Lexington,
KY - The final two ARCI “Town Hall” meeting focus groups will be focused
on quarter horse racing and will take place on Friday, October 21st at Lone
Star Park (Grand Prairie, TX) and on Wednesday, October 26th at Los
Alamitos Race Course (Los Alamitos, CA).
When
done, the ARCI will have held twenty-eight focus group meetings at
Thoroughbred, Standardbred, and Quarter Horse racetracks across the country.
Over 1,000 people have attended and participated in this process at
these meetings.
Now
the ARCI is asking all racing industry participants, fans and horse players
also participate in this process by taking five minutes to complete an online
survey.
The
survey can be accessed at this link.
“We
are attempting to focus the entire industry on problems that must be addressed
and provide information as to which ways to address those problems that would
have the most support from those involved in the sport,” RCI President Ed
Martin said.
Preliminary
data was presented to the ARCI Board last July and the early assessment was
that there is a possible consensus path forward that could attract considerable
support.
As
in the focus groups, those taking the survey will be asked to identify racing’s
biggest problems and address questions associated with various ideas that have
been put forward to address them. “People are asked to make
choices and are also given the opportunity to say what’s on their mind in their
own words,” he said.
“It
is our hope that the current path which has divided an industry and generated
ill will and negative publicity for a sport struggling to compete for the
entertainment dollar can be replaced with one that will bring people together
in a way that will actually achieve something,” he said.
Martin
said the ARCI was encouraged by Jockey Club Chairman Stuart Janney’s remarks at
this year’s Roundtable Conference in Saratoga when he said: “When we have the
opportunity to do so, we should work together. This industry's most successful
initiatives have been those in which various organizations and individuals
joined hands for a common cause.”
The
ARCI will stop gathering input at the end of October. During November,
the results of the focus groups and survey will be shared with major industry
organizations as well as all participants in the process (focus groups and
survey).
In
December, the ARCI will facilitate a working meeting of the leaders of various
groups who have found themselves at cross purposes or troubled by the
industry’s political divide.
Final Town Hall Meetings:
In
conjunction with the Texas Quarter Horse Association, there will be a “town
hall” focus group meeting on Friday, October 21, 2016 in Texas at Lone Star
Park (Alysheba Room) at 3:30pm. Those interested in attending
should pre-register at this link.
The
final meeting will take place at Los Alamitos Race Course in Los Alamitos,
California on the Wednesday before the AQHA Racing Committee Meeting and the
Bank of America Challenge. The meeting will take place at 1:00pm on
Wednesday, October 26, 2017 at 1:00pm in the Finish Line Meeting Room.
Online registration for the Los Alamitos meeting can be accessed at this link.
