| Thursday, August 01, 2019 | Contact: Alexa Ravit (212) 521-5307 |
| International Perspectives and Industry Advocacy Strategies to be featured at 67th Round Table | |
The Jockey Club announced today that its 67th Annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing will feature international perspectives on racing as well as communications strategies in times of crisis and measures that may improve the Thoroughbred industry. The conference will be held on Sunday, August 11, at the Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The Jockey Club Chairman Stuart S. Janney III will preside over the conference, which will begin at 10 a.m. EDT. The conference will again be aired on TVG2 and tvg.com in addition to being live streamed at jockeyclub.com James L. Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club, will host a Q-and-A session with John Messara, the owner and chairman of Arrowfield Stud in New South Wales, Australia. Gagliano will interview Messara about his achievements in the Thoroughbred industry and his opinions on the industry’s greatest challenges in Australia and globally. Under Messara’s leadership, Arrowfield has launched and managed the careers of top stallions including Danehill, Redoute’s Choice, and Snitzel, and the farm has bred more than 50 group 1 winners. Messara has also served as the chairman of Racing New South Wales and Racing Australia. In 2019, he was honored with the Longines and International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) International Award of Merit. Kim Kelly, the chief stipendiary steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, will discuss category 1 interference policies and general stewarding practices in Hong Kong. As chief stipendiary steward, Kelly administers the rules of racing to ensure the safety and welfare of industry participants and horses and to uphold the highest standards of integrity. Kelly is the chairman of the IFHA’s International Harmonisation of Racing Rules Committee, a member of the IFHA Technical Advisory Committee, and he chairs the IFHA International Stewards’ Conference. Mike Mulvihill, the executive vice president of research, league operations & strategy for FOX Sports, will talk about his organization’s television coverage of horse racing and FOX’s strategies for addressing the recent legalization of sports betting. This will complement a presentation by Bill Knauf, the vice president of business operations for Monmouth Park, on that racetrack’s embrace of sports betting and its strategies for marketing pari-mutuel and fixed-odds wagering. David Fuscus, the president and chief executive officer of Xenophon Strategies, a global public relations firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., will offer strategies for how the Thoroughbred industry should react under times of crisis. Valerie Pringle, the campaign manager for equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), will share how the HSUS advocates for equine welfare and why it supports the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019. Nancy Cox, the dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky, will educate the audience on the University of Kentucky’s research into safe and consistent racing surfaces. William M. Lear Jr., the vice chairman of The Jockey Club, will provide an update on the Horseracing Integrity Act and its importance to the Thoroughbred industry. Laura Barillaro, executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Jockey Club, will deliver the activities of The Jockey Club report. The Jockey Club Round Table Conference was first held on July 1, 1953, in The Jockey Club office in New York City. The following year, it was moved to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where it has been held every August since. The Jockey Club, founded in 1894 and dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. In fulfillment of its mission, The Jockey Club, directly or through subsidiaries, provides support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives, and it serves the information and technology needs of owners, breeders, media, fans and farms. It founded America’s Best Racing (americasbestracing.net), the broad-based fan development initiative for Thoroughbred racing, and in partnership with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, operates OwnerView (ownerview.com), the ownership resource. Additional information is available at jockeyclub.com. | |