Woodbine Perspective
Sept 18, 2014 8:09:05 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Sept 18, 2014 8:09:05 GMT -5
I thought this was interesting and informative. The key may be a Board actually involved in the sport - not political pals.
Investment in the Ownership Experience a Significant Issue
by Ray Paulick
Stephen Koch is vice president of racing, stables and grounds for the Woodbine Entertainment Group, which this year is operating nine months of Thoroughbred racing at Woodbine racetrack in Toronto, ON., from April 12-Dec. 7. This is the first of a five-year deal over which time the Ontario government is supporting racing with a $500-million investment, in the wake of the termination of the slots-at-racetracks program operated in partnership with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
Koch joined Woodbine in 2003, first as projects manager, then overseeing backstretch operations and in 2006 becoming director of racing. He’s been in his current post since 2008.
Prior to that the University of Kentucky graduate spent two years at Keeneland and 10 years at Claiborne, where his father, Gus, was manager after working in Canada and Maryland at E.P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm.
The Paulick Report caught up with Koch last Saturday on the eve of the $1-million Ricoh Woodbine Mile and Northern Dancer Stakes, a pair of G1 races run over the track’s European style turf course. Wagering on Sunday’s card was a record $7,004,235 for Woodbine Mile Day and up 30 percent on-track, compared to 2013.
What are your biggest assets at Woodbine?
Our truly key asset at Woodbine is a board of directors and executives who are in horse racing, enjoy horse racing and fully support horse racing. And what that means is the resources flow to the racing department to put forth the best racing product. We are willing to invest in facilities and purses and the horsemen’s experience in ways that wouldn’t make sense if it was completely bottom-line driven. It lets us innovate, allows us to invest in racing surfaces; certainly the investment we put into the turf course is enormous, as a very particular example, along with the effort and innovation we’ve put into maintaining our synthetic surface.
It definitely starts there. That’s the asset, so what’s the outcome of that asset? We are able to maintain a fantastic purse structure. Our purses this year are going to be over $500,000 per day across 133-days of a nine-month race meet. We are one of those exceptional race meets where a horseman can go and make a full living at that one track for a very long season, and his horse is going to get that critical number of starts where he has a great shot of breaking even or make a profit.
The turf course is a major asset. Woodbine has become well known for its turf racing and deservedly so. That mile and a half turf course from start to finish, looping around the outside of the main track, allows for one of the longest stretches in North American racing. It lets horse races play out in an interesting way that makes for a compelling proposition, and it’s very intriguing for ship-in horsemen. Europeans really enjoy our turf course, and Americans know it allows for a fair and unique racing experience.
The ongoing investment in the ownership experience is another thing we’ve done. I think many of the major problems the industry has right now boil down to a shortage of owners. At Woodbine, we continue to invest in the ownership experience. We want owners to be interested and engaged because of the benefits at a place like Woodbine. Perhaps that can lead to owners having more horses and bringing additional owners into the game. The more owners you have and the more horses you have, the better the product and, hopefully, that will lead to increased wagering.
For people shipping to race at Woodbine, stakes manager Julie Bell will bend over backwards every single time to help you get your horse here, help you find a hotel and get organized in the turf club. Karl Lagerborg is not your traditional ‘stall man.’ Karl is so much more than that. He is one of our key contacts for the horsemen’s experience, for those horsemen coming from the States or elsewhere. That customer aspect for horsemen is a big advantage for Woodbine and returns dividends.
What are some of the challenges?
A key challenge for Woodbine is that we exist in Toronto, Canada. In my experience, an owner’s first thought in trying to choose a racetrack to send their horse, they’re not thinking of sending it to another country. Let’s face it, the horsemen in the United States do not notice that Canada is just across the border on the map, they just know that it’s in another country, and the hurdles to get there must be extraordinary. The fact of the matter is the money up here spends very well, and it’s not that big a deal to ship a horse here. But our location absolutely is a hurdle to us being considered every day as the tier one racing establishment that we really are.
