Stuart S. Janney III:

Thank you, Joe. The Equibase team under its new president, Kyle McDoniel, has been working hard to ensure Thoroughbred racing data collection is on a par with other professional sports in the U.S., and that data will be used to enable better storytelling for fans to better follow racing. In the coming year, Equibase will continue to expand the free tools that they offer for novice handicappers, and we’ll be working closely with its ADW partners and others to create a new handicapping products to serve sports fans and sports bettors.

Our keynote speaker is Todd Gralla. Todd and his firm, Populous, design spaces around the world for sports and entertainment facilities. One of the goals of their designs is to improve the fan experience. As we all know how important that is in horse racing. Welcome, Todd, and we look forward to hearing about some of your projects and getting an advanced look at what the new Belmont will look like.

Todd Gralla:

Thank you, Stuart, I appreciate it. It’s great to be here today to talk to you all about some great new projects across our industry and don’t fear, I’m very visual. The thickness of this is not all about text. There’s a lot of pictures today. I think you’ll enjoy it. So just a few years ago if someone had said, “Todd, you’re going to probably be in front of The Jockey Club talking about great new projects at all three Triple Crown venues that are happening at the same time,” I would say, “That’s crazy. Not going to happen.”

It’s amazing what is happening today in our industry, particularly here in North America. And I know that the agenda says I’m here to talk about projects here and abroad, but I think that we’re on the really front end of a significant renaissance and facility redevelopment here in North America, and I want to focus here at home for that reason.

When we look at the renaissance that’s occurring, I consider it not unlike that of Major League Baseball over the past 30 years. In 1992, the Populous designed Oriole Park at Camden Yard opened, it was a very innovative project that broke a 50-year trend in cookie-cutter symmetrical ballparks setting in motion a 30-plus year renaissance in stadium design that continues today. And just to be clear, to clear up any confusion, at the time Oriole Park was built, our company was called HOK Sport, which was rebranded about 15 years ago. So that part of the project was very significant.

And over those same decades that we’ve been looking at major league sports, kind of renaissance and stadium design, the racing industry invested heavily in technology related to simulcasting, wagering, and gaming. And I think we’ve learned how to do a really good job of integrating gaming and non-pari-mutual sports wagering into our racing venues. We’ve demonstrated this at Colonial Downs recently, Sandy’s Racing and Gaming, and multiple other venues.

However, horse racing fell behind for the three or four decades related to the in-venue experience. Most professional sports recognized more quickly that the end venue experience was critical to sustaining fans and, in particular, growth among younger fans during a period of really rapid change in consumer behavior. A very simple way to envision what’s on the screen right now is a traditionalist is a guy that would go to a ballpark, sit in one seat and watch the entire game. An experientialist is like our young man here who wants to go to the ballpark. He’ll buy a seat, but he wants to roam around the ballpark to seek new experiences, viewing positions, different food and beverage options, and they may never return to that seat that they purchased.

So understanding these changes meant major investment in food and beverage, comfort, premium hospitality, unique experiences, key brand partnerships, and technology. At a time when the average lifespan of an NBA arena was 20 years, the average age of our racing venues was over 60. We know from our global sports and entertainment work that people want and will pay a premium for intimate connections and experiences that they can’t get at home. The significance of architecture and design innovation has never been more important than it is today.

Some of our recent projects like the Sphere in Las Vegas, which is the world’s most immersive entertainment venue, constant major renovations across professional sports where we seek out opportunities for unique experiences and have blurred the line between the athletes and the fans and the new BMO Centre at the Calgary Stampede, they’ve all established really unreal benchmarks in architecture, design, technology, integration, branding, and hospitality. The buildings themselves are experiential, entertaining, and memorable destinations. And that expectation bar is being raised higher every day.

