STUART S. JANNEY III: Next, I would like to introduce Lindsay Czarniak, an Emmy Award sports broadcaster for FOX Sports.

Lindsay, also an influencer with The Jockey Club’s new fan development initiative, America’s Best Racing. She’s here to give us insights on sports marketing.

Thank you.

LINDSAY CZARNIAK: Good morning. It is so awesome to be here, and I just want to say a quick thank you for having me here today. It was really wonderful to meet a lot of you last night at the chairman’s dinner. I’m just going to tell you this: I was so excited/nervous. I don’t know why because I’ve heard about this for years.

I realized 10 minutes into that dinner I had my pants on backwards. And I’m not kidding. And thank goodness they were really nice cream-colored slacks that you couldn’t necessarily tell, but I know you’re all nice because nobody said anything.

So, I like you already. No, I’m kidding.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here to experience this. This is really serendipitous for me on many levels, so I’m excited to share with you guys why.

Yes, I’m Lindsay Czarniak, I am a sportscaster, I am a content creator, a podcaster, a mom, a wife, a daughter. My father, Chet Czarniak, who has covered horse racing for years is here with me. My mom, Terri, is here. I think my kids may be in the back, so I’m going to – there they are. I am going to try not to embarrass them.

This is just such a great opportunity. I am also a Thoroughbred owner with West Point Thoroughbreds by way of America’s Best Racing’s A Stake in Stardom campaign, and Terry Finley and Stephen Panus have given me a gift that they — I’m not going to cry; I am a crier, but I’m not going to cry — that I don’t even know they realize how important this is to me and what it really means to me.

I have covered an array of sports in my time at ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC. I have covered the NFL, NASCAR, Major League Baseball, the NBA, Olympics. But lately, because of how we now consume things, I have had people at major sporting events come up to me and say, we love your jokes. What they mean by that is my joke of the day, which I post on Instagram.

Of course, I wasn’t going to come empty handed, right? My joke of the day today is: When does a horse talk? Only whinny wants to. It’s good, right? Thank you. You can clap. You can clap. My kids approved it on the way downstairs, so thank you Del and Sybie. I appreciate that.

I started doing the joke of the day during the pandemic, and I did it because my thought was I can do it like musicians do it and slide in three jokes in the midst of the home schooling and maybe it would keep them entertained, keep the focus going.

So, my kids are six and nine, and they now give me their own material. They didn’t like it in the beginning, but now they’re actually good at making these jokes, which is awesome. By the way, I will happily take credit if anyone has one. I’m happy to post it and include your name so it’s all good.

I know that’s light, but there is really a lesson in there. That’s why I brought the joke. The lesson is that we know people are on their phones all the time, right, and it really has shocked me the way that people come up to me and even know that’s something that I do.

Consuming things has become so much more personal. We know that. People now follow what they like. They follow what makes them happy, what makes them feel good, what makes them excited, and what makes them hopeful. That could be showing them something behind the scenes, giving them access to something they didn’t expect.

It of course could be the drama of a down-to-the-wire finish and showing them what is so incredible about a story of the winning horse, any team, you name it. It could be winning money, right, because that never gets old.

I believe in sharing with our kids anything that we can to pique their curiosity. I am so excited to have my kids here this weekend, because there are so many things to show them here. I want them to become lifelong race fans, too.

I have often said to my daughter recently, I want you to remember one phrase. Maybe she’ll say it with me. Give the people what they want before they know they want it. Give the people what they want before they know they want it.

I stole that from Steve Jobs because I read his book a few years ago and I loved it so much. To me that means it’s all about growth and evolving. In other words, captivating the audience by showing fans what they don’t even know they’re missing.

I really honestly believe this sport has the ability and the reach to offer that unlike any others. I have been a fan of horse racing since I was a kid. My dad, Chet Czarniak, moved — there he is. There is me and dad. That’s at the Derby this year with Jace’s Road.

But my dad moved us from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Virginia in 1992 so he could cover sports, specifically horse racing for USA Today. I grew up hearing all these stories. I would hear about the races when he came home. I would hear about the journalistic rush of tracking down a trainer for a story.

I heard a lot about the time he wrote a story from the perspective of a horse. So, USA Today used to do a feature they called Private Sides, and Private Sides were stories off the field of professional athletes, and my dad had the idea to do a story on Chief’s Crown heading into the 1985 Derby.

