After some 50 years of helping to run and shape the industry in some capacity or other, Alan Foreman has stepped away from all but a few of his many obligations.It comes on the back of the gradual dissolution of the Thoroughbred Horseman's Association of the Mid-Atlantic region, of which he was chairman and CEO. Foreman was the organization's first executive director.During his 50 years of industry involvement, Foreman was a former counsel to the Maryland Racing Commission, director of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) and vice-chairman of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC).In 2012, then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed Foreman to the New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety. The recommendations in the report he subsequently co-authored have been widely adopted across the U.S. He's currently the horseman's ombudsman with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA).The awards Foreman has received throughout his career include the William May Award for profound contribution to racing, the Dr. J David Richardson Industry Service Award for lifetime contribution to racing, and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association's Industry Achievement Award.In this Q&A (heavily edited from a much longer interview), Foreman discusses what prompted him to step away from his many roles, and what the future holds for an industry facing an inordinate number of challenges.TDN: What can you tell us about your informal retirement?AF: Given the THA is in the process of disbanding, it just became very clear to me that the environment has changed and I'm not in a position to do what I've always been very good at doing. So, it's time for perhaps a new generation of leaders to try to step in at a time when I think the industry is suffering a lot of frustration, a lot of challenges.I'm not one who can just stay on the sidelines and not be involved in trying to make this industry better. I'm going to continue to do my work with the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association who I've been associated with for almost 50 years.I will continue as the ombudsman for HISA as long as they want me to do so. I have a couple of other industry related clients who've asked that I continue to advise them. But on the other things that people have been used to seeing and hearing about from me I will not be involved.Sarah AndrewTDN: Why now?AF: There really is no role for me at this point.The THA was an organization of very stellar horsemen's organizations who had a common goal to work together to not only share their issues, their problems, their successes with each other, but also to look at the industry at large, the region at large and try to be a voice of leadership and a voice of change where change was appropriate, and to speak up at times when they thought the industry was going in the wrong direction.But they are not interested in working together anymore. There are a number of challenges that face each one of them and I think they're looking at their own situations. The leadership has changed.So, under the circumstances, I certainly can't be out in the industry, in the media, in front of state legislatures, wherever I had a voice and be speaking for a constituency that I don't believe I'd speak for any longer.It's all very much a reflection of our society as a whole today. You see it nationally. You see it at the local level. People aren't going into a room to work out problems. They're pointing fingers at each other. They're all going to their respective corners and it's very hard for anyone to lead in this kind of environment.TDN: What can you tell us about the disbandment of the THA?AF: It's been evolving for a couple of years.New Jersey leadership was promoting the notion that the region should go to a circuit where each racing jurisdiction, each track would run 25 live racing days a year, pay a million-plus dollars in purses each day, and that racing would rotate throughout the region. Michael Musto [executive director of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association] wrote a piece in the Paulick Report about what he saw as the future for the Mid-Atlantic.It was creative, but a non-starter. It didn't consider state legislatures who are supporting the industry. It didn't speak to the breeders who would be savaged by such a schedule. It didn't speak to the racetracks or horsemen and their particular interests. But, he was adamant about it.We tried to engage in a process where we would look at a number of the regional issues to see if we couldn't address them collectively to kind of nibble around the edges of what New Jersey was proposing. But it was a non-starter. They wouldn't engage in the process and decided that if the THA wasn't willing to entertain that discussion, they didn't have any reason to be a part of the THA.The Lasix issue was very divisive. That may have been the catalyst of what started this because historically, the THA had very strongly advocated for the use of Lasix, even when it became a very political issue, and it was pressured to alter its advocacy. So, I think that started to break things down.The enactment of HISA and in particular, the implementation of an independent third-party anti-doping program (HIWU), has caused tremendous upset and unhappiness on the backstretches of our racetracks. We hear it all the time and I think the chorus is getting louder.I think that had implications for jurisdictions like Delaware who were just unhappy both with the cost of HISA and what they felt was the intrusion of HIWU into the ability of trainers to work comfortably without fear they were going to lose their livelihoods.And so, Delaware decided that it no longer wanted to participate. Then New York, for whatever reason, decided they could do things better on their own without working collectively with the group and they decided that they didn't want to participate.The writing was on the wall–the ability to sustain the organization wasn't there.Racing at Laurel Park | Maryland Jockey ClubTDN: What are the implications from this?AF: The horsemen's organizations in this country are the unsung heroes of the business. The work that they do on a local basis is staggering and they don't get the credit that they're due. So, this should in no way reflect upon any of them in regards to