16 February 2007

31st Asian Racing Conference – An Owners Perspective

IROA General Meeting 24 Jan 2007 in Dubai, UAE (Left to Right): John Freeman – South Africa, Robert De Comarmond – Maritius, Zeyn Mirza – India, Dr V J Mallya – India, Benedict Chan – Australia, Dan Metzger – USA.

By way of background, Asian Racing Federation comprises 20 member countries which include Australia, Bahrain, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.

The Objectives of the Federation are:-

1. To meet and foster goodwill and mutual understanding through the medium of periodic conferences and other racing events in the member countries.
2. To promote horse racing and breeding and the integrity and prestige thereof by any means that the Federation shall consider appropriate and which are in compliance with all existing laws, rules and regulations.
3. To encourage and develop mutually beneficial objectives and strategies between racing organisations without discrimination to aid the development of horse racing.
4. To exchange ideas and information on matters connected with horse racing.
5. To encourage, promote and support international competition for jockeys and horses when conditions permit.

Following upon the Ownership Workshop in the 29th ARC in Auckland, New Zealand and the Operational Session 2B “Ownership Workshop” of 23 May 2005 at the 30th Asian Racing Conference in Seoul (chaired by IROA Vice-President Mr Benedict Chan OBE), IROA assisted in the organisation of another Operational Session on Ownership at the recent 31st Asian Racing Conference in Dubai.

Speakers and topics covered at this Operational Session 4 “Racehorse Ownership & Participation” (chaired by IROA President Dr VJ Mallya) included:-

• “Challenges in Recruiting New Owners in Emerging Economies” by John Freeman, Gold Circle, South Africa;
• “Approaches to prizemoney to encourage horse ownership” by Michael Kenny, CEO, Sydney Turf Club, Australia;
• “Expectations of racehorse breeders and owners from government and race establishment” by Mrs. Inci Ozdemir, Chairwoman of Turkish Association for Racehorse Breeders and Owners, Turkey;
• Creating a better economic environment for Owners” by Dan Metzger, President, Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association, USA.
  

The two arms of Ownership, being that of attracting new owners and that of retaining owners, were previously espoused at the Operational Session 2B of the 30th Asian Racing Conference in Seoul – and that for Ownership Strategy to work, both arms of the pincer must work, or the strategy fails. Whilst attracting new owners was previously the focus, “Retention of Owners” featured more on the agenda, and a theme espoused by Dr VJ Mallya in Operational Session 4 “Racehorse Ownership & Participation”, and other speakers at the ARC. Dr VJ Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director of Kingfisher Airlines and Chairman of United Breweries Group, told delegates during the session on racehorse ownership that the retention of owners was more important than acquisitions. “The more we retain, the more the word will spread and people will become interested in racing,” he said.

“ Horse racing must be the only professional sport that you don’t pay the participants for competing,” Michael Kenny said. “It’s the owner who pays all the bills but they don’t see the returns unless they’re successful. The main point of prize-money is that you reward the fastest horse but you’ve got to look after the place getters.”

In a previous ARC in Bangkok, Michael Kenny spoke on the issue of the “hobby” owners and of its implications to racing – that the racing business model was heavily dependent for its supply on owners that were largely hobbyists, owners who did not need to be in racing, and who could easily change their hobby overnight. In other words, racing depended for the “reliability, predicability and sustainability” of its supply function on “hobbyists”, who could easily change if they did not get enough enjoyment from their hobby.

Benedict Chan OBE, a panelist in Operational Session 4 “Racehorse Ownership & Participation” made the point that many of the initiatives vital to addressing “retention” of owners need not need not cost much by way of implementation, and required a greater appreciation by racing administrators of the nature of ownership, of owners’ expectations and of the owners’ vital role in racing’s supply function.

Another ownership issue from the 31st ARC was the Reality of the Funding Gap between Prizemoney and Costs of Ownership. Louis Romanet, Chairman, International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) highlighted this issue of (negative) return to owners as one of 5 major challenges to racing. Larry Wong (Hong Kong) spoke of the funding gap between Income and Expenditure, the need to understand the “Racing Model” and the “real cost” of racing, and the need to consider the long term impacts.

Motivational speaker Pat Williams (Senior Vice President, Orlando Magic) spoke on Organisations of Excellence, and highlighted as one of the Keys to Quality - the importance of “knowing your customer/stakeholder”. This raises the question of how well in general racing administrators know the hopes and aspirations of their stakeholders (Owners), upon whom they depend for the reliability predicability and sustainability of supply. More revealing would be how well racing administrators are perceived by Owners to know and understand them!

The Asian Racing Conference is an excellent platform to highlight and promote at the international level the many Ownership issues common to many jurisdictions. The ARC is attended by the industry's global leaders, horse racing administrators, industry participants and enthusiasts alike. Ownership issues that are raised and discussed at the ARC before the movers of racing can in turn be promoted with great credibility in the respective domestic jurisdictions.

IROA General Meeting held during 31st ARC Dubai – for information, see IROA website.