Heart Of Horse Racing Seeks To Tell A Different Story

Horse racing has a PR problem. Tina Bond has a possible solution.

“It's to create a new narrative and to help elevate the sport,” said Bond, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA), and the mastermind behind The Heart of Horse Racing, a new campaign–one undergoing something of a soft launch–to cultivate new followers to the game by sharing the stories of those already in it.

In the campaign's own words, “our mission is to win over the hearts and minds of a new generation of fans while nurturing the passion of our existing community.”

In Bond's own words, “there's just so much opportunity for us to share our stories, we're just not very good at it,” said Bond, highlighting the fractured nature of the sport. “We're not like the NFL or baseball or soccer that's centralized. You have all these different tracks and all these individual trainers are individual businesses. This is a [unified] movement, and I think it's desperately needed.”

The campaign has begun with a three-minute video containing name-brands like Jena Antonucci, Todd Pletcher and Frankie Dettori discussing just what it is about horse racing that makes their roles less of a job and more of a vocation. The video has already played on The New York Racing Association's (NYRA) America's Day at the Races.

“I think this is a good time to launch it prior to the Breeders' Cup. Maybe it'll get some traction at that kind of level,” Bond said, of the timing of the campaign's roll-out. “We started it in New York but it's going to go across the country, because it impacts the entire Thoroughbred industry.”

The firm Bond hired to manage the campaign–the New York-based FINN Partners–has something like 10 hours of footage recorded this summer at Saratoga, she said, mainly interviews with trainers, jockeys, owners and others in the industry.

“All of these things will be ready to go, whether it's on YouTube channel or through social media, but I think there'll be a lot more video content. I think the video is important–that's what people gravitate to,” she said.

Where does the project go from here? The answer lies with the industry itself, said Bond. “We need to get people to support it,” she said. “There's a lot of work that we can do to reach people that we've never reached before.”

NYTHA has already thrown its money and weight behind the project, she said. Fasig-Tipton and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) have also voiced interest in the venture, she added.

Starting gate | Sarah Andrew

“We don't yet have a big budget to go on the national level,” Bond said. “We have to build ambassadors for this and get sponsors.”

Bond has talked partnering with the figures behind the recently-launched Light Up Racing, its mission statement to educate stakeholders in how to best manage difficult conversations with those from outside of the sport. Safety Runs First is another relatively new program focused on equine welfare.

“This is the hook,” said Bond, of the role The Heart of Horse Racing can play in conjunction with those other two twin programs. “This will hook people in.”

Interestingly, Bond doesn't believe public attitudes towards the sport are as intractable as many stakeholders suspect–nor as bleak.

According to research conducted for the campaign, only 1.3 % of horse racing media coverage is negative. Some 62% of people asked had favorable perceptions of the sport, while only 10% held a negative one.

As for some of the obstacles to cultivating and growing a new audience, only 21% of those asked believed the sport is family friendly and inclusive, more than one-quarter harbored horse welfare concerns, while 42% of potential fans identified not knowing how to access the sport as the biggest barrier to participation.

Ultimately, 40% said they were “most interested” in experiencing the racetrack for themselves.

“I think we often miss that selling point,” Bond said, of the way the sport is too often marketed as a game of gambling, rather than one geared around the horse.

“But the horses have a short career, usually, at the top level. That's why you've got to make the jockeys a focal point, and their love for the horses. And you make the trainers a focal point, and their love for the horses. Then you have the owners,” said Bond.

“I don't know exactly what we need to do to launch this and take the industry to the next level, but we need to reinvent ourselves,” said Bond. “As Jena [Antonucci] says, this is not your grandpa's sport. This is not your dad's sport. This is our sport. So, we have to do this now or we're going to miss the boat-we can't get any more obsolete.”

Anyone looking to partner with The Heart of Horse Racing can contact Bond directly: theheartofhorseracing24@gmail.com