Every time we’ve gotten a fresh face up here – a horseman from the U.S. or elsewhere and it’s true of bettors, too – and they’ve actually seen Woodbine, they always find the size, breadth and quality of our facilities quite remarkable. And that’s when it becomes very real. So our challenge has been, if we can get them to come to Woodbine the first time, overwhelmingly horsemen and bettors will return because the facility stamps itself in that way, it becomes the major enterprise that we know it is.
We just spent the last two years facing some challenging times with our own government and the political situation, and it put the entire Ontario racing and breeding industry on hold for a couple years. Frankly, we spent a year and a half where the only news that came out of Ontario racing was bad news. It fed a conception at the time, where people said: OK, the train is off the rails up north, so don’t go there right now because you don’t know what’s going to happen. How true and how long are those purses going to hold out? Do you really want to breed a Canadian racehorse or engage in Canadian racing? How long can it keep going?
Yes, we had a hitch in our stride and we had to step back and reevaluate the business model for the industry. Now, two years later, we’ve come out on the other side. Woodbine is looking very positive right now. Daily purses haven’t changed – steady at well over $500,000 per day.
Total purses did decrease in the last two years as we reduced the season from 167 to 133 dates. That said, the reduction in dates – essentially by removing Thursdays from the race week – did allow for right-sizing of the season with respect to the horse population while maintaining the long-running April into December breadth of the season. Total purses in 2014 will come to about $72 million.
I think that’s really remarkable and worth paying attention to. We have stated support from our current government and we are looking at several years of prosperity. We are in a building mode now at Woodbine.
What adjustments have been made as a result of declines in the foal crop, both in Canada and the U.S.?
The declining foal crop is a serious factor facing the industry right now. Field size is a critical element to putting out a quality product that bettors are willing to play. And if across the industry we are going to insist on racing the same number of days, I’m not too clear on where we are going to get the horses to fill those races as we move into the next two years. The locally bred horse is important to Woodbine, and what happened in Ontario the last couple of years caused the breeders to reasonably take a major step back to see if things were going to get better, which they did. But, in the meantime, 40 percent fewer Canadian- and Ontario-bred horses were produced. It’s an enormous question and I can’t say right now what the answer is. In the short run you try and recruit other owners, but there currently are only so many owners to go around.
At Woodbine we are blessed to have a strong relationship with our local HBPA. It’s an asset that allows us to get things done in a very collaborative manner rather than us always pulling in different directions.
What message did you take from the recent CTHS yearling sale, where prices were up across the board?
Confidence. That extra million dollars spent on the same number of horses over last year was a million dollars spent on the confidence that Woodbine is going to be around a while, Canadian horse racing is going to be around a while. We have reasons to breed and purchase and race Canadian-bred horses and Ontario-sired horses. We’ve implemented a bonus program for Ontario-sired horses where an eligible Ontario-sired horse in an open conditioned race earns a 40 percent bonus on top of that already fantastic purse. The Ontario-sired horses have greatly over-performed our expectations as far as earning that bonus. I really believe the profitability is there for those horses and the buyers believe it is a long-term prospect. And that’s very good because Woodbine believes the health of Canadian racing is a long-term prospect, too.
Are there misconceptions Americans have of racing here?
I think the day-in, day-out quality of our racing is underestimated. We have seen over and over again, Woodbine-based runners can go elsewhere and win at fantastic rates. Our Woodbine horses can go to Keeneland and perform very well, they go to Gulfstream and Fair Grounds and perform very well all winter long, and they definitely make the international scene. We’ve seen plenty of success at Saratoga in the summer time, particularly the turf horses. I think there’s an under-appreciation for the horses coming from Woodbine. Further evidence of that, and our wagering public is guilty of this, too, when a horse ships in from elsewhere, they often get over-bet and Woodbine horses can run with that horse every time.
Do you anticipate any major changes to the overnight or stakes program in 2015?
I think 2015 is going to be a very status quo year. I anticipate our purses are going to be steady and race dates should be fairly steady.
How is Woodbine making the Queen’s Plate – your biggest day of the year – even bigger?
