TDN Q & A: The Stronach Group's Craig Fravel

After eight years as the president and CEO of the Breeders' Cup, Craig Fravel has decided to tackle a new challenge. He was recently named the Chief Executive, Racing Operations, for The Stronach Group. Fravel sat down with the TDN earlier this week to discuss his new job and to look back at his time heading the Breeders' Cup operation.

TDN: There may not be a better job in racing than being the president and CEO of the Breeders' Cup, something you'd probably agree with. So, why leave that post at this time in your career to join the Stronach Group team?

Craig Fravel: The Breeders' Cup is an incredible career opportunity. It was a growing experience and just to be at the pinnacle of the racing world in that sense was amazing. But it was a major change for both me and my family to relocate from Southern California to Lexington and that was definitely a shift. To be honest with you, I looked at this opportunity from really two primary objectives. Not to be overly self-impressed, but I thought there was a need in California and around the country and The Stronach Group is such an important part of the racing landscape and I thought I could help. I really want racing to be better off when I leave it than when I found it. With this job, there's that opportunity to really make a different kind of contribution than I could with the Breeders' Cup. The second, which is probably no surprise to anyone, is that my family's been living in Southern California for the last three years and the opportunity to actually live in the same state with them was something that was very hard to resist.

TDN: You have joined a management team that already has some high-profile executives. Two that come to mind are Tim Ritvo and Aidan Butler. With your hiring, what is the pecking order at the Stronach Group? Are you the No. 1 person?

CF: Well, let's not confuse who's number one. I think it's quite clear that Belinda Stronach is number one and she has the reins of the whole company, which is a much broader enterprise than just the racing operation and gambling. But my job was to come in at the top of the pecking order, as you call it, with respect to the racing and gaming operations and so that's where I sit.

TDN: You've said how important it was for you to be in California. Does that mean your main focus will be on Santa Anita or will you divide your time among all the Stronach Group tracks?

CF: My portfolio includes all The Stronach Group racetracks and training properties. So, certainly, I won't be excluding the other tracks outside of California. In the short term, there will be a focus on California because, in a sense, this is the place that has experienced the most unusual circumstances over the last year. So there's a lot of work to be done to make sure that the racing in California is as good as it's ever been.

TDN: There is so much going on in California, and we've heard from other Stronach executives, but obviously want to get your take on a couple issues. Considering the current climate and the spike in breakdowns earlier this year at Santa Anita, many are wondering if synthetic tracks are going to make a comeback and if they are, why wouldn't Santa Anita be among the first to make the switch? What's the current mood among The Stronach Group for replacing San Anita's main track someday with a synthetic surface?

CF: There's obviously a lot of focus on racing surfaces of late and that's been true in California. Throughout my career, it's been a constant source of head scratching. We have so many horses based at Santa Anita, just one facility. We have San Luis Rey Downs, but it's not like the East where you have horses spread out at public and private training facilities. California is a relatively unique circumstance and particularly in the amount of stress that a racetrack is under. The subject of synthetic surfaces is one I've been at the center of since about 2003 or 2004. We were one of the early adopters at Del Mar. That was–and I don't want to call it an experiment because we were all in–but there were both good and bad results from it. At The Stronach Group, it's one of the options that we're going to be exploring, and it's important that we spend as much time and effort as we can on this. We have to understand the current situation in the industry and the current public perception of our industry and we have to do what we can to make the game as safe and as healthy as we possibly can. So I'm not going to say that we've made any determinations. That's going to take some time to evaluate, to figure out what the best surface options are. There are synthetic tracks that have been great successes and then there are dirt tracks that have been great successes. So I think the standard response has been all options are on the table and that's a pretty good description.

TDN: Since you have only been on the job for about two weeks, perhaps you have not had time to meet with any key politicians yet. But even if you haven't, a lot of things have happened since the Breeders' Cup. There has been the formation of the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition. The CHRB has been proactive so far as announcing changes. After the spike of fatalities earlier this year at Santa Anita, the numbers are much more in line with what is considered normal. Do you sense that the politicians are starting to take a different view of racing? Are they, so to speak, off the sport's back a little bit?

CF: Well, I think the introduction to your comments, that I haven't had time to get to Sacramento and meet with people individually, holds true. So I'm not going to claim victory in terms of the political outreach. I do think we as an industry, not just here in California but nationally, have to be more effective in our outreach to the politicians. We have to explain what it is we do and how we do it and understand that we are doing a lot to improve the situation and make sure it's a safe sport. From a business standpoint, that's an important thing to do.

TDN: Shifting focus to the day-in and day-out racing at Santa Anita, it's no secret that there's a horse-shortage problem. I think it's become worse in California with some trainers opting to race their horses out of state. Your horse population is down, we're seeing cards with eight races, shortened race weeks. What can California racing do to increase the horse population and get back to what people consider a more normal racing schedule?

