political office he ever ran for regardless of his political party affiliation or platform.  He had that kind of an impact on me. 

To give you an idea of how honest and transparent he is – he’s challenged us to “hold their feet to the fire” and make them accountable for acting upon our suggestions.  “Don’t just take our word for it that we’ll do it – hold us accountable.”  That was his central theme to the members of the task force.  He’s realistic, he knows we won’t be able to implement every idea, but he wants us to demand to be communicated with about the specifics regarding why certain ideas are moved forward and others aren’t.  “Challenge us” he said over and over again – and he means it.  It’s not just lip service when this guy speaks.  In fact, he even talked specifically about lip service saying “talk is cheap – action is what matters.”  I’m telling you folks, we (horse racing fans) are in good hands with this guy in command of the ship. 

If you’re interested in reading more about how the conference went, there are articles available online at:

• The Thoroughbred Times
• BloodHorse

Our full report is available for download on the NTRA website by following this link (note: it will open up an adobe session in your browser in order to view the report):

http://www.ntra.com/creativeservices/content/NTRAOnlineTaskForce_080922.pdf

Thanks again to everyone for your well wishes and concerns.  I hope we represented you guys – the fans – well.  It was the experience of a lifetime and one that I hope many of you will one day get to share as well.  And of course, thanks again to the members of the online task force:  Dana, Patrick, Jess, John & Bev, Alan, Norma Jean, Lisa, and Troy – it was tough work and we went through some rough spots together, but it was an absolute honor to work with folks as passionate and dedicated as you all.

God it’s good to be home!  I missed all of you and I know the updates have been rather infrequent over the last 6 weeks since the task force was formed. They should be more frequent again here now that our duties with the online task force have come to a close (“…and there was much rejoicing”). 

I’ll be back with another post tomorrow.  Take a wild guess what it’ll be about?  Hint – click here.