Starting a few years ago we began looking at ways to make the Queen’s Plate more entertaining to a larger, broader demographic and discovered that the Toronto public likes to dress up, attend an event, and likes the fact it is associated with a high-quality horse racing experience.
What we’ve done at Woodbine is create an area called Hats and Horseshoes, where there is live music and a younger demographic. We are trying to sell wagering to the new customer. It’s a very high-fashion event with brands specifically signed on as sponsors and participants. For example, the Flare Lounge, associated with a Toronto fashion magazine, brings a verification of the high-fashion concept we are trying to make this event be. We’ve discovered that the Toronto public is hungry for events where they have an excuse to dress up. And when the women attend and are dressed up and wearing their hats, so, too, do the guys and it becomes a contest for them to dress up also. It’s a fashionable event with a very energetic, young crowd. We are swamping the grandstand with people for these major race days, so what has to go hand in hand with that is a quality card of racing.
Where is Woodbine in terms of deciding whether to keep or replace its Polytrack main surface?
We are a very open-minded body of people. Our Polytrack has been in since September 2006. It’s performed very well for us, we’ve had some good years of racing and there are some tremendous advantages Polytrack brings a racetrack such as Woodbine. Where we are now is, OK, the Polytrack has been in for a while and it’s due for some reinvestment. We think the current track can perform better.
One should always in their businesses be reevaluating: Are we making all of the right decisions? Are we taking into consideration all of the options?
The options are to continue investing in the current track, purchase a new synthetic track or is dirt truly the best surface for horse racing?
At Woodbine we have a lot of unique variables due to our location and climate and the breadth of our season that we have to add into those calculations. We are going to consider all the options, very carefully, and balance them against commercial interests and those of the horsemen – which is a critical factor. We must have the right surface for us to keep a quality of racing and a quality of horsemen’s participation. We’re open-minded now, we’ll spend time this fall and perhaps some of the winter undergoing that analysis, and somewhere in 2015 we’ll come to a conclusion.
If we come to some extraordinary conclusions where we are going to purchase a new dirt or synthetic surface, that’s a big project that gets into the question of what’s the timeline for that execution. We will definitely open the racing in 2015 on the same track we have today.
Investment in the Ownership Experience a Significant Issue
by Ray Paulick
Stephen Koch is vice president of racing, stables and grounds for the Woodbine Entertainment Group, which this year is operating nine months of Thoroughbred racing at Woodbine racetrack in Toronto, ON., from April 12-Dec. 7. This is the first of a five-year deal over which time the Ontario government is supporting racing with a $500-million investment, in the wake of the termination of the slots-at-racetracks program operated in partnership with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
Koch joined Woodbine in 2003, first as projects manager, then overseeing backstretch operations and in 2006 becoming director of racing. He’s been in his current post since 2008.
Prior to that the University of Kentucky graduate spent two years at Keeneland and 10 years at Claiborne, where his father, Gus, was manager after working in Canada and Maryland at E.P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm.
The Paulick Report caught up with Koch last Saturday on the eve of the $1-million Ricoh Woodbine Mile and Northern Dancer Stakes, a pair of G1 races run over the track’s European style turf course. Wagering on Sunday’s card was a record $7,004,235 for Woodbine Mile Day and up 30 percent on-track, compared to 2013.
What are your biggest assets at Woodbine?
Our truly key asset at Woodbine is a board of directors and executives who are in horse racing, enjoy horse racing and fully support horse racing. And what that means is the resources flow to the racing department to put forth the best racing product. We are willing to invest in facilities and purses and the horsemen’s experience in ways that wouldn’t make sense if it was completely bottom-line driven. It lets us innovate, allows us to invest in racing surfaces; certainly the investment we put into the turf course is enormous, as a very particular example, along with the effort and innovation we’ve put into maintaining our synthetic surface.
It definitely starts there. That’s the asset, so what’s the outcome of that asset? We are able to maintain a fantastic purse structure. Our purses this year are going to be over $500,000 per day across 133-days of a nine-month race meet. We are one of those exceptional race meets where a horseman can go and make a full living at that one track for a very long season, and his horse is going to get that critical number of starts where he has a great shot of breaking even or make a profit.