the work that they do.But to the extent that there is a retrenchment or preference to decentralize, it's because they're concerned about their own parochial interests. They don't feel that working collectively either regionally or nationally is going to make a difference at this point because the challenges are so great.The industry is in a different place today because of a dearth of leadership. There is a dearth of a common interest. The industry can't even agree on what its product is, how to market itself.We've got a shortage of horses in the Mid-Atlantic, a shortage of horses throughout the industry. The foal crop is down. It plays out markedly in the Mid-Atlantic region. We're fighting over racing days. Who runs when? Who can get the horses?How does the collapse of the THA affect the industry?The beauty of the THA was that we were able to work collectively. The THA was the most influential horseman's group in the country. We were able to move the needle. We moved the needle on everything. We stood up when it was important to stand up. We challenged when it was important to challenge and we moved things when we saw that there was a need to move things.That's not going to be there now. I think the horsemen will come to regret that this has happened.TDN: The problems you've identified–which everyone in the industry is more than aware of–are the sorts of problems that need a coordinated effort to fix. You're painting a pretty bleak picture.AF:I don't see the sport either able or willing to address those problems collectively.There was a time when all the industry leaders were at the table. That's when we really missed a golden opportunity to promote this sport and to entice a new generation of horsemen and fans.Back when the NTRA started, we had this young advertising firm in New York who came in with this campaign called “Go Baby Go.” They did commercials and they were phenomenal commercials led by an actress by the name of Lori Petty. Remember “Pay the lady”? It was about betting and the fun of being at the racetrack and it was attractive to young people.That, in my opinion, was a dynamic campaign that cut through the clutter. Well, unfortunately, the “Go Baby Go” campaign was a little too controversial for some interests, particularly the interests in California, worried that it was portraying the industry as young druggies. The guys from California demanded that the commercials be discontinued. A far more conservative follow-up campaign failed.My point is, I see The Jockey Club at their Round Table later this month may be promoting the idea of a national marketing campaign. And look, I think national marketing would be great. I just don't know how effective it will be at this point. I'm skeptical.We blew a golden opportunity and it's typical of what this industry does. And I think that what you're seeing now with the THA, you can see it elsewhere—that jurisdictions are retrenching to their own parochial interests and they're going to do what they can for survival and they're going to market the way they want to market and they're trying to do this without a central authority.Then you've got Mike Repole, who names himself 'Commissioner' and wants to sue industry stakeholders for our plight. I've got people in my organization who think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. But he makes it a somewhat difficult environment to work with in concert. Ongoing industry discord.The Kentucky Derby | Coady MediaTDN: But what Repole's calling for, centralized governance nationwide, is the antidote to what you're saying here.AF: It's not going to happen. I don't believe it ever can happen.I mean, do you see a central authority telling Churchill Downs, NYRA or any other track, what it can and can't do or when? I don't think anyone, whoever is in that position, is going to have the authority, the gravitas and the support to be able to decide who can do what, when and how.We're not the PGA Tour. We're not the NBA. We're not the NFL. We are a collection of state sanctioned, state-controlled businesses, okay? We've never been set up to have a central authority and efforts to do that have failed because you've got states, tracks and the horsemen who have their particular economic interests at heart.To me, the single biggest thing we need to fix is the Triple Crown. And that should be an industry discussion apart from Churchill, Maryland Jockey Club and NYRA. It's our biggest and only brand. It's the only thing that generates the amount of public interest in horse racing on a national, international basis that we have.I agree with NBC sportscaster Mike Tirico, who says when you've got 24 million people watching one of your events and you're trying to lure interest in horse racing and you lose 17 million of them when you go to the next event, you've got a problem.TDN: What does this all mean for the industry?AF: I think the industry is going to continue to contract. I think that's inevitable. I do not see any growth in the foal crop or the available horses.My concern is, if we don't entice a younger generation of horse owners and fans, we're just going to contract to the point where you'll have Kentucky, you will have Maryland, you will have New York. I mean, the Mid-Atlantic may be okay. We'll see what happens with Monmouth.But you look around the country, in another three or four weeks, we'll know if Hawthorne even has a future and what that will mean. You've got Florida. What's going to happen in Florida. You've got California. What's going to happen in California?Boutique meets will succeed and survive. But it's a difficult environment when you have so much competition for the gambling dollar. The marketplace for gaming options is so saturated. How do you carve out your niche and grow? How do you attract yourself to another generation and how do you survive?Maryland, I think, will be a good lab experiment in that way because they're building a new facility and that new facility is going to be attractive and it's going to be an attraction for a period of time. The question is, will they be able to sustain it?I could go down the list of work that I've done over the years that has made a material difference in this industry. I'm proud of it. And I walk away with my head held high.The post Alan Foreman Q&A: “Dearth Of Leadership” And “Common Interest” appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.