So What's the Big Idea? Q&A With Craig Bernick

Two weeks ago, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) announced its formation with the goal of creating an open-to-all forum for the analysis and exchange of ideas to improve the racing industry (find it on Twitter here and here). Its board of directors are Craig Bernick, Lesley Howard, Corey Johnsen, Paul Matties, Justin Nicholson, Gary Stevens and Jack Wolf. The TDN spoke via phone earlier this week with Bernick, the president of Glen Hill Farm, to get a better understanding of the organization's structure and goals. An edited transcript follows.

TDN: Please give us the “elevator pitch” to sum up what TIF is all about.

CB: I think we're sort of a TED Talks meets FiveThirtyEight for the horse business, if you're familiar with those websites. We look for ideas that come from participants in the horse business for ways that they think can help the business. We will study those ideas, and put some statistical analysis behind them, find opinions from people who may be at opposite sides of the issue, and then look to see if there's any compromise or consensus, and we will try to explain to the industry as a whole why we think those ideas can help the business.

TDN: How did concept come about and when/how did you decide to take it to a more formal level?

CB: There are a ton of organizations in the horse business that have been around a long time that have done a lot of work. But I don't think there's an organization that represents the best of what gamblers, fans and owners want. We see those three constituencies as having a choice as to whether or not they want to participate in racing.

In our industry, the two customers are the horse owner and the gambler. Everybody who takes care of a horse–whether they're a breeder or a trainer, or if they drive a van or shoe a horse or work for a vet–they depend on an owner paying bills and buying horses. And everybody who works for a racetrack or and ADW or any industry organization essentially depends on people gambling. But we don't really see the gamblers as a group as currently having enough representation in the industry. As an owner who handicaps and bets, I personally do both, and I think our board has a good understanding of the ownership side, the gambling side and the fan development side. So through a bunch of discussions, we decided to put the group together to see if we could help.

TDN: The TIF's inclusivity to gamblers is a refreshing stance. Can you expand upon why you feel they should have more say?

CB: Although casino-supplemented purses are a nice thing, essentially the only guaranteed source of revenue for our business is gambling on horse racing. Gamblers really spearhead the whole sport. I think most times in the sport, people either think of it like having an “owner” or “gambler” hat on. But on most issues [where people think the industry needs improvement], those parties come to the same conclusions. But the two groups, they probably don't interface enough right now, and they're the two customers who really drive the sport.

TDN: It's also different that the TIF specifically states it will seek input from people with opposing viewpoints.

CB: I think that's important. People get together with others that they have strategic alliances with or people who they have common viewpoints with, and they just kind of reiterate their talking points as to why their side is right. That's a problem not just in the horse business, but in society in general.

TDN: Although you'll be seeking online and social media input from people who want to give ideas, there will be an actual TIF headquarters in Lexington. Can you describe how the launch will roll out?

CB: We're not quite fully launching until the end of the summer. Our hope is to have a website through which anybody can present us with ideas that are open for public comment and debate. The ideas that look promising and generate the most interest, we'll take a deeper look at and try to figure out if there's a way we can sort of incubate the ideas for the industry. And if we find out there is some statistical validity behind those ideas, we'll make the case to try to implement them in the industry.

We're actively looking for the best person to run this. We have some people in mind. I've started conversations. It will roll out gradually but we will be up and running toward the back end of Del Mar and Saratoga. We hope to present ideas that should help the industry as soon as we can.

Right now we're just looking for common themes, trying to gather our facts through surveys and polls and open-ended questions. And once the executive director comes on, they'll be able to spearhead everything with our team and hopefully focus on different ways to try and help.

TDN: What do you say to the argument that the racing industry is already brimming with ideas, but that the real problem is implementing them?

CB: I agree. There's no shortage of ideas. I get phone calls from people I respect almost on a daily basis with ideas that are very good. And if we could run with them and actually implement them, they would help the business.

We specifically put a board together by calling upon people who have been able to put ideas into action in ways to help the horse business. Jack Wolf was the person who pulled everybody together to found the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. Justin Nicholson started the Equestricon fan convention with his own money. And Corey Johnsen with Kentucky Downs, that's the one racetrack I can think of that has taken casino funding but also improved the racing product to where it's great for gamblers and great for horsemen.

It's really a group that is able to understand the landscape of all the different silos that make up the horse business and work with people to try and implement the best ideas. It's a board of people who are successful in the business and they participate at multiple levels. So the TIF board is not a group that is going to come up with some new idea, but I do think it's a group that through our understanding of the business will have a good chance to actually get some stuff accomplished. It's a group of self-starters that, despite the current environment, have been able to help the horse business.

I think everybody who has ideas, they say, “If I were in charge, here's what I would do…” But the system we have in the United States is we have tracks, we have regulatory associations and we have horsemen's groups. And you need to work through those three entities to make anything happen. So we're looking forward to that process of working with those existing groups.

TDN: The TIF will be a not-for-profit business that funds horse charities and purses. Can you give us a ballpark scale of how much money you estimate this will cost and where will it come from?

CB: We're going to be a trade organization that supports the horse business. Our plan is to try and raise enough money for three years. And after three years we'll see if we've made enough impact and improvement for us to keep going. The board is very busy. We're all involved heavily in the racing business and in other endeavors. And I don't think anybody needs another board to sit on and more work to do if there's not significant impact and improvements being made.

We specifically don't want to get money from traditional sources, because we want to remain independent and we're in a hurry. There are great people who sit around a lot of the industry's boardroom tables. And if we can improve some of the information that they get to analyze, there's a lot of smart people in the business who can take us to the right place. But a lot of those boards have huge [member] numbers, they meet infrequently, and not enough gets done.

I don't think we want to do a lot of the work that other people are already doing, and quite frankly, we're not looking for any sort of credit or to have our name on any of these ideas. We hope we can kind of focus the conversation, and we hope that our ideas get taken up by other industry groups and people try to improve things, because it's needed.

TDN: One of the core problems that the TIF has tasked itself with tackling is the availability of free, meaningful content and data for fans and handicappers and its role in growing the sport. Please provide specifics.

CB: The pay model of expensive race replays, past performances, and all the costs involved with actually going to a racetrack, when you look at it from a consumer perspective, our business is way, way out of whack compared to other sports or entertainment businesses. It's so much more expensive than other sports or consumer options that I think we're kidding ourselves by 2018 standards.

With legal sports gambling [now a reality], it now becomes imperative that our business modernizes content, improves wagering menus, and alters its pricing model. By way of comparison with legal sports gambling, as far as the transparency that those sports have regarding how they disseminate relevant information to people who want to bet on them, I think we're way behind. People [want to] invest with confidence, whether it's in the stock market or in gambling on sports. And people can invest with confidence when they're given more, better information. Those are things that we'll be analyzing.

TDN: Even though the TIF is in its formative stages, are there some ideas that have already blown you away? What are they?

CB: Probably the simplest thing that the business should be able to accomplish is the coordination of post times. That's not an idea that we came up with, that's an idea that has been out there forever. You'd think it would be good for everybody in the business. I think that's a natural that we'd love to work on.

From a marketing and customer education side, there's a ton of interest in showing the day-to-day operations of horse racing to fans and new people. What's a fly mask? How does a horse get trained to walk into the starting gate? Why do horses wear shoes? What does a vet do on a day-to-day basis? Those things might be elementary for those of us close to the business, but for people newly interested there's a whole world on the backstretch and on farms that they have yet to experience. And getting people close to horses is a way to advocate for the sport and to establish strong public perceptions about horse racing.