Every year, at every horse sale, judgement of how things went is determined based on the amount spent, the median and mean of what each horse sold for. While this makes a lot of sense, what isn’t often well reported is the calculation of how many different owners purchased horses, and how many new faces attended the sales.
While the role of agents and partnerships make this data difficult to obtain, and might prevent accurate reporting from ever occurring, the underlying reason for looking into this is really the most important point.
Is one person spending $1 million at a sale equal to 20 people each spending $50,000? Of course, in terms of dollars and the immediate return to breeders, consignors and sales companies, the answer is yes. But to the present and future viability of horse racing, the answer is “not even close.”
When you visit horse sales, are you walking into an environment that treats first-timers warmly and with open arms? A place where someone from outside the industry might come on their own? A spot where curiosity is embraced?
The truth is that without serious prompting, very few people would step foot at a horse sale. It wouldn’t likely be something they’d be aware of and certainly not something they’d stumble onto. Most new buyers are brought or introduced by someone currently in the game. It’s natural.
Harness racing’s successes and failures in this area will not likely come at the horse sales themselves, but in the months and years prior, when ownership candidates are introduced to the sport and the concept of horse ownership.
I’d suspect that if you’re reading this you’ve probably been to the racetrack hundreds or thousands of times in your adult life. If so, during how many of those visits have you been approached by an industry representative who has offered to explain horse ownership to you?
The truth is that everything takes planning and money. But up to this point, horse racing has put most of its eggs into purses and financial incentives as the primary mechanism to drive meaningful ownership growth. While this strategy has its merits, there are other parts to the equation.
As the horse racing industry across North America goes through transition, there must be a new method of thinking in regard to driving investment. Funding should be allocated to full time people whose entire goal is to do so. You may or may not appreciate time-share presentations, for example, but they essentially pay targeted individuals to be out there, explaining what they offer, and aggressively selling their merits. Why can’t horse racing do the same?
The ownership game has a tremendous appeal to a portion of the population. But the passive approach that has traditionally been taken to sell it, is in fact selling the industry short. And everybody suffers for it.
Darryl Kaplan
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