Social media growth bringing harness racing to a larger audience
Having turned the calendar to 2026, it feels like an appropriate moment to take a breath, look back at where we’ve been, and talk honestly about where we’re headed. To begin with, in racing, we know skepticism comes with the territory. We question initiatives. We question new ideas. Sometimes, we even question the intent.
And while that may be frustrating, skepticism does serve a purpose. Skepticism also means people are paying attention. It means they care enough to ask questions and challenge those assumptions. And, based upon my email inbox, people do pay attention, so caring seems abundant.
Where skepticism becomes a problem is when it turns into disengagement and when criticism replaces involvement and participation. That’s something our sport simply can’t afford. Today, I’m touching upon the success surrounding our existing social media and marketing efforts over the last couple of years. And I’m sure that skepticism appeared no sooner as you read that last sentence.
As many of you have heard already, once again, let’s be clear: we’re not the NFL or NASCAR. We don’t have billion-dollar TV contracts. We don’t have massive marketing departments or endless discretionary budgets. Expecting harness racing to operate like a major professional sports league isn’t realistic, and chasing that comparison usually leads to disappointment for everyone. It’s not an excuse — it’s reality.
The better question is this: Are we making progress with what we have?
When we look honestly at the data from 2025, the answer is yes. That doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It doesn’t mean industry growth is guaranteed.
With 2025 handle being down roughly 8% from 2024, that comparison wouldn’t hold water. But it does mean that effort, focus, and smarter use of resources are indeed producing results. Thirty-five million impressions and growing year over year, believe it or not.
Across USTA platforms and accounts, our content was seen more than 35 million times in 2025, nearly a 10% increase over 2024.
For a niche sport, that’s meaningful visibility. What’s just as important is how that growth happened. We didn’t flood social media with more posts. Our overall content volume stayed roughly the same. What changed was our effectiveness. We improved storytelling. We improved timing. We improved our understanding of what fans want to see.
That’s progress. Not by working harder, but by working smarter. With limited resources, we must always act strategically.
Couple of buzzwords here, so I’ll keep it short: Impressions tell you what people saw. Engagement tells you what they cared about. Engagement is the real measure of relevance.
In 2025, total engagements increased by more than 80% and engagement rate climbed 67%. People weren’t just scrolling past our content. They are now stopping, reacting, sharing, commenting and clicking through to see more. That’s important.
In a crowded digital environment, attention is hard to earn and easy to lose. Those numbers tell us harness racing is earning more than it did the year before.
If 2025 reinforced anything, it’s that video isn’t optional anymore, and it works. Video views exceeded 6.3 million, second only to our 2024 total. Short videos on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok drove most of that growth.
Our sport is visual by nature. Horses warming up, a stretch drive in Lexington, post-race driver reactions — they resonate. Quiet moments in the barn that show the care that our horses receive behind the scenes, or the random video of a returning star simply rolling in the paddock — priceless content.
These moments don’t need Hollywood production value to connect with our audience. We learned that authenticity beats polish every time and that our videos deliver that authenticity better than anything.
In 2025, our total audience grew by 15,000 followers — 35% more than the previous year’s growth. Was it viral? No. Was it instant growth? No. But it was organic, and we believe it to be sustainable.
Instagram and TikTok continue to show the strongest gains, particularly among younger audiences — while our main demographic is heavily Facebook-centric. Awareness doesn’t always translate immediately into wagering, ownership or attendance. But it does plant seeds. And anyone who has raised a horse knows this, and that planting seeds take time to grow.
One of the most common questions we hear flutter around is whether the USTA or the entire industry itself should be allocating more resources into television, and it’s a fair question for sure. It’s also one where there isn’t a universal agreement within the industry.
The reality is that traditional television is expensive and ratings outside of our major events can be often difficult to measure. At the same time, television still carries a sense of legitimacy and visibility that many believe remains important for our sport. Because of that, this isn’t a closed discussion. The USTA Board of Directors will continue to explore television and evaluate where it fits into a modern marketing strategy, and I expect this to be discussed more heavily in March, at the full Board of Directors meeting in Columbus.
There’s also a broader shift we can’t ignore. The television screen is no longer the centerpiece of sports consumption. The “big screen in the living room” has been replaced by the screen in your pocket. Phones, tablets and laptops are where people watch, engage and share content. That doesn’t mean television has no role. Targeted broadcasts around our major races can still complement our overall approach. But chasing the old mass-broadcast model comes with real risk, especially if it pulls resources away from platforms that are already delivering results. Finding the right balance is the challenge, and it’s a conversation that the Board takes seriously as we all continue to evaluate how best to allocate resources in a changing media landscape.
Unfortunately, none of these numbers can guarantee bigger crowds, higher handle, or an influx of new owners. Social media isn’t a business model. It’s simply a tool. But dismissing progress because it doesn’t resemble major professional sports misses the point. Visibility comes first. Relevance follows. Participation comes next. You don’t get to Step 3 without Steps 1 and 2.
The content that performs the best almost always comes from the people who live our sport every day. The drivers, trainers, owners, breeders, caretakers, track staff, and, of course, the horses themselves. If you want better exposure, your participation matters. Share content. Open your shed row. Tell your stories. Engage with your friends and future fans who may be curious and have questions.
As we make our way through 2026, let’s remember that critiquing from the sidelines is easy. Participation is harder, but it’s what moves the needle. We will never outspend the NFL or NASCAR, and that’s fine. What matters is that we are outperforming expectations relative to the resources that we have available.
In summary, in 2025, more people saw us. More people are engaged. More people watched our sport. That’s not the finish line, but it’s progress and a solid foundation. If we want the public to care about harness racing, we must show them why we care first.
We stand committed to continuing this momentum in 2026, by investing smartly, improving our storytelling, and providing leadership and supporting our members. But leadership only works when others engage. To those of you who helped us provide that content in 2025, we thank you greatly. We’re ready to lead and we invite the entire industry to move forward with us in the coming year and beyond.
This column appears in the February 2026 issue of Hoof Beats, the official magazine of the USTA. To learn more, or to become a subscriber to harness racing’s premier monthly publication, click here.