Rob Scott

Tellytrack is racing’s shop window. However, with the changing demands of today’s technology – as well as clients – steering the ship in testing economic and political times is a challenging task. This is probably best evidenced by the fact that the position has been vacant for 2 years since Ken Rutherford vacated the CEO position. However, a new hero of the airwaves has been found in the form of the intrepid Rob Scott. We find out what on earth possessed him to trade his relatively quiet life for the Tellytrack hot seat.

A bit of background

Rob Scott grew up in the Free State, the youngest of three children. Rob got into horses as most of us do, via family. His father, Tommy, was heavily involved in all aspects from training to breeding, eventually becoming a Steward at Bloemfontein Turf Club. “My brother and I went to the stables with my old man since we were lighties. My Uncle George started out his training career in Bloem and became their leading trainer before he relocated to Joburg. He is one of the oldest active members of our training ranks. My other uncle, Trevor, was an avid punter and owner, so we were exposed to racing from all aspects for as long as I can remember.”

Racing

“I don’t think we really had much choice about getting involved in racing. Colin originally worked on the stock market, but then he went to work for Uncle George at Newmarket. Colin was always very good with horses – any animal responds to him, actually. He used to ride work for Uncle George – he loves horses. I don’t have that affiliation and am a bit scared of them to be honest. I was always more interested in pedigrees and the punting side of things. My sister Janet likes to come to some of the big race meetings, but is not really too interested – she’s probably the sharpest in the family.”

“Colin took out his license and had his first set of boxes at Newmarket before moving to Turffontein. I was at Edcon at the time and bought my first horse off the farm from my Uncle Trevor. I’m a bit of a compulsive person – one is never enough, so it went from there, really. I think I’m angry with my cash – I certainly spend a lot between punting and racing. I think my kids fear for their future!”

Family affair

Rob has diversified a little, but mainly supports his brother Colin and father Tommy, who helps out at the yard. “It’s a bit of a family thing. Colin has a small yard with 40 odd horses and a small handful of owners, but that suits him, he’s not looking for 150 horses. We’ve probably had 130-140 winners together so far.” Highlights include Extinct, Cool Prospect, unlucky GC Derby loser Sage Throne and Fourth Estate. “Most owners will tell you the hard luck stories and we all have our fair share, but I’ve been lucky enough to have some nice horses.”

Does having his brother for a trainer ever cause problems? “He’s my older brother, so he’s quick to tell me ‘if you don’t like it, try someone else!’ Seriously though, I don’t think we’ve ever had an argument over a horse and I really leave it in his hands. I think if you’ve chosen a trainer, you’ve got to trust he’s got your best interests at heart, especially if he’s chosen it as a baby. Look at Chris van Niekerk and Sean Tarry – once you build that relationship, you’re onto a winning formula.”

Professional life

Rob received his early education at CBC in Bloemfontein and then the family moved to Johannesburg. “I finished school at Queens High, did my national service and then went straight into Edcon as a 19 or 20 year old.” Rob worked with them for more than two decades, working as the operations director for Edgars and running all their stores. He helped acquire Supermart (rebranded to Jetmart) and helped grow that chain, working as the general manager of merchandise, running marketing and CE as well as finding time to complete his MBA through Stirling University. “It was pretty tough,” he admits, adding “I probably wouldn’t like to try that again!” The group was bought out by Bain Capital and when our chief exec, Steve Ross, announced he was leaving, I decided I needed a break from retail and left them to do my own thing.”

“I had to have a two year holiday when I left, so I started an imports business. We do a bit of footwear and clothing – it’s what I know – and I did a bit of consulting and so on. I also invested in a number of different ventures, which kept me busy.”

Tellytrack

“I have always felt that racing has got a lot of issues that need to be dealt with. There are a lot of guys debating how things should be done and I was probably one of the guys on the side lines saying we could do this better. I felt that if you want to have a say, you should get involved in some sort of formal structure. One can’t do anything from the outside. I serve on the RA Board and Larry mentioned that they were looking for someone to head up Tellytrack. I think Tellytrack plays an important role in getting the sport out there and I’ve got some ideas that I think can hopefully get implemented to get things looking a bit more positive.”

“The first thing I’d like to say is that I don’t’ think things are as bad at Tellytrack as people think they are. The guys themselves will admit that there are always things that can be done better – the minute you feel you know everything, you’re on the wrong track – and there are things we are working on, but a lot of the criticism we get is not because we have bad people in place, but rather because we are dealing with limited resources and having to do the best with what we’ve got.”

Under pressure

“Racing around the world is under pressure – it’s not just a South African phenomenon – so we have to pay attention to economics of it. As with any business, there are commercial realities, but there’s also the non-commercial element and we’ve got to try and balance both of those aspects. As an example, a lot of guys hate the cart racing, but it generates funds for the overall racing pool. Soccer also generates funds for the overall racing pool and without those, the general racing guy would be racing for less money. At same time, not everyone wants to watch it – I understand that – I’m one of the guys who used to complain about the ‘chariot racing’, but the truth is that it puts money into the coffers and of course, there are punters who genuinely like it.

“At the moment, we focus all our attention on the TV screen. Tellytrack is currently based on an analogue system, which is one of the reasons things are quite tough. A lot of things are still done the old fashioned way, which is not conducive to a great experience on your smartphone or ipad. We’re trying to cater for all this in a single medium, so it’s inevitable that we’re going to take a hiding.”

“We have a very diverse customer base that has a range of needs and expectations, so it’s really difficult to please everyone. I’m still in a position where I like to read my Computaform in hard copy, but a lot of guys do it on their ipad. You’ve got an older crowd that watch Tellytrack that don’t have Ipads and rely on having it on screen. Other guys complain, why put it on screen when you can get it on your ipad.”

“I spend lot of time reading the websites to see what racing guys are saying. I can’t respond to everything that comes through, but I do keep an eye on it, because sticking your head in the sand and ignoring things won’t make them go away. Sometimes you read stuff which hurts your feelings or aggravates you, but it is useful to confirm whether you’re on the right track or not. However, I always remember that Henry Ford said that if you’d asked his customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘faster horses’. People don’t always know what’s out there and hopefully we will end up offering them a better product that they were expecting.”

“I would love a separate channel where guys could have a clean local feed, but that’s expensive. There are a lot of new ‘free to air’ channels coming, but even those have costs attached and I think there are better options out there.”

Digital Future

“From a media consumption point of view, the world has changed quite a lot. I’m 45 and think of myself as relatively up to date with technology, but when I look at kids and how they’re doing stuff, it’s amazing what can be done. I think one has to give the consumer more choices and more ways to interact than just through a TV channel. There are digital platforms which will give us the opportunity to do that and I think that’s where I think the opportunity lies with Tellytrack. We need to offer people a bigger variety of products. We all lead busy lives and can’t sit in front of a tv waiting for reruns. If you want to watch one race after the next, you should be able to. If you just want to watch local racing, you should be able to. People want to be able to click on a horse and watch it straight away. That’s the kind of thing I want to explore and offer people some options.”

“Building a digital network is an expensive exercise, but it’s something I believe we need to do. One of the things I need to figure out is how to do that in the most cost effective manner. I am aware that people are watching to see what impact I’m going to have. Guys aren’t generally very patient. They expect to see changes happen very quickly and that’s not always possible. I want to take the time to make sure I’m making the right decisions for long term – I don’t want to have to rebuild or fix things afterwards – that money comes out of racing and I’ve got to spend it wisely.”

“I’m not expecting it to be plain sailing, but it’s a challenge that someone has to take on. If I can please even 70% of the people, then I won’t have done a bad job.”