The turf course is a major asset. Woodbine has become well known for its turf racing and deservedly so. That mile and a half turf course from start to finish, looping around the outside of the main track, allows for one of the longest stretches in North American racing. It lets horse races play out in an interesting way that makes for a compelling proposition, and it’s very intriguing for ship-in horsemen. Europeans really enjoy our turf course, and Americans know it allows for a fair and unique racing experience.
The ongoing investment in the ownership experience is another thing we’ve done. I think many of the major problems the industry has right now boil down to a shortage of owners. At Woodbine, we continue to invest in the ownership experience. We want owners to be interested and engaged because of the benefits at a place like Woodbine. Perhaps that can lead to owners having more horses and bringing additional owners into the game. The more owners you have and the more horses you have, the better the product and, hopefully, that will lead to increased wagering.
For people shipping to race at Woodbine, stakes manager Julie Bell will bend over backwards every single time to help you get your horse here, help you find a hotel and get organized in the turf club. Karl Lagerborg is not your traditional ‘stall man.’ Karl is so much more than that. He is one of our key contacts for the horsemen’s experience, for those horsemen coming from the States or elsewhere. That customer aspect for horsemen is a big advantage for Woodbine and returns dividends.
What are some of the challenges?
A key challenge for Woodbine is that we exist in Toronto, Canada. In my experience, an owner’s first thought in trying to choose a racetrack to send their horse, they’re not thinking of sending it to another country. Let’s face it, the horsemen in the United States do not notice that Canada is just across the border on the map, they just know that it’s in another country, and the hurdles to get there must be extraordinary. The fact of the matter is the money up here spends very well, and it’s not that big a deal to ship a horse here. But our location absolutely is a hurdle to us being considered every day as the tier one racing establishment that we really are.
Every time we’ve gotten a fresh face up here – a horseman from the U.S. or elsewhere and it’s true of bettors, too – and they’ve actually seen Woodbine, they always find the size, breadth and quality of our facilities quite remarkable. And that’s when it becomes very real. So our challenge has been, if we can get them to come to Woodbine the first time, overwhelmingly horsemen and bettors will return because the facility stamps itself in that way, it becomes the major enterprise that we know it is.
We just spent the last two years facing some challenging times with our own government and the political situation, and it put the entire Ontario racing and breeding industry on hold for a couple years. Frankly, we spent a year and a half where the only news that came out of Ontario racing was bad news. It fed a conception at the time, where people said: OK, the train is off the rails up north, so don’t go there right now because you don’t know what’s going to happen. How true and how long are those purses going to hold out? Do you really want to breed a Canadian racehorse or engage in Canadian racing? How long can it keep going?
Yes, we had a hitch in our stride and we had to step back and reevaluate the business model for the industry. Now, two years later, we’ve come out on the other side. Woodbine is looking very positive right now. Daily purses haven’t changed – steady at well over $500,000 per day.
Total purses did decrease in the last two years as we reduced the season from 167 to 133 dates. That said, the reduction in dates – essentially by removing Thursdays from the race week – did allow for right-sizing of the season with respect to the horse population while maintaining the long-running April into December breadth of the season. Total purses in 2014 will come to about $72 million.
I think that’s really remarkable and worth paying attention to. We have stated support from our current government and we are looking at several years of prosperity. We are in a building mode now at Woodbine.
What adjustments have been made as a result of declines in the foal crop, both in Canada and the U.S.?
The declining foal crop is a serious factor facing the industry right now. Field size is a critical element to putting out a quality product that bettors are willing to play. And if across the industry we are going to insist on racing the same number of days, I’m not too clear on where we are going to get the horses to fill those races as we move into the next two years. The locally bred horse is important to Woodbine, and what happened in Ontario the last couple of years caused the breeders to reasonably take a major step back to see if things were going to get better, which they did. But, in the meantime, 40 percent fewer Canadian- and Ontario-bred horses were produced. It’s an enormous question and I can’t say right now what the answer is. In the short run you try and recruit other owners, but there currently are only so many owners to go around.
