Between Races: Turf to Launch Public Relations Campaign; TRA Studies Plans for Gaining Good Will; Magazine Writers Seek Turf Sensationalism; Lip Tattoo Crews Nearing End of Their Task, Daily Racing Form, 1949-05-27

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BETWEEN RACES * « « °™ ARCADIA, Calif., May 26. — Spencer Drayton, executive head of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, reveals that the organization is taking concrete steps toward improving the so-called "public relations" of member tracks in their various states following some criticism that such relations were not all that they should be. "We are fully aware," says Drayton, "that our public relations program could be greatly improved. However, this holds true for all businesses. We do believe that public good wilj for the turf is at an all time high." "/Drayton added that a sub-committee of the TRA executive board had been appointed to make an exhaustive study of the public relations problem and after the subject had been thoroughly gone over, some concrete recommendations would be made to member tracks. These plans will be made with a long range point of view. One of the first advisory steps will be the convening of a number of public relations men, from member tracks. Invitations have been sent to some of the leaders in the industry to attend a conference at which open discussion will be held and ideas advanced as to what can be accomplished in the realm of good will. These men selected will represent all sections of the nation. It might be explained that the term "public relations" as used here in no way encompassed the field of the press. Rather it is a larger term to include leaders of business, finance and elected and appointed state, county and city officials. Press relations of the turf, with a few notable exceptions, have always been quite creditable. AAA Si7?- Drayton further explained that the TRA had been in Turf to Launch Public Relations Campaign TRA Studies Plans for Gaining Good Will Magazine Writers Seek Turf Sensationalism Lip Tattoo CrewsNearing End of Their Task existence only for seven years, certainly a short time in comparison to the antiquity of the sport. The investigative body of the TRA, the TRPB, believed that the most important task confronting it at its inception was the stamping out of illicit practices, most notably ringing, any attempts to fix races and stimulation. More than half a million dollars has been spent to develop the TRPB into one of the finest bodies of its kind in the world. It has succeeded in its campaign. There has not been a single ringing on a, TRA track, the sport has been cleanly conducted, and stimulation, if not completely stamped out, is a rarity. This in turn has resulted in a more kindly attitude on the part of the racing public. The new problem confronting racing, public relations, will receive the same meticulous attention. At the conclusion of the studies and the conference of public relations experts already in the industry, recommended standard of procedure will be made available to all tracks, who may then utilize this information to the best of advantage in their local areas. Some ideas may prove better in some localities than in others, but it is certain that the entire industry will obtain some good advice. AAA Drayton revealed a queer facet of human nature and also disclosed that racing seemingly had many unwitting enemies through the fact that his offices in New York had a minimum of 10 requests a month from magazine writers or free lancers hoping to crash the magazines for material for race track stories, all of them designed to present racing unfairly before the public. The vast majority of these writers, it might be explained, are not in themselves enemies of racing, but their objective is to make their stories as sensational as possible and .thus help the story to "sell" They take the attitude that Drayton and his staff have a room full of "bombshell" material which would look simply swell in print. Such - is not the case, of course, for essentially, the TRA and TRPB are constructive organizations and the check of the Drayton files reveal that the number of so-called sensational cases are extremely few. The percentage, indeed, is so small as to be almost infinitesimal. "We would feel rather badly about the number of such requests," sighed Drayton, " if it were not for the fact that racing is not being singled out. Many other businesses face the same problems from the same type of writers." This, of course, is true. But it is particularly unfortunate for racing that most writers who could grasp the facts of other lines of endeavor usually fail miserably to even get anything right about the turf. Incidentally, such writers make no headway in the Drayton offices. AAA It is our understanding that Garden State Park is the. first major track in the United States to obtain the goal of having every horse on the grounds tattooed. With another year or so the TRPB will have just about every horse on the continent tattooed and their work crews Continued on Page Nine BETWEEN RACES By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty will be limited to the new crop appearing yearly. You may have heard that the lip tattoo system is not infallible, but Drayton believes it is the next thing to it. He says that the United States Army conducted extensive experiments in the alteration and removal of lip tattoo numbers and the military came to the conclusion that it could not be done successfully. The scars fairly scream, fraud when attempted. As for the possibility that a horse could be given an identical number by an "outsider," such a chance is astronomical. The dies used by the TRPB "lip tattoo crews are specially made and the name of the factory making them is a closely guarded secret. The TRPB is not unmindful of the fact that other systems of identification have proven of great value. But the tattoo method can stand on its own, and is inex- * pensive compared to some of the more elaborate methods in use on a few of the larger tracks. Not all tracks can afford these "safeguards," and the tattoo system is for all purposes foolproof. -In theory it could be possible to obtain a horse similar to another, paint him up, duplicate the tattoo serial number and run him as a ringer. But the amount of effort and ingenuity involved would be staggering and so many people would of necessity be involved that the secret probably could not be kept anyway. Incidentally, the number of thoroughbreds tattooed under the TRPB program is now nearing the 17,000 mark.


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800