December 2015 Award winners: Francis Graffard & Gerry Duffy Inaugural Alumni Conference Cambridge University, UK There are 130 Darley Flying Start graduates working in 5 continents in almost all aspects of bloodstock, racing, breeding, media and administration. Many of them are successful in their own right, others are climbing the corporate and political ladders and some are emerging entrepreneurs. They have a shared loyalty to Darley Flying Start and they form a new wave of industry players with an international knowledge and network unequalled. However, they still face challenges to keep up with technology, social media and industry trends as well as making informed career and business decisions. The Inaugural Alumni Conference held at Cambridge University, UK, on December 10th and 11th 2015 aimed to provide continuing professional education and to harness the power of the Darley Flying Start alumni network. The conference, themed “Branding and Reputation”, created an environment in which the energy, experience and expertise of alumni created an electric atmosphere. It brought opportunities for business, learning, sharing knowledge and experience, developing connections, friends and mentors. Delegates who registered for the Alumni conference were asked to vote for a Darley Flying Start colleague whom they felt had excelled in business and in leadership. These are the first ever Alumni Awards and they were presented at a reception on the evening of Day One of the conference. The awards were based on votes from alumni and there was one for “Business Excellence” and one for “Leadership Excellence” which makes them all the more meaningful and coveted. The recipients were racehorse trainer, Francis Graffard and Godolphin Ireland Manager, Gerry Duffy, respectively. The two day conference was a resounding success with the majority of European based graduates attending. Several flew in from France and Ireland to join their UK based colleagues. We aim to continue with a similar conference in Lexington in January 2017. Darley Flying Start Business Review www.darleyflyingstart.com
Transcript
December 2015
Award winners: Francis Graffard & Gerry Duffy
Inaugural Alumni Conference Cambridge University, UK
There are 130 Darley Flying Start graduates working in 5 continents in almost all aspects of bloodstock, racing, breeding, media and administration. Many of them are successful in their own right, others are climbing the corporate and political ladders and some are emerging entrepreneurs. They have a shared loyalty to Darley Flying Start and they form a new wave of industry players with an international knowledge and network unequalled. However, they still face challenges to keep up with technology, social media and industry trends as well as making informed career and business decisions. The Inaugural Alumni Conference held at Cambridge University, UK, on December 10th and 11th 2015 aimed to provide continuing professional education and to harness the power of the Darley Flying Start alumni network. The conference, themed “Branding and Reputation”, created an environment in which the energy, experience and expertise of alumni created an electric atmosphere. It brought opportunities for business, learning, sharing knowledge and experience, developing connections, friends and mentors. Delegates who registered for the Alumni conference were asked to vote for a Darley Flying Start colleague whom they felt had excelled in business and in leadership. These are the first ever Alumni Awards and they were presented at a reception on the evening of Day One of the conference. The awards were based on votes from alumni and there was one for “Business Excellence” and one for “Leadership Excellence” which makes them all the more meaningful and coveted. The recipients were racehorse trainer, Francis Graffard and Godolphin Ireland Manager, Gerry Duffy, respectively. The two day conference was a resounding success with the majority of European based graduates attending. Several flew in from France and Ireland to join their UK based colleagues. We aim to continue with a similar conference in Lexington in January 2017.
In the first section of day one, the alumni looked to entrepreneur Philip Turner of the Chestnut Group, Barbara Clancy, legal counsel of World Rugby and Chairman of Irish Sports Council, Kieran Mulvey on how to build their own brands and manage crises in today’s dynamic and fast changing world. One of the topics covered in depth by the speakers was the challenges relating to brand that today’s up and coming generation are going to face as they move through their careers in an increasingly connected and shrinking world. To paraphrase the MC of the day Jocelyn Targett, you can spend a lifetime building a reputation and brand but in today’s world, all of that can be lost in 140 characters. As such, one of the key aspects that Phillip Turner highlighted was understanding the currency of individual or company brand. Essentially, what is it that customers or clients truly find valuable when a service or product fails to meet expectations? Another challenge our panel discussed bringing in Kieran Mulvey and Barbara Clancy’s experience of working in the professional sports industry was the importance of reputation on an industry wide scale and how other international sports and their governing bodies are facing tremendous scrutiny and investigation worldwide because of their tarnished reputations. It was clear from the response in the room from the alumni that it is this generation’s responsibility to maintain and collectively lift even higher the Thoroughbred industry brand and reputation through both their business and personal interactions. Session 1: Phillip Turner, Barbara Murphy & Kieran Mulvey Following the lively panel discussion, the conference moved into its second phase where Darley Flying Start Manager, Clodagh Kavanagh, presented the alumni with a case study titled ’Global Horseracing: What’s Our Brand?’ and opened up the floor to discussion before breaking up into small groups to brainstorm the topic before reconvening and presenting their collective findings to the group. Listening into some of the group discussions it was clear that the answer is complex and that the racing industry needs to look inwards with an eye on the horizon in searching for the best way to brand and market itself. One of the comments that was consistent in the various group discussions was that ethos of racing, regardless of how it should be branded on a global or national level, moving into the future is one that needs to be steeped in a reputation of integrity in both business practices and horse care.
