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[Music]
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Alex, thank you so much for joining us
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today. Well, thank you very much for
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inviting me. Uh, so I understand you've
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just come out with your new book about
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Barbaro. Uh, what inspired you to write
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it? Yes, I I've been very fortunate to
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to have followed and documented um
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Barbar's life from the time he was at
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New Bolton Center and I actually saw him
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train up up for the PNness um and and
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ran a website that that gained a large
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following um following his progress at
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New Bolton Center. um after he
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unfortunately died from from laminitis
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eight months um later um I I kept
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running the site and it sort of turned
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more into a horse welfare community. We
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did quite a lot of work in the horse
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welfare space
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um and a year later I decided to travel.
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I traveled for two years um different
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racetracks just learning more about
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horse racing and horse welfare issues on
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the ground at various parts of North
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America. And when I returned a little
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over a year ago, it was either write the
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book or start a different project. So at
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that point I decided to go ahead and and
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see if I I was capable of writing a
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book.
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uh can you walk us through some of the
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major elements of the book uh and and
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and the significance of uh Barbaro as as
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as a racehorse? Sure. Um the book um is
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a culmination of about 120 interviews.
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It was supported by the Jackson's
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Barrow's owners, which was critical to
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its success because that allowed me
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access to many people that were willing
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to interview for the book. Um, I also
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work with about 50 people that provided
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photographs for the book. Um, the book
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documents Barbaro's life um, thoroughly
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again from many different interviews
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from from the people that looked after
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him as a racehorse, as a patient, um,
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trained him as a young horse and so on
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and so forth.
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Um,
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and so, so I think the book's a very
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accurate portrayal of his life. It's
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also analytical in nature. Part two
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really explores whether Barbara was a
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great racehorse. And there is a debate
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about that question and and I don't
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specifically answer the question. I just
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thread together lots of other people's
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opinions um to allow the reader to come
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to their own conclusion. Is there a
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consensus? Was he a great raceh horse or
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I think certainly the consensus is that
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his win in the Kentucky Derby in 2006
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was a great performance.
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Um, some would argue that we did see
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greatness, um, but his career was too
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short to definitively say he was a great
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racehorse, but others argue that yes, he
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was a great racehorse. Um, to be honest,
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one of my first interviews was with a a
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turf writer named Steve Haskin. And when
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he started telling me his opinion of of
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Barbar's Kentucky Derby performance,
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that's truly what inspired me to um,
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write the book as I wrote the book. um
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if if Steve Haskin and others had such a
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high regard for Barbara, this was a book
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worth writing. Um the other analytical
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sort of question that I ask is why was
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Barbara so inspirational? Um what was it
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about Barbaro and his saga that inspired
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people to do lots of really cool things
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and and our site was a testament to that
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I think um in terms of raising money for
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horse welfare and so forth and and
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what's the answer to that? Why was he so
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inspirational? Again, I didn't come up
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with one specific answer. I think
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Barbaro just um Barbaro's story involved
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a number of sort of attributes that that
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made him and the story um inspirational.
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His characteristics
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um were were such that we aspire to be
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as great as he was even as humans and he
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was an animal but we aspire to that kind
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of greatness. um he he he would do well
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as an athlete yet ask for no reward and
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we're kind of you know worn out with
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athletes that are going after new
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contracts and and doing odd and you know
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silly things. So he he would just want
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to go and eat his oats and carry on with
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his life and so on and so forth, right?
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So he had some really cool
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characteristics. But we also have a
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human there's a horse human connection
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that's been um you know with us you know
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through civilization. and horses got us
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out of the cave. Horses basically
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progressed human civilization right up
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to the industrial revolution. Um, so we
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have an affinity with the horse and I
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actually in the book highlighted other
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horses that over the years like man of
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war and secretariat that have also
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proved um inspirational. So it's
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actually it was a fun chapter to write.
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Again, not one specific answer u but
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quite a geeky sort of look at things and
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I I actually really enjoyed that piece
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of the book. Well, that brings me to a
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question I wanted to ask you which is if
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you think about horses like Barbar or
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Secretariat or Seab Biscuit. Uh some of
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them just seem to capture people's
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imagination.
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uh what is it about them that does that
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and what kind of lessons branding
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lessons can companies learn from that
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phenomena? I think um Seab Biscuit um he
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he sort of captured the the the the
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aspirations of a nation during a a very
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um uncertain economic time. And he sort
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of allowed the the the the people to
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believe that they could aspire to be
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something else um despite their current
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circumstances. and people sort of
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rallied around and went to the races or
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listened to his races on the radio
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because there was no TV at the time. And
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he truly was um did did sort of bring a
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nation back up off its feet um for one
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of a better phrase. And Secretariat
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again it was Vietnam. there was lots of
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uncertainty out there and he just was
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brilliant. Um and and people sort of
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coalesed behind that and and again
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Barbara came along at a time of
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uncertainty. You know there was 911 we
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were still recovering from that where we
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were in two wars um and lots of
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uncertainty and just sort of lots of
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human failings along the way and Barbara
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was the antithesis of that. Um, and I
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think, you know, it sort of boils down
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to, you know, as you translate it to
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sort of the the sort of the the business
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side of it and the marketing side of it,
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it I truly believe these are examples of
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just being very good at what you do and
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letting that speak for itself and you
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then have an audience coalesce around
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that in terms of sort of a business
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application. Um, and you know, Barbaro,
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Seab Biscuit, Secretariat, Dan Patch,
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Man of War, um, Zenyatta, um, more
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recently, these are all horses that were
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just exceptional at what they did and
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built an audience around that. Um, and
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yeah, and and it it sort of again
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translates a little bit to my book. This
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book is my best effort. Um, I think it
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can be very successful and I'm hoping to
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build an audience around that, but I
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will never regret doing it because I
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know it's my best effort. Right now, uh,
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speaking about um, efforts, I I know
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that when you launched your website
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about Barbara, you used some very
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creative social media uh, techniques to
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to get the word out. What kind of social
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media strategies are you using with your
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book that other authors can learn from?
