Challenges and Solutions is an ongoing series in the TDN.
CRAIG BERNICK, President and COO, Glen Hill Farm
What is the most pressing problem that needs to be tackled in racing, and how would you solve it?
Takeout. The economics of the business is such that we can only run for a percentage of money gambled and we need to incentivize horse players to gamble. Lowering takeout is the best way to do that. We have a problem in our industry from an ownership investment standpoint. Gambling drives purses, so we need to go at it from the gambling perspective. We need to lower takeout and the horsemen need to have their legal and proper percentage from wagers. Most gamblers, once they discover that they like the sport, stay in it for a long time, and if you lower takeout, they'll win more on winning wagers and they'll reinvest that money right back into our sport. Obviously, purses need to go up, and lowering takeout makes us more competitive in the gambling space. Everyone has an opinion, but lowering takeout would reward our existing customers, and help our new customers, whether they realize it or not. When you lower takeout, people reinvest in the game. It's worth a short-term rollback, because in the long term the business would significantly grow. I feel if we fix racing, the whole business will be fixed.
What do you think somebody from the outside looking in–somebody not involved in racing–would say the most pressing problem is?
From outside the sport, one would say have say that people feel that aftercare is the most pressing problem. After racing, horses have to be retrained for racing for second careers, and taken care of. People are alarmed that horses might not be looked after when they're done racing. It's a big problem, but we have a great solution, and we are doing a good job taking care of horses after racing, but we have to do a good job communicating that as well.
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