Many Thoroughbred industry participants, busy with day-to-day tasks, don’t think about the sports challenges such as equine safety and finding an economic model that works.

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When a non-industry person sees horse racing, he or she may recall 2015 or 2018, when American Pharoah and Justify captured Triple Crowns. They also may recall equine safety concerns last year at Churchill Downs and Saratoga Race Course.

An industry group, Light Up Racing has now stepped forward to try to shape racing’s message and ensure that misinformation is countered through education and factual information. The group hopes to bring transparency, awareness, accountability, and community on a grassroots level.

The group tasked with bringing the information forward includes Price Bell of Mill Ridge Farm, bloodstock agent Roderick Wachman, bloodstock agent Jason Litt, and vet Dr. Jeff Berk. The four recently sat down with BloodHorse to discuss the critical issues and why they got involved in Light Up Racing.

BloodHorse: How did Light Up Racing come to fruition, and what is the outline for being involved?

Price Bell: Several years ago, there were massive protests in Australia after the Melbourne Cup. The social license for racing in Australia, seen in America as the crème de la crème—with their stands full and everyone owns a piece of a horse—came into question, for the grade 1 test, ‘The race that stops a nation.’ 

A challenge was identified: There needed to be education at a grassroots level. There isn’t one repository of information where we can all sing from the same sheet music.

With all the jurisdictions in Australia, it is similar to how we are here in the U.S. Vicky Leonard started Kick Up For Racing to truly give young people setting out into this industry an informed way to speak proudly, setting out to answer 12 key questions. We frequently hear these questions, but often, people resort to Google for an answer. Creating a central repository of information was step 1, and step 2 was engaging everyone in the industry across job and socioeconomic demographics. The effect has been very positive.

It’s a horizontal infrastructure structure. Vicky got me in the loop to observe how everything works, and I was amazed. We have all questioned ourselves over the last year, in the lead-up to the Derby with all of the tragedies. Across the various institutions, everyone is trying. Society no longer listens to press releases; social media makes everyone’s voice similar.

If you have 50 followers or 5,000, the more times you see and read something, the more authentic it becomes versus the information coming from one institution where it becomes hollow.

We are lucky there is a playbook that has been successful with Kick Up. We are still determining if it will be what works here, but it’s a starting point. Filling in the gaps and inspiring all of us that our voices matter.

Another success in Australia was Delta Goodrem, the musician/songwriter, a pro racing supporter, was tweeting, and anti-racing people started commenting negatively. The negative comments bubbled up in her feed, and she reached out to Kick Up, who got into her social feed and started refuting those answers, offering educational answers. Sometimes when industry members jump in to help refute, they become more of a lightning rod than a nonpartisan voice.

BH: What is Light Up Racing setting out to do?

Price Bell in 2022. (BloodHorse/Anne M. Eberhardt)

PB: We want to collectively try and emulate what they have done in Australia, empower a voice across the same sheet music, truly giving a voice to the voiceless. Dr. Berk and other veterinarians are taking on the ‘12 big questions’ and giving science and fact-based answers, and filtering them into a digestible format to be pushed out, along with social media monitoring.

BH: What are the goals for Light Up Racing in 2024?

PB: Currently we are housed in the Bluegrass Community Foundation; they service our fiscal sponsor for 501C contributions. The goal is first to get more information from the people who have signed up. We will be doing survey engagement to find out what they need support on and want to see. That will give us some ideas on interest needs.

In February and March, before the Keeneland Spring meet, we want to roll out a loose plan for up to Triple Crown season. ‘How do you talk to your friends about horse racing,’ we want to engage each other on how to talk to our friends about horse racing in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown season. Then, we have a break around July where we will evaluate what worked, what didn’t work, and what opportunities exist for the second half of the year. This could be media training, rollout of educational opportunities through various organizations, etc., until we end the year with the Breeders’ Cup.

This year’s idea is to try and then react to things that work well. We are going to make mistakes. There is no panacea, but we have to try.

Success in 2024 will be that we are all still rowing together next year. We don’t have a silver bullet.

BH: Why did you want to unite and roll your sleeves up for Light Up Racing?

PB: As an industry, we have failed to communicate transparently on behalf of the horse. (We want to) empower those who work with the horse every day to feel like their voice matters and that they can be proud of what they do.

