Stuart S. Janney III:

Thank you Jim. Meghan Rogers from the NTRA is now going to share with us the successes, challenges, and plans for the National Safety Run’s First campaign. Meghan.

Meghan Rodgers:

Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and The Jockey Club, for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today.

Being invited here to speak is a first for me in a few ways. This is the first time I’ve ever attended The Jockey Club Roundtable, and it’s the first time that I’ve been asked to speak rather than writing a speech for my boss or someone I work for.

Now, many of you probably don’t know me, and that’s because I’m relatively new to Thoroughbred racing. I joined the NTRA almost three years ago with Tom Rooney, NTRA’s president and CEO. I live in Washington and my background is in politics.

I spent years working on Capitol Hill for a few different members of Congress, Tom being one of them. I ran communications in his Congressional office and for his successful reelection campaigns. Then, during the last presidential administration, I served as the press secretary for the secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, and the greater USDA at large.

And now, I tell you all of this to say that I spent years behind the scenes writing the speeches and working the teleprompters, so me being up here speaking in front of you today instead of being backstage is a little bit intimidating.

I have been asked to update you on our sports national initiative entitled Safety Runs First. For those of you who aren’t aware, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s board of directors represents virtually every sector of Thoroughbred racing in this country from breeders, owners, trainers, racetracks, wagering operators, and horseplayers. Under the leadership of Tom, we opened a Washington D.C. office two years ago, right on Capitol Hill, with a team devoted to working with Congress to enact policies that benefit all segments of Thoroughbred racing.

By having an office in D.C., we’ve reinvigorated the prominence of having a strong National Thoroughbred Racing Association with a presence in our nation’s capital. Now, we work on many things, but one of our primary focuses is on tax policies, specifically the renewal of bonus depreciation and other key provisions that are vital to the investment and economics of this game. By bringing on Tom, who’s a former member himself, and by opening our office in D.C., we’ve demonstrated to lawmakers the importance of our sport and the NTRA is constantly leading the charge to advocate for public policies that further our shared interests.

During our fall board meeting, which was held in Washington, where we met with multiple members of Congress, it became clear that we as an industry needed to do a better job of proactively telling the story about all the positive things happening in our sport related to safety and welfare.

Since we opened our office two years ago, we’ve been inundated with questions from lawmakers as to what specifically is being done in the sport to be as safe as possible, especially under the new law HISA, which many members of Congress worked very hard to pass. It’s our responsibility to keep the public and policy makers informed as to how much love and care surrounds our equine athletes and how our sport is constantly striving to improve, including weeding out bad actors.

At the direction of Tom and our board of directors, and with some additional funding partners, the NTRA took this responsibility and ran with it, developing the Safety Runs First campaign with the goal of shining a light on our sport’s collective commitment to safety, welfare, and integrity.

Of course, these reforms and investments include new uniform national rules under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. But our sport’s commitment to safety is nothing new, and these building blocks were set in place more than a decade ago. These earlier efforts have been amplified in recent years with investments happening in technology, track surface and veterinary protocols, the utilization of data analytics and other key measures that improve safety.

The Safety Runs First campaign consists of print, radio, television, and digital advertising. It also includes a website designed to be a continuing long-term resource for the public as the racing industry furthers its investment in programs and resources to help reduce injury risk and enhance the safety of its athletes. Here’s a look at the 60-second television spot that was produced in conjunction with Chip Tuttle and his great team at CTP, that aired in many major markets around the country and on NBC just prior to this year’s Kentucky Derby, which drew 16 million viewers.

[VIDEO]

Speaker 1:

For centuries, the bond between horse and human has been forged in trust and hands-on care. Now, the sport of Thoroughbred racing is combining those timeless traditions with cutting-edge technology to raise our standards of equine safety to the highest level. Wearable biometric devices measure subtle changes in a horse’s stride to help optimize safety and performance. State-of-the-art imaging technology helps pinpoint areas of potential concern for early intervention by expert veterinarians. And the sport’s new independent regulator, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority is using AI and enhanced data modeling to help prevent injury.

