NEWS
Racing’s major players embrace use of Twitter
Posted: Friday, December 23, 2011 2:26 PM
By Teresa Genaro
Racing is not, in general, what one would call quick to embrace new technologies. Observers of the industry frequently point to its failure, in the 1950s, to adapt to television as the beginning of its decline.
And while the industry eventually accepted the desirability of showing its races on television, it did not seem to learn much from the experience, continuing to resist electronic advances, such as websites and the Internet, long after other industries and popular culture adopted them.
So it is no surprise that while the rest of the world was embracing first Facebook and then Twitter, racing accounts on both social networking sites were few and far between.
Over the past few months, though, Twitter has seen a veritable explosion of racing-related accounts, offering fans and handicappers accessibility they have long asked for.
A social media site, Twitter offers users the ability to customize their experience by choosing whom they follow and what updates they receive. Once users have created an account, they can “follow” other users, whose updates, posts, or “tweets” will automatically appear in their timeline. Tweets are limited to 140 characters.
One of the most recent adopters is Kentucky Derby (G1)-winning trainer Graham Motion, who has been tweeting for just a few weeks. His followers can get updates on his horses, conversations with other racing people, and, occasionally, a query about his fantasy football team.
Motion’s reason for joining was simple. “I just feel quite strongly,” he said, “that in our business, our game, we need to be making ourselves more available to people.”
And he does make himself available, responding to comments and queries from followers about his horses.
“The questions I’ve been asked have been pretty straightforward and I don’t mind answering,” he said. “People seem to have been grateful.”
Trainer Mark Hennig joined at first, he said, to keep up with his teenage children.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” he said, “but we’ve got a lot of kids and they’re all on it, and we have to see what they’re doing.”
In the six months or so that Hennig has been tweeting, he has become the unofficial resource for surface updates at New York Racing Association tracks. When he gets a text from NYRA about the condition of the track and any races that are coming off the turf, he immediately tweets that information to his approximately 300 followers. His updates come out daily at about 6:30 a.m.
“I try to let people know as soon as I know what the track conditions are,” he said. “They’re not there, they don’t know what the weather’s been like, and I’m trying to help people who might be handicapping the races. I get a lot of responses from it; people thank me all the time.”
Multiple uses
Trainer Bob Baffert also has horseplayers in mind when he tweets, though he admits that he has gotten out of the habit and needs to jump-start the account that garnered a lot of attention last summer. He joined Twitter at the suggestion of decorated Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps during dinner at the Preakness Stakes (G1) in May.
“I thought I’d do it once in a while, give out a winner or two, and then I backed off from it,” he said. “I’d do it to help out the fans out there, let them know if a horse is live.
“I want to use it more, to give a winner out. Even if it’s a heavy favorite, people might bet their money, get a thrill, make a little money. At the Travers [Stakes (G1)] this year, when I was getting ready to run Coil, some fan yelled to me, ‘I’m not betting your horse unless you tweet it!’ It was funny.”
Baffert said that every horse he has touted on Twitter so far has won. Speaking by phone from California shortly after Blueskiesnrainbows won the sixth race at Hollywood on December 1, he said ruefully, “I should have tweeted that one.”
New Yorkowner and trainer Gary Gullo brings a pragmatic approach to his Twitter account. “I’ve been in this business since I was a little boy; my father was a trainer. He used to say, ‘Just win, and that’s your advertising.’ That used to work: You won a race, you got some horses. It’s a whole different business today.”
He tweets upcoming entries, race replays, and claiming information. Gullo wants both to educate people about racing and to attract new owners.
“With the casino here,” he said, referring to the new Resorts World Casino New York City at Aqueduct, “we’re probably going to have the best racing in the country with high purses, and without owners, it’s going to be hard to compete.”
While hopeful, he is also good-humoredly philosophical. “I’m hoping that it pays off. But if doesn’t, all it cost was my wife’s and my time.”
Trainers, jockeys, and owners all expressed a responsibility to publicizing racing, responding to fans, and bringing new people to the sport.
“It’s a neat way to keep in touch with fans,” said Samantha Siegel of Jay Em Ess Stable, owner of Boys At Tosconova and Rail Trip among many others. “It doesn’t feel like a burden to respond to their questions and comments.”
Chris Daley of Maroon PR is the man behind the Maryland-based Sagamore Racing’s Twitter account. Sagamore Farm, owned by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, won the 2010 Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) with Shared Account and this year’s Matron Stakes (G2) with Millionreasonswhy. Daly visits the farm regularly and is in almost daily contact with Sagamore’s trainer, Ignacio Correas IV, and farm manager, Tom Mullikin.
“We try to connect with fans,” Daley said. “We let people know when horses are running, and we want to support horse racing in general. We want to create the sense that we’re a professional sports team like the Orioles and the Ravens, a team that Marylanders can root for.”
Jockey Freddie Lenclud uses Twitter to try to enlarge his business network while at the same time sharing the sport.
“It’s good for the sport to advertise ourselves and show a positive attitude to people from the industry and racing fans,” he said.
The presence of horsemen and women on Twitter may well be a “better late than never” phenomenon, but the enthusiastic response from the fans who have been talking about racing on Twitter for the past several years, along with the endorsement of those in the industry who have accounts, may well encourage other trainers, owners, and jockeys to sign up.
Not that Twitter does not come without its pressure. Baffert observed that every time he has tweeted a winner, his followers have increased.
“I better tweet another winner soon,” he said with good humor, “or I’m going to lose them.”
Teresa Genaro is a New York correspondent of Thoroughbred Times. She is on Twitter at @BklynBckstretch.
