*USTA GET MOVING*
YOU HAVE THE POWER!
Do you want Standardbred racing to survive and flourish? If so, I am asking that you copy this page on your printer and send it to Mike Tanner, c/o USTA, 6130 S. Sunbury rd., Westerville, OH 43081-9309. or you can email it to him at mike.tanner@ustrotting.com.
It is not necessary that you agree with all of my suggestions, so please feel free to circle or highlight those items you agree with, make notes, give your opinions, and then send it to the USTA. You may also want to ask your harness racing friends to join in. Let’s collectively make things happen. If you are not a part of solution, you are a part of the problem. Thanks!
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITHIN THE USTA
By Tim Finley
THE USTA WEBSITE STATES THEIR MISSIONS. I have graded the performance of their missions, as follows:
• License owners, trainers, drivers and officials. (Excellent)
• Formulate the rules of racing. (Excellent)
• Maintain and disseminate racing information and records. (Excellent)
• Serve as the registry for the Standardbred breed. (Excellent)
• Endeavor to ensure the integrity of harness racing. (Extremely poor)
• Insist on the humane treatment of Standardbreds. (Extremely poor)
• Promote the sport of harness racing and the Standardbred breed. (Extremely poor)
Times are changing. Most of life’s undertakings are progressing positively, but unfortunately the appreciation for Standardbred racing is digressing. It is critically past the time to make radical changes in an effort to bring back old fans and to recruit new ones. Desperate times necessitate desperate measures, and we are desperate. If you are one of those who is satisfied with the status-quo, this article is not for you. If you love Standardbred racing as I do, then you must read on.
This is the first of a series of suggestions to preserve and grow the wonderful sport of Standardbred racing. My first mission is to present outlines that insist we restructure the USTA creating a modern management/leadership within Standardbred racing. It is imperative that we aggressively create a much more exciting sport, including gaining new credibility in the minds of those who believe horse racing is cruel, sinful, and unsporting.
Following is my list of proposed changes in the USTA: My suggestions are not in any particular order.
1. Create an independent creative advisory board of individuals who are experts in their fields and who will oversee all aspects of the USTA. This board will work with the USTA in a friendly manner, but also in a manner that is rigid and determined. This board would be one that realizes the need to expedite changes, and that will perform accordingly. The USTA has done a commendable job for many decades, but they have lost touch with reality. The status-quo is no longer acceptable.
2. Immediately change the name to United States Standardbred Association (USSA). The word “trotting” in the USTA name is misleading and replacing it with the term Standardbred would change the course of history. A painstaking effort should be made to familiarize the 300,000,000 people throughout the U.S. who know very little about Standardbred racing to become familiar with the sport. We need to educate the public that we offer one of the most beautiful sports on the face of the Earth and the fact that Standardbreds are a distinct breed that also has two breeds within that breed – trotters and pacers. 99.99% of the people have no idea of the motion of the legs of a trotter, nor do they realize that pacers move their legs differently than trotters. Furthermore, most have never heard the term “pacer.” Potential fans would finally understand we race a distinct, wonderful breed of horses that has two gaits. Appreciation of our breed is imperative.
To promote the new USSA, a new logo should be designed with a waving American flag in the background and a Standardbred in a sulky in the foreground. The driver in the sulky should not be laying straight back because the general public believes drivers laying back are holding their horses back so someone else can win (announcers have done a lousy job of educating the public). The driver should not be shown beating the horse with his whip, and no welts should appear on the rump of the horse. Also, it is probably a good idea to not have blood running from the nostrils of the horse. Am I being sarcastic? Yes. My point is that we are a sport which is kind to our horses and we should put forth every effort to change the public perception that we are unkind.
Most non-harness racing people, believe harness racing is a farmer’s sport whose participants are folks with backyard horses of multiple breeds that the owner takes to the track and hooks it to a “cart, surrey, or chariot,” and the driver is called a jockey. Changing the name, creating a new logo, and educating the public are just the beginning of our overhaul efforts.
3. The USTA must reduce the ridiculous number of board members to under ten. Board members must be those who are familiar with how businesses run. With all due respect to most trainers, and drivers, we should let them do what they do best, which is driving and training. Their input is important and should be considered, but not as a member of the board of directors.
4. The USTA MUST have two separate and distinct divisions, which I outline, as follows:
Division number one would be strictly for record keeping, which is a task they have done well for decades.
Division number one must insist ALL racetracks and racing/gaming commissions advise the USTA receive ALL fines and suspensions of owners, trainers, grooms, vets, etc. This information must be published in an easy to find section the USTA website.
Division number one must insist ALL racing and gaming commissions provide them with the names of ALL horses that received illegal substances and who were subject to forfeiting the purse money to which they were not entitled. This information must be published in an easy to find section the USTA website.
Division number one must insist all racing and gaming commissions provide them with all the names of ALL owners of record of horses who were subject to forfeiting the purse money as the result of receiving illegal substances. This information must be published in an easy to find section the USTA website.
Division number one must insist all racing and gaming commissions provide them with the names of ALL horses who have been euthanized due to a racing injury, including the findings of any and all investigations into the cause of such injury. Included in the published information, there must be the name of the trainer and owners of each horse at the time of the euthanization. This information must be published in an easy to find section the USTA website.
Division number one must begin to update the charted lines of horses that were disqualified due to receiving illegal substances. This is fair to the wagerers.
