Kyle McDoniel was named president and chief operating officer of Equibase LLC in June 2023, joining the company after a 25-year career in the sports and data industries.

McDoniel, a racing fan while growing up in Arkansas, joined the Thoroughbred industry’s official record keeper and database (Equibase is owned in partnership by a subsidiary of The Jockey Club and the racetrack members of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America) after serving as vice president of U.S. Strategic Partnerships for Sportradar. In that position, he led strategic planning, business development, and ongoing partnership management with sports leagues that included the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL for official betting data and content, technical services, and global video rights.

Prior to that, McDoniel spent time with ESPN, helping develop direct-to-consumer digital subscription products and was senior vice president of Strategy, Marketing and Partnerships and vice president of business development for FOX Sports. He also served as global head of Sports Partnerships and Strategy for Yahoo Sports.

Equibase, in addition to collecting and storing data on North American Thoroughbred racing, produces various handicapping products, in addition to selling data to other companies that produce past performances and other products.

McDoniel was interviewed by Paulick Report publisher Ray Paulick.

With your sports background, what sport do you believe is most similar to racing in terms of use of data?

Kyle McDoniel: Not surprisingly, I’m going to say auto racing. When you look at the world of motor sports, there are a lot of really tight analogies. It’s also near and dear to me, because my first job outside of working as a local sports reporter was when I joined ESPN and worked on their NASCAR coverage. We actually worked on their first electronic timing and scoring system and putting that information up on the internet. At that time, it was just counting the laps and the individual time of each car at the start/finish line, and then calculating differentials off that. Now in motor sports, they capture the position, the speed at every point around the track, what lanes they’re in, and it’s gotten to the point now where NASCAR drivers will actually look at that data and make decisions on their race strategy. So how do we get that same level of data for horse racing?

Obviously, the infrastructure around the racetrack is not exactly the same, but I think there are a lot of things that we can do to collect and put that data to use. One of the things we’re testing is a girth-mounted sensor that was in response to the RFP put out by the American Association of Equine Practitioners last year. We’re testing with 170 2-year-olds around the country, capturing high speed workout data, and we’ve seen some really encouraging results from that so far. We’re hoping to get to the point of being able to accurately predict potential injuries, peak performances, things like that.

So there’s a great deal we can do to bring more data to the sport, from a horsemen’s standpoint, from a jockey standpoint, and from a wagering standpoint, so that’s really what we’re focused on. Part of what we’ve even done recently is work with the Jockeys’ Guild, mounting some sensors on jockey safety vests to improve reception and potentially be a platform to gather additional data.

You said NASCAR drivers use the data, but how do the fans use it?

I think a lot of it is really about the storytelling and the graphics that can be created for the broadcast. It’s helping people understand how fast they’re going, how close they are, things like that. NASCAR and Formula One have done a great job of creating visualizations of how the cars are moving around the track. And that’s something we want to look to replicate for horse racing. Many handicappers spend a lot of time looking at replays and I think this can be another layer on top of that.

We will be able to actually see exactly, for example, when a horse and rider had to check, when there was potentially interference in a lane. All those of things – whether it’s for wagering purposes or a fan trying to better understand what they’re watching – I think there’s a lot to be done on both fronts.

Do other sports charge for the data the way that Equibase and horse racing does?

The short answer is most of the data collection in U.S. sports is subsidized by television rights and sports betting companies. I came from a company, SportRadar, where we would buy the low latency data rights from companies like the NFL or Major League Baseball, and sell those to sports books for in-play betting. At Equibase, we’ve worked really closely with our ADW partners and tracks on ways that they can provide free data to customers. We’ve got free digital distribution of programs on track websites at five or six different tracks now, and we’re looking to expand on that. And most of the ADWs offer rebated past performances with any wager. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of getting data into the hands of potential betters, but it makes sense for it to be integrated within the betting experience. One of the things we did last year was make a full free data set available for both chart data and GPS data, to allow developers, handicappers or people with potential business ideas to use that data. We had over 1,400 downloads of that data set and we will continue to expand on efforts to get data in the hands of those who can help us innovate in the sport.

Is Equibase looking at creating a new format for past performances that might not be so intimidating to new people in the game?

Sports stats are consumed primarily on a mobile phone and traditional past performances are not an easy thing to consume in that format. We are actively working on a modernization project for Equibase.com and one of our tenets is to make sure our products are designed as mobile first.

Are you confident that the timing of races, especially turf races, is accurate using Gmax’s GPS technology?

When GPS was initially launched, I think there was the assumption that it would be accurate enough to eliminate beam timing, but some of the inherent limitations of GPS required us to develop a hybrid timing system. We use that today at over 20 tracks, combining mobile timing eyes and gate devices to complement the GPS data. When you look at the different rail settings at a track like Gulfstream Park, for example, there are 108 different permutations of the start and finish lines. The rail moving around provides a lot of additional complication from a timing perspective.

