Industry analysis focus of conference

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – An updated analysis of the racing industry’s economic metrics and current trends will provide the main course at the Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing, scheduled for Sunday morning at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The analysis was conducted by McKinsey & Company, the consulting group that the Round Table’s organizer, The Jockey Club, has relied on in the past for outside looks at the racing industry. McKinsey last produced a detailed analysis of the racing industry in 2011, and the results of that study were presented as the keynote of the Round Table that year.

As in 2011, McKinsey officials and representatives of The Jockey Club are expected to issue recommendations that have been mined from the analysis at this year’s Round Table. The discussion of the report will be broken up over two sessions at the two-hour conference, with segments both before and after the mid-point break.

Aside from the McKinsey study’s first segment, the opening session of the conference will feature Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of The Jockey Club of the United Kingdom, which operates 15 racecourses in England. Bazalgette is one of a string of international speakers to get a spotlight at the Round Table recently, as The Jockey Club seeks to communicate to U.S. interests how racing is conducted in foreign countries.

Attendance at the Round Table is by invitation only, but the conference will be aired live on TVG2 and streamed live on the websites of TVG and The Jockey Club.