CF: There's a proactive message here. We've had a lot of people throughout the country asking for racing to be a changed when it comes to permissive medication and for it to be reduced or eliminated and California is well down that path. So I would challenge all the people in Kentucky, in New York and elsewhere that have asked for reforms to support California racing. This is a place that has put itself out there. Some people may say it was where the problem started, I would disagree with that. It's been an industry-wide problem. People need to help us out by bringing horses here. This is a very important part of the national racing landscape and if people think that they don't share their responsibility to make it healthy, I think that would be unfortunate.

TDN: Dr. Greg Ferraro, the new head of the CHRB, issued a powerful statement last week, saying the days of permissive medication in California are over. That leads one to believe that California is going to go beyond what the safety coalition has called for so far, which is the elimination of Lasix in 2020 in 2-year-old races and then the elimination of Lasix in graded stakes in 2021. You just said you hope people will support what you're doing in California, but is there some worry that if you are out on an island by yourself without Lasix in the bread-and-butter, everyday races, that could cause even more horsemen to leave?

CF: There's always that concern. Trying to maintain your horse population is a fairly high priority for everyone around the country. So, especially with fall crops probably 50% of what they were 10 years ago, that's obviously a challenge. But, again, I think there's certainly a long list of members of WHOA who have said they want to run under these kinds of conditions, so we're going to give them that opportunity.

TDN: While Santa Anita has put in place some of the strictest rules in the country regarding safety, ones that require a horse to be examined by a vet before it races or works, it appears that little has changed at the other Stronach tracks. Why haven't we seen the same protocols put in at all Stronach tracks?

CF: I've just asked for some of the information from those other tracks in terms of what they are doing and what is planned by the local management teams. I know that The Stronach Group is committed to extending the reforms across the country. There's no reason why we think horses should be less safe in Florida than they are in California.

TDN: You were on the other side of the table while Laurel was campaigning to get a Breeders' Cup. The Stronach Group has put a lot of money into Laurel and improved it, and a lot of people want to see the Breeders' Cup go back to the East Coast after not being there for many years. What is the feeling about Laurel as a potential Breeders' Cup site someday?

CF: Obviously, that's still a priority item, but there is a major legislative package being created in Maryland that will deal with both Pimlico and Laurel. What you see now at both venues is nothing like what we all hope to see in five years' time. I'm not 100% sure of the transitional phasing and construction once the legislative package is approved. Getting back there and getting up to speed on that is another one of my tasks in the not too distant future.

TDN: When fans arrive at Gulfstream for the start of the Championship meet, they'll see a facility that has had a $20-million facelift. Why did the Stronach Group feel that it was the right time to put that much money into what was already a first-class facility?

CF: We're in a constant state of looking to improve and I think there were some necessary repairs to the parts of the facility that needed to be done after the number of years it's been open. So, that was a good opportunity to change things up. If you're in the entertainment business–and I think there's a clear belief within the company that we're not just in the racing business–you've got to constantly upgrade and change. There have been some great infrastructure changes at Santa Anita to improve the fans' experience and I think you're going to see the same things at Gulfstream.

TDN: We've seen several horsemen make a commitment to the Saudi Cup, while, at the same time, saying the Pegasus is not in their plans. It's possible the Saudi Cup is going to dilute the quality of the Pegasus and, if so, what can you do about it?

CF: It would certainly be hard to come up with $20 million to fund a competitive race from our standpoint. But you can certainly make the case with a lot of horsemen that they're better off staying home, running in a great race with some real history to it, rather than shipping halfway around the world to an environment that they're completely unfamiliar with. Sometimes you don't just compete on the basis of money. You compete on the basis of the experience and I think the one at Gulfstream in 2020 will be great.

TDN: During your years at the Breeders' Cup, what are you most proud of? What would you say was your signature accomplishment there?

CF: I probably shouldn't say this now because it goes against my current situation, but when I got to the Breeders' Cup there was a movement afoot to put the Breeders' Cup permanently at Santa Anita. If not Santa Anita, to make it a single-site event. We solidified the notion of moving the event around, keeping communities, racing associations and horsemen's groups in competition with one another for the event. Taking the event to Keeneland and Del Mar when people were highly skeptical about the ability to pull it off was a really great accomplishment. Working with the team at the Breeders' Cup was just a highlight for me. I've managed to work for two great organizations and now a third. So I'm hoping the end of my career, whenever that might be, I'll look back on and say I was part of three great organizations.

TDN: Lastly, what is your number one goal at the Stronach Group? What do you hope will be among your main accomplishments there?

CF: Working with Belinda and her team is going to be a great experience for me. I hope what we can say is that we've adapted the current racing operations to the new world of not just Thoroughbred racing, but marketing and media, and in this day and age, where you've got to change to stay current. I hope that in five years' time we're the most current racing organization in the world.