Editors Call for Added Visual Materials From Tracks

Racetrack publicists could enhance coverage of their sport in both general interest publications and Thoroughbred trade publications by including photos, video clips and other visually oriented materials in their submissions to publications.

That was one of the central themes emanating from a regional meeting of the Turf Publicists of America, held Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at Keene Place in Lexington, KY. The meeting featured a panel discussion, moderated by TPA president Rhonda Norby, and a question-and-answer period involving five Kentucky-area journalists and media executives representing news organizations and industry publications.

When the meeting concluded, Keeneland hosted a luncheon and day at the races for the panelists and TPA members in attendance. 

The five panelists included: Mat Graf, sports editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader; Chris White, sports director for the Louisville Courier-Journal; Gary Graves, a Louisville-based sports writer for The Associated Press, Evan Hammonds, managing editor of BloodHorse magazine; and, John Keitt, publisher and editorial director of BloodHorse Publications.

"Digitally, you want a photo with everything you publish, or a video with everything you publish," Graf said. "That's one of the elements that helps attract eyeballs to the content. In horseracing, that's always been a very difficult thing to come up with, unless we have our own photographer at the track. Keeneland and Churchill Downs are terrific. It's more around the rest of the country. It seems like I'm scuffling all the time to track down photos."

White said it would be helpful if there was a central media site, such as exists with the PGA and NASCAR, including their extensive photo archives of the sport's participants. The publicists discussed producing a "cheat sheet" that could be distributed to media and posted on various racing websites with links on how to quickly find photos and biographical background from various regions, statistical data and how to get other information in a timely fashion.

"If the tracks are really trying to get their stories out to newspapers and others that don't focus on horse racing full-time, they need to make it more accessible," Keitt said. "It's all about meta-data on the photos.... We have dedicated resources to try to figure that out. But other outlets just aren't going to have that resource or at least knowledge.... There are probably some really good photos that don't get used because you have a deadline and you don't have time to figure out who's in it and where it is."

"We need it to be easier for us to accept the photos," echoed Graves. "A lot of times we'll have a great art. But it might not make it up to the wire or website because of the 'rights' process."

White said that story pitches centering on the business-side of the industry are extremely welcome, given they involve an expertise mainstream media outlets are unlikely to have in an era of shrinking staff.

The Turf Publicists of America, founded in 1951, is comprised of approximately 150 Thoroughbred racing publicists and marketing executives at racetracks, breeding farms and industry organizations throughout North America with the shared goal of promoting the sport of Thoroughbred racing.

"The TPA members are based all over the country and it's difficult to get them all in one place at the same time so regional meetings are important," said Norby. "This event provided our members with some helpful insights into the journalists' perspectives and I think the journalists learned a lot about the activities of track publicists. We are very grateful to our friends at Keeneland for stepping forward once again to host an event that should benefit the sport."