Pat Cummings found himself executive director of the think-tank Thoroughbred Idea Foundation via a stint as head of public affairs at the Hong Kong Jockey Club and as director of racing information for Trakus, a company built around the digitization of sporting events.
When it comes to racing, Cummings (left) is a force for modernization within a sport tightly corseted in tweedy tradition. He has helmed for the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation detailed dives into skin-crawling bugbears of North American racing — including wagering insecurity and stewards’ reporting — decrying the outmoded and impractical to champion contemporary best practices.
More recently, Cummings authored a summary of what has thus far been made publicly available about the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), fleshing out key industry implications for when this federal legislation is expected to be implemented next year.
Who do you think is the most important figure in racing history?
The history of the sport is so vast, I’d rather focus on the most important figure in racing today, and for me it’s Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges (below, right), who is the long-time CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and was just recently elected chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities [IFHA].
Hong Kong’s success story, I think, gets short-changed a lot. So many people just tend to believe that racing has always thrived in Hong Kong, always will. That it’s just a lather, rinse, repeat exercise. It’s undoubtedly true that Hong Kong racing has tremendous support from the local population, but their business was struggling substantially in the early years of online wagering – for most of the decade that followed the reunification from 1997.
Winfried’s leadership, which has bled over to the global arena of the sport, was really pivotal in redeveloping Hong Kong’s wagering business, redesigning its racecourse venues to make them an attractive venue to go racing and to reach across generations, their expansion into the mainland with Conghua racecourse, and I think what most people have seen in the world more recently - their leadership in the growth of international co-mingling.
So, you’ve got this expansion into an area we hadn’t seen. You’ve got Hong Kong taking the leadership role in international co-mingling, finding ways to maintain and retain a lively on-course presence, pandemic aside. And someone who has really leaned into having a really good handle on the pari-mutuel betting business.
All of those things combined make him the most dynamic leader of the industry. It’s a great decision to make him the chairman of the IFHA, and what that means for the greater industry. For everyone else, we should look to follow that model in whatever capacity is possible.
Which is your favorite venue and race?
A Wednesday night in the beer garden at Happy Valley racecourse is the single greatest experience in racing. It’s unparalleled. The energy, the excitement, and I can’t wait to see it return back to normal in the coming months, hopefully.
What is your fondest memory in racing?
Everything about the 2013 Arlington Million when The Apache, trained by Mike de Kock, won the race and was disqualified for interference (see video below).
Mike and his family have been friends for many years. They invited me and some friends to join them that weekend, though Mike wasn’t there.
Look, it was just one of those weekends where it would have been great if The Apache had not gotten disqualified, but I’m not sure we would have as many outrageous stories and laughs that we still recount to this day. It was a microcosm of how racing brings people together, friends from all over the world, and how the journey is the experience we’re in for. It’s not always the result.
What do you see as the biggest challenge racing faces today?
Finding a way to maintain the integrity infrastructure that is needed to execute racing and adjudicate the sport in the 21st century.
The greater industry has generally failed to invest in the basic integrity infrastructure of horseracing in North America. But most of that basic structure is fairly common in the rest of the world.
We’re talking about the need to upgrade technology, publish photo finishes, record daily workouts (not just what we have right now), standardizing race-timing and distances, stewards reporting, explanations of decisions, stewards having face-to-face encounters with jockeys and trainers on race-day, questioning and reporting on those encounters, reporting health-related incidents to the public in a timely fashion (incidents of bleeding, lameness, cuts or nicks), who gets tested and when.
It’s about finding ways to adopt these international best practices, and to keep pace not just within our own sport, but what our customers are expecting us to do, from what they get presented with in other sports.
American racing has not kept pace with the evolution of the racing and integrity infrastructure that many racing jurisdictions around the world have operated to over time.
How you regulate the sport in the 21st century without that infrastructure is very different from how a federal authority is going to come in [under HISA] and update rules, update testing, and really demand that this infrastructure be lifted to a better, more international standard.
That is a monumental challenge, and it’s one I think the general industry will be far better for if we start accomplishing it.
If you could change one thing in racing, what would it be?
I would eliminate claiming racing and most of the conditions-based racing that we currently use to create our day-to-day race programs.
Keeping things the way they are, or trying to make adjustments within the existing system, is like trying to make renovations when the foundation is crumbling. The industry has changed, the world has changed, and how we arrange races and trade horses in-training should change too.
I would replace what we have now with a ratings-based system, mostly handicap races — along with maiden, age restricted stake races, etc, and facilitate horse trade in a different fashion, perhaps with monthly sales of horses online, all with far greater focus on transparency and horse health.
There are two facets to consider. First, sometimes the only opportunity you have of getting your horse to a competitive race is to put it up for sale. That’s not great for sustainable horse ownership. In an age where we have fewer horses, smaller field sizes, fewer races, fewer starts per year, fewer actual horse owners, to basically mandate that a horse must be for sale in order to find it a competitive race, that’s contrary to what we should be doing.
Second, claiming races encourage deception – and that’s just not good for horses, horseplayers or the greater sport. Welfare and transparency should be primary concerns for the sport, and the existing claiming system skirts these ideals.
As for filling races, some sort of centralized handicapping system can be done. There are many examples to follow. The best part about this is you don’t really have to change any rules. None of this is mandated in rules. There aren’t any crazy requirements of the type of races you have to run.
We are taking bids at sales online at all the major auction houses. There are some sales that are exclusively online. The technology is better, and I think we can do better for our horses and the people who own them with a different system.
That said, if you offer this idea to maybe 85 percent of horsemen, there would likely be a strong bristling in their reaction. Change is difficult – change is not necessarily easy. But I just cannot look at it and say, ‘we’ve been doing a great job, let’s just keep doing it the way we are.’