EQUIBASE: EVEN RACING COMMISSIONS HAVE TO PAY FOR INFO
By Ray Paulick
Racing fans fed up with paying Equibase for the most basic statistical informational are in good company. Even state regulators have to pull out their credit cards and pay the “official source for racing information” in order to do their jobs.
An official with the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission was stunned to learn that he had to pay Equibase $8 to acquire the lifetime past performances of Violet Eyed Diva, the 10-year-old entered to race Thursday at Presque Isle Downs after a seven-year absence from the track (she produced several foals as a broodmare during those years). Another $7 would have to be shelled out to get statistical information on the mare’s owner and trainer, Andrew Davidovich.
The commission ultimately scratched Violet Eyed Diva from the $7,500 claiming race and she will be unable to race in Pennsylvania until stewards they are satisfied with her racing fitness. (Click here for more information.)
“They take the results of races from the tracks in our state and then sell the information back to us?” said the state official, who asked that his name not be used. “There’s something that’s not right about that.”
Breeders and owners have lodged similar complaints to the Paulick Report. “The Jockey Club (actually, Equibase) collects information on the horses we bred or we own, and then sells it back to us with all their Equine Line products,” one prominent Kentucky-based owner-breeder said recently. “And they make a lot of money doing it.”
Equibase is a for-profit company co-owned by the non-profit Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North American member tracks. Since its launch in 1990, Equibase’s owners have received tens of millions of dollars in dividends, but the finances of this “industry owned” company are not available to the industry at large.
Hank Zeitlin, president of Equibase, declined a previous request from the Paulick Report to examine the company’s financial statements. He could not be reached to comment on why regulators are forced to pay for the kind of information the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission was seeking.
Copyright © 2010, Blenheim Publishing , LLC
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Tags: equibase, hank zeitlin, Jockey Club, Paulick Report, pennsylvania state horse racing commission, Ray Paulick, Violet Eyed Diva
June 30th, 2010 at 10:38 am
It is amazing that everyone in this industry makes money except for the owners and the tracks who put on the show.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Another item for the list of why racing is so screwed-up.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Baseball creates a rabid fan base by giving free access to its statistics. We create a fan base of pissed off people who resent the fact that they have to pay to park, pay to play and generally get the back side of everyone’s hand. Gee, anything wrong with that business model?
Stupid is as stupid does.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Thank you ray,
sheding the light of day on a “small and seemingly insignifant problem (given the trainwreck of problems the sport is currently dealing with) can make all the difference.
we will follow your lead. mission accomplished.
let me add to your efforts by suggesting that your readers write or contact Victor Espinosa at Equibase.
Victor is a great, go- to guy to get things done at Equibase. He deeply cares about the sport , he has bent over backwards to help me with my projects. His e-mail: vespinosa@equibase.com.
He is our best friend within this organization.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:10 am
If you can’t handle paying a few bucks here or there to get the information then you’re in the wrong business! People in this industry shell out thousands if not millions of dollars a year and then want to complain when they’re charged $8 for a report? That makes me think those types shouldn’t be in this industry.
Everyone and every company needs to make money. If not for those reports being sold then several industry workers with Equibase and Equineline would be without jobs.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:19 am
This was a bad idea when they started it and has only gotten worse
I refuse to use their products on a day to day basis
June 30th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Ray! Yeah I’m talking to you.
I want to examine the Paulick Report’s financial statement. Who’s paying you the most $$$?
I think all of your readers deserve to know; that way we can have a better understanding of your opinions.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:57 am
As if the PA Racing Commisison doesn’t have bigger problems to deal with !!!
June 30th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
The PA racing commission should hiret hier own statisticians if they dont want to pay Equibase. I’m sure it costs Equibase quite a sum to collect and distribute the info and would have no future incentive to do otherwise without the financial gain. That said, I wish pp’s were free and included more information.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
A few Rich owners could put up a couple of million each to get PP’s and after a few years these guys would be out of business.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
How funny… looks like you raised some hackles Ray ! I lost a job once because I dared to write a critique of this blatant monopoly… and you didn’t even touch on that, nor on the arrogance and incompetence they sometimes display while cramming their piss poor computer programs and data down our throats. Whatever happened to the free enterprise system that was designed to prevent this kind of takeover ? LMAO… great article, Ray !
