by Ed DeRosa

Arlington Park President Roy Arnold has been a fixture at industry gatherings since Churchill Downs Inc. named him president of the Chicago-area track in spring 2006, but the joint annual meeting between the Thoroughbred Racing Associations and Harness Tracks of America was the first time he showed his executive mettle during an open session.

Responding to a panel discussion on using the Internet to deliver horse racing information, Arnold expressed concern that the industry would miss an opportunity to maximize revenue from the technology similar to missed opportunities with television and simulcasting.

“The Internet is a great opportunity to recover from past mistakes,” Arnold said. “We lost our distribution rights when we were too quick to sign on with [Television Games Network], and now we’re going to make the same mistake with the Internet.

“Some guy in India is working on a way to integrate all facets of our industry, and he’s going to patent it, and trademark it, and then try to sell it to us for ‘only 3%’ of all the money it brings in. That would be terrible. We can’t afford to lose control of our content.”

“That’s exactly what happened with simulcasting,” TRA Executive Vice President Chris Scherf said. “We failed to develop a comprehensive strategy.”

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association is soon to launch NTRA web 2.0, which is likely to tap into many of the web’s most innovative developments such as social networking, community building, and dialogue among industry participants, stakeholders, and fans.

Seth Merrow, founder of the ultra popular website Equidaily.com, urged racetrack operators to use their websites for delivering content and advised them not to rely on traditional media outlets to deliver their content.

“Don’t embrace the technology but embrace the passion of the fans out there,” said radio commentator and National Turf Writers Association board member Dave Johnson. “Use technology to bring out people’s passions.”

Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times