The USTA continues to improve the ways it helps members
The USTA has served its members for more than 90 years, and that’s something we take considerable pride in each day. Some of our processes were developed long before anyone imagined a horseperson would be doing business with the USTA staring down at a smartphone while sitting on a bucket in the paddock. That’s the part we need to keep working on.
We have already made some significant changes. Online entries are a good example. When we introduced that platform, it was a game changer for the industry. I’m still not satisfied with it, even after more than 4 million horses have been entered. There are still steps that can be simplified and parts of the experience that can be improved upon, such as driver changes. (But it’s in the works.) We shouldn’t look at something that works and say, “Well, that’s done.” We should always be asking how we can make it better.
Take payments, for example. In the near future, we’re adding ACH electronic payments for online transactions and will begin accepting Discover cards. ACH isn’t exactly groundbreaking technology, but giving a member the ability to log onto the USTA website, complete their business, and pay directly from a bank account without writing a check or making a phone call is an improvement.
We’re looking at other routine transactions, including automatic renewals. (Think about how many things we must remember to renew every year!)
The same thinking applies to our website and online services. For many members, a smartphone or tablet isn’t a secondary way to access the USTA anymore. It’s the primary way. Our digital services need to reflect that. Information should be easy to find, forms should be easy to complete, and pages should be easy to read. That isn’t really a technology issue. It’s a member service issue.
The USTA also has something that is extremely valuable: our information. Pedigrees, registrations, racing records, ownership, breeding, eligibility and results are all part of the information we maintain. The challenge isn’t necessarily collecting more information. It’s making better use of the information we already have. That means improving the way our systems communicate with one another and continuing to develop tools that allow information to be used in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Expecting you to log in from your desktop isn’t reality. We can do better.
We must still be responsible for that information. Modernization doesn’t mean everything becomes public. The USTA has responsibilities to its members, and protecting confidential information is part of those responsibilities. As such, don’t be surprised to see more hurdles appear to be protective of that data. After all, there has to be a balance between making
information more useful and making sure we are protecting the information we are entrusted to maintain.
Are we asking our members to do too much work? If a member must enter the same information three times and then call the office to accomplish something that could safely be done online, we should ask why. We should also ask why an employee must manually move information from one system to another because the systems do not communicate. Those operations take time. Our members don’t have a lot of time to waste, and neither do our employees.
There will always be times when a member needs to talk to a person. The personal relationship between the USTA and its members matters. There are questions that require conversation and situations where someone simply needs to pick up the phone and talk to a member.
Technology should allow people to spend more time on those things that require people, rather than spending their time on repetitive tasks that technology can handle.
And, yes, there are opportunities with artificial intelligence (AI), too. But using AI because everyone else is talking about AI isn’t a strategy. If we use it, it needs to solve a problem and make something better. That’s really the test for all of this. Success is a member completing something with the USTA and thinking, “That was easy.”
That’s what we’re working toward.
The USTA isn’t going to become a technology company. We’re still a registry. We’re still a membership organization. We’re still responsible for protecting the integrity of the Standardbred studbook and providing services to the industry. The way we deliver those services must change, too.
And there is more coming. We’re looking at other places where we can eliminate a step, make a process quicker, or simply save you from having to remember one more thing. Some of those changes will be big. Others might seem small. But sometimes the insignificant things are the things you appreciate the most.
The online entry system and online foal registration were substantial changes, just like online transfers. They made a difference. But even a game changer can be improved. We shouldn’t be satisfied simply because something works. We should be asking whether it works as well as it could.
If we do that, you may not notice everything happening behind the scenes. You may just notice that doing business with the USTA has gotten easier.
That’s the goal.
TC Lane
The views contained in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the USTA.
This column appears in the October 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.