Thoroughbred Idea Foundation

Pat Cummings is Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation "Oh, the places you'll go," hoped Dr. Seuss. There are reasons to be optimistic about the future of Thoroughbred racing in North America. Our future could be far brighter than the present, but it is all very conditional. A massive effort to modernize the sport is needed. "Modernization" does not just imply technological or other sorts of novel innovation, but rather, change to long-standing practices that will improve the outcomes of our sport for all stakeholders--horses, owners, bettors, fans, etc....

Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Pat Cummings's comment on Pa. Governor Tom Wolf's plan to divert the bulk of funding from the Race Horse Development fund (representing about 90% of all purse monies in the state) was both courageous and spot on. For too long Pennsylvania racetracks and horsemen's organizations alike have focused their efforts almost exclusively on procuring annual revenues from slot machine proceeds, while doing little or nothing to build the racing business or promote the sport. In the long run, no state is going to prop up a dying...

Editor's Note: the following is part of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's weekly `Free-Data Friday' series. New Jersey moved first. Again. Continuing a trend that has seen the Garden State lead the way forward on sports betting and evolving the nation's wagering landscape, Tuesday's announcement was a potential positive volley in that evolution as Monmouth Park and their operator, Darby Development LLC, entered a 10-year exclusive agreement with The BetMakers to manage and distribute a fixed odds signal. This is the first such deal in North America for North American customers....

This week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN's Writers' Room Podcast, Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Executive Director Pat Cummings, implored the racing industry to learn from what has happened in Pennsylvania and to end what he sees as decades of complacency. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has submitted a budget that calls for $204 million to be diverted from the state's Race Horse Development Fund and used for a program that would provide college scholarships for Pennsylvania residents. Should the money, which comes from slot machines proceeds, be taken...

The Thoroughbred Idea Foundation was formed to cultivate and put forth independent ideas for the benefit of Thoroughbred racing. In this edition of the TDN Writers' Room podcast, TIF Executive Director Pat Cummings talks to Joe Bianca, Bill Finley, Jon Green and Alan Carasso about their new white paper on the sustainability of racing.

Considering three systemic issues and offering three recommendations, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation released its newest white paper, "American Racing's Sustainable Future." "No matter where an American racing stakeholder stands on the issues that seemingly have consumed the majority of the dialogue in the sport in recent months - the 'federal bill' or use of the crop amongst them - it is beyond time to start tackling the larger, fundamental concerns which threaten our industry and work towards a more sustainable future," said TIF Executive Director Patrick Cummings. "This paper is...

Editor's Note: the following is part of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's weekly `Free-Data Friday' series. #FreeDataFriday-VOLUME 18: GRAMM: THE ONE WAY TO ENSURE RACING'S LONG-TERM SURVIVAL While this weekly feature has routinely covered issues related to data horseplayers consume or are offered at outrageous price points, the economist inside of this horseplayer, horse owner and breeder is left to ponder how the greater racing industry has collectively ignored years of troubling trends in the data the industry reports itself. After a modest uptick in annual wagering on Thoroughbred races from...

Editor's Note: the following is part of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's weekly 'Free-Data Friday' series. #FreeDataFriday--VOLUME 17: DATA, WAGERING AND THE FUTURE OF RACING At some point the horse racing industry--owners, racetracks and industry organizations--stopped caring about gambling on live horse racing. If gambling on horse racing was any sort of priority, distributing free data would be one of the first things the industry would do. Get data into the hands of customers. Despite their massive contribution to racing, horse owners are required to relinquish any rights to data, even...

It's no secret that racing had a tough year in 2019. We asked a cross-section of participants what their number one goal is to make racing better in 2020. (Want to participate? Email suefinley@thetdn.com) PATRICK CUMMINGS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THOROUGHBRED IDEA FOUNDATION Despite the raft of negativity that has surrounded the sport in North America, racing on this continent suffers from a general malaise that can best be described as follows--we simply don't take our sport seriously enough. If we did, many of our smaller problems, head-scratching status-quo situations or even...