In a new TDN series, we are asking industry participants what racing's biggest problem is, and what the solution to that problem is. Today, we asked HISA's CEO Lisa Lazarus for her thoughts.What do you think is racing's biggest problem?I think the biggest problem with our industry is the lack of centralization of commercial rights. That is unlike other sporting initiatives, where teams work together to create a league or to create storylines that make sport exciting. We don't often see racetracks collaborating, in order to maximize the value of those commercial rights, but also keep those storylines engaging for fans and for stakeholders. If every racetrack had more of a stake in their neighbor's success, I think that would incentivize different conduct and a whole range of positive things would come from that.What is the solution?The way that I would solve it is essentially having a commissioner over all commercial rights. That's very difficult to ever happen because it would require all racetracks, especially the ones that have the more valuable rights, to agree and they haven't yet, so it seems unlikely to happen unfortunately. I do think if, at a minimum, we could get the three legs of the Triple Crown to collaborate on how that story is told from beginning to end, it would definitely be a benefit to the sport.The biggest obstacle is that these racetracks are, for the most part, individual commercial initiatives that consider other racetracks in their caliber to be competitors, as opposed to colleagues. I worked for the NFL in the past, and the best analogy I can give is this; the 32 teams in the NFL are business partners 98 percent of the time, and then they fight like hell on when they're in the field of play. But outside of the field of play, they're business partners with 32 members. I think that's what we're lacking in horse racing; the mentality that we're colleagues outside of race days, and competitors within them.If this were to be successful, it should look like one clear storyline for fans to follow, from the beginning of the season, around the Derby, the Triple Crown races and ending with the Breeders' Cup. Having a consistent thread through all of those of months and races that tells a cumulative story. At a minimum, we should have all of the big races on the same network. Right now, if you look at the Triple Crown, you've got the Kentucky Derby and Preakness rights owned by NBC, and you've got the Belmont owned by Fox, so I think we need to get some continuity there. It would be great for the sport, if there was more collaboration on how you maximize, not just the value, but just also the impact of our best races, our crown jewels, so to speak.That said, I have seen some progress to date. You will see some racetracks creating circuits with other racetracks, and there definitely are a number of leaders who have made the outreach to try different and creative things, and some have succeeded. But I'd love to see it on more of a national level; one that would facilitate consistent messaging across the sport.I'm not a doomsday person. I think racing is going to be successful for forever in some context. I just think it's the level of success and the level of penetration into general audiences that would be materially impacted by more of that cooperation. If you were to ask me what would really hurt the industry going forward? That would be if people stopped taking the welfare issues seriously, because there has been a lot of progress in that area. I'm a little bit biased, but there has been a ton of progress around the consciousness around welfare, and around the horse being at the center of all decision- making. I actually decided not to use that as the focal point of this piece, because I think it's been very positively impacted and it's continuing to head in the right direction.–Emma Hunter is a first-year trainee in the Godolphin Flying Start program. She is a native of Cork, Ireland. The first horse she ever foaled was Noble Yates, winner of the 2022 Grand National, who was bred by her family. The post Racing’s Biggest Problem, And The Solution: Lisa Lazarus appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.