June 30th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
He could have gotten PPs for the whole card for $1 from BRIS.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Bustin’ Stones–
Equibase is owned by two Thoroughbred industry non-profits–the Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Racing Associations. Anyone who registers foals with the Jockey Club has helped fund that organization through mandatory fees associated with registration.
Paulick Report is funded by businesses that voluntarily choose to advertise, much the same as Thoroughbred Daily News, Blood-Horse, and Thoroughbred Times are funded. I would be happy to take you through our different advertising options and rates. Using those rates, you’ll have a very good idea of our revenue stream. Feel free to contact me at ray@paulickreport.com
June 30th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Roy: How is it a monopoly? BRIS and DRF both offer the information the commissioner sought from Equibase. S/he could have taken his/her business elsewhere.
Ray: Did this same commissioner upset that s/he has to buy a program when s/he goes to the track? Also for Ray: How come you’re not going after Daily Racing Form or Ragozin or ThoroGraph? Why should Equibase provide its proprietary information for free but you haven’t mentioned the other organizations?
Entries and charts are free. Everyone in the world can collect the data on a day-to-day basis and use it as s/he sees fit.
June 30th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Ray: How come you’re not going after Daily Racing Form or Ragozin or ThoroGraph?
Agree! Equibase is a problem,but these guys are bad too.
June 30th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Ray,
i think many of your readers missed the point of your article. It’s not about whether Equibase should or can or can not sell their data, of course they can; but rather, the wisdom of giving it away instead of trying to squeek out every last dime from their customers.
It’s that mentality which represents their “monopolistic” (oligopolistic, to be more precise- see websters for differences) mindset which i took to be the central part of what you were trying to say.
Your implied advice to Equibase i took as : give a little and you will be surprise at what you get back.
June 30th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Impressed to see the PA Racing Commission looking at a regulatory issue! There may be hope yet.
June 30th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
EJXD2 and Steve,
There is a huge difference between “industry owned” Equibase and the companies you mention: Daily Racing Form, Ragozin and Thorograph.
Equibase is the Thoroughbred industry’s “official” database, and there is nothing proprietary about most of the information they collect. Providing basic statistical information to a sport’s fanbase and participants at no cost is something nearly every other sport does, in part, to help grow the fan base.
David Haydon, Equibase’s first president, said Equibase would “address racing’s need for fan base expansion.” Do you think charging for basic statistical information, especially in comparison to other data-heavy sports like baseball and football, is the best way to expand our fan base?
Beyer Speed Figures, Tomlinson Ratings, and numbers from the Ragozin Sheets or Thorograph are added value and proprietary and there is absolutely nothing wrong with charging for that information. They are for-profit companies with a responsibility to their shareholders or owners. Long may they prosper.
Equibase has a responsibility to the industry it was designed to serve, but it appears they are acting as if they are no different than DRF et al and are maximizing profits for their shareholders (Jockey Club and TRA member tracks) to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
Let’s look at Major League Baseball for a second. MLB.com provides at no cost volumes of the same kind of data that Equibase routinely sells. MLB freely distributes that information without even requiring user to register (unlike Equibase, which requires registration for even routine material).
But if you want some added value MLB statistics from stats guru Bill James, for example, you have to pay for it. Bill James is the same as DRF, or Ragozin or Thorograph. He is a for-profit entity.
MLB.com and Equibase should be viewed as equivalent operations.They exist to help promote and expand their respective sport.
June 30th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
I won’t deny it seems at first glance odd that any track, which generates statistical data daily, has to pay to later access it back. However someone (or in this case entity) is recording the data, filtering, archiving, and allowing it to be accessed relatively painless and quickly.
