Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds on Racing's

Personality of the Month
for May 2005

Tammy Knox

Tammy Knox has been involved in harness racing for just about as long as she can remember. The 42-year-old Carmi, Illinois native, who now resides in Anderson, Indiana with daughter Gabrielle, 2, grew up with horses that her father owned and trained.

"My father had a few horses as a hobby to race on the county fair level when I was growing up," Tammy recalled. "As a result, an internship was available through the US Trotting Association during college – it involved working the

Tammy Knox

county fair circuit as a publicist and also as an assistant to the racing office. After graduation, the opportunity was available to work full time at the USTA, which later took me to the tracks. Although the hours are long and the travel was abundant in the early days of my career, I enjoyed working in an event-type atmosphere and liked being involved with horses in some fashion."

Tammy obtained a BS in Criminal Justice, with a minor in Chemistry from Murray State University in 1985. Since then Tammy has gone to become the Director of Publicity at Hoosier, responsible for "overseeing all external and internal information about racing from our facility; also take care of all racing information on our Website and in our Media Guide, which is produced annually."

Tammy says that she loves the challenges presented by her position at Hoosier Park, but finds it tough dealing with the unexpected accidents and injuries that can occur in racing.

"It’s something different every day – I enjoy the variety of action both on and off the track – also, I enjoy promoting horses – I love horses and having a job where I’m around them constantly is very rewarding," Tammy said. However, dealing with injuries for both horses and participants can be tough – I don’t like to see harm come to anything, and having to deal with incidents on the track that result in injury is the worst part of my job."

What's the most unusual incident that Tammy's had to deal with in her publicity role?

"Working with Manute Bol for the world’s tallest jockey," Tammy remembered. "During the fall of 2003, Manute Bol, former NBA player that stood 7-7, was licensed as the world’s tallest jockey to raise money for his Sudan cause. We received media interest in five different countries. We did radio interviews via telephone with the BBC in Europe and Africa, and dealt with Japanese t.v. and magazine. It was amazing the amount of coverage this event got. It was very interesting and surprising to deal with the volume of press that responded to this event."

"I believe there is always a positive story to promote in any situation or race," Tammy continued. "I was brought up to have a good work ethic and to follow through with tasks, so we try to keep our Website updated daily during the season. My outlook is a fresh picture and story each day makes racing fans return to our site more frequently and get interested in the horses and our program this way. We are always looking for unique angles to publicize to get attention from the media or the racing fans."

Currently, Tammy says her focus is on the outside gambling interests that are most likely to effect gambling and racing at Hoosier Park.

"The racinos have to be the number one difference right now. Slot machines at racetracks seem to be reviving purse accounts and money in the industry, but my thought is that it’s not generating interest in the sport. I feel you need to continue to promote the sport of racing so that there is some substance there rather than just a branch off of slot machines. I just can’t believe the results will be all positive for racing if slot machines take over as the number one reason for people to come out to the tracks."

Tammy also says she thinks that the Internet has aided racing like never before.

"I believe the Website has brought the sport to a different level," Tammy noted. "When I first began at Hoosier Park in 1995, we wrote numerous stories each night. However, they were never viewed because the press didn’t pick them up for the papers. Today, we write the same quantity of stories and they are posted not only on our site, but on all the major sites in harness racing in both the United States and on harnesslink.com in Australia. Because of this, we get feedback from people all across the world.

"I’ve gotten e-mails from people in Italy, England, and other countries who have read a story about a horse or a race here at Hoosier Park. They have requested either more information or they send comments about why they are interested in the particular story. Also, we are able to exchange photos with other tracks for our big events, which really enhances our Website and program. In return, I am able to keep up on horses and people I know in the sport by reading about them on sites in the industry. It’s a great way to keep up on what is going on in the sport."

Like many publicists and fans of the sport, Tammy says she wishes that racing would get more television and media coverage.

"Since I work in publicity, I’ll stick to subjects I deal with daily. I’d like to see more television coverage of the sport and revive a circuit of top races around the country, not specifically in one location, so that the entire industry would benefit. They tried to do this with the American Championship Harness Series, which I thought was a good idea, but it just wasn’t around long enough.

"It is so expensive to advertise or televise anything anymore, but this is a television generation and I feel that is where the target has to be," Tammy added. "The Thoroughbred industry attempted something similar with their road to the Breeders’ Cup a few years ago. Their ratings got better as they went along, but I’m not sure what happened. It was probably funding in the end. I think we need to follow in the same footsteps as the professional rodeo circuit and Nascar. Both sports are really playing up the participants and spinning it with a hip ad campaign, and it’s working."

"I love what I do, and I hope I’m doing something in racing ten years from now," Tammy concluded, "Either at my current position or something in racing around my hometown in southern Illinois. All of my family is still in Illinois, and it’s tough to be away from home and miss so many family gatherings. I don’t even make it home for Thanksgiving because we race. As my daughter gets older, a move back home might be a better fit for us."

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2005 Archives
April: Tad Stockman
March: Bob Larry
February: Dave Brower
January: Chrissy DeNicola

2004 Archives
December Ken Warkentin
November Sam McKee
October Del Chupp
September Carol Longo
August Billy Perkins
July Bob Heyden