Future of Daily Racing Form

Buying and purchasing printed version of Daily Racing Form has been part of my life for decades. Growing up in an area without a racetrack, the Form would be shipped to town via bus from Chicago and made available at downtown newsstand on day of races.  Starting with buying Racing Form on Kentucky Derby Day and expanding to getting Form to other major racing days like Arlington Million Day.  Going to college in Evanston, walking down to the Chicago Main Newsstand - in all forms of weather -  to pick up the next day's Form was almost daily part of routine.

Watching Daily Racing Form's struggles in the past two decades has been painful.  Not that this situation is significantly different from other print publications like daily newspapers and magazines in Internet era.  Other racing publications like Blood Horse are also struggling with print edition  - detailed well by Ray Paulick in 2012:  https://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/loss-of-the-thoroughbred-times-and-then-there-was-one/

It has been reported this week that Churchill Downs is not  allowing Daily Racing Form to be sold onsite at the track and CDI has started providing free past performances for both Churchill and Fair Grounds via their BRIS information provider:  https://www.brisnet.com/product/tracks/USA/TB/CD

Blood Horse and TDN offer invaluable daily updates on horse racing industry with TDN's offering providing more international content.  For most racing fans, both are must reads to stay on top of what is going on in the industry.

Daily Racing Form's editorial content has been increasingly thinned over the past decades to the point that only Thursday-Sunday editions have significant content.  DRF.com had much of this content behind firewall with the site recently loosening firewall to provide 30 free articles per month.  DRF.com is producing digital edition of printed form with PPs for 3-4 racetracks for cost of $6 per single edition (less if purchased monthly or annually).  DRF.com seems to be transformed every 9-12 months with recent emphasis on signing up bettors to drfbets.com - Daily Racing Form's ADW site using XpressBet as their delivery platform.

As reader of both Racing Post (UK daily racing paper) and Paris Turf (French daily racing paper),  DRF digital edition is lacking many features including ability to use it off-line as well as a price tag more than double the European counterparts.


The printed version of DRF increases price on regular/annual basis much to chagrin of regular readers with my edition stating price is $10 ontrack and $11 offtrack.

The path forward for Daily Racing Form to this observer seems clear:  Provide free daily digital edition of Daily Racing Form focused on stakes previews and recaps, wagering, handicapping contests, and sports wagering supported mainly by advertising from ADW's, racetracks, global racing operators, handicapping contest hosts and handicapping content providers.  Unlike Blood Horse Daily and TDN, Daily Racing Form has the advantage of being trusted information source for horseplayers and currently are not leveraging this to full extent.  Providing daily digital edition of DRF - with ability to upgrade to purchase PP and handicapping packages tailored to user preferences - is most logical path forward for future sustainability.  Racetrack situations like Churchill Downs - where printed version is not available - are likely to become the norm rather than the exception in the decade ahead due to steep cost of publishing and distributing printed DRF edition and cheaper printed and digital alternatives.