The Jockey Club announced today that the company will undergo a corporate restructuring that will enable its family of companies to better serve the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry in the areas of technology and communications.

The announcement was made by Alan Marzelli, the executive vice-president and chief financial officer of The Jockey Club and the chairman of Equibase Company LLC, when he detailed the activities of The Jockey Club at the 49th Annual Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing at the Sheraton Hotel in Saratoga Springs Sunday.

“The corporate restructuring will provide us with the opportunity to both integrate all data that is collected at racetracks into one centralized database and expand and enhance the services provided across the industry's existing data communications network,” Marzelli said.

“Although for financial reasons the project with IBM did not move forward as originally envisioned,” he said, “these were two of the most significant recommendations we helped identify in the course of providing support and guidance to the NTRA and IBM in their analysis of multiple technologies that racing uses to drive its business.”

Among the highlights of the restructuring:

 McKinnie Systems, Inc. will take on a new name and will be used as the platform for delivering these services.

 David Haydon, currently the executive vice-president of operations for Equibase, will serve as president of the company.

 James Coil, currently a technical support professional for The Jockey Club, will serve as vice-president of engineering.

 David Ruffra, currently president of McKinnie Systems, Inc., will serve as executive vice-president of sales and marketing.

 The Jockey Club's current Information Technology Group will be re-positioned as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Bobby Burch, currently the vice-president of that division of The Jockey Club, will serve as the president of the new company.

 Alan Marzelli will serve as chairman of both companies.

 Jim Liao, currently the president of Christiansen Capital Advisors, a management consulting firm that serves the gaming industry, will join The Jockey Club staff as executive vice president, finance and administration, where he will assume Marzelli’s current responsibilities at The Jockey Club.

The corporate restructuring and related personnel changes were approved by The Jockey Club’s Board of Stewards at its regularly scheduled Saratoga meeting on Friday Aug. 17.

Additional information about all of The Jockey Club companies can be accessed at www.jockeyclub.com.