We’ve made a lot of progress with the overall accuracy of our GPS system. Last year, we installed our first GPS system to have real-time kinematics (RTK), which is basically the construct where, in addition to the satellites, there’s also a fixed base station on the ground that’s used to help correct some of the GPS signals when there are issues. We launched that at the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in Saratoga last year and subsequently added it at Del Mar and Santa Anita, and as we’ve continued to tune that system, we’ve seen the accuracy get better and better. We’ve installed the RTK system at Keeneland for the Spring Meet and we’ll have it at all Triple Crown venues this year.

Additionally, we are actively testing a computer vision initiative – identifying saddle towels and silks via video to make additional corrections in real time. Employing multiple layers of data collection and correction are the key to making sure we have the best data possible.

I understand some charts are now being compiled remotely by Equibase personnel, and not at the track where the race is being run. Do you have concerns about accuracy by not having the chart caller on-track?

Every other sport is using remote officiating and daily video analysis, and the cameras at many tracks now are HD, thanks to The Jockey Club and the grants they made to help tracks add HD cameras. We’ve also done some work with International Sound to get remote access to stewards’ feeds. So all of that high-quality video comes into our offices here in Lexington. As we’ve started doing our first remote chart calling, we’re obviously keeping a close eye on it, and we’ve got good feedback from track management. I’m really happy with the results we’re seeing so far. It gives us more flexibility to make sure we can employ our best people and keep them busy full time.

Equibase charts for some tracks now include the reason a horse has been scratched from a race, for example a regulatory scratch vs. a private vet scratch. Is this something that we’ll see for all tracks?

I believe this is something that was initiated by a conversation we had with the New York Racing Association. The middle of last year we added that information and we certainly would like to see all of our tracks adopt. The more accurate information, the more in-depth information we can provide, the better.

I’ve had trainers ask me why more specifics can’t be put on Equibase charts concerning voided claims, giving the reason the claim was voided. Is there any reason that you’re not able to include whether a claim was a voided due to lameness, bleeding or some other reason?

This actually is not a question I’ve been asked about, but I think it’s something worth exploring, as long as we’re comfortable that we’re getting accurate information. If this is something the stewards can provide us, then I think we’re happy to display that.

Equibase charts no longer say whether a horse has been euthanized after sustaining a severe injury. Why the change?

It goes back to making sure that everything we put in a chart is accurate. In a lot of cases, it’s hard to get accurate information on a timely basis. Whether a horse is just getting a courtesy ride off the track or it’s something more severe, that information is not necessarily reported back to us in a consistent fashion, and so it’s really about wanting to make sure that we’re as accurate as possible while getting the chart out quickly – and now with HISA in place it takes that responsibility off of our chartcallers.

What are some enhancements that you’re excited about, or new things that we might be looking forward to down the road?

We’re continuing to work to improve our GPS offerings and we’re really happy with a lot of the recent progress we’ve made, but we’re also constantly looking at other GPS providers that are either working with horse racing in other markets or other sports or venues, to make sure that we’ve got the best possible products that we can bring to market for our tracks. The other thing we’re really trying to do is make sure that we are consistent across the country in how we create our charts and the terminology we use, making sure we have agreement on severity of terminology like bumped or brushed so that all of our chart callers are using the same language.

Another thing we are working on with the company, Stable Analytics, involves the girth-mounted sensor I mentioned earlier that has the potential to track workouts, to create a kind of fingerprint of how a horse moves, and to see potential issues that can be headed off quickly, or to help a trainer adjust a horse’s training or to understand when a horse is at peak performance. The last thing I’ll add is we will continue to work at creating handicapping products for mobile devices.

Equibase has been around since 1990. Who owns the company and how is its oversight board structured?

Equibase is a partnership between a subsidiary of The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America. A significant portion of the board is made up of senior racetrack management representing a broad cross-section of tracks, from the biggest to many of the smaller tracks as well. I think it gives us a good sounding board, and good direction on how we move forward to help the industry. The ownership structure is 50/50 between The Jockey Club and TRA, and any dividend that we declare is two-thirds to the tracks, and one-third to The Jockey Club. That dividend goes back to support other industry initiatives – things like national marketing of the sport through America’s Best Racing or support for television broadcasts.

There’s no seat on the Equibase board for horseplayers, but does the company have a formal advisory group that includes horseplayers?

We have historically conducted surveys and periodic focus groups with horseplayers. As an example, our race day changes section of the website and the feed of those changes to downstream customers was a result of Equibase hosting the HANA group for a day at the races at Keeneland that included a day of meetings to hear from them. Since my time here, I have a lot of one-on-one conversations with horseplayers and we welcome input or feedback from people in the industry, across the board, whether it’s just a small bug on the website or a new product that might make sense for the industry. We’re happy to get that feedback. We’re also working on a ratings project for North American Thoroughbreds and put together a number of different advisory groups that include horsemen, handicappers, racing secretaries, breeders, sales companies, you name it. We’ll continue to use that horseplayers group we put together on an ongoing basis. It’s important that we hear from people who are using Equibase every day.