Thoroughbred Racing Protective BureauHistory of TRPB
In January 1946, the TRPB was incorporated as a private investigative agency whose principal mission was to address issues of integrity and security in the Thoroughbred horse racing industry. A wholly owned subsidiary of the TRA, TRPB represents a unified effort by TRA-member racetrack associations to maintain high standards, protect the legitimate business interests and integrity of the sport, and foster and maintain public confidence.
Selected to head the new organization was Spencer Drayton, Sr., formerly an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and administrative assistant to then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, an avid racing fan. Drayton modeled the TRPB similar to the FBI and brought in several FBI colleagues to assist him.
TRPB provides member tracks of the TRA with a variety of investigative, security and analytic services. Investigations of an administrative or criminal nature typify the often-complex matters pursued thoroughly by professional and qualified TRPB agents. TRPB's Bureau Information System, a repository which maintains, catalogues, and disseminates racing and wagering investigative, intelligence and security information, is without parallel in the racing industry.
In the early 21st century, TRPB created the Wagering Integrity Unit. The Analyst team represents an extensive knowledge of horse race betting and totalisator operations, and provides analytic products, presentations, and consultation to TRA member racing associations, regulatory clients, and domestic and international law enforcement organizations. The pinnacle development is the Wagering Analysis & Security Platform which collects and analyzes wagering information on a near real-time basis and identifies betting events requiring further investigation. Through this innovative project, unparalleled in the industry, TRPB delivers to its membership & client organizations integrity tools to monitor wagering and participant activity.
TRPB is recognized internationally for its expertise in all facets of racing and wagering integrity and security.
Beginning in 1947, TRPB initiated a system for identification of Thoroughbreds for race-time purposes using a distinctive "parallel cluster" lip tattoo die brand designed and patented by TRPB. The branding of the horse’s lip lasted for more than 70 years. After an extensive amount of research and in conjunction with The Jockey Club, the Digital Tattoo™ was launched as the modern-day successor to provide the North American Thoroughbred industry with the most effective, practical, and economical method of horse identification available. The Digital Tattoo indicates the TRPB has verified the identity of the horse and uploaded digital photographs to the breed registry's database. The resulting electronic record becomes the permanent Picture ID for the horse’s racing and post-racing career. Anyone linked to the electronic registration record of the horse has instant recognizable digital photos of the horse available on a tablet, iPad, or smartphone.
John Mooney Retires
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In 2023, John E. Mooney retired as Chairman of the Board of the TRPB, a position he held since 1997. John Mooney served the Thoroughbred industry in a wide variety of roles over the course of the past 50-plus years. He became a director of the TRPB in 1994 and was elected chairman of the board three years later. He served in that capacity until 2023. Under his leadership and tutelage, the TRPB continued to build a national intelligence network for racetracks and worked closely with the FBI from 2004-2008 on a case which resulted in the indictment and incarceration of the perpetrators. Mooney, along with the TRPB president at the time, also created the TRPB’s highly regarded Wagering Integrity Unit in 2003, to provide enhanced security and transparency for racetracks as they managed their business. More recently, Mooney spearheaded the industry’s successful and seamless migration from a lip tattoo system, which had been in place for approximately 70 years, to a modern Digital Tattoo system featuring high-resolution photographs for horse identification. |
Mooney, as a TRA Director, was a driving force in the relocation of the TRPB office, in 1992, from Lake Success, NY (on Long Island) to a more central location for a horse racing organization in Fair Hill, MD.
Few individuals in the Thoroughbred community know the inner workings of the racing industry as well as Mooney. He grew up in the sport and has worked in numerous capacities throughout the United States and Canada. Over the course of many decades, he worked at several racing offices before getting involved in lighting systems and closed-circuit television, as well as tote company and photo finish operations.
Mooney has also held several key executive roles in the operations of the Maryland Jockey Club (Baltimore, MD), Colonial Downs (New Kent, Virginia) and Delaware Park (near Wilmington, DE).
The health and business success of the Thoroughbred industry, in Mooney’s eyes, requires a strong, visible national organization striving to enhance integrity on a 24/7 basis and the TRPB fills that role every day.