From sunrise to sunset, there’s an ecosystem of trust and care and a commitment to well-being. So win or lose, it’s safety that runs first. To learn more, visit Safetyrunsfirst.com.

Meghan Rodgers:

In addition to this ad, we spread the message through earned media, like interviews, op-eds, radio hits, and social media. We utilize Tom Rooney and other members of our board, as well as prominent members of the sport, like Graham Motion and Johnny Velasquez, who helped articulate many of the good things happening in Thoroughbred racing. We did all of this with one goal in mind: to tell the true story of the sport of horse racing and the people in this room who live it every single day. To let everyone know — from the casual racing fan to the avid horse player and everyone in between, including policymakers in Washington and in state capitals around the country — the full ecosystem of care that surrounds Thoroughbred racehorses and how we as a sport are striving to do more. The early results of this campaign are very encouraging.

It launched on April 22 and ran through the Belmont Stakes weekend. The campaign included spot market buys in every major market across the country, supplemented by our friends at FanDuel TV, FOX Sports, and America’s Best Racing. The campaign resulted in 190 million total impressions, and now that’s people that stopped and actually registered our message, and it contributed to 100,000 clicks to the Safety Runs First website. Our message was seen by millions of people. Analytics and anecdotal evidence both indicate that our message is resonating.

Now, two small examples. My colleague in our Washington, D.C., office one day got a call out of the blue from a staff person on the House Energy and Commerce committee, which is the committee in the house that oversees HISA, saying that they had seen our commercial during the local telecast for the National Hockey League playoffs, asked if it came from us, and then wanted to learn more about it. Another example, just like that, is we had an ad run in Politico, which for those of you who don’t read it, is a political newsletter that comes out every day on a variety of different topics all across the country. The number of people who took a picture of that ad in Politico and texted it to me was truly amazing, asking if it was my organization and then subsequently wanting to learn more about it.

And while this might seem obvious to many of you that live in Central Kentucky, or here in Saratoga, or in Del Mar or other places with beautiful racetracks and active racing communities, what we’ve learned is that this message penetrated far and wide and reached audiences that may not have otherwise seen positive horse racing stories in their daily news. As we move through the summer racing season, this campaign is evolving and this is probably the most important part of what I’m going to say to you today, is that we need your help. We need everybody in this room to join with the NTRA to help amplify our message. We’ll be reaching out to our members and to many of your organizations asking you to utilize your communications channels to help spread our positive news.

Social media and websites don’t cost anything, and so your participation in sharing our content is easy and would be greatly appreciated. In addition to supporting this initiative through your communications channels, our industry is deserving of a long-term fundraising strategy for this type of campaign. Together we can determine what that looks like. Where Safety Runs First ultimately goes, lies in the hands of the people of this room. We need your help if we’re going to continue to tell this good news of our sport in the face of adversity.

We at the NTRA believe that this is very important. Just phase one of this campaign cost $4 million and it would not have been possible without many of the people in this room, including The Jockey Club, Keeneland, the Breeders Cup, TOBA, the KTA, NTRA and its board, and our other industry broadcast partners who contributed inventory during their shows. We really appreciate all that support and support moving forward.

Now in politics, we always say that campaigns are about storytelling and it’s often the best storytellers that win the election. This sport and this initiative are no different. This campaign needs to be active 365 days a year to keep the public informed as to what we as a sport are always doing to make Thoroughbred racing safer. It’s our job to constantly drive the positive narrative. We cannot rely on others to do this.

At the same time, the challenges and threats facing our sport are not going away, and that is why HISA is so important to maintain accountability and uniformity. The work of HISA is working in making the sport safer, and the statistics clearly show that. Thankfully we had a very safe and successful Triple Crown season, but we all know, no matter our efforts, how one incident can impact the narrative. It’s our responsibility to continue to inform and reassure the public that horse racing today is the best and safest it’s ever been, with a deep-rooted love for these magnificent Thoroughbreds at the core of the sport. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today and I look forward to working together to ensure that safety always runs first.