He tracked down the information and wrote a Private Side on Chief’s Crown, owned by Andrew Rosen, member of The Jockey Club. So, my dad happens to be the only or first journalist who wrote a Private Side on a non-human for USA Today, so I think that’s pretty cool. It’s funny for us to make those connections.

It wasn’t until I started covering NASCAR, though, that we connected about one of our favorite characteristics of both of those sports, the magic of mornings at a racetrack. When America’s Best Racing reached out to me to create content around Flightline for the Breeders’ Cup, I did not tell them this, but I would’ve done it for free.

Sorry, Stephen. When they asked me to be a part of the Stake in Stardom program I was equally excited because really what this campaign does is, through different influencers like myself that touch different areas of sports, lifestyle, family, our respective audiences are able to learn and relate to those living that experience.

I believe sports is all about relatability. I have thought that for a really long time. I think that when you’ve got a fan that hasn’t paid attention to the sport but is a potential fan, if they can relate to something in that sport or of a player or of a team, that’s everything, and that hooks them.

So, what I wanted to do is bring people on the ride. I have covered super bowls, NBA finals, Stanley Cup finals, world series, but what I felt during my experience covering the Kentucky Derby, it was almost indescribable.

So, I want to share a clip of the moments from that that meant so much to me.

[VIDEO]

I really think the what-if factor of this sport is so palpable and so awesome, and there is so much opportunity there. So, I took my dad to the Derby, and having the horse Jace’s Road run in the Derby, that was an experience we will remember forever, from everything that really symbolizes that magical Derby Day to the walk over. I mean being there was incredible. Being in the paddock before the race.

Like I said, my goal, I’ve been thinking about it differently. It is to give people that pay attention to my stuff, my content, that credential or VIP access that they really wouldn’t have. I feel that’s where the people that respond to my things that I put up on social, that’s what they’re asking for basically in the interaction.

Here is what I think could help horse racing better market and position itself in today’s hyper competitive sports and entertainment landscape. I think continue to lean into what you’re already doing, which is storytelling and access.

If I’m thinking about things that do really well with engagement that I can share, an example of that is the Vikings come-from-behind win against the Panthers after being 33 points down. I was on one of the sidelines for that game. Unfortunately, it was the Panthers, but the game was incredible. The Vikings came out after halftime last season and they just blew them out, scored 33 unanswered points, and I decided to shoot a video walking off that field

I just shared what I was feeling. It was similar to what you just saw. I was shocked, because the amount of people that were responding and that were engaged, it was the live element and it was the fact that they felt like they were there, right? It was similar to what I posted at the walk over at the Kentucky Derby.

Beyond that, I think this is really important, the things that all of you think are pretty routine parts of your day, the barns awakening in the morning, the layers of people, the hard workers. And I mean the hot walkers, the vets, the grooms, farriers, the trainers, the owners, that is fascinating to people out there.

The stories behind them, but also what they do. Also, the responses I get that are like, they do what? Horse shoes, what? I know it sounds so simple, but it’s true. It’s just fascinating because people haven’t seen it before if they haven’t been following horse racing.

It’s vital, also, that team camaraderie, so vital to the success or failure of a horse and a team’s race. Also, the family aspect of horse racing, a necessary aspect. Also, the high stakes aspect of this sport that your average sports fan would consume.

They’re rabid for that kind of storytelling and content. I think the fact that Netflix is doing a documentary on this sport is a great thing. It is one way you can invite fans into this arena. I think horse racing should place this sport every single place that you can target demo, where the demo consumes content, where your target demo lives.

That means streaming platforms, podcasts like mine, digital and social media. I think every single place that you can wallpaper it is what needs to happen, and lean into the game of it all, right? Horse racing does such a good job of that already, but really leaning into it, leaning into the money

We’ve all seen how prevalent sports betting has become in football and other sports. I took my husband to the Belmont. My husband doesn’t like to leave the house. He gets up so early that he just wants to stay home. He was interested, curious about going and checking out the Belmont.

He hit his trifecta because he was helped by my dad and also Dan Tordjman with ABR. I have to show you this video, because this is what I experienced when I looked back at my husband.

[VIDEO]

That’s all it took. He’s hooked. Dan Tordjman can do no wrong now in our house. That was just an awesome moment, and also it was such a family moment for us. The whole family came with me and that’s an experience that people love and that they should have.