Day 2 began at 9:30 am on the Friday morning. The conference pushed forward again picking up on day one’s panel discussion with a presentation focusing on navigating the information age by Page Group Regional Talent Director, Beverley Nicholas, titled ’Your Digital Brand and Business Network’. With both personal and professional social media networks becoming more integrated part of everyone’s lives the alumni were extremely interested in how to manage these channels leading to a very interactive presentation. One of the ideas that was focused on was that word of mouth can quickly become world of mouth, meaning that information travels and becomes viral like at no other time in history,
making it imperative to be cognisant not only of what is posted on social media but of what happens in public settings. An interesting observation that Beverley made based on her 20 years in talent acquisition is that a danger of the social media age we live in and a problem that the Page Group are seeing is that many candidates from the newest generation entering the job market are very skilled with online communication but have a serious skill deficit when it comes to
3
Session 4: Jocelyn Targett & Ronnie Helvey
in-person relations and interpersonal relations. In addition to interpersonal relations she also highlighted personal authenticity and the ability to strategically network as two key traits that the most successful individuals have. Following a short coffee break the conference moved into its final phase by welcoming Ronny Helvey, the Marketing Director at Joules Clothing, to the stage for an intimate sit down chat show style interview led by MC Jocelyn Targett. One of the ideas highlighted by Ronny was the importance of brand authenticity and that reputation is won or lost on the ability to deliver your vision. The theme surrounding the importance of authenticity was a common thread woven throughout the day and seemed to strike a chord with the attending alumni. As many of them are founders of their own businesses or are in positions to make hiring decisions at the companies they work for, how to portray the values of their brand and how to determine the real values and character of potential hires was of particular interest. Session 3: Beverley Nicholas, Page Group Day two wrapped up by revisiting the question posed on the previous day, ’Global Horseracing; What’s Our Brand?’ The alumni again broke down into small groups to pick up where they left off the day before to try and get concrete ideas down which could then be discussed among the larger group. The ideas and potential answers discussed in this session will be collated and presented to the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities as a proactive impetus towards continuing to unite and lift the thoroughbred industry to even greater heights.
Based on the quality of speakers, engagement, and atmosphere, the Inaugural Darley Flying Start Alumni Conference was a resounding success. The conception and fruition of the event was spear headed by Clodagh Kavanagh and Joe Osborne with support throughout from Martin Larkin. The event was also supported on the two days by Darley Flying Start’s First Year Trainees in the following roles: Delegate/Guest Liaison- Lauren De Arias Huep, Carrie Hu, William Freedman, and Hannah Marks; Video- Jackson Buchanon and Conrad Bandoroff; Interviews- Alayna Cullen and Brittney Dixon; Social Media- Patricia Bowman and Cherry He; Photographer- Mary Ellet.
Gainesway is pleased to announce that Ian Tapp has recently accepted a position with the farm and will focus on sales and bloodstock development at the historic Lexington property. Before joining the Gainesway team, Tapp spent the previous five years with The Blood-Horse, where his roles included editor of Blood-Horse Daily, editor of Blood-Horse MarketWatch, and brand manager for TrueNicks. A native of Atlanta, Ga., Tapp graduated from the Darley Flying Start course in 2009 and holds an Animal Science degree from the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. In his new role at Gainesway, Tapp’s responsibilities will include client relations, season sales and new business development. “Ian brings an undeniable passion for the business and broad knowledge of racing, breeding, and pedigrees,” president Antony Beck said. “I’m thrilled to bring Ian’s talent and energy to Gainesway.”