That service has a costs attached to it so if the complaint is their pricing structure so be it. However that is a far cry from saying it all should be essentially free.
As for what an entity pays, such as the cited case of the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission, isn’t that based upon the agreement between it and Equibase?
There are retail pricing packages for one-off requests. However I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a negotiable professional/commercial rate for those tracks or other organizations which need to constantly obtain info.
June 30th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
All these comments about the MLB have me LMAO! If you like the way they do things then go try and buy a MLB team or better yet a player!
June 30th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Most are missing the point…INDUSTRY OWNED.
Equibase has a web-site? LOL never use their info…Its over priced. BRIS is better but I expect that to get worse as well cause the kids at Churchill sure want the register to ring a bit more for the shareholders. They just had an increase on some of the products this past fall if memory sevrves.
My question is how can two NOT-FOR Profits own a for profit company?
June 30th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
“They take the results of races from the tracks in our state and then sell the information back to us?””
Yes, just like Dow Jones collects information about transactions that occur in your state and then sells that information to its subscribers. Dow Jones is not obligated to give its data to the SEC or the state governments for free.
““The Jockey Club (actually, Equibase) collects information on the horses we bred or we own, and then sells it back to us with all their Equine Line products,” one prominent Kentucky-based owner-breeder said recently. “And they make a lot of money doing it.””
Yes. If you want to invest in collecting the information and then give it away for free, please do it.
It may be your horse or your track, but unless you are willing to sit there and accurately collect all of the information, someone else has to do it. Why would anyone do it without a financial incentive?
June 30th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
They may have escaped the Securities and Exchange Commitee’s scrutiny for unfair trade practices, but just barely. If they are not a monopoly it is surely not for lack of trying, after absorbing all the real competition. The real issue is the bogus software they sell which doesn’t do the job as well as some of the programs developed by the companies that they bought out, namely Track Master…. they are such geniuses that they decided to re-invent the wheel…. only their version is square !
July 1st, 2010 at 2:54 am
The fact we have to pay for stats is insane. In Japan I can get the basic PPs of every horse that races in both JRA and local races, plus their pedigrees for free. If I want more than basic I pay a $10 a month free for ‘premium’ service. I swear the US racing officials secretly don’t want anyone to get into horse racing. It is sad. You can’t attract fans if the fans can’t learn about the sport with ease.
July 1st, 2010 at 7:16 am
What this all boils down to is the need for a central governing agency (commisioner, league office, etc.). Every other sport is run this way, MLB has a league office that takes in revenue from each team which allows it to operate and offer the statistics for free and they have a commisioner to oversee the operations. If horse racing did the same they could offer much of the currently paid for data to be distributed for free or at much lower costs. I agree all the generic handicapping data should be free including PP’s. Why can’t Equibase, DRF, etc. offer free PP’s that exclude their value added proprietary information? That would entice me to look at more racecards and then purchase those that I want to wager on. As it stands now I have to carefully pick which cards to look at because I don’t have several thousand dollars of disposable income to invest in unlimited PP’s. Equibase has taken a step in the right direction by offering historical charts at no cost they just need to keep the momentum going in the right direction and hopefully others will follow along.
July 1st, 2010 at 7:24 am
MBL is an organized group and is able to leverage the advertising dollars and other revenue streams and Thoroughbred horse racing is a disorganized collection of independent contractors that have little collective leverage.
July 1st, 2010 at 9:01 am
Kate
Do you pay for a program when you go to the track? YES!
If you like the way Japan does things move there or just involve yourself with the JRA!
I can’t believe this many people want to cry about something just b/c one individual was charged for a report and he happend to work for a racing commission. This has been going on for years and there are many racing commissions, tracks, HBPA’s and sales companies that are charged for reports everyday.
Quit crying and just pay for the reports or don’t but them!
July 1st, 2010 at 9:37 am
Al, I would say they have little collective intelligence as well.
