What’s that old expression: When the cat’s away the mice will play? Well, while Ray Paulick is en route to Cape Town, South Africa, for an international Thoroughbred breeders conference, Patrick Patten was asked to put his keyboard and mouse to good use and look back at the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s 2008 marketing summit, during which a group of bloggers and racing fans presented a marketing proposal they were solicited to create and submit to the organization.
Patten has been writing Handride for five years and is an original member of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance. He does have a real job in the natural gas industry, and, contrary to the stereotype given many bloggers, does not live in his mother’s basement. He in fact lives in Monmouth County, N.J.,  20 minutes north of beautiful Monmouth Park where he has spent many summer weekends over the last 25 years.—Ray Paulick
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By Patrick Patten
One year ago I was part of a group given the task to create and propose a new marketing plan for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. It was about six weeks of hard negotiating, yelling, and writing with a group of other bloggers and passionate fans. Â In the end I think we produced a professional document many consultants would be proud of, and the price for the financially-challenged NTRA was right: free. I think this guy charged $500,000 for pretty much the same thing. The document we created is still online (pdf warning) and more importantly still waiting for someone to implement it.
Getting up on stage at the NTRA’s marketing summit in Las Vegas was a dream come true. I had started my blog in hopes that someone, anyone, would say, “Hey, that’s not a bad idea” and that’s exactly what happened. It was the culmination of four years of writing and thinking. And, while it would be easy to label any blogger as a tinfoil-hat-wearing-mama’s-basement-living-crazy-person who thought after one presentation the world of racing would bow down at his or her feet… I knew change wouldn’t come fast, my expectations were decidedly low. However, a year later I thought there would be somewhere that the group could claim “That’s our idea.” This has not been the case.
I won’t rehash the ideas, I can’t really blame anyone directly, but I sure can be disappointed with everything involved. First, I’ll give credit where credit is due. Race-day medication laws in this country are a mess and give the sport a black eye; the work here (NTRA Safety & Integrity Alliance and the new Breeders’ Cup race day rules) should be commended. However, you have to think, what horse has to die in order to get the overall house of ours in order? And, you have to wonder why banning drugs and getting tracks to adhere to common sense practices are MARKETING successes in the first place. How screwed are we?
The largest complaint I have is with the lack of cooperation at the highest level; this was one of the main points of the report. The NTRA and the Breeders’ Cup share the common goal of expanding the brand of our sport, and yet they compete with each other. Our marketing report was about sharing information, and putting in place ideas where common ground could lead to growth. Allow me to cite the perfect example of how this is NOT happening. It should also be noted that I was part of a BC advisory committee recently convened to talk about and have ideas bounced off of about the BC, and I definitely advised on this glaring problem.
On July 25 the Eddie Read Handicap was held at Del Mar. The race was shown on ESPN2. It is a Grade 1 race and has major implications when it comes to the Breeders Cup Mile. Its field included Artiste Royale and Thorn Song and was won with an upset by Global Hunter; all well known horses to regular players; a great race to put on TV to say the least. However, to the casual fan it’s a bit confusing. The week before, two races were held, the Greenwood Cup Handicap and the Delaware Handicap, and neither was shown on TV.  However, their winners were guaranteed a spot in the Breeders Cup. So, are the races not shown on TV more important? Why is this race on TV if it doesn’t lead to anything important? This was a Grade 1 race, but the previous week’s Grade 2 was more important to get into the Breeders’ Cup. I think I’ll go back to watching Dancing With The Stars.
The rallying cry of our marketing plan was “Take Back Saturday” and to do this the BC and the NTRA have to work together. The solution we proposed was to have all graded stakes (and some non graded races for the newer BC categories) count toward standings with the top horses awarded gate choice. We saw it as a home-field advantage, a small change that would have a large impact. Everything in the report after that was based on this “Take Back Saturday” mantra. A little cooperation would be a small hurdle to jump over, and we’d be on our way to relevancy in the sports world.
We were wrong. There is no cooperation in this sport when it comes to marketing. When a horse dies and millions of people are yelling everyone is on their best behavior: Pumping water out of a sinking ship. When do we fix the ship?
The people in charge are still getting rich, and everyone else is still willing to give them even more money and power, so no changes will occur. What really hammered this home recently was Headless Horsemen, the new book by Jim Squires. If a man that well known can point a finger at everyone and have nothing happen, not even a discussion on whether he’s right or wrong, what could a bunch of bloggers do?
It’s disappointing because of the hard work put into that report. The goal of that project was marketing, and I made sure we stuck to that cause. We didn’t tackle the high level of take-out, or drugs, or security–it was only marketing. And, I think we did a fantastic job at keeping the report realistic. We did this because we knew we were up against the perception of what a blogger is, and we didn’t want to come off as asking for the moon or for being too broad or for being tinfoil hat wearing crazy people. We didn’t.  We hit that report out of the park  Was it too good? I wonder now, after being on an advisory board that supposedly had a hand in the Breeders’ Cup saddle cloth color change, what is expected of these panels and groups. I mean seriously, they need a bunch of outsiders to tell them that saddle cloths were a big issue? Meanwhile all that was talked about last year was the renamed Ladies’ Classic (not the saddle cloths) which I’m sure will take another group to fix next year so they can put out a press release saying, “Look we listen to our fans! Have fun at the Filly & Mare Classic” I digress.
I was told directly to hold Alex Waldrop’s feet to the fire. Here it is:
Alex, the NTRA has done a good job of putting out the fires that seem to come up so frequently for this industry. But, how long can this industry be reactive instead of proactive? Â How long can tracks sit idly by protecting their own “turf” at the cost of cooperation and getting real reform? How long can the industry get by on contracts written decades ago because no one has any faith in real negotiation and cooperation? How long will you allow yourself to be pushed and pulled in a myriad of directions when I believe you want to move forward?
The marketing report, for me, was hope that someone was looking forward. Are you?
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