I look at people who are choosing to enter this business for their career, and I feel we owe them the opportunity that it will still exist; to at least fight on its behalf. Many people in their 20s are entering this career path and can quickly jump ship, and I don’t think, as an industry, we have fought hard enough to keep them and help them believe that there is a future. We fight amongst ourselves so much that we lose sight of what matters: the horse.

I want to help, not disparage any efforts other industry organizations have already made. There is a gap in trying to help give voice, pride, and transparency, so it’s more grassroots than top-down. Trust is created at the grassroots level.

When the breakdowns happened over the summer, I did Google ‘Why does this happen?’ What I found was all over the place. The past year has made us question, ‘Are we doing what’s best for the horse?’

People grow further and further away from the horse, farming, and agriculture every year. Every year, there is a newer generation who is further away. We are all in this because we love horses; if we go away, horses go away. There aren’t many other breeds of horses that justify putting thousands of foals into the world each year, and you need thousands to have veterinary care, feed, blacksmiths, etc. If we go away, horses will go away, and I’m not ready for it to go down like that. Horses are enriching for humans. Boyd Browning said it well, "If not us, who? If not now, when?"

A takeaway from the summer was we want to do something, but what? Creating a repository of information and a strategy to get the information into the hands of people is our goal. For example, breeding farms could be pushed for information on foals and maybe a talk. Give access. Leading up to the Derby, have foal photos of the contenders, and yes, we might be talking to each other because horse racing Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is a silo. I don’t speak from the point of expertise in social media, but I watch and consume. If we see the same things and our friends outside the business are seeing the same things, we start to feel educated.

Horse racing has never been safer on several fronts, but if that information comes from the institution, it doesn’t have the same resonance as from friends and peers. There are many current studies on where people get current information and trust, and it’s your peers more than the institution, so how do we inform the peers?

Roderick Wachman at an auction in 2023. (Fasig-Tipton photo)

Roderick Wachman: I was up at Indiana Grand to watch a horse for MyRacehorse run. I chatted with some of the micro shareowners about things, and of course, a lot was happening in the spring that raised concerns. I was driving home and started making phone calls, first to Craig Bernick. I had an interesting conversation with Tom Ryan, Jason Litt, and Price Bell. We sang from the same psalm sheet and saw the same problems. Jason, Price, and I started kicking this (Light Up Racing) around in the summertime, and then when we got up to Saratoga; we met with Vicky.

I do want to improve the business and get more people into it. If you can open doors and make this game more transparent and, therefore, more accessible, it’s only going to help the industry. In regards to Light Up, we are trying to give people an easy set of facts to absorb so that when they do get asked difficult questions, they can concisely answer them.

If we get the entire industry singing from the same psalm sheet, we will have a solid chance of moving this industry in a unified direction to face the strong headwinds we face.

Jason Litt: Light Up Racing holds significant meaning for me as it stands for transparency, accountability, and the welfare of horses in the racing industry. Being part of this initiative allows me to actively contribute to positive change, emphasizing equine safety and engaging in meaningful conversations with the public. I strongly believe in the collective power to drive evolution, promote accountability, and create a lasting impact on the horse racing industry.

Dr. Jeff Berk: We are all aware that there is a certain amount of negative publicity about horse racing in general. Many of the criticisms are unfounded, and some of the people not interested in seeing racing continue are promoting information that is not correct. When I was invited to join this group, it was an opportunity to help correct some misconceptions about Thoroughbred racing with factual and science-based information.

As a veterinarian, that is my role within the group. I am honored to be a Light Up Racing board member and have been working with two highly regarded equine veterinarians. Drs. Wayne McIlwraith and Emma Adam address many of the frequently asked questions about horse racing and answer them with fact-based information and references to the pertinent science. Anyone interested in learning the truth will get a factual and supportable response.

My entire professional life has revolved around Thoroughbred racing and breeding. Over the course of years that I have been practicing as a veterinarian, I have had innumerable friends and clients who are hard-working, talented people within the industry. They deserve to have a group that will defend the integrity of the racing industry, working together to improve in the areas that need attention, contrary to those who would spread misinformation about it for their own reasons.

I have been a breeder and owner as well as a practicing veterinarian, and I feel I have a degree of responsibility to the industry along with the owners, breeders, consignors, bloodstock agents, and trainers. We are all working together to try to create the most equitable situation for Thoroughbred racing and breeding while making the welfare of these horses our paramount concern.