Challenges & Solutions: Duncan Taylor

Challenges and Solutions is an ongoing series in the TDN.

DUNCAN TAYLOR, President, Taylor Made
What is the most pressing problem that needs to be tackled in racing, and how would you solve it?
The biggest problem, in my opinion, is there is no organization like there is at the TDN where if there is a problem or opportunity, that problem or opportunity will immediately be addressed. The TDN is focused on their customer; what they want to do is provide news and information to their customer and that's what their customer expects when they come to the TDN.

If Duncan comes by with a new software that can gather information from around the globe, and says, “I think your customers will like this,” it quickly gets to Sue or Barry and a decision is made.
This is the thing we don't have in the horse business, and it's a problem. We have three groups: 1) the owners; 2) the tracks; and 3) governments (the 38 racing state governments). None of these three has total customer focus.

Most of our racetracks are struggling and don't believe in their own product of horse racing. The want to be casinos. The owners in general see themselves as passive participants that are expecting to be served by the racetrack. The governments are just there to collect what they are owed from the takeout. Who is thinking about the current handicappers and how to better serve them? Who is thinking about how to use our assets to develop new products around horse racing to draw new customers?

There are several key jobs in running a business: serving the customers you have, and looking at what assets and skill sets you have and identifying other customers who would benefit from what you do and develop products and deliver those products and serve the customers while making a profit. None of the three entities, owners, tracks or the governments in racing is doing that. The owners in general want to know about the purses and how they can enjoy the races. Some of the smartest entrepreneurs in the world are racehorse owners, but they don't see themselves as part of the team putting on the show for the handicapper and racing fan. In actuality, they are the talent (through their horses) in the entertainment business.

The money being bet (handle) is going down, and all Duncan is worrying about is selling the next horse, the track is trying to get a casino, the owners are enjoying what they're doing but not as much as they used to, because it's going downhill.

The tracks, the owners (they also need a organization structure just for them) and the governments need to hire a world-class leader, and put that person in charge, set goals they want to achieve and tie the leader into the upside. If the leader saves our industry, our leader will be an extremely wealthy person. It takes cooperation amongst the three groups, and as we have seen many times, that is very hard to achieve in this business. It would be like someone coming to Taylor Made, and saying they have a new fly spray. “Spray this fly spray one time and you'll never have another fly.” But he has to go talk to the guy who drives the van, and the guy cleaning the stall, and 100 other people to convince them all, because there's no one in charge.

In short, we lack an organizational structure to serve. In most businesses, we have marketing, finance and management. Those three departments are focused on serving the customer. There are two jobs in running a business: serving the customers you have, and looking at what assets and skill sets you have and identifying other customers who would benefit from what you do. None of those three entities in racing is doing that.

The owners want to know about the purses and where they're going to sit, but they're not willing to spend their time fighting for this because they've already done this in their business lives somewhere else. They're in racing to enjoy it and not change the world. So the first thing you need is to get a strong enough owners organization together.

Let's hire a leader, and put him in charge of doing things that will help us all. To do that, you have to serve the customer.

What do you think somebody from the outside looking in-somebody not involved in racing-would say the problem that most needs solving is?
They would probably say drugs, because that's what we talk about the most and they've watched all the movies. Somehow, a lot of the horse movies have crooked stuff in there, so they think it's under-handed, which I think is partially true, but it's partially true about every business that there ever was.