Since it was first launched in 2017, The Racing Manager (TRM) has become a valuable tool in many yards across Europe. Today, almost 15% of horses in training in Ireland and the U.K., as well as a growing number in France, are registered on the online platform that is designed to enhance the racehorse ownership experience.
Last fall, TRM expanded to the United States and is already well on its way to having a nationwide influence.
“Without a doubt, our client base is growing and it's growing pretty fast,” said Andy Ash, the founder of TRM. “We've put a lot of effort and a lot of investment into it. We're not coming into the U.S. without some knowledge, but we're also very determined to do what the U.S. needs rather than saying the U.S. needs to be more like Australia or Europe because that will never work. The U.S. is its own unique place, but there are definitely things to be learned from each place.”
Ash was originally inspired to build a platform for improving owner-trainer communication when, as a first-time owner, he quickly became frustrated by the lack of sufficient updates about his horses in training. Upon launching TRM, he learned that he was not alone in this thinking. The company conducted surveys and found that 85% of owners were disappointed with the level or style of communication they received. At the same time, 85% of trainers replied to the survey saying that one of their greatest challenges was being time strapped. The core goal of TRM seeks to improve upon those two issues by helping trainers and racing managers increase the quality and quantity of communication to their owners in an straightforward, streamlined format.
Example of user's profile page | courtesy The Racing Manager
Now six years since its inception, the program has attracted seven of the top trainers in Ireland including Joseph O'Brien and Jessica Harrington.
Ash said that launching the tool has come with its challenges, citing that because many trainers do not have so much as a website to communicate with owners and potential owners, it has been difficult for them to realize the potential benefits of an online communication platform. But he explained that their team has found that the trainers who understand the necessity of good communication are the ones constantly seeking to improve and added that there is strong evidence to suggest that the best communicators are growing in horse and user numbers.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to competitive edge,” he explained. “Communication is not simply saying, 'We need to send a photo or a video.' It's a bit more complicated than that. Racing has to learn to invest in their ownership experience.”
On the Racing Manager platform, owners have an individualized profile feed that is unique to them and their horses. Trainers and racing managers have the ability to send photo and video updates, but they can also conduct polls, create photo galleries that others can add to, send messages to specific owners or syndicate groups and more.
Ash explained that many trainers will send out a weekly yard update and noted that trainers are able to sort their stable's profile to learn which horses have gone the longest without an update.
The Irish National Stud is another prominent TRM client. Ash said that the average Irish National Stud horse receives 175 updates per year.
While some of those updates require trainer engagement, most are produced automatically by TRM. Entries, workouts and race results appear on a user's feed, as do breeding updates (like if a horse's half-sibling is debuting) or a form alert (like if a horse that the user's horse ran second to in its last race won in its next start). All of these notifications are customizable for each user.
“We do all these things that are engaging the owner without the actual manager of the organization having to do anything,” Ash said. “Every user is different and every user can get a different assimilation. Everything the Racing Manager does, it has come from client advice.”
TRM is now working to cater toward an evolving racing landscape worldwide. The success of racing partnerships has grown to where a number of trainers in the U.K. focus exclusively on syndicates. Several of them rely on TRM to communicate with their members. In Australia especially, partnerships are changing the demographics of racing as they have made ownership more accessible to the younger generation.
Friday's client visit to @benpauling1 🏇 did you get our hint?🏌️♂️⛳️ #InvestInYourOwnershipExperience pic.twitter.com/4A8jWa4GOG
— The Racing Manager (@RacingManagerHQ) March 27, 2023
“The need to encourage younger people into ownership can only be achieved by modern communication methods, especially the professional distribution and presentation of the communication,” said Ash. “If we can change the demographic, we're going to have a better future in ownership and in racing as a whole.”
Even still, Ash said they work to accommodate all demographics and technology skill levels, noting that their customer service department has gone so far as to help set up email accounts for some of their clients.
Just as the demographics of racing may be changing, the sport is becoming increasingly accessible on an international level for the average owner. Ash said that TRM is becoming an important tool for owners and trainers communicating across oceans.
“We've started to see, out of our user base, that 20% of people are international compared to the country their horse is in,” he shared. “We have had Middle Eastern owners say to us that they would love to have more horses overseas, and specifically in the U.S., if they felt they would be communicated with.”
A growing number of trainers and racing partnerships in the U.S. are becoming interested in TRM. Taylor Made's Medallion Racing, Bradley Thoroughbreds and CJ Thoroughbreds are among the groups that have embraced the tool, while trainers who use the platform for their stable include Doug O'Neill and Norm Casse.
“We have quite a few pending,” Ash added. “We don't intend to rush it too much. We're confident that people will see others using it and realize they can communicate better too.”
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