July 1st, 2010 at 9:39 am
Crazy, Ray’s point is that in 15 years there will be no racing and nobody to buy them. Why not make everything free as a way to generate some good PR for a sport in desperate need for it.
July 1st, 2010 at 9:39 am
I don’t have a problem with Equibase charging for most of the information they offer there are costs associated with providing the information. What I do have a problem with is the price. The majority of their products cost pretty much the same as they did when it started 20 year ago. And I would suspect back then the start up costs were pretty pricey. But the equipment and technology today cost pennies on the dollar compared to then. In 1993 my first computer cost me over $3,000 the one I just bought less then $300. And it is a thousand times better. My cell phone bills back then were close to $1,000 a month with limited service. Now less then $75. If the Jockey Club is a none profit then why dose it cost so much to register my horses. Why do they feel it is necessary to spank me by doubling the registration fees if I am one day past their arbitrary deadline? I provide all of the information all they have to do is push the print key and put the papers in the mail. How much could this really cost? $150 to replace papers??? Again push the print key put it in an envelope along with 45c postage. I doubt the person in the mail room is making big bucks. To compare the Racing Form to Equibase is a non starter. How many journalist and statisticians and chart writers, etc do they employ? Those of us in the industry should never have allowed Equibase to be set up the way it is. Yes, I would like to see Equibase’s P&L statement and for the matter The Jockey Clubs also. Non profit is one of those feel good terms. My farm these days is pretty much a non profit company. But not by choice and I certainly have never been paid nor made $750,000 a year like the president of The Jockey Club, ever. Don’t even get me started on what it cost to go to the races before one even bets their first dollar. Moderate to lousy food, service and accommodations at most tracks. Most people don’t mind spending a lot of money at the races as long as they leave feeling like they got value for their entertainment dollars.
July 1st, 2010 at 9:42 am
Horse racing is the only sport in the world that charges for stats. We lament that we want young people to get involved, young people live on the computer and can follow any sport in the world for free. A young person goes to the track and picks a horse they like, and want follow the horse. Next they go to the internet and look up the horse and the Royal Famlies want to charge them for information. I’m sorry young people are just not going to pay to follow the sport.
July 1st, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Dick
Make everything free?
Why not tell farms to make seasons to a stallion free, consignors to consign horses at no charge or tell Keeneland not to charge for entering a horse in one of their sales? You know why because it makes no damn sense!
I want $5 to win on the #5, “Ok sir that will be $5″. Oh, I have to give you the five dollars?
Dick, get out of town. “Free” in this industry is still not cheap enough!
July 1st, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Thanks Ray for bringing this up.
It is interesting that I can access full p.p.’s from races run in most other part of the world for free! And these are mainly run by “for profit” companies. If I want to get really detailed p.p.’s with unbiased description of the race, horse’s physical and it’s potential; it’s available also available for a ’small’ fee. That’s what really disappoints me about the structure of US racing/breeding industry. It seems to be controlled behind an iron curtain, with a resentment towards innovation and promotion of the sport.
I’m from Ireland, we get a lot of information on everyday’s racing in each of our ‘national’ newspapers back home, with entries, results and editorials. It is a major part of the sports section, and everyone with a slight interest is informed and hence participates. That grows the sport! The only thing here that seems to be promoted free publicly is negativity. Lexington’s local newspaper barely recognizes it’s existence, except when it’s got something bad to say!
I’m not against the Jockey Club, actually it’s vital, but what is needed is a serious re-look at it’s whole structure and business plan! It has gotten so big and powerful, it doesn’t seem to have any type regularity body overlooking it.
Get the information out to as many people who want it as possible and for free!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Equibase can vut expemses= just stop converting teletimer finish times for place horses down and use final times. Converting it to lengths just makes me have to do extra work ro convert it back. They, tracks, and DRF and Amtote should be using $2 will pay for toteboards, M/L, DRF and equibase charts and PP’s, and tracks ahould be using them on all programs. Confusing and multiple-format numbers just makes ot harder for newbies to understand and hamdle does not grow.