Stuart S. Janney III:

Thank you, Todd, for that very informative, quite compelling presentation. We are all very excited for the reopening of the new Belmont Park and for the other projects that you showed us. We look forward to the transformative design you and your colleagues have created. On behalf of the board of stewards and management of The Jockey Club, we hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. The speakers we invited all represent different constituencies and areas of concern.

To move this sport forward, as Gary Fenton noted, we all need to be connected and to work together. When we are not owning, training, selling, or in some other way engaged in Thoroughbred racing, we like to speculate about what others are up to. That’s just human nature on steroids in our industry. Let me discuss speculation about what The Jockey Club is up to and what we are doing about our future.

There is a notion found in groups like the HBPA and others that we want to run racing. We don’t. Had that been our objective, we would’ve not been so enthusiastically behind HISA and particularly in ensuring its independence.

As we look at our sport, there are three elements that will determine our success or failure: safety, integrity, and finance. We could not be more pleased that HISA will be responsible for safety and integrity. We’ll try to be helpful on those issues, but they’re in charge.

Finance, on the other hand, is not within HISA’s purview. It’s shared across a broad spectrum of groups and entities, sales companies, owners, partnerships, trainers, and other partners in state government, and through the tax code, the U.S. government. If you look carefully, you’ll find a multitude of challenges where the progress we need has occurred, but there are many other challenges where it hasn’t. Let me mention some of the biggest. Most can be grouped under the general heading, The Cost To Put On The Show:

We are struggling with stagnant purses, even with greater reliance on increasing revenues generated by non-racing activities, a dangerous position to be in.

Aging facilities, a great deal of progress on that. Populous’ presentation shows there’s plenty of that’s being done, but also plenty to do. The big question is are they going to be paid for? And if so, who’s going to pay?

The fight to get our fair share of the betting handle and how we fit into sports betting, that was discussed today.

Fixed odds. Are they attractive to the better? Yes, in many cases. But will it be attractive financially to the industry?

The sun setting on IRS tax incentives that are worth billions to this industry. Will they be extended?

An industry structured to, to be perfectly fair, destructively compete by pitting tracks against each other for purse levels, stake schedules, and post-times constantly trying to lure trainers and jockeys to change venues.

Plenty of supply chain disruptions in the lower end of our Thoroughbred market resulting in lower foal crops, fewer owners and breeders.

And with that, the devastation of the regional breeding industry as we have consolidated pretty much all of those activities in Kentucky. Please remember that without those folks in the regions, support radically diminishes for the bond issues and annual subsidies that can fuel the kind of regeneration that we need.

Unfortunately, I could go on, but I will stop here having, I think, convinced you The Jockey Club will be busy in the years ahead. I predict we will work on every one of those issues and many more. We can’t do it and don’t want to do it alone. We need you. Thank you for coming and have a great weekend of racing if you’re here in Saratoga.