Racing's Sustainability, TV Coverage Among Topics of IFHA Conference

The International Conference of Horseracing Authorities was held virtually in 2021 for the second consecutive year owing to challenges presented by the global pandemic, and speakers during the 55th edition of the conference-organized by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities–examined racing's global evolution and future challenges. The conference in its entirety can be accessed via the video link above or as a podcast.

Allen Hershkowitz, environmental science advisor to the New York Yankees and founding director and chairman of Sports and Sustainability International, spoke about the threats presented by climate change and how racing can put sustainability into practice.

“We are in an urgent situation,” Hershkowitz stressed. “Some scientists have begun referring to the circumstances that we're in as a human extinction event. As temperatures go up, right now there is 100% likelihood that we will go from a 1.1 degree celsius temperature increase to a 1.5 degree celsius temperature increase by 2040. There is a more than 50% chance that will go to three or four degrees celsius by 2080.

“It's impossible to imagine the catastrophes that will result from that level of temperature increase. None of this is good for horse racing or horse farms in general. We already know that many races have been cancelled because of heat, many tracks have been damaged because of floods. Many races and tracks are suffering from drought, and of course many races and tracks are affected by fires.”

While climate change is certainly a hot topic, Hershkowitz was quick to stress that sustainability is about far more.

“When we speak about sustainability, it's important to remember it isn't just about climate action,” he said. “In 2015, the United Nations brought together 198 countries to agree on a set of Sustainable Development Goals. There are 17 of them, and they include poverty alleviation, eliminating hunger, good health; when we talk about sustainability, it's not just about climate.”

Hershkowitz provided examples that some major league sports teams and venues are taking to address sustainability, and the positive impact it can have on their bottom line. The Orlando Magic Basketball team cut its energy use by 25% for $750,000 in savings annually. The Seattle Mariners cut natural gas use by 66% and electricity use by 30%, resulting in $500,000 in savings annually. The Staples Center, home to professional basketball and hockey teams in Los Angeles, saved $28,000 annually and cut out the use of seven million gallons of water by installing 178 waterless urinals.

And it isn't just American sports that are making strides.

“Right now, every professional sports league in the United States and in Europe has a sustainability programme,” Hershkowitz said. “The International Olympic Committee has produced a spectacular environmental sustainability strategy that goes to 2030 and beyond. It obligates venues that want to bid on the Olympics to implement environmentally intelligent practices.”

Hershkowitz laid out some of the ways in which racing can work on its sustainability.

“One of the most important things I think a sports organization can do at the moment is to make sure your employees at your venues are safe,” he said. “We're still struggling with a global pandemic. Sustainable development goal number three is good health. Economic health is dependant on human health, and human health is dependant on planetary health. But planetary health is also dependant on economic health. If we can't make investments into new technologies we're not going to work our way through the various ecological crises we face.

“Horse racing is fundamentally connected to the agriculture sector, and the agriculture sector is really getting stressed through climate impacts. There is no one thing that any racing organization can do that's going to get us out of this situation, unfortunately, but every little thing matters. What we need to do is have the courage to do small things.”

Those small things could include the installation of electric vehicle chargers at racecourses, using catering services that utilize sustainability menus and support local food producers, and digitalizing media guides or racecards. Hershkowitz stressed the importance of establishing a baseline so that an organization knows what its current impacts are and what it is working towards. He said two terms that all sports organizations should become familiar with are “dematerialization” and “decarbonization.”

“Decarbonization is about how can we reduce our emissions of carbon through energy and procurement, like how we supply food,” he explained. “Dematerialization is about how can we reduce the need to buy physical products that can be supplied digitally.”

“The single most important thing we can do to promote sustainability is to change cultural attitudes and expectations about how to relate to the planet,” Hershkowitz added. “How should we relate to the ecosystems that give us water to drink? That give us air to breathe? We're treating the atmosphere like a sewer. This is why your organization having a conversation about this issue is so important.

“Regulators are increasingly looking at how organizations are managing their energy and their climate. Investors don't want to be associated with organizations that aren't being sustainability smart. For future legitimacy, the social license to operate, taking responsibility for your sustainability impacts is fundamental.”

Racing's Television Future

Michael Mulvihill, executive vice president, head of strategy and analytics at American television network FOX Sports, spoke about how FOX has partnered with the New York Racing Association to grow FOX's coverage of racing from about 80 hours a year to 800 hours in a space of five years. A large leap was made during the early months of the pandemic last year, when American racing continued while most sports worldwide came to a standstill.

