It has been just over a year since Light Up Racing (LUR), inspired by the Australian-based initiative Kick Up for Racing, was launched in an effort to ‘illuminate the path to transparency, awareness and accountability in horse racing’ in the United States. As Light Up Racing’s pilot year has come to a close, it’s safe to say the grassroots initiative has not only become a necessary voice in changing the industry narrative, but also in bridging the gap between those within the industry and those outside of it.

“As an industry, we’re bad for putting our head in the sand and hoping it goes away, rather than transparently addressing things. Phase one of Light Up was just getting a proof of concept up and going and seeing how it resonated and I suppose what parts really connected and worked. I think what I really started to notice was the transparency element and leading with openness,” said Vicky Leonard, founder of Kick Up for Racing, managing director of Kick Collective, and managing director of TTR AusNZ.

To that point, Light Up launched a Media & Content Cohort Training Program with the goal of teaching industry members about topics such as personal branding, leveraging social media, media interview techniques, content creation and more. In 2024, the initiative hosted 100 attendees across four sessions held in Lexington, Kentucky; Arcadia, California; Saratoga Springs, New York; and Louisville, Kentucky.

“I say media training but it’s also social media and beyond that, or [for conversations] with our peers, particularly when somebody is aghast that you work in the horse racing industry. It’s an awkward and challenging conversation but we need to be proud, put our shoulders back and use that as an opportunity to talk about the progress that the industry has made,” said Leonard. “The training is very much about teaching those concepts but then the practical tools on how to have those conversations, handle media interviews, and write a press statement.

“It’d be good to get more senior stakeholders at those trainings going forward but I think we’ll be able to do that.”

Light Up has developed a website, now available in both English and Spanish, that hosted 32,000 visitors in its inaugural year. The website houses veterinary-backed resources, public relations tools and social media guides to counter misinformation. Along with creating and curating those resources, the LUR team also spent a lot of time building a presence on social media by sharing content that not only provided the audience with a behind-the-scenes look at the industry, but also a transparent perspective in the face of high-profile situations.

Following the news that Just Steel (Justify) had sustained a condylar fracture of his right front fetlock during the May 18 GI Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, Light Up released a video with an update on the colt following a successful surgery at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, narrated by surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage.

Bramlage provided details about the fracture the colt sustained and how the surgery went overall, as the video included clips of Just Steel walking back and forth in the barn post-surgery without any visible lameness. Following that video, Light Up released another featuring Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, a pioneer in equine orthopedic surgery, explaining what a condylar fracture is and how it is treated.

From there, Light Up followed up with Just Steel in June as he recovered from his surgery at Mulholland Springs, sharing a video of the colt’s progress with an update from the farm’s owner Martha Jane.

Across the social media platforms X, Facebook and Instagram, the video with Bramlage garnered nearly 88,000 views; the video with Mcllwraith received approximately 22,000 views; and the update from Jane collected nearly 21,000 views.

“After Just Steel sustained a condylar fracture in the Preakness, we saw comments on social media saying, ‘he’s going to be put down.’ To then create a piece of content with Dr. Bramlage and Dr. Mcllwraith to say, ‘actually, this is why he’s not going to be put down,’ we took that negative and turned it into a positive about the advancement of veterinary medicine,” said Mill Ridge Farm’s Price Bell, a co-founder and board member of Light Up Racing.

“I think we take for granted that we know a condylar fracture is not a life-threatening injury. However, the general public doesn’t know that. So, to address that and then to see opinions change within comments was meaningful and it certainly makes you feel like we’re on the right path.”

The initiative welcomed 1,500 members to the LUR community, all of which worked together to address negative or false information spread across news outlets or social media with research-based responses in an effort to educate, rather than simply deny.

Price Bell | Keeneland

During the Triple Crown season alone, the group tackled over 3,000 misinformed comments, while also releasing a unique series of videos catching up with every contender across each of the three races. Following the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, LUR worked with trainers and their staff to gather footage of each horse post-race, all culminating in a trio of videos that provided an inside look at the horses after competing in some of the country’s most-watched and attended races.

“There’s no doubt we need to have an ‘always on’ messaging, but there’s certain times of year where it peaks and troughs. We’ve doubled down on the Triple Crown because that’s when all eyes are on the industry,” said Leonard. “You’ve got to remember that some of the comments that are made about our industry are absolutely ludicrous. There are comments out there saying, ‘if they don’t win, they just get shot,’ and we have to say ‘no, this is the reality.’ Being visual is the best way to do it.

“When it came to the task of tracking down footage of every horse [that ran in the Triple Crown races], we did have to pester the hell out of the trainers and the grooms, but we got there in the end. One of those videos got half a million views, so it definitely resonated.”

Overall, Light Up’s social media accounts accrued 2.5 million views across all of their platforms which the team says led to meaningful conversations with members of a non-racing educated audience.

“We’re bad for an industry about keeping it to ourselves and we’ve got to blow open the barn doors. That’s why what Visit Horse Country and Amplify Horse Racing is doing is absolutely incredible, and we just have to be another cog in that wheel in a different capacity around exposing people in a marketing and media sense,” said Leonard. “Letting people in is just the most important thing and you can do it with the little device in your pocket.”

However, the goal for Light Up Racing isn’t only to combat the negativity, but to also bring the horses, and therefore the heart of the industry, back to the public.

“Just within my lifetime and the generations around me, the horse and agriculture are further away [from the public]. It’s incumbent on us who participate in the industry to share what we do to connect more people to the horse,” said Bell. “We can get so bogged down in our day-to-day that it’s hard to remember what that first experience was like. Those of us who have access need to share what a horse is doing because the public doesn’t have the access and they don’t have any experience. It’s on us to really push that.”

Leonard points out that one of the biggest differences between Australia’s industry and the industry stateside is that it’s the norm for Australian trainers to have a presence on social media, while for those in the U.S. that’s not the case.

“In Australia, every trainer is very good on social media. Each trainer has a social media strategy or description, I don’t know any that don’t, whereas that’s not the case in America. In Australia, you wouldn’t have a training business and not be very active on social media, so it’s been a far bigger jump,” she said.

Light Up Racing listeners | Photos by Z

“This doesn’t just help improve the narrative and the perception, but it also helps their business too. It’s about having a really active social media strategy, which is a great return on investment (ROI) to get more clients. That’s going to be a big focus moving forward.”

For Bell, he sees Light Up Racing as an initiative that not only brings together members of the public and the racing industry, but also as a foundation to further connect the racing community by bringing their experiences, feelings and voices to the surface.

“What I’m really proud of with Light Up is that it’s helped people who felt voiceless recognize that they have a powerful voice and that we’re all in this together. We all need to use our voice for the good of the horse and the industry going forward,” said Bell.

With the foundation for Light Up Racing now firmly established in its inaugural year, the team behind the initiative plans to expand training programs, amplify advocacy efforts and expand the innovative tools they can offer to empower the racing community. In order to do that, the nonprofit initiative is seeking donations to support their efforts.

“What the funding can do is really let us get our tentacles into all the different parts of America and make sure that we’re there and proactive when stuff happens, so it’s not like we’re scrambling as an industry to deal with things reactively,” said Leonard. “There’s a lot of terrific initiatives and great marketing strategies. However, getting those into the community and making sure it’s distributed, and actually dealing with crises and jumping in when there’s misinformation, does require the industry community to help and support us.

“We’re really hoping to become a very useful tool for the great work that’s already done and just helping to amplify it.”

To learn more about Light Up Racing, click here.