by Will Springstead
Trainer Ken McPeek is trying to help horse racing grow and, eventually, help a horse you’ve never heard of have a better life. His goal is to do it through a smartphone application.
McPeek and his former wife, Sue, started the process of building the app named Horse Races NOW, then brought in now-President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Carper, a former Microsoft executive, to largely run the business. It all started about four years ago when Ken McPeek got inspired after watching a show on MSNBC called, “Planet of the Apps.”
“It talked about the business of phone applications, and how they were going to change the way not only Americans lived, but the world. And I was kind of intrigued by it,” McPeek said.
McPeek Googled all sorts of terms involving horse racing and apps, and found nothing. Like any good trainer trying to spot his horse in the right race, he saw an opportunity.
“So at the time, they were saying only seven percent of cell phone users were using smartphones, but that the next year that would jump to 17 percent, and they believed by 2015-2016, that smartphones would dominate the market,” McPeek said. “So I did some research, and I called the larger entities of the sport and asked them, ‘Is anybody making an app?’ And they all said, ‘why?’”
Read More at: Thoroughbred Racing Commentary