Every barn at Oaklawn Park has been equipped with wifi after the Arkansas Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) covered the costs of installation in each of the 38 barns. Each barn is set to have its own router with the wifi password protected, and the Arkansas HBPA will also pay the monthly bills for the Internet access.
“Even our older trainers are using the internet now,” said Arkansas HBPA President Bill Walmsley, a horse owner. “We felt this was a type of investment that will help virtually every trainer and, as a result, help virtually every owner. At Oaklawn, there are about 1,400 owners and trainers who will be there during that five-month race meet. Just to have it available, we think is a fantastic thing. And this won't cost them a penny.”
While the Internet access can be used for things like watching races on smart devices or streaming replays on a phone, the new wrinkle serves a larger, more important function towards enhancing barn security, said Arkansas HBPA board member and trainer Ron Moquett.
“We're very excited to provide this much-needed tool to help add another layer of protection to the horsemen doing the right thing,” Moquett said. “I've used it for years and paid for it myself. The HBPA is 'horsemen helping horsemen,' and we think this is the best way we can help them right now, to help them monitor what is going on in their barn and to protect themselves. That's especially true at a time when the rules are changing. We want to be able to prove we're doing the right thing.”
Moquett said that the track has installed its own security cameras in about 40% of the barns and are 'working towards 100%.' The access to wireless internet should encourage horsepeople to install their own cameras, the footage from which may be immediately accessed via their phones.
“Look, if they want to use it to stream or watch races, great,” Moquett said. “But the primary reason we're offering it is strictly for communication value, to be able to do all your stuff on your computer, and to offer the bandwidth available to make sure that if you choose not to put your own cameras on there, not having wifi is not the reason.”
Moquett can attest to how critical that video can be. When one of his horses at another track had an adverse finding in a post-race drug test for a local anesthetic, Moquett knew it had to trace to the castration of a different horse in that stall several weeks before. His barn video–which documented that his staff thoroughly sanitized the stall multiple times after the castration–helped to absolve the trainer from any responsibility.
“The video in the barn was able to prove not only did we not do anything illegal, but we did everything in our power to keep that stuff from happening,” he said, “and sometimes it still does.”
Jeanette Milligan, executive director of the Arkansas HBPA, said she's been getting texts about the wifi from appreciative horsemen.
“Trainers told me they're going to go get cameras,” she said. “I tell them, 'Just wait. It's going to be Black Friday soon. They'll be on sale then.'”
The Oaklawn meeting, offering the country's richest purses over the winter months, begins Dec. 6 and runs through May 3.
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