We are stewards of God's greatest creation in the animal kingdom—the Thoroughbred horse. We operate as a sports entertainment industry. Our customer is "the other Golden Rule." The person with the gold makes the rules. Our customer is every owner, bettor, and fan in the ever-changing here and now. I agree with my friend Craig Bandoroff that there's no need to "tear it all down," or "to throw the bums out." We are stewards of the Thoroughbred, and a sports entertainment industry, and our customers are owners, bettors, and fans.
We're no longer like any singular sports entertainment industry. We were. However, now, we're more of a hybrid between two subsets of other sports entertainment industry types. Our original subset type was what many conversations move towards as a topic regarding who to model ourselves after. Many often compare our industry to the NFL, NBA, or MLB. That's an anachronistic comparison now. Was perhaps a timely moniker in the 1960s and into the 1970s, when for many decades before, we were accurately referred to as the "Sport of Kings" when horses were bred to primarily race, not so much bred to be sold. However, since the 1980s and the uber-commercialization of our horses, we've trended away from being singularly like the NFL, NBA, or MLB to blending with other sports entertainment industry types in the second subset, like NASCAR, LPGA, or PGA. You must admit we are a unique hybrid and we must come together.
Let's think about that. We should find common ground, yet it might be easier to try to agree on a larger, more important issue first, than anyone having to give in on their side of long-standing disagreements. For instance, if we all cannot generally agree that we want the Thoroughbred industry to come together and thrive for the horses and customers of the future, then we won't be able to agree on difficult matters.
What is our mission statement? As an industry, we should have a singular mission statement, that's if we're all going in the same direction, understanding there are going to be serious conversations about how we get where we're going. We should remove self-interest from the conversation—for now, just briefly, if we can handle that—and put our horses and customers first. Let's be selfless. If we put our horses and customers first, we have a chance at long-term success. To sum it up in a proposed, for the sake of argument, mission statement: To provide safe, healthy, fair, and high-integrity environments for our horses and fans, and owners and bettors to compete in, at all levels, of our sports entertainment industry.
How do we stay healthy, thrive, and save our horses and customers? We must keep our heads on, always thinking about and caring for the horse. While respecting our customers—the people with the gold, the owner, the bettor, and the fan. The gold has come from them and will continue to if both sides of our industry let bygones be bygones. We must stay in the day, learn from the past, and move into a better, more productive tomorrow.
In my opinion, there are fewer than a couple of handfuls of longstanding industry organizations that should collaborate selflessly with each other to do as (The Jockey Club chairman) Everett Dobson recently suggested to come together, "around a big table." Yet for every person who represents any organization that gets a seat at the big table, more seats should be available for our owners. While around that table, we should figure out and agree upon an efficient and effective manner to achieve our mission statement.
Our customers are three subsets of people: the owner, the bettor, and the fan. Yet, without the owner of the horse, there would be no bettor on, or fan of, our horse in our industry. I place our owner at the top of our pyramid. Our owners are presently represented by multiple organizations without having a singular voice. Our owners each have their own voice while also having organizations claiming they represent owners. Owners need a strong, powerful, singular industry voice.
While I have always had respect for The Jockey Club, I have greater respect for them now, having decided that Everett Dobson will lead them. In its original purpose, I once held great respect for the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which has diminished, more recently, while they continue to give a platform to the Association of Racing Commissioners International. I learned some time ago that I didn't have to like something in order to accept that particular something. If we want our industry to stay here, everyone needs to accept the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority isn't going away. Are there ways for HISA to improve? Yes. Let's continue to find ways to help our horses and our customers have a better environment and relationship with HISA.
If our owners identify and speak from a powerful, existing platform, they will be able to negotiate strong, healthy change with HISA, among many other beneficial industry needs. I don't think that the existing platform is the HPBA because of ongoing adversarial positions between HISA and HPBA. While I admit tension is required to improve many efforts, the legal cases would need to be dropped, and unification of interests would need too quick of a resolution. I don't think the owners' voice will effectively come through The Jockey Club or the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association either, for several reasons; primarily because The Jockey Club was one of the organizations at the forefront of hiring Five Stones Intelligence, which led to the FBI's investigation and the 2020 indictments, which legitimately opened the door to bring in HISA. Not to say that the investigation and indictments weren't necessary, it just puts The Jockey Club and HISA too close together again at THIS time in our industry to bring all the parties effectively together, in my opinion.
No new entity by itself will be powerful enough and respected enough to stand during this critical interval in our industry's history.
I do think the Breeders' Cup is positioned to help positively move our industry forward into the future. Owners have established relationships with the Breeders' Cup for 42 years. The funding of the Breeders' Cup over the decades has primarily come from, and will continue to come from the owner, as our industry moves into the future. The Breeders' Cup, since its inception, has successfully worked with every facet of our industry. As a homage, the visionary John Gaines selflessly stepped aside so the Breeders' Cup would exist then, today, and into the future. The Breeders' Cup mission statement is: "To conduct the Breeders' Cup World Championships at the highest levels of quality, safety, and integrity and to promote the growth of Thoroughbred breeding, racing, and sales through proactive leadership, innovation, and service." The Breeders' Cup is strong, powerful, globally respected, and works extremely well with all parties. They could also play a major role in stallion book size.
The Breeders' Cup may not want to catch, or hold onto, this hot of a potato. With checks and balances, perhaps an addition to their organizational structure, and some wise adjustments that they have proven capable of, they are made for our owners and our industry. The Breeders' Cup is not only emblematic of the best in our industry; it is the best we have to offer. The Breeders' Cup is the platform for our owner to stand on and move us into the ever-changing here and now. Think about it.
Finn Green
