In the latest edition of our series considering racing’s key questions, we speak to Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning

Just how useful a bellwether for the overall health or distress of the horse racing industry is the sales action? If the check books are open and the bids are flying, it can be all too tempting to say that optimism abounds. 

But such a simplistic reading of the tea leaves can also hide a more nuanced analysis. Where do the nation’s sales companies really fit into the sport’s economic forecasts, especially when framed against some of the more worrying trends seen in things like the declining foal crop, handle and revenues?

TRC speaks to Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning to see what he has to say on the subject.

Boyd Browning (left) joined Fasig-Tipton, North America’s oldest Thoroughbred auction company, in the late 1980s. He steadily worked his way up the corporate ladder to become the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. In 2008, he was elevated to company president and chief executive officer.

Boyd Browning presides over a sales company that appears to be thriving. Just this month, for example, Fasig-Tipton announced a digital sales world record for the company’s December online auction, which grossed over $10 million.

However, Browning isn’t fooled into thinking that the broader industry ecosystem is in rip-roaring economic health.

Like leading owner-breeder Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm suggested earlier in this series, Browning sees the sales as trending ever more towards quality and higher-value horses.

“I think there’s going to be a continued emphasis on quality,” he said. “A continued emphasis on those horses which have, or are perceived to be, top horses, or already have achieved success at high levels. We see it happen all over the world.”

Ongoing shrinkage

If this trend is allowed to continue unchecked, the middle and lower markets will likely continue to suffer as a result – something that can only lead to ongoing shrinkage across the major sectors.

“That’s one of the challenges that we face,” Browning explained, pointing to the foal crop, which will plateau at best.

At the same time, the problem of consolidation and top-heavy markets isn’t confined to the world of horse racing but something witnessed across all sorts of sports and industries.

“I’m a baseball fan – is baseball healthy?” he said. “By some metrics it is and you’ve got really good attendance at the major leagues.

“But look and see what’s happened with minor league baseball over the last 20 years. You’ve had a dramatic shrinkage of those teams and a significant consolidation of minor league teams – and a much greater emphasis on major teams.”

Cognizant of the challenges

Is he concerned about what continued shrinkage might mean for Fasig-Tipton? “I’m cognizant of the challenges that we face,” he said. “We’re going to try to be adaptive to the marketplace.

“The one thing that I tell people, we’ve been around since 1898, nearly 127 years, and I’m confident we’re going to be a leader in the sales world going forward. What that’ll look like will be different than it was when I started in 1988.”

For the industry as a whole to thrive, individual regions must do so, too. For that to happen, Browning said the sport’s key players need to come together in a spirit of cooperation and of self-sacrifice hitherto foreign in most boardrooms.

“Some call me Pollyanna in that approach, and I’m not going to say you’ll ever get complete cooperation,” he said. “But people have to understand, you can’t just view every issue through your own lens. You have to look at the bigger picture. We’ve got to figure out how to grow the pie, not fight over a shrinking pie.”

Browning suggested the necessary cooperation must start at the local level between warring factions within struggling jurisdictions – notably California, where the north and south of the state offer competing industries.

“What we’re seeing in California is not sustainable,” he explained. “The north and the south have to figure out something.”

Industry-wide cooperative approach

Then comes the broad industry-wide cooperative approach at compromise for the betterment of the whole. “If you look, competition is mostly not within the region, it’s from outside the region,” he said.

“There’s got to be acceptance that how things have always been done is not the way we’re going to move forward. It’s going to require some sacrifice. It’s going to require some mutual adaptation.”

As an example, Browning pointed to efforts already made in the Mid-Atlantic region to help prevent overlap of races between cards running simultaneously.

“We’re seeing maybe some hope there,” he said. “But they’ve got to figure out more ways to work together so they can present a better betting product.”

A better product for the bettors, a better outcome for the sport. “A significant portion of the content that we provide is not on Grade 1 races –it’s races on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and most of the cards Saturday and Sunday,” Browning said. 

“The problem is, we too easily sit back and go, ‘woe is me’, instead of looking at what we’ve done that works and go, ‘how do I capitalize off of that?’”

According to Browning, one area of improvement from which the sport might capitalize is equine safety, notably the recent sharp declines in raceday fatalities.

The sport should crow about this as a success story. But it doesn’t – or at least, not to the degree it should. “We still don’t have a unified approach,” added Browning.

Would a national commissioner help? “It’s easy to say you need a commissioner,” said Browning. “But there’s so much legislative involvement on the state level, on a national level, it’s hard for me to envision everyone giving up their rights or the perception of their rights.”

Uniform drug policies

Fasig-Tipton joined other top sales companies in enacting stricter, more uniform drug policies earlier this year. Still, a common refrain among proponents of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is the need to expand the term ‘covered horse’ to include all Thoroughbreds from the day they are foaled. As it stands, a ‘covered horse’ comes under HISA’s jurisdiction only from their first reported work.

Browning isn’t so sure this is the right course of action – not at the moment, anyway. “I think it would be foolish to say there’s not going to be any expansion of HISA over the next 20 years,” he said “But it would also be foolish to say, ‘if we expand HISA’s role, everything’s going to get better over the next 20 years.’

“In life you crawl. Then you walk. Then you run. I think HISA ultimately has to work. A lot of what HISA does is great, and there’s a lot of things they’re doing that is well-intentioned.

“But before we look at expanding the reach and influence of HISA, we’ve got to make sure what they’re currently overseeing is done right and I think we’ve still got some challenges and issues there.”

At the end of the day, the sales companies are only as healthy as the sport itself, said Browning. “Right now, it’s incredibly difficult,” he admitted.

“The production costs and the training costs are the same whether it’s a million-dollar horse or a hundred-thousand horse or a ten-thousand dollar horse.

“We’ve got to make it economically feasible for an average person to breed a horse at a moderate stud fee so that they have a chance to at least break even, make some money if they produce a good yearling.

“We’ve got to continue to enhance purses,” he added, “and we’ve got to provide a great experience for those people who are not in it from a purely economic standpoint.”

• Visit the Fasig-Tipton website

Part 5: ‘We haven’t made enough progress on Thoroughbred aftercare’ – Lucinda Lovitt (aftercare) 

Part 4: ‘When I look to the future of Thoroughbred racing, I’m very enthused’ – Corey Johnsen (track management)

Part 3: ‘What are the little guys supposed to do?’ – Tina Bond (trainers)

Part 2: ‘Greed is a bad word, but that’s kind of what it is’ – Craig Bernick (breeder)

Part 1: ‘Right now, there are way too many Grade 1 races’ – Marshall Gramm (owner)

View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires