Noting the distinctive expertise provided —even in contrast with the heights of any sport — retired main league baseball participant Jayson Werth believes racing wants to search out artistic methods to convey extra folks in as homeowners.
Because the keynote speaker Aug. 13 on the Racing and Gaming Convention at Saratoga, Werth, who reached baseball’s heights as a World Sequence winner and an All-Star, served up that concept whereas recounting his expertise as a co-owner of this 12 months’s Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch.
“I’ve made some extent these days of claiming ‘co-owner’ as my companions get mad once I say ‘proprietor,’ ” Werth mentioned with fun. He additionally joked that attending Tuesday’s occasion populated by quite a lot of gaming executives would possibly assist his effort to wipe out some on line casino money owed.
Whereas Werth acknowledged that the playing side of racing helped convey him to the game, he mentioned racing must convey extra folks to the game by way of the possession expertise.
“I’m right here to inform you that what we’ve got in horse racing is each bit as thrilling as successful in different professional sports activities and one thing that I imagine extra folks ought to expertise,” Werth mentioned. “The issue is easy methods to get into the game. New [microshare] homeowners like Commonwealth and MyRacehorse are form of the primary ones over the wall and have created alternatives.
“However the sport stays robust to get into. That’s one thing I’d like to vary. I imagine it hasn’t but seen its Industrial Revolution.”
Werth famous that rule adjustments in baseball have expedited the sport and followers have embraced these adjustments, as seen by way of elevated attendance. He believes horse racing additionally must be keen to make adjustments.
“It’s such an excellent sport and we’ve got such a tremendous basis to construct upon,” Werth mentioned. “I imagine if we mix trendy expertise and inventive advertising and marketing, we are able to entice a broader style of individuals into the business and develop a fan base by way of possession. There’s one thing we might accomplish there.
“I imagine there may very well be a resurgence within the sport like we’ve by no means seen. All people loves horses, and what if we gave everybody an opportunity to develop into an proprietor, not only a bettor?”
Werth mentioned racing wants to appreciate {that a} energy is the sense of group skilled by followers at a monitor similar to Saratoga Race Course and by homeowners taking part within the sport. He mentioned that feeling attracts lots of the followers to the monitor and the game must market that. He famous that in successful a World Sequence he initially celebrated together with his Philadelphia Phillies teammates earlier than visiting household and pals; in racing, he loves that he’s capable of rejoice with these closest to him in the course of the occasion.
Werth mentioned alongside these traces of evolving the game, the business should proceed its dedication to aftercare and construct on these efforts.
“Maintain going with this sport — the purses, the large races, the occasions, the concert events — all of the issues across the sport that make it nice,” Werth mentioned. “And most significantly, maintain taking higher care of those horses and placing cash towards the aftercare applications.
“I believe that is among the many most necessary issues this business can do to vary the stigma of the game. After I discuss to folks in regards to the sport, that’s the very first thing they ask about. I inform them that the game has modified and I encourage them to have a look at what the business has completed. Aftercare is actual. So proceed to try this. The game and these animals are iconic.”
Werth has owned horses for 3 years, initially shopping for fillies. He marvels that the primary colt he went in on, Dornoch, has reached racing’s heights.
“[Ownership] has actually introduced me again to life as a retired athlete,” Werth mentioned. “The game has the flexibility to convey out the aggressive juices that we as soon as had on the sector that principally are misplaced in retirement. I believe it is among the coolest elements of the game.”