Division number two would be a newly formed entity responsible for developing and implementing ideas to grow the sport, although this entity would not spend much time and money on attempting to promote the sport to those who are already involved in the sport. Resources must be used to capture the hearts of those 300,000,000 potential fans in the United States who are unfamiliar with Standardbred racing.
Division number two would be that new entity established to make and enforce rules.
Division number two would have an active safety committee/think tank that would constantly deliberate ideas and changes that would make the sport safer for both drivers and horses. The fact is that the general public will no longer tolerate what they consider inhumane treatment of horses. Horses being pulled-up lame, or worse yet being euthanized on the racetrack insinuates all horsemen to be uncaring. Why would a casino customer want to walk out of the back door of the terrific, exciting atmosphere of a casino to the racetrack to observe horses racing lame and being beaten to make them go faster, when there is no possible, physical way they can go faster. Stop blaming the casinos for not promoting a sport that is repulsive to many.
A great place to begin with improving the safety would be to design a sulky that would be protected from hooking wheels. Hooking wheels has caused more accidents than acceptable.
Another concept to make the sport safer, is my revolutionary racetrack concept in which the finish line is slanted/angled. This potential change would eliminate single-file racing leveling the playing field, create more movement during the race, and it would be safer. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, which currently necessitates drivers rushing to the top as the gate springs to the top or finding a hole and siting as long as possible in an Indian-style flow (people hate Indian-style racing because it is very unexciting).
A slanted/angled finish line would give a driver the opportunity to be in an outer flow without the concern of burning his horse up attempting to get to what currently exists as the traditional finish line, which measures exactly one mile from start to finish. Throughout the race as horses move to the right, the distance they must travel gets progressively shorter the further to the right that they move. This makes the distance for an outside horse shorter, although not shorter than a mile. The angle would not be to an extent that all of the horses would aim for the grandstand. This new finish line would have to be laid out professionally, methodically, and mathematically. It would be a dramatic change, but Standardbred racing needs dramatic change.
Parked horses and horses forced to move into an outside flow early will have a better chance, hence the wagerers will have a better chance. Remember, we are in this business to please the public.
Division number two would work closely with the racetrack and casino owners and managers in an aggressive effort to assure these businessmen that Standardbred racing is travelling on a new road to promote the sport nationally and that the Standardbred industry will exhaust all resources to enhance the bottom line of the racetrack businesses. We approach racetrack owners/casino executives with hat in hand.
A few years ago, most thought casinos were our savior, a belief that has proven to be questionable. We were comfortable in bed with casinos, but now we have one foot in and the other on the floor. We must be all in or all out. This paradox must be addressed methodically in an effort to become a winning race for all concerned.
To begin, we must be able to look at harness racing from the eyes of the casino executives, rather than to take cheap pot shots at them. Remember, they own most of the racetracks. Sure, they used slick methods to get their licenses, but that is business from the casinos point of view. Remember, if they are publicly owned, they have a fiduciary responsibility to create as much profit possible for their shareholders.
Horsemen were quick to take the subsidies with no foresight into the show they were presenting to the public. Just because the horsemen thought, and probably still do, that their show was great, they are only the performers on a stage. Because of racing having a monopoly on legalized gambling, nothing was done to survey the audiences to see what they wanted. When the fans exited the fence for the bright lights inside, that should have been a wake-up call.
Division number two would lobby and work with legislators to assure Standardbred racing is treated fairly. Lobbying that Standardbred racing is an important contributor in the agricultural industry is lame. It is not a major factor.
Division number two should rule that all drivers must wear their personal registered colors when competing. It is ridiculous to see David Miller wearing his colors while racing in one race, but in the next race he is wearing an owner’s or stable’s colors. This is confusing! Throughout the years, fans have memorized the colors of most drivers, and that is the way it should remain. This is not Thoroughbred racing; it is Standardbred racing!
5. Several departments at the USTA need to be dwarfed or totally eliminated to save time and money. For instance, the USTA publicity department has sadly, and historically limited its promotional resources to target those who are already involved in the sport rather than to entice the 300,000,000 people in the United States who know very little about Standardbred racing. In today’s digital world, and world of newly introduced legal gambling games, we need to spend our resources in recruiting those 300,000,000 people as fans. The publicity department needs a complete makeover with new goals and a larger budget, but only to be spent on grand ideas.
For instance, Hoofbeats Magazine, which has historically been a treasure to those of us within the Standardbred industry. Hoofbeats is a masterpiece, but I doubt if it is a profitable publication. If not, discontinue it.
In addition, discontinue anything that is not profitable. Clinging to tradition can be deadly for any business.
Turn on your TV and you will see programs about pawns shops, storage facilities having auctions, bowling tournaments, soap operas, silly shows about survivors, ax men, etc. What happened to programs about horses? People love horses, and they love competition. Standardbred racing has super interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the rich and powerful people and their purple-blooded horses competing against the average guy and the cheaply bred horse(s). These are stories, my friend!
In conclusion, it would be very difficult to fund Division number two without imposing a fee to horsemen, which would be unwelcomed by most. It would become complicated, but because the USTA already has a membership fee and all of the current and historical records, that would be the logical place to begin. The current USTA membership and fees supports the costs involved with the record keeping, data updating, registering horses, etc.; thus, the fees would have to be increased to cover the expansion of Division number two, but that is the cost of doing business. Quit complaining and become a part of the solution!
