Interview - Simon Bazalgette (Sovereign Series)

I can pretty much find anything on the internet, and after yesterday's news about the Sovereign Series I made it a mission to get in touch with the brains behind the operation. And luckily I not only found Mr Bazalgette, but he agreed to an interview. Here is part I, of what I hope will be 2 parts: Your background seems to be in the music business, have you always had a passion for racing? My background is in a broad range of media and entertainment businesses, particularly music and broadcast. I have always been an occasional racegoer, but more as a day out with friends than through any interest in the sport. I got involved in the launch of Racing UK more because of my broad experience in successfully launching media projects. Coming from outside racing also gives the perspective to challenge the received wisdom as to how things should be done. You were once a director of marketing. What are the big hangups with getting horse racing back onto the front pages? Racing is a very insular sport and has focused more on its existing audience than generating a new audience. The main challenge is to understand that it is also competing in the media landscape where other sports have modernised or addressed the market much better than horse racing, and we need to gear up for this challenge. That's precisely why the Sovereign Series had been created. In America we deal with different states having different rules and just a littany of people in charge of different things. In what ways does having a national body help? How much of a hassle is it bringing horses to the different jurisdictions of Europe? Horse racing is complicated in every country, and there are different challenges in each country. However there is a common theme that racing focuses too much on internal competition, and not enough on the external competition from other sports and leaisure activities. This is the change of focus that is needed everywhere to meet the challenge of globalisation and the opening up of markets that is an inevitable long term process. In the UK we have been successful in rallying broad support for this. I would hope to see similar realisation in Europe and North America. Where did you get the idea for the Sovereign Series? The Sovereign Series was created as a response to the challenge for horse racing to address the plateau-ing of its influence in the mass media and with mass audiences. Other sports have addressed this (UK soccer in the early 1990s, F1, cricket in recent years are all examples of this) and it is clear that integration with media rights is a core element. So the aim was to use the tools and elements that already exist to come up with a conecpt that is simple to understand but also engaging across the season. Have you gotten any feedback from trainers or owners? Trainers and owners have been very supportive. Chris Wall, President of the National Trainers Federation, and Paul Dixon, President of both the Racehorse Owners Association and the Horsemen's Group both willingly gave public support to the launch. Europe doesn't really have to worry about full fields, but in what ways do you see this helping the sport, from the business side? In the UK it is always a challenge to ensure full and competitive fields, and in general we are reasonably successful. However, we would still like to see more of the best horses racing against each other in the UK - that is what creates the consumer buzz. Achieving this means more consumer interest, more racegoers, higher media and sponsorship values and a range of other commercial benefits. You've recently been apointed CEO of the Jockey Club. Congratulations. In what ways will that position help you further the Sovereign Series? The Jockey Club has around 50% of Racing UK and has been a powerful supporter since launch in 2004. It is becoming increasingly clear that even greater co-operation across racing media and commercial projects will yield greater benefits to British racecourses. In my new role I will be in the perfect position to develop this, generating greater commercial returns that can be applied for the long term good of horse racing. PART II

England Gets It!!!! - TBA Victory shortly

FT.com / World - Horse-racing to award £2m prize Being a limey myself I take great pride in the fact that the English have figured it out. Please read this article, someone at TOBA/AGSC, NTRA, please read this article!!! Highlights, and really the whole thing is highlights - "In 2010, [All Group 1 Races] will be renamed the Sovereign Series, and points will be awarded according to each horse’s place in each race." "At the grassroots level, there is nothing significantly wrong with flat racing, but the broader sports audience can’t understand why one horse is better than another,” "season lacked a narrative" "reduce the number of horses going abroad" Simon Bazalgette you are my hero!!!! Why this is better than anything the US has put forth: It encompasses all the Gr I's, not a selective few (TBA would like the US to use all Graded Stakes), they are going to spend more on marketing than on the prize, they have someone who gets it in charge.

TVG Keeneland

TVG is going all out to say the least, and like usual Alan beat me to it. And, like usual I want to pat myself on the back because of one sentence in their press release: After the race, fans will be able to relive the action via TVG Broadband’s distribution partnership with Hulu. Hulu.com is the brainchild of a ton of suits for making money on video based content on the internet. They're like what 4 years behind the curve. Anyway, the site is awesome, with my personal PC screen getting bigger and bigger and the quality of video getting better spending 22 minutes infront of the computer tube isn't as bad as it used to be. And you can't beat all the classic sitcoms on there. I want to congratulate TVG for getting on HULU, it's a great site to surf, and it's not a stretch that a few extra eyes will end up watching the race thanks to this. TVG was created to get new fans watching, and for all those of you who complain, "Why don't they just shut up and show race after race," you don't get their mission. Why the pat on the back, cause this is going in the direction I thought it would go. Horse racing is made for streaming video on the internet. Short duration + big library + HD + streaming wirelessly to my tv = Horse Racing back in business.

