News Releases

Wednesday, October 06, 2004Contact: Bob Curran Jr. (212) 521-5326
New HB Account Access Service Helps Bookkeepers, Horsemen

If there’s a horsemen’s bookkeeper or horseman in the Thoroughbred racing world who still doesn’t fully appreciate the conveniences made possible by Internet technology, InCompass may have the product to change their perspective.

The subsidiary of The Jockey Club, which has previously centralized the software applications and systems that serve the racing office and horsemen’s bookkeeper office at North American racetracks with its Race Track Operations (RTO) product, recently unveiled a Horsemen’s Bookkeeper (HB) Account Access system which racetracks can use to provide their horsemen with access to real-time statements and account balances on the Internet.

With the RTO HB Account Access system, horsemen’s account information is stored on a secure central database server located within The Jockey Club complex in Lexington, Ky., with access protected via a unique user ID and password for each horseman. This centralized approach to account maintenance gives horsemen who race at a single track or at multiple tracks the option of viewing their statements on a track-specific basis or consolidating all activity at participating tracks into one statement.

“At most racetracks, the horsemen’s bookkeeper may interact with anywhere from 500 to 5,000 customers on a regular basis,” explained David Ruffra, executive vice president of sales and marketing for InCompass. “Enabling the horsemen to view their statements over the Internet in real-time will significantly reduce the volume of phone calls and the frequent need for personal visits to the horsemen’s bookkeeper office.

“When a racetrack is housing this information on a live updated database, horsemen can access that information any day of the week and any time of the day,” Ruffra said. “They are no longer limited by the tracks’ dark days or business hours. The horsemen can access their information from anywhere with an Internet connection.”

The HB Account Access concept grew out of a system originally developed for the Texas Horsemen’s Partnership (THP) through McKinnie Systems, Inc. (the forerunner of InCompass). The Texas system has been in operation since 2000.

“Fear of change or of the unknown is endemic in our industry but all they’ve really done is consolidate horsemen’s financial information into a simple and clean form so horsemen can get an overview of their activity,” said Tommy Azopardi, the executive director of the THP. “The system provides horsemen with an alternative means of accessing account information but hasn’t changed how they actually access their funds. They still need to contact the horsemen’s bookkeeper for that. It has really simplified the horsemen’s bookkeeping process both for the racetracks and for the horsemen.”

The broad and enthusiastic market acceptance of the RTO system of centralized racing office and horsemen’s bookkeeper applications introduced by InCompass in 2003 provided the critical mass and the platform through which InCompass could now offer racetracks nationwide the opportunity to centrally maintain their horsemen’s accounts with secure access by horsemen over the Internet.

Horsemen’s statements accessible through the new HB Account Access system include a chronological transaction history as well as a convenient transaction summary for the statement period which provides horsemen with an at-a-glance look at the cumulative totals for each type of transaction, such as entry fees, jockey fees, owner insurance deductions, and check requests.

With input from bookkeepers and horsemen, InCompass personnel are already evaluating future enhancements. One such enhancement would enable horsemen to electronically notify the horsemen’s bookkeeper or paymaster at each track whenever they want to withdraw funds from their accounts.

Racetrack personnel may contact David Ruffra at (800) 625-4664 or (859) 296-3002 to learn more about the HB Account Access service.

InCompass, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Jockey Club Holdings, Inc., integrates diverse technologies required to manage modern racing operations efficiently and effectively. InCompass is the racing office and horsemen’s bookkeeper vendor to racetracks that represent more than 75 percent of the total racing days and 90 percent of live handle in North America.

Additional information about the company may be found at http://www.incompass-solutions.com.