From a Virginia Horseracing News release
VaHorseRacingNews.com, a website focused on racing and breeding in Virginia, has halted publication effective February 12, 2014. The website, created and edited by former Virginia Thoroughbred Association (VTA) Executive Director Glenn Petty, was first published on July 2, 2013, not long after Petty was surprisingly fired after 30 years of involvement in the Commonwealth’s Thoroughbred industry.
The site’s last two posts — a farewell and one last “photos of the day” feature — went up yesterday.
“I started the new web page because I thought there was a niche and I had a perspective to offer which was unique. I wanted to remain relevant and have a platform to simply report the news without any particular agenda,” Petty said. “I think VaHorseRacingNews.com accomplished that. I’m proud of the product and the fair, unbiased presentation.”
Petty cited the ongoing decline of the industry and the lack of potential readers for halting the web site’s publication. “[T]he total reads didn’t justify the effort,” he said.
“The industry is mired in a pattern of deep decline. The Virginia foal crop is down below 250 and the industry is deadlocked in horsemen’s purse contract dispute,” Petty said. “There is nothing apparent on the horizon that will create meaningful change and there just isn’t a very big audience anymore and nobody seems to know how to change that,” he continued.
Petty, the founder, has more than 30 years’ experience in the racing and breeding industries, including three different stints as executive director of the VTA.
(Featured photo by Vas.)