The Future

This blog is devoted to horse racing as much as I am, but believe or not I care about other things. Even my wife doesn't believe this. But, it's true. I'm also a big reader. I probably read 8 hours a day while at work and at home. I can't get enough news about tech, science, politics, the election, business anything and everything if it's got a good first paragraph I'm in. So, I just thought I'd bring to the front what I'm excited about. Please go back to the TBA homepage if anything other than horse racing scares you. The reliance on oil for this country has been just fine for what 90 years now? We make a lot of it, we import it cheaply, things were going gangbusters. After 90 years though it's hard to change. $100 Crude and $4 gasoline makes you want to change but it's not like it's easy. That's because as hard as it is for Joe Public to change it's harder for John Government. However, as I was sitting with my 80 year old grandmother and 2.5 year old daughter I thought of the big changes my nan saw and what my 2.5 will see, and I think my 2.5 year old daughter will look at the combustion engine how I look at steam powered trains. And it won't be hydrogen or biodeisel she'll be fueling up with at the pump. Lithium-Ion batteries might be able to hold 10x the capacity currently. That could mean longer distances between plug-ins. And maybe she won't have to plug in overnight, because Li-on batteries could charge 90% in ten minutes. That's a fair rest for a pit stop. Will there be Energy Stations in the futures? Yeah I think so, and some might make their own energy on sunny days or even at night. Oh, you're thinking electric cars don't go fast, think again. Ok, you read that? Really, thanks for making it to here, because I want to let you know my daughter won't know a world where wires connect telephones to walls. That fact blew my mind, because I'm not that old, but I remember those days. Things change a lot faster than we realize. Now if we could find a synthetic track that drains we'd be in business.

Consolidation

Magna Entertainment reduces Q4 loss to US$12.5M, teams with Churchill Downs Well it's not exactly the consolidation I was hoping for (I called this move about 2 weeks ago), but a timely move nonetheless. I still think because TVG has such an imprint inside people's houses it might be in the best interest of this new company, TrackNet, to maybe purchase or become partners with TVG. And expand horse racing to 3 channels, but you're not here for old stale ideas; howsabout a new one?!!! First, get better cameras, quicker servers, and Trakus. Start streaming a live signal that's quality and able to be overlaid w/ all types of Trakus information, especially old feeds. Make all old races "Bloggable" If I see a good race I want to be able to share that with others. And, you should want me to share it with others. The current video feeds of Gulfstream, Churchill are poor to say the best, and it's not just you guys it's our industry as a whole. The look of horse racing on TV is shitty, and that's being kind. Why not think about this. In a nutshell what this is talking about is streaming live video content over the web, and from there I should be able to stream that to my TV via either Apple TV or a new device to be named shortly wirelessly. With that in place anyone with an internet connection would able to get the new horseracing channel on their TV with a crisp picture and smooth camera work. I'll be able to pick and choose what Trakus info I want to see as well. Traknet if you are alooking for a programming director or you need a general manager of common sense for your new ADW, drop me a line, I'll do it for free.

Couple things off my chest

Bloggers think way too much of themselves. They think they are better than writers, jockeys, trainers, owners, powers that be, and anyone else you can think of... And, I'm no different. I mean there's no good reason to write 1500 words a day for 100 or so people other than wanting to stroke my own vanity, the $29.27 I've earned over 2 years isn't really paying any bills. So, dear reader, knowing that I am an egotistical moron I took up the challenge set out by the well known Mr. Thorton. But, before I get to that... Today's opinion pieces in the Bloodhorse were 2 of the best I've ever read. Please go check them out. And, Mr Paulick, we had a pretty good discussion over here about TVG vs CDI that didn't fall into the, "matt carathurs should shut the hell up" category, just scroll down to previous posts and read the comments here and at LATG. As an editor of a large publication specifically angled towards horse racing I believe there is some responsibility on your part to get both sides of this matter to the table through public shaming, I'm not kidding. You should represent the fan in situations like this. Get your journalists to do what they are paid for: Find out the money situation and bare it out for all to see. No need to take sides just tell us how infantile this whole situation for both parties. Back to Mr. Thornton, and I'd love feedback from anyone w/ a law degree as to if this is possible. (Equidaily found this about a recent meeting w/ NTRA president) The solution to the Pari-mutuel paradigm: Start an LLC. For tracks to cooperate/join with this LLC the tracks sells an exclusive signal to the LLC. - Members cost of joining is proportionate to last year’s off track handle. - % ownership is calculated in the new year by offering more shares to partners who increased their handle the year prior. - Tracks will work together to buy each others signals fairly; knowing their own signals are being bought as well. - The LLC sets prices for all the signals that anyone can buy. Tracks themselves buy other tracks signals from the LLC. The LLC then goes to sell the signals back out to the tracks and ADW’s. They sell the signals back to LLC tracks at a cost derived from different attributes. The LLC can decide to use purse money offered, jockey insurance, racing days, anything it deems beneficial to racing as incentives for breaks. Voting on the benefits is done on an ownership basis. The better a track does in those categories the lower it will pay. The lowest an ADW pays will always be above the highest a track pays but they can lower by showing races on TV: Again the LLC can set up an algorithm based on factors they deem beneficial. Homes reached, total coverage of a meet (ie races shown) Why is this beneficial? Well it would take any 2 of CDI, NYRA and Magna to be the first two partners and exlclude their signal from all other tracks and ADW’s starting on a specific date, let’s say Jan 1, 2009. I believe that threat would force everyone to the table. We all know those signals are a lot of the lifeblood this industry has if not all. The LLC will work on a fair playing field as they are all part owners. Larger tracks will have more leverage than the smaller tracks, but smaller tracks can adjust their racing dates, purse structure to make the most out of it, and not worry about losing any signal at any time. They’re cash flow will be a lot smoother. This might also encourage working together on a proper stakes schedule to cut back on head to head competition. The ADWs will have the ability to pick any and all the tracks they want to cover, and are given incentives to show the races on TV. This could mean the while HRTV shows most of the Santa Anita meet, everyone might decide to cover the Big Cap knowing that handle on that race will be higher, and they could reap more benefits by putting it on TV. This also would give incentives for consolidation amongst the ADWs to lower their own costs. So there you have it. That's it, that's my pie in the sky hope. Something needs to bring this sport together, and every opportunity so far (illegal gambling, slots, exclusive rights) has been used to fracture the industry farther apart, and that blows for the common fan.