Joe Scurto has worn many hats in his three decades-plus, but the one he believes best encompasses his passion and experience is "race horse ownership evangelist." By that, he wants to "connect people with race horses in the pasture and on the track."
Having served as the deputy director of the Minnesota Racing Commission and then the executive director of the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project, Scurto has made it his life's work to grow the sport.
Scurto recently relocated to Kentucky to be at the center of the industry. He shares with BloodHorse the challenges he faces, how the industry has evolved, and why he's passionate about engagement at all levels.
BloodHorse: You have had a wide variety of roles in the industry, and the one thing that seemed to be a common thread is that those positions try to create and improve engagement. Why are you so passionate about engagement?
Joe Scurto: The fact is, firsthand experience. What being in the racing industry, and more specifically, owning race horses, has done for me personally is something that just continues to build the passion. So the fact that some of the best friends I have have been through racehorse ownership, partnerships, and groups getting together, the connections that I've made in the industry. This industry is full of some of the best people on Earth, both from the fans all the way up to the executive suite. It's something that I just want to share. When you think you've got a little genie in the bottle, you just want to go out and share it, and that's what I've tried to do.
BH: You recently moved to Kentucky. Why and why now?
JS: I think the key is what I did in Minnesota with the Racehorse Engagement Project was really just a culmination of that passion of being able to get people involved in ownership and aftercare, and unfortunately, as you know, some of the things that happened up in Minnesota with purse money and so forth, it made it a little difficult to continue that program. So really, the goal was to come down here to Kentucky, which I've always loved coming to. My wife and I love Kentucky, and our couple of months here already have proven it's a good decision, just with the people we've met and the things we've seen. But I think the goal was to reincarnate what we did in Minnesota with the Racehorse Engagement Project here in Kentucky. In Minnesota, we were able to get 300 new owners involved in racing. We were able to get aftercare funding, which was at a level of just under $100,000 up to $300,000 per year for aftercare, being able to work with what I call forward thinking industry leaders like Andrew Offerman when he was at Canterbury, and now is at NYRA, Mike Cronin, Justin Revack with the HBPA there In Minnesota, and of course, Randy Sampson, and being able to take that and maybe replicate it here in Kentucky.
BH: What's the challenge in doing that when you are in the state that is considered the hotbed for the industry?
JS: Unfortunately, what it comes down to is just staffing, funding, and finding the commitment. I mean, there's groups out there. OwnerView is out there, which does a nice job, and they use their webinars for new owners. And America's Best Racing is out there, and they do a good job as well. ... Griffin Johnson has done a big thing this year, got a lot of people interested. But then you've got to pull people through, and you actually have to hold their hand a little bit to explain ownership, to make the contacts, and also have a variety of entry levels for people. The industry has microshares with MyRacehorse and Wasabi Ventures Stables. But there are really levels out there with all these syndicates and partnerships like BBN Racing, Taste of Victory that people could get involved with that operate here in Kentucky, and they're not all the WinStars and the Medallions and the Belladonna—the high end. We've got to get people in at a level that they're comfortable with, and that can be through syndicates, it could be just connecting directly with a trainer. But as you know, there are a lot of barriers to entry in the sport, and we really need some leadership and pull through and guidance so that we can make it a heck of a lot easier for people.
BH: You have had more than three decades in the industry. What do you see now as the biggest change that occurred during that time?
JS: There's been plenty written about the shrinking foal crop and fewer race tracks. I mean, I'm originally from the Chicago area, and to see tracks like Arlington—my first job was at Arlington Park, and my wife and I got married at Arlington Park—and when you see those tracks disappear, it takes a little bit out of you. But on the positive side, the things that I've seen have been the creation of the syndicates and people who also want to get people involved in the syndicates; most of them don't make any money. They just do it out of wanting to get other people involved in the game. And so I see that as far as something that is a real positive for the industry ... but we've got a long way to go, because these folks are doing it on their own, and they're not getting a lot of support from the industry, and they're doing yeoman's work out there in trying to get people. If there were a statewide or national effort to do this, I think we can really take advantage of what you see in other countries like Australia and even over in Europe, with people getting involved in fractional ownership and syndicates. So I think that's coming.
BH: You saw firsthand the challenges that Minnesota faces, especially in relation to purse size. Do you see a realistic solution that works for everybody?
JS: I don't have the silver bullet in my pocket, but I do think there is a path forward that if the industry looked to support itself, and I'm not saying handing out purse money from Kentucky to Minnesota, but you know what? There's a place for good, solid, slower race horses at some of these tracks. Now, they may not go in 1:09 or 1:10; they might go in 1:12, but if you still had a field of 10 go, that would be the hottest product on the market. And that's part of the aftercare thing that we worked on as well. Aftercare is great, but our goal is to keep horses working that are sound and want to race and see if there's things we can do to reduce the overhead for owners, or just share the cost. There are plenty of people out there that spend money on country club dues and season tickets, and even a trip to Disneyland or Disney World will cost you five grand now. You can have a whole summer's worth of fun owning a piece of a couple racehorses.
And a side note is when I talked to new owners in Minnesota, one of the first questions they always ask was what happens to my horse after it's done racing? So that was very different from when I first started owning horses. That was a question that came around much later.
BH: You mentioned that one of the first questions that people are asking now is, what happens to my horse after it's done racing? Aftercare is something that you're passionate about. How did you first get involved in that side of the business?
JS: We were out there. We knew that this was something that was percolating. And the beauty is, in Minnesota, we got connected with people who were passionate about horses, not necessarily Thoroughbreds or racing. And one of the groups we worked with was called This Old Horse. And I believe Nancy Turner actually is getting recognized, which is great, because she's taken hundreds of horses over the last decade, of Thoroughbreds, and she completely started out, never had maybe one or two Thoroughbreds, but the key there is re-homing them. And found some other partners. I started working with Abijah's on the Backside, which is such a unique and wonderful program that uses retired Thoroughbreds to work with first responders and veterans, Navy SEALs, veterans that come back with PTSD, and we work with them to get funding in the state legislature. ... This industry is full of people that want to help. They just need a little direction, and they need a mission.
BH: What haven't we talked about that you think would be important for our readers to know about you and what you're doing?
JS: Number one, they can always reach out to me personally if they want to get into racehorse ownership. I'll take those calls. I'm grateful for the fact that I get to talk horses and horse racing every day, both as a career and personally, I'm grateful for that. But I think really that if it's one person or an organization, we need as an industry to develop those paths for people to take the next step, to pull people through, to give them their license, and we need to make the process easier. And we need to make it more approachable.