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Right. Well, with the with the Barro
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episode itself, I I used a website
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timracing.com. It was a blog and and we
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evolved from the blog to also include
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discussion boards, a wiki. Um, we
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experimented a little bit with MySpace
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and that didn't work. Facebook did work.
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We had a YouTube contest. lots of pretty
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cool things and that audience just kept
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building and building and obviously this
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book about Barbaro um is is sort of
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tangentially related to that. the
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audience on what is now Alex Brown
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racing and we move from Tim Woolly
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Racing is a core audience for this book
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and I simply see this book as another
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medium much like the social media that
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that I've used to date to sort of carry
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a certain set of messages which I think
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are very important. Um, I'm I'm hoping
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the book also allows us to reach out to
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a much broader audience with those
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messages. And with the book, I also have
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a social media strategy. One of which is
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to, you know, in in literal terms, take
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advantage of all the social media um
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branding that we've done with Alex Brown
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Racing, but also the book itself has its
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own Facebook page um of which we have
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6,100 fans and as as I speak. Um and you
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know, I I use Twitter aggressively for
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the book. Um you know, my own Facebook
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profile. I'm now an author and all I
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talk about on my selling a book that's
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it um you know so obviously I'm using
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the social media that I had used and and
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have a pretty large sort of footprint in
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a social media space now for Alex Brown
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racing so I'm using that whilst also
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introducing some other um so some other
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tactics specifically for the book. Now,
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when when you think about Barbara's
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legacy, I I know that it's it's it means
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a lot to you to and it's connected in
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your mind very deeply with issues of
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horse welfare. Yeah. Uh could you speak
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to some of the main issues that you're
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dealing with there and whether there has
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been any progress in those areas?
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There there there are a couple of areas
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um I think very important in terms of
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what sort of Barbara has inspired us to
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think more thoroughly about um one is
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the disease laminitis that ultimately
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killed Barbara. He did break his leg but
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they fixed the broken leg. Um but they
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knew there was a high risk of laminitis
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right from the beginning. it's a an
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insidious foot disease and which he
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ultimately succumbed to. So Barbara's
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episode um definitely created a a
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heightened need for us to try to solve
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the puzzle of the root causes of
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laminitis, an issue we've actually been
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dealing with for about 2,000 years. Um
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or in documented history, we've probably
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been dealing with it longer than that.
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Um, now if you've been dealing with
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something for 2,000 years and really not
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got fur, one would assume that that's
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kind of like throwing money at something
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that's, you
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know, not not likely to to be um useful.
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But I think the reality is research
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techniques have advanced significantly
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over the last 20 years. There is
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absolute um belief now that we can get
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to the root causes of what what causes
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laminitis and we really need to step up
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our interest in solving this this
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puzzle. Um it's the second largest
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killer of horses um behind collic. The
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second issue that's um Barbar's case has
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really sort of um heightened in terms of
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scrutiny is thoroughbred retirement
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issues. um and ultimately the the
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broader issue of horse slaughter. Now
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obviously Barbara himself was never at
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risk of horse slaughter but his owners
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um the Jacksons sort of used um their
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their ability that their platform that
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Barro provided them to sort of get
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behind that issue. Um and certainly over
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the last three or four years I've been
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quite heavily involved in sort of
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raising monies for horses heading to
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slaughter um and and sort of trying to
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sort of create broader awareness that
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this is an issue we need to to tackle.
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Um so laminitis research sort of horse
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welfare what happens to horses after
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they finish racing. These are two big
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issues. I write about them in my book. I
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try to be sensitive obviously about the
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the retirement issues, but I will admit
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I drove six hours to a slaughter house
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to take a photograph to um to include it
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in the book. Um but you know, you have
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to do that, I think, if you're if you're
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doing the appropriate research. Well,
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right now, I'm sure you have your hands
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hands full with the book and and and uh
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making sure it gets to people who want
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to read it. Uh what's next uh uh for you
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and uh and and the cause of horse
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welfare? Um well, I now have the book.
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I've only had it a week. So what is next
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most immediately is to try to sell the
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book. I'm going on a a 30 maybe a 40
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venue book signing tour to get the book
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out there. And I think it's really
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critical um essentially as an
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entrepreneur to to just get the book out
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there as quickly as possible. have
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people talking about the book and then
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if the book's successful
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um sales will follow but um if I don't
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aggressively get the book out of there
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early then the book might just not be
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successful. So I'm actually um in my
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first swing I'm going to Aken South
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Carolina coming Georgia um Cummings
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Georgia um I'll be at the Louisiana
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Derby um at fairgrounds I'm going to
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Tulsa Oklahoma and then Gfream Park um
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Florida Derby weekend Tampa Bay Downs
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and I'll be back at New Bolton Center
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within the next two weeks doing doing an
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event. So that's just an example of of
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of getting things going. Um but um
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what's next in the long run? I have
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absolutely no idea. If this is not
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successful, that's really going to be
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disappointing.
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Well, let's let's hope uh and wish that
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you succeed. Uh thanks very much, Alex,
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for joining us today. No, I really
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appreciate it and thank you for the
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opportunity to talk about the book.
