THE month of July saw the culmination of not only our first year on Darley Flying Start, but also our time on work placements and in the United States. Reunited again, with new knowledge, friends, and experiences, we began our last two weeks in the United States.

Our remaining time in Lexington was packed with visits to Denali Stud to see their yearlings destined for the Saratoga Select Sale and Keeneland September Sale with Craig, and soon-to-be Darley Flying starter, Conrad Banderoff, and our last yearling inspections with Michael Banahan and John Williams at the historic Raceland Farm.

Sitting in on talks from some of brightest names in our game, such as Dr Larry Bramlage at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit and Reed Ringler of Fasig-Tipton and Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Farm, we all looked towards our last day in the United States reluctantly.

CLAIBORNE

Visiting Claiborne, our group stood in awe of the great War Front and promising younger stallions like Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame and 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb. In the middle of a typical strong, early afternoon July thunderstorm, War Front stood unfazed, graciously accepting peppermints from the group.

However, the most poignant moments of our visit came among the headstones in the lush Kentucky Bluegrass which has been the foundation of champions and bloodlines that resonate in almost any pedigree. We all inspected the headstones of Secretariat, Bold Ruler, Mr Prospector, Gallant Fox, Nijinsky II, Buckpasser, and Nasrullah underneath a gentle drizzle, as we remembered some of the greatest ever legends of the turf.

As we moved nearer to our last day in the United States, there seemed to be a general feeling of impending doom. Not just because of the last of so many great times together in America, but also because of our upcoming conference where we would present to the many American thoroughbred industry leaders, who had been such gracious hosts to us.

With the task of drawing ideas from the six major American sports that could be successfully implemented to help American horse racing, we set off in groups of two in search of solutions and novel ideas. Gathering together in the Livery in downtown Lexington, everyone enjoyed drinks, hors d’oeuvres, some catching up, and a little banter before our presentations.

Kicking things off was the MC for the night, Gary King, a Darley Flying Start alumni and now vice-president of International Operations at TDN, who prefaced our assignment.

First up was Bryce Bevan and Emma Pugsley who looked to the National Football League (NFL) for inspiration. Pugsley and Bevan pointed out that perhaps our industry could adopt revenue sharing like the NFL does, suggesting that when a foal is registered a royalty could be paid to an organisation and then used to benefit our industry as a whole.

Dane Robinson and Fanny Cypres looked towards the National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) for ideas. They found that modelling fans’ experience in a similar manner to NASCAR would greatly benefit horseracing. By offering a hand-held device at NASCAR races, each fan can tune into a station to hear what’s going on in their favourite (or least favourite) driver’s car and can often access live streaming video. They suggested that doing this, as well as providing more camera angles, audio and in-race data would help horseracing enhance the fan experience.

SOCCER IN THE USA

Sam Harte and Violet Hesketh then examined Major League Soccer (MLS), whose popularity has skyrocketed in the past 10 years coming from an almost non-existent fan base. Harte and Hesketh alluded to international superstar David Beckham and the huge increase in game attendance to watch his team, the Los Angeles Galaxy, when he played. They suggested that marketing superstar geldings like Wise Dan and Shared Belief, who have lengthier careers, could draw and maintain more fans. John Rowe and Miriam Wadham looked at the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) for ideas. Looking at the PGA’s Pro-Am tournaments which sees professional golfers and celebrities team up, the pair suggested that racing could make better use of celebrities, perhaps allowing celebrities to act as co-owners for horses in big races on big race days.

Lauren Dunning and I were tasked to draw ideas from the National Basketball Association (NBA) to benefit our sport. We suggested that racing adopt a community outreach programme called Racing Cares similar to the programme NBA Cares which has helped create an international fan base for the NBA, touching lives at a young age and positively impacting families and communities.

BASKETBALL

Hallie Hardy and Caoimhe Doherty focused on Major League Baseball (MLB) offering a variety of ideas our sport could incorporate from them. They compared the MLB’s long 162-day season to America’s unrelenting racing calendar, suggesting that fantasy leagues for horse racing would be better received by focusing on events like the Breeders’ Cup and big days like Kentucky Derby day.

After group discussions establishing the six best ideas horse racing could incorporate from other sports, the trainees entertained questions from the crowd.

The night ended with great relief from the 12 trainees and goodbyes to the people that had been so good to us over the past six months. On behalf of the Darley Flying Start 2014-2016 class, a huge thank you to all the people that have made our time in Lexington so special and memorable and we look forward to crossing paths again soon!

See darleyflyingstart.com for more information on the programme