JC / Railbird

Of racing’s challenges that you mentioned “lack of fresh ideas, dynamic leaders, collaboration, and technological innovation,” I would say that technology would top my list followed by collaboration.

Rather than say “technological innovation,” though, I’d go with “technological implementation.” There’s already some great technology out there that some in the racing industry (particularly overseas) are already using.

Trakus should be mandatory at every track. The fact that the industry can’t collaborate on getting this done for the good of PPs everywhere is ridiculous.

Betting exchanges have been around nearly a decade, but have gotten no traction in the U.S.—again largely because of collaboration. Horsemen, tracks, etc. can’t agree on revenue splits when they have 15%-30% in takeout to divvy up, so how will they ever agree on how to slice up 5% (a smaller piece of pie, yes, but the pie itself is bigger).

I think there are dynamic leaders in racing, but they’re hands are often tied.

Posted by EJXD2 on July 13, 2009 @ 11:47 am

Fair point re: technology; I’ve made the change above.

As for dynamic leaders, it’s true there are a few in the industry, but they face constant opposition. That’s the kind of situation that just makes it harder, at every level, whether talking executives or programmers, to attract and keep talented people in the industry.

Posted by Jessica on July 13, 2009 @ 12:52 pm

Mr Waldrop wrote (again):

Do me a favor. Let me know what you think is the biggest single challenge facing Thoroughbred racing in the coming months and years. And let me know how the industry in general and the NTRA in particular should address that challenge.

I’m truly saddened that this rhetoric has been recycled.
It’s obvious that Mr. Waldrop’s NTRA has little leverage in the industry. Secondly, the responses at his blog are the usual answers given to him the first time these questions were posed to the public. And these have been rehashed endlessly on blogs, forums and in the media, and in Bryant Park.

As my high school teacher Mr. Zimmer used to say:
Don’t just do something – stand there !!

Mr. Waldrop would surely get an A from Mr. Zimmer. ;-)

Posted by The_Knight_Sky racing blog on July 13, 2009 @ 9:40 pm