At Woodbine we are blessed to have a strong relationship with our local HBPA. It’s an asset that allows us to get things done in a very collaborative manner rather than us always pulling in different directions.
What message did you take from the recent CTHS yearling sale, where prices were up across the board?
Confidence. That extra million dollars spent on the same number of horses over last year was a million dollars spent on the confidence that Woodbine is going to be around a while, Canadian horse racing is going to be around a while. We have reasons to breed and purchase and race Canadian-bred horses and Ontario-sired horses. We’ve implemented a bonus program for Ontario-sired horses where an eligible Ontario-sired horse in an open conditioned race earns a 40 percent bonus on top of that already fantastic purse. The Ontario-sired horses have greatly over-performed our expectations as far as earning that bonus. I really believe the profitability is there for those horses and the buyers believe it is a long-term prospect. And that’s very good because Woodbine believes the health of Canadian racing is a long-term prospect, too.
Are there misconceptions Americans have of racing here?
I think the day-in, day-out quality of our racing is underestimated. We have seen over and over again, Woodbine-based runners can go elsewhere and win at fantastic rates. Our Woodbine horses can go to Keeneland and perform very well, they go to Gulfstream and Fair Grounds and perform very well all winter long, and they definitely make the international scene. We’ve seen plenty of success at Saratoga in the summer time, particularly the turf horses. I think there’s an under-appreciation for the horses coming from Woodbine. Further evidence of that, and our wagering public is guilty of this, too, when a horse ships in from elsewhere, they often get over-bet and Woodbine horses can run with that horse every time.
Do you anticipate any major changes to the overnight or stakes program in 2015?
I think 2015 is going to be a very status quo year. I anticipate our purses are going to be steady and race dates should be fairly steady.
How is Woodbine making the Queen’s Plate – your biggest day of the year – even bigger?
Starting a few years ago we began looking at ways to make the Queen’s Plate more entertaining to a larger, broader demographic and discovered that the Toronto public likes to dress up, attend an event, and likes the fact it is associated with a high-quality horse racing experience.
What we’ve done at Woodbine is create an area called Hats and Horseshoes, where there is live music and a younger demographic. We are trying to sell wagering to the new customer. It’s a very high-fashion event with brands specifically signed on as sponsors and participants. For example, the Flare Lounge, associated with a Toronto fashion magazine, brings a verification of the high-fashion concept we are trying to make this event be. We’ve discovered that the Toronto public is hungry for events where they have an excuse to dress up. And when the women attend and are dressed up and wearing their hats, so, too, do the guys and it becomes a contest for them to dress up also. It’s a fashionable event with a very energetic, young crowd. We are swamping the grandstand with people for these major race days, so what has to go hand in hand with that is a quality card of racing.
Where is Woodbine in terms of deciding whether to keep or replace its Polytrack main surface?
We are a very open-minded body of people. Our Polytrack has been in since September 2006. It’s performed very well for us, we’ve had some good years of racing and there are some tremendous advantages Polytrack brings a racetrack such as Woodbine. Where we are now is, OK, the Polytrack has been in for a while and it’s due for some reinvestment. We think the current track can perform better.
One should always in their businesses be reevaluating: Are we making all of the right decisions? Are we taking into consideration all of the options?
The options are to continue investing in the current track, purchase a new synthetic track or is dirt truly the best surface for horse racing?
At Woodbine we have a lot of unique variables due to our location and climate and the breadth of our season that we have to add into those calculations. We are going to consider all the options, very carefully, and balance them against commercial interests and those of the horsemen – which is a critical factor. We must have the right surface for us to keep a quality of racing and a quality of horsemen’s participation. We’re open-minded now, we’ll spend time this fall and perhaps some of the winter undergoing that analysis, and somewhere in 2015 we’ll come to a conclusion.
If we come to some extraordinary conclusions where we are going to purchase a new dirt or synthetic surface, that’s a big project that gets into the question of what’s the timeline for that execution. We will definitely open the racing in 2015 on the same track we have today.