“Because there was such an absence of live sports, we were able to elevate our content from Belmont and Saratoga from a network called FOX Sports 2, which is in about 50 million homes, to FOX Sports 1, which at that time was in closer to 80 million homes,” Mulvihill said. “Our viewership went up by over 100%; wagering was way up during the pandemic. It's delicate to talk about taking advantage of that situation because it's obviously a worldwide challenge, but I think the reality is that as a business, horse racing in the U.S. was able to take advantage of the circumstances and enjoy some growth. And we've been able to continue that into 2021 as the pandemic has abated a bit.”

FOX earlier this year exercised an option it held to become a 25% equity partner in NYRA's advanced deposit wagering platform NYRA Bets, and Mulvihill said he thinks there is a direct correlation between that partnership and the exponential growth in wagering at Saratoga this summer-all sources handle on New York's premiere meeting was $815-million, which cleared the previous record by about $100-million.

“I think it's that equity piece specifically that makes our relationship unique,” he said. “Traditionally, the relationship between media and horse racing is a very traditional content and advertising relationship. You pay a rights fee for the content, you produce it as well as you can, you sell advertising against the viewership of that content, and that's as far as it goes. Now that we have the stake we have in NYRA Bets, it really incentivises us to promote the wagering, assist in the mainstreaming of wagering in the U.S. and to try to grow the asset value of NYRA Bets in the U.S.”

FOX has the option to acquire another 24.9% of NYRA Bets, something Mulvihill said he believes will be exercised “in the relatively near future.”

FOX's coverage is renowned for striking a balance between sophisticated handicapping angles and traditional sports programming, and Mulvihill said that was the goal of the network even before the deal was done to buy into NYRA Bets.

“From the time we initiated this content five years ago, our intent was to do a daily production that was really specifically targeted at day in, day out horseplayers and people who put a significant amount of money through the windows and are the lifeblood of this business,” he said. “If you look at horse racing on American TV, there is the Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup that are held by NBC and they do a beautiful job producing those events for a general sports viewership. There is TVG, which is produced for a day in, day out horse playing audience, but they're producing a lot of tracks so they don't get to spend a lot of time on one track in particular.

“What we wanted to do was carve out an in between path where we could focus on just one track, one circuit, and really devote the time and attention we felt the NYRA tracks deserved, and also elevate the production value a bit. We very much wanted to be open in encouraging people to play the game, open a NYRA Bets account and engage in handicapping.”

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individual states could legalize sports betting, and a number have already done so. Mulvihill said that FOX's horse racing coverage could serve as an example for other sports and programmes of how to weave wagering angles into their coverage.

“I really think that the way we produce our shows is something of a blueprint for the future of sports television in the U.S.,” he said. “I'd like to believe we're setting a pretty good example of incorporating wagering, recognizing that wagering is an important part of the event, but also still primarily covering it as a sports event first. I think 10 years from now, that's how all sports will be presented on American TV.”

Until recently, horse racing has held a monopoly as the only American sporting event that accepted betting. While the legalization of sports wagering can easily be viewed as a threat to racing, Mulvihill said he sees it as an opportunity to promote racing to a new audience.

“I think that's already happening,” he said. “I think it's reflected in those Saratoga figures we talked about earlier. I think that indicates that there is a rediscovery of horse racing happening in the U.S. I think the fact that we've had two Triple Crown winners in the last decade helps. I think the opportunity that racing was able to take advantage of during the peak of the pandemic helps, and I think racing in some ways has been repositioned as a great social activity and a great day out.”

“It's a pivotal moment for racing, and I think the industry in the U.S. has capitalized on it,” Mulvihill added. “I think the next step in that transformation is going to be the introduction of HISA [the Horse Racing Safety and Integrity Act, the legislation that will regulate American racing on a national level] and letting the public know that there are credible and meaningful safeguards around safety and integrity so that when they do come to the track to enjoy that day out, they know the horses and riders are being well-cared for and that their wagering is being conducted on an event that is held at the highest possible level of integrity.

“If you combine all those things-the safety and integrity, the emphasis on racing as a fun social activity, the recent Triple Crown winners and the momentum we have coming out of the pandemic–it really is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for horse racing.”

Mulvihill said he hopes FOX's racing coverage expands beyond the shores of the U.S. to encompass some of the sports greatest events globally.

“We would love to further the presence that we have in international racing,” he said. “I really want FOX Sports and our networks to be the American home for the great events in racing around the world. We've had great experiences with the Dubai World Cup and the Saudi Cup, and we want to find ways to bring more of that content to our networks.”

Equine Welfare

The advancement of equine welfare and aftercare of the Thoroughbred racehorse is an area in which the industry has made huge strides globally in recent years, and in which there will always be work to do and room for improvement. Jamie Stier, chair of the IFHA Horse Welfare Committee and Racing Victoria's executive general manager, integrity services, and Di Arbuthnot, chief executive for Retraining of Racehorses and chair of the International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses, joined the conference to share updates on equine welfare and aftercare.