Ian Tapp Joins Gainesway in Sales and Bloodstock Development
4
Second year trainees
Second year trainees after their Australia Conference
The Darley Flying Start 2015 Australian conference took place at the Westin Hotel, Sydney, on Tuesday, 27th October. The conference constituted part of the second yar trainees Communications module, focusing on presentation and public speaking skills. Their task was to research and critically analyse the Racing Australia website and report to the board on their findings. The brief was agreed in advance with the board and the trainees worked together in preparation for the conference using their different strengths including bloodstock sales, racing, marketing, creativity, writing, technology, and knowledge of the Australian thoroughbred industry.
Dane Robinson from Australia opened the conference by welcoming the guests to Kelvinside and thanking Sheikh Mohammed for his continued support of Darley Flying Start. He told of how he and his colleagues had worked as a team on the Racing Australia task and that their aim was to draw upon their international experiences to “bring many different perspectives” to the table. Those in attendance included John Messara, Vicky Leonard, Peter McGauran, Myles Forman, Ross Cole, Peter McFarlane, Jason Walsh and Darley Flying Start Australian coordinator Belinda Miller.
The trainees each spoke for five minutes resulting in a dynamic 60 minute presentation on their ideas and suggestions for the Racing Australia website and mobile presence. In formulating their presentation they considered Racing Australia’s current offering, stakeholders perspectives, core users, aims of the website, SEOs, navigation, graphics and content. This was followed by a discussion and question and answer session between the trainees and their audience. Later, everyone in attendance sat down together for lunch in the luxurious surroundings of the Westin restaurant. The document produced by the trainees was circulated to all members of the Racing Australia board.
Darley Flying Start would like to thank Racing Australia for their support in providing the trainees with the opportunity
to contribute in a meaningful way to the development of their website and mobile presence.
The need to address post-retirement options for Thoroughbred racehorses at the end of their career in France in a more centralized way was the topic of an exploratory meeting held by Godolphin and the Aga Khan Studs yesterday at the Arqana Sales Complex in Deauville.The event was attended by industry executives, farm owners and managers and sales attendees who listed to a presentation from Godolphin’s Lisa-Jane Graffard and the Aga Khan Stud’s Nemone Routh, who outlined the successful initiatives in Great Britain, Australia and the U.S., including the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and the Retired Racehorse Makover Project. The presentation was called Au-Dela Des Pistes (Beyond the Track), which outlined several key ideas for an initiative in France, including: stimulating a demand for a secondary market for horses, a systematic industry funding method of small donations, an improvement of the image of racing, and to attract a new and different fan base to the racetrack.The presentation asked everyone to write the name of a horse of whom the audience has lost touch. and on the other side of the card to write suggestions as to how horses’ well-being could be improved in France. “It is important to promote the horses who have successfully gone on to a second career,” said Routh. “It shows the public that the industry cares about them, and that we simply don’t use them.” “The next step,” said Diana Cooper, also speaking on behalf of Godolphin, “is to put together a working group, an association with a structure, made up of people in the industry to explore funding and to promote the horse as an athlete,” she said. Cooper mentioned Ecurie des Monceaux’s Henri Bozo, Arqana’s Olivier Delloye and Bertrand Le Metayer as supporters who had said they would step up and participate. Georges Rimaud, manager of the Aga Khan Studs, attended the meeting and participated in a Q and A afterwards. “I think that this is a very good initiative,” said Rimaud. “I think it is time for us to focus on horse welfare. I think we may be a bit late, but I think there are plenty of people today who are concerned and hopefully this will lead further into improving not only the horse welfare, but the rehabilitation of horses in the future. I think it’s a very good idea.”
Australia, October 2015 The weekly Sky Racing segment ‘Bred To Win’ hosted by Caroline Searcy featured Darley Flying Start with second year trainees Dane Robinson and Lauren Dunning present in studio for the entire show. Programme Manager Clodagh Kavanagh was also interviewed.
Beyond the Track: The French Industry Discusses Post-Race Options and Funding
Our Darley Flying Start Facebook page has now surpassed 4000 Likes! One of our posts about the Alumni Conferecne had a reach of over 15,000 people. It is kept up to to date with graduate news and curent trainee activity from each phase of the program. Incase you havent already please Like our page via the button below. Our Twitter feed is available on the website and is updated daily. Please follow our Twitter handle via the button below.
2015 graduate Brittlan Wall on her new role as Marketing Strategist at the TDN. Brittlan commenced the role on November 25th
