June 15, 2012

Well today I might have experienced some highs and lows of our industry.  

Let me start with the highs.   I got to visit with two students today.  This morning I went to the Arizona Center for Innovation for PitchDay at AZCI to see Kenleigh, an RTIP student, present his ideas to enhance the video experience for racing customers to a group of investors along with six other presenters.   It is great to see any innovation effort for horse racing.  This afternoon I met with Joe, an incoming RTIP graduate student.  Joe was looking for housing, planning his curriculum and excited about pursuing a career in racing.   He has an outstanding transcript with an undergraduate degree in finance and spent last summer working at Saratoga  for former grad student, Dan Silver, director of communications and media relations for the New York Racing Association.

The low came in between those two events.   When I returned to the office, I decided to check on the latest industry news to find the Daily Racing Form headline: Ten horses test positive for powerful painkiller in Louisiana.  How many times can we shot ourselves in the foot and still be able to walk?

Has there not been enough negative news lately?  Will there ever be enough bad news for the industry to truly work together to improve our brand and image?  Is this the makings of a topic for the December Symposium?  Let me know your thoughts?