You can relate the venues also. The majesty of Lambeau Field or Fenway, right, or Churchill Downs or Saratoga. In my opinion, what horse racing has to offer that the NFL or NASCAR or any other major league sports does not, it’s the animals this sport is built around.

You heard Kristin talk about it, everyone that’s been up here talking about the ways that you’re working to make the sport better, to evolve. I have heard a lot of NASCAR fans in my days covering that sport talk about following that sport because their dad was a fan of Chevy or Ford. Simple as that, right?

Or they liked a certain sponsor because it was slapped on the side of a race car. Maybe they like Cheerios, and they become a fan of that driver forever. They chose a driver to follow. The same can happen for a racehorse or a jockey or a compelling story of a trainer or an owner. The storytelling is bringing the audience in, but once you’re there, keeping them there.

We’ve seen the story of Cody’s Wish running in the Whitney Stakes. My son won money on Cody’s Wish because he bet on Cody’s Wish at the Belmont. But that story has become something that so many people are rooting for that horse. It’s incredible.

One thing I have learned from covering different sports using social media is fans want authentic. That’s the truth. They have so many options, so many places to go to get their content that they want to consume. There is very little patience for anything that doesn’t seem real, seem right, and they’re quick to tell you and they’re quick to unfollow or whatever it is with whatever platform.

When I post about my journey at the races, there is no question I get an overwhelmingly positive response. People want to know more. They want to know who they should be rooting for. They want to know the things behind the scenes.

But they also always inevitably will ask about the sport and say, how do you explain all of these horses getting injured? The answer may not be obvious, but addressing the issue and having a consistent way that you address the issue, talking about the positive steps taken to not allow this to happen and showing people what the steps are on a daily basis to protect horses, regulate illegal practices, that’s key in my opinion

If people can see it, they can understand it. They know in their minds what’s fair, what’s not fair. If a player suffers a concussion in the NFL, it’s hard to watch. That is hard to watch, or if something bad happens in any sport. There is no question. It’s tough to swallow and it brings up questions always.

But we know because we can get the information about what the players are wearing when they take the field, that they are protected; it’s their choice

Since horses don’t have that choice, it’s even more important that you’re up front and that you’re sharing the lengths taken to protect them. I think also now people are hungry for that and people are just genuinely curious and wanting to know more about this. I think the timing right now is key, just as key as understanding how special and rare this horse racing community really is.

There is no question in my mind that passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act has been a monumental step in the right direction. Not only really to level the playing field, but more critically in my opinion, to establish clear-cut rules and regulations that everyone involved must adhere to.

It goes a long way in convincing fans the horse does, in fact, like I was saying, come first, and that integrity is paramount. It’s great to be the unprecedented support also of the industry for HISA, and I think it’s an indication of the sport’s dedication to innovate and evolve as one, and imagine if that collaboration continued into marketing. I think there have been so many steps taken in the right direction, so I commend you for that as a sport

One thing lastly before I go, I want to make the connection about NASCAR. When I started covering sports, NASCAR and football, but more NASCAR at that time was really what I got into, and I did not know a lot. I found myself in a garage trying to make relationships and asking questions that I felt like were, oh, this is so idiotic. I should know this. But I didn’t. I was new to the sport.

What I learned quickly was it was really about the people and the relationships and the trust. The trust went both ways. I had to trust that they were giving me the information that was accurate, because there were some jokesters in the garage. But I had to trust that they were understanding that I needed this information, that I was trying to build up my knowledge base in this sport.

They had to trust that I really didn’t want to just show up and leave, but I really was interested. That I really cared about the sport. I wanted to be in that sport for a long time

I think this situation in horse racing right now is very similar. You need to trust the fan base. The fan base is hungry for it. You have to trust that the information you’re going to share with them and the transparency that you’ll show isn’t going to be shot back in your face.

I think the fan base also needs to be able to trust that they’re getting the information, and from that information they can decide what is fair and what is not. I believe what they will see is that this sport is tremendous and there are great ways that people are going to those lengths to take care of the most critical piece, which is the horse, but also all the connections that are around it

So, I want to thank The Jockey Club, America’s Best Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds for the opportunity to speak with you today. I hope that you know that you have a lifelong race fan in me, one that truly believes this sport has so much to offer generations and sports fans to come.

If you have a joke, lindsayczarniak@gmail.com. I’ll make sure to give you credit

But thank you guys so much. This has been so wonderful, and I can’t wait to experience this weekend.