Now, horse racing is unique in sports because of the players, the horses, the jockeys, the trainers, the individual owners, and others. It’s also the oldest professional sport in the world and it was the first organized professional sport in the Americas. In fact, the Maryland Jockey Club became the first chartered sport organization on this continent in 1748, some 28 years before the United States existed. Honoring this history and looking to the future as well as putting horses front and center with experiences and intimate connections between the patrons, horses, jockeys, trainers, and owners has become the design philosophy that’s driving our horse racing projects.

Let’s take a quick look at the design for the new clubhouse at Belmont, which is on track to reopen in 2026. And let me also say how refreshing it’s been to work with Marc Holliday, David O’Rourke, and their team at NYRA, creating a great new venue for New York. We can’t do a great job unless we have willing and open-minded clients.

The modern design for the new Belmont Park marks an intentional departure from the current Belmont style. It’s boldly contemporary with the intent of being the New York City track with Saratoga of course being NYRA’s upstate country track. The new design introduces greater transparency and reduces the scale of the building so it’s properly sized for changing needs and trends. Unlocking the infield, recapturing space down the stretch, and enhancing the backyard will allow NYRA to scale and adapt hospitality year to year based on the changing customer expectations, revenue opportunities, and of course, whether or not there’s a Triple Crown contender. NYRA and the design team learned a lot through hosting the Belmont Stakes here in Saratoga. And this experience continues to shape some of our ongoing design work, particularly in the paddock and in the backyard.

In the structure itself, there’s over 275,000 square feet of infrastructure that will seat approximately 8,000 guests and feature a variety of club and dining spaces, food and beverage outlets, private suites, and indoor and outdoor experiences. There’ll be additional capacity at the ground level to support events with overlay with up to 50,000 guests on the site at one time. The new building is five levels above ground with an outdoor terrace at the top level providing sweeping views of the track and the paddock under a graceful canopy. From food and beverage outlets to general admission, to a variety of club and dining spaces, event spaces, and private suites, the design team was intentional about creating a building that would fulfill a wide range of needs and be utilized for events outside of racing.

The paddock experience and connection to the horses and racing personalities is also a very important aspect of the new Belmont. We wanted every level of the new clubhouse to overlook the paddock and to have as much exterior viewing as possible to celebrate this area. The best way to show you the thinking behind the new Belmont design is to play a quick video tour through the site and the building, which highlights a lot of the different spaces and products and how we’ve precisely placed them throughout the building.

[VIDEO]

One of our first major projects following the opening of Ascot in 2006 was working with Churchill to reimagine horse racing in Kentucky and the Kentucky Derby in particular. While some elements of the plan have remained the same, some have adapted since 2016 when we did the master plan. But the key strategies of focusing on hospitality, offering greater diversity of accommodations, and focusing on equine welfare and those intimate experiences with the players has remained our goal there at Churchill.

Over the past eight years, we’ve assisted Churchill in accomplishing a number of significant improvements focused on enhancing the horse racing experience and revenue generation. The total reinvestment in customer-facing facilities has been over $400 million, and I’m sure if you’ve seen the news, there’s more to come shortly. Some of these projects have been small, but really focused on how to best activate and find greater value in track side real estate, which includes the Winner’s Circle Suites, which provide owners with a finish line experience and is very close and adjacent to the winner’s circle. It also allows general patrons to know where the Derby owners are during the race.

And in 2023, the Homestretch Club was opened with premium track-side seating. This fulfills expectations of social groups that would otherwise not utilize suites in traditional premium spaces. They want to be as close to the action as possible and they’re willing to pay a super premium for a dirt-in-your-face experience.

When we began the Starting Gates Suites project, it was anticipated that this facility would be mothballed outside of the Kentucky Derby. However, due to the level of hospitality services and flexibility of spaces within this area, its operational year-round and its utilized heavily outside racing for a myriad of corporate, private, and special events.

And in 2023, we opened the Turn One experience. This facility was designed to replace temporary seating that was proven to be viable during live racing on an annual basis, but also was designed to provide flexible 365 event space. We believe that the temporary overlay facility is a really important component in scaling up venues for major events. There’s often a turning point where physical facilities can realize more value so those temporary facilities are replaced. The ground level in Turn One can support an event up to about 2,000 people due to its open plan and comprehensive food and beverage services. Its high degree of event flexibility is common among all of our contemporary venues around the world. Year-round activation is critical to financial viability and also supporting the communities in which these facilities reside.

