Louisville equine program grad strives to 'get people in' racing
Kaitlyn Johnston’s experience riding on the hunting and jumping circuits drew the Dallas native to the University of Louisville’s Equine Industry Program.
Once Johnston arrived in the Derby City, she got hooked on horse racing, too.
“I realized just how exciting it was,” Johnston said.
The 2018 Equine Industry Program graduate is now a grad assistant while pursuing an MBA from U of L.
“In undergrad, all we would talk about would be trying to get people in,” said Johnston, whose prior experience includes work at Churchill Downs’ backside.
“How do we get people to it? How do we get people more involved with it?”
Johnston said “Win, Place, Show” can be a way to do just that.
Earlier this year, EquiLottery conducted a pilot program for the lottery game that used the results of live horse races to determine winners and prizes.
During the pilot period, $2 tickets were sold seven days a week from April-June at 45 locations around Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky.
Customers’ tickets would include the names and post positions of three horses running in a particular race that day. Participants could then use a smartphone app to watch that race live or watch replays from previous days’ selected races.
RELATED: 'A huge advocate' for Equine Industry Program
If the win, place and show runners matched the three horses on a customer’s ticket in the exact order, that customer would win the day’s top prize.
Secondary payouts were available for participants who had the top-three finishing horses on their ticket, but in a different order.
And if a customer’s ticket matched two horses in their finishing order, that customer was eligible to receive a free ticket.
Winning customers could then use the same smartphone app to scan their ticket and see their payouts.
Part of Johnston’s operations role was selecting races that the game could feature.
“We would usually want a field size of seven to 20,” Johnston said. “We’d schedule the races about three days out. We’d look at the weather before we obviously pick that race. We don’t want anything with bad weather. We don’t want anything with also-eligibles.
“So we’d look at a race between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. just because that’s when sales were the best, when it was kind of more in the evening after work.”
Johnston would also stay on top of the entries list, making sure to remove scratched runners from the system.
If a customer bought a ticket with a horse that was later scratched before post time, he or she could return it for either a free ticket or a refund.
Johnston said the pilot program went “really well,” and that EquiLottery hopes to bring the game back on a full-time basis with an altered payout structure.
She also thinks the program can expand beyond Kentucky and into other states.
“We’re kind of developing other games and we’re trying to build relationships with other racetracks,” Johnston said. “We have a bunch of strong relationships with about 20 race tracks across the country.
“We’re looking forward to building those before we launch those again.”
Johnston thinks “Win, Place, Show” can draw people into horse racing that have never before participated in the sport and contribute to its growth.
“I’m hoping people get that excitement,” Johnston said, “and then decide they want to actually go out to a racetrack.”
An intense, four-year track, the Equine Industry Program gives students the professional skills they need to succeed in the horse industry covering equine economics, marketing and law, among other topics. Small class sizes are emphasized along with individualized advising.