Stier spoke on the importance and wide implications of traceability of the Thoroughbred from birth through the lifecycle.

“Traceability is a really interesting and hot topic at the moment,” he said. “It has two components to it: there is the welfare component, but there's also the biosecurity component. In a lot of countries biosecurity relates to prevention of disease and being able to trace horses if there is an outbreak of disease, which is in their best health interests, and of course welfare.

“But if you look across the lifecycle of a horse, traceability is so important because we need to know where our horses are. We need to get a proper picture of where our horses are ending up. It helps us identify gaps and all sorts of lifetime experiences of the horse and how we can structure our programmes to support horses. Traceability is imperative if we're going to provide proper care to our horses. Equally if we have good traceability data, it enables us as a sport to be able speak positively, comfortably and very assertively about our sport, what we are doing and the provisions we're providing our horses.”

Stier noted that Racing Victoria is allocating significant resources to aftercare and welfare incentives, like providing trainers access to sophisticated diagnostic tools to identify potential injuries earlier; launching a platform for the registration of ex-racehorses and providing grants to programmes that can place off-track Thoroughbreds with less post-racing athletic potential.

“We've introduced programmes here in Victoria geared towards assisting and incentivizing trainers to use the best diagnostic tools available to them to ensure their horse receives the best treatment during its racing career,” Stier explained. “We're also investing a lot in research that will help us to earlier recognize the potential onset of lameness and cause of lameness. All that is geared toward providing a second career for the horse post-racing.”

“We've launched an off the track platform where people are now registering their horses,” he added. “We're incentivizing people not just at the first transfer after racing-that's covered by the rules of racing here, people must notify us where the horse goes for its first transfer–But what we've found through the incentives we're offering through the off the track community is that when horses are in their teens, we're still getting people identifying with us where their horses are. So we're getting that picture well beyond the first transfer out of racing.”

Racing Victoria's programme also covers horses with limited athletic potential after their racing careers, with grants offered for equine therapy programmes that use ex-racehorses.

Arbuthnot noted there has been a steep increase in the numbers of ex-racehorses competing in disciplines like dressage in Britain, and that there has been a concerted effort to showcase the athletic abilities of ex-racehorses and to create a demand for them in the sport horse community.

“It's about contacts within the industry and within the equestrian world to try and build this programme and to make the Thoroughbred fashionable,” she explained. “When RoR started, racehorses might have been taken on by professionals and got to a high level, but they weren't popular with the equestrian world. Having seen one of the very good trainers at Blenheim last week, he said RoR had changed the programme in the equestrian world; it was revolutionary. And I think that's because the professionals helped us in those early days to make them popular, so now we have a market.”

Arbuthnot reiterated how IFAR is working to advance aftercare globally, which is especially important in light of recent damning reports in the media in both Australia and Ireland about ex-racehorses winding up in abattoirs.

“IFAR is a forum for discussion, for improving best practice and getting out to all the racing jurisdictions around the world and trying to encourage them to have some sort of aftercare programme in place,” she said. “The group has put together an aftercare toolkit, which is about lifetime management, transitioning strategies, safety nets, equine therapy and community engagement, Thoroughbred advocacy and networking. We went to Japan in those earlier days and they have a wonderful programme in place now. We've been engaged with South Korea, and recently Malaysia and we're working with the European racing jurisdictions as well. France has come on hugely in the last few years. We are all working together to help each other.”

Arbuthnot reiterated that “we are all associated” with some of the troubling reporting that has surfaced in mainstream media, and that it is up to everyone in racing to make aftercare a priority.

“Whatever happens anywhere around the world reflects on us all, and that's what we have to be aware of,” she said. “We must all do more to help and work together to show racing cares. It's non-negotiable.

“The average person watching racing is saying, 'what happens when they finish racing?' So we have to get that message out, otherwise we won't have a product. We won't have racing in years to come.”

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges succeeds Louis Romanet as chairman of the IFHA following Romanet's 27-year term, and he likewise addressed the importance of looking to racing's future in his keynote address.

“The 55th International Conference of the IFHA comes at a most significant time for our sport and the world,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges. “We face major macro challenges arising from the pandemic and climate change. More than ever, we must work together and harness the wealth of talent and expertise within our membership to not only face these challenges, but ensure that our sport thrives in the short, medium, and long term.

“This conference gives us the opportunity to look forward at some key parts of the IFHA's strategy for the future. We are fortunate to have world-class speakers sharing their insights regarding digitalisation and media, equine welfare, climate change and sustainability.”