And perhaps the most innovative space at Churchill to date is the new paddock experience that opened this year. This included key branded spaces for Woodford Reserve and Club SI. This is the most ceremonial place in horse racing and we really wanted to see how we could best exploit its potential. Our concept for the paddock was notably controversial and I’ll be the first to stand behind controversial ideas because unless we are able to challenge conventional ideas, we will miss opportunities for unique products and better experiences, which of course will generate more revenue. There’s a lot of concern over having the open saddling stalls and people behind the stalls, but I think in the end that success was achieved. I think this is currently the epitome of engaging the public in racing in a very intimate and safe way.

So now we have two awesome, great facilities bookending the Triple Crown series. So what do we do with Pimlico? I think that a lot of you are aware that I have been part of the Pimlico story now for about seven years, analyzing, studying, proposing different concepts, and we’ve recently been working with the MTROA, the new Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, to determine the best strategy moving forward. And I think in the past few weeks we have found that strategy.

Of course, we’ll be looking at the best opportunities for the horsemen, the patrons, and the community in which Pimlico resides. And unique to Pimlico is that it is a complete redevelopment including new tracks, racing operations, and the spectator facilities. The site will be stripped clean after the 2025 Preakness. The solution will likely be similar to Belmont in that it will be scaled to fulfill day-to-day operations, but be able to scale up to handle the Preakness Stakes, Breeders’ Cup, and other major events.

Our plan also includes the development of an outstanding off-site training center to help take the pressure off the day-to-day racing facilities and offer a low-stress environment for the training and care of our equine athletes. We’ve developed a really good design strategy over the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it’s a little premature for me to show anything at the moment, but we will be going public very, very soon with the design story for the new Pimlico.

We’ve also been working with Keeneland recently, and in keeping with Keeneland’s mission to be a model racetrack and to reinvest in the future of the sport, we’re currently in the midst of building their largest project in Keeneland’s history. We broke ground a few months ago and concrete footings are going in the ground today.

The improvements include relocating the administrative offices to free up space and add permanent hospitality housing, the new jockeys’ quarters, and saddling stalls. The new grand entrance will terminate the roadway coming into Keeneland grounds and improve entry experience into the racetrack and paddock area. The building addition will enclose the paddock area and increase patron seating to create a variety of new hospitality spaces, viewing experiences for patrons, and year-round special event space, and great care has been given to ensure that these new additions look and feel like they’ve always been a part of Keeneland.

A key goal of our design was to focus on improving safety, repositioning the saddling stalls to provide a safer environment for the horses, horsemen, and the patrons. The jockeys’ journey and location of the saddling stalls are designed to maximize viewing by the general public from safe locations. The project also includes significant new premium hospitality spaces, one of which is the Sycamore Lounge, which is named after Keeneland’s iconic Sycamore tree in the paddock. This creates a really elegant hospitality space with views down into the paddock and walking rings. Other spaces include a hospitality space dubbed the Tack Room and rooftop hospitality overlooking the paddock area and the rest of the grounds.

This is just a first of a series of hospitality and operations improvements that Keeneland intends to undertake, and it will enable them to better host day-to-day racing, as well as major events like the Breeders’ Cup. So the level of investment in horse racing occurring currently in North America, I think, is historic and these are just a few of the highlights that I shared with you today.

At the same time, we’ve been working with Woodbine, Gulfstream, and Canterbury, as well as planning and designing the new racecourse at Qiddiya, which will be the new home for the Saudi Cup. Right now, this is our moment. It’s our moment in time to take the reins and urge this renaissance in racing ahead. We have incredible people across the industry with the ambition, leadership, and vision to reimagine how people experience horse racing and engage more people in our sport, the oldest, most celebrated professional sport in the world. Thank you very much.