by Tony Elliott
Ryan Clements was born into the heart of harness racing, growing up on Prince Lee Acres in Uxbridge, Ontario. Clements is third generation in the racing business, following the footsteps of his father Dan and grandfather Norm. Norm Clements, in the 1980s, began buying racehorses and found himself owning half of one of the greatest horses of all time. This horse was the 1982 and 1983 horse of the year, Cam Fella. Cam Fella was launching pad for the breeding farm, Prince Lee Acres, that still has 10 broodmares to this day.
Building off the family's early success, Clements' father, Dan Clements was a very successful driver with just under 20 million in career earnings and over 2500 wins. He now trains many of the horses with the P L (Prince Lee) distinction and also trains two for his son, Ryan.
Ryan Clements' path into the industry is much different than the two generations before him. Clements' parents saw the potential hardships of the industry and encouraged him to find a different path. Fortunately for Clements, the love for racing was already instilled in him. After being encouraged to stay out of the racing business, Clements found himself in second year university with an idea that would propel himself into the industry. "Online Harness Owner" was launched as a fractional ownership group after Clements and his cousin, Matt, realized they did not have the funds to purchase racehorses on their own. The business thrived to top a million dollars in purses and add on 30 racehorses for over 100 different owners. The business grew exponentially to the point that Clements' dropped out of university as this business pursuit was taking up much of his time. After some difficulties with the business, it was dissolved, but the business was an eye opening experience for Clements.
The application used to facilitate this ownership group ended up costing more time and money than it should have required. The result of this was Clements seeing the significant need to increase his knowledge of technology, "I just realized that I needed to be in a better position to develop technology and to be able to do it well," said Clements. With this realization, Clements returned to university to quickly get a computer science degree to make sure the past technology errors did not reoccur. After a stint with a major tech company in New York, Clements returned home to make web applications for a company in Markham.
Despite being away from racing, the call never stopped coming to return to the industry for Clements, "I can't stay away, the further that I am away from the industry the more it pulls me back, it's in my blood," said Clements. Clements began developing a game that had been living in his notebook for 10 years, known as "Off and Pacing."
The game was developed to put individuals in control of a harness racing stable. This idea came from the thrill that Clements experienced while managing "Online Harness Owner." Rarely do individuals have the chance to manage their own stable, so this game aimed to give people that chance.
After major success with "Off and Pacing," Clements has developed two other racing games under his business venture, The Farm. The second game developed is "Catch Driver," "'Catch Driver' allows players to become a harness racing driver. A full 3D mobile multiplayer game where you drive horses against other users to become the best driver!" This game has had significant success and is currently being developed into a virtual reality game, where participants will be immersed into the race and attempt to steer their horse to victory. Most recently, The Farm Ventures has developed a game called "Turