HANA Press Release: Sept 21/2008

[DeanT]

Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA) Announces Incorporation, Appoints Officers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


(September 21, 2008. Charlottesville, Virginia) The Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA) is pleased to announce that it has been incorporated as a Virginia non-stock corporation with the goal of obtaining 501(c) status as a non-profit organization with the Internal Revenue Service.

HANA believes that this is an important first step in becoming a force to help grow the sport of horse racing.

HANA would also like to announce that they have elected their Officers.

Jeff Platt has been elected President. Jeff, a computer programmer by trade, has been a horseplayer since 1981. In addition, he is the owner, operator and creator of Jcapper, a popular thoroughbred handicapping software.

John Swetye has been named Vice President. John is a business professional, long time horseplayer and one of HANA’s founders. The Treasurer is Theresia Muller, CPA, CFP, who is an investment professional, avid horseplayer, horse owner and thoroughbred racing forum owner. Finally, Dean Towers of Toronto will add international flavor to HANA as its Secretary. Dean is a marketing professional, a horseplayer; and like Theresia, a horse owner.

The Horseplayers Association of North America is a grassroots group of horseplayers, not affiliated with any organization, who are not pleased with the direction the game has taken. HANA believes that both tracks and horseman groups have become bogged down with industry infighting and have completely forgotten something: The importance of the customer. HANA hopes, through proactive change on several key issues (including but not limited to), open signal access, lower effective takeouts, affordable data and customer appreciation, the industry’s handle losses can be reversed. HANA is currently made up of over 200 horseplayers (both harness and thoroughbred) from almost all states and Canadian provinces. It currently represents over ten million dollars of yearly racing handle.

Our web address is http://www.horseplayersassociation.com and interested horseplayers can sign up there for free. We are horseplayers, just like you and we are trying to make a difference. We need and appreciate your support.

-30-

[JustRalph]

Bravo!! Now we are talking!

[PaceAdvantage]

Congrats!

[csmith]

Nice job.
Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work you guys are doing

[DJofSD]

Good show and congrats to all.

[LottaKash]

Go HANA....!

[Cangamble]

I just included it in my latest blog post "Time For Hana Is Now"
http://cangamble.blogspot.com/2008/09/time-for-hana-is-now.html

[DeanT]

Thanks for the support boys and girls! Appreciated.

A few notes:

The board is not limited to this, those were the people that were on our last conference call, who agreed to being on the board. There are probably a few others who want some involvement on the conference call end, like CG and Chick, for example.

Theresia has been awesome with the incorporation/bank account etc; and moving that forward. Her experience in these matters was lacking with early members, so HANA was verrry lucky to have her take that ball and run with it.

A logo is being finalized. It is possible that after that we will have some HANA gear for sale (for people under 30, it is apparently called HANA 'swag'). It'll be unique and I think pretty cool. This is a way (since HANA now has a bank account) to raise a few bucks for the cause. As posters here have mentioned several times, donations and things like that to raise a buck or two are needed. Membership is free, however.

Slow but sure might not win a 6f sprint on the AQU inner, but everyone thinks that it will win with something like this. After a slow August, with people on vacation and so forth things are moving forward. New membership is up. The above has occurred and the website and blog are updated more frequently. We are gaining some traction. We'll keep trying to build by sending out releases, commenting on the blog, and hoping for those things to get picked up. It is what we have to do since this is grassroots and we have no capital, other than the cash a few of us have put in to get some of these things done.

Plenty of work to do of course, and the core members like John, Chick and all are doing their best. We hope to have a good second half of the year with membership, but that depends not on us, it depends on players signing up. If anyone has not and wants to, please do. You can for free here (http://blog.horseplayersassociation.org/2008/07/join-horseplayers-association-now.html).

President Jeff said something interesting on the call last week. "Would it not be great if one day a horseplayer flashes a HANA Membership card and gets a free program/PP at the track when they go?" That is small potatoes of course, when we look at the big issue of growing handles and making the game better. But everyone replied "yes, that would be cool", simply because as Andy Beyer said "horseplayers never expect much of the racing industry, which is usually indifferent to the needs and desires of the betting public." Maybe we can change that with even something as small as a membership card? Rome was not built in a day.

Anyway, that's it ( off the top of my head. ) Thanks again to everyone who has signed up and commented here.

[JustRalph]

President Jeff said something interesting on the call last week. "Would it not be great if one day a horseplayer flashes a HANA Membership card and gets a free program/PP at the track when they go?" That is small potatoes of course, when we look at the big issue of growing handles and making the game better. But everyone replied "yes, that would be cool", simply because as Andy Beyer said "horseplayers never expect much of the racing industry, which is usually indifferent to the needs and desires of the betting public." Maybe we can change that with even something as small as a membership card? Rome was not built in a day.

How about a break on my hotel bill in Lexington? :lol: You better get to work on that membership card that can be printed out....... :lol:

Good wishes all around!

[raybo]

Congratulations HANA!

I'm very excited that we are finally going mainstream. My, and other's, early-on contraryness that as a group we could, indeed, make a change in the horseracing industry is bearing fruit. Although I am no longer actively involved in the organization of HANA I am still fully supportive of our mission and standing by to offer whatever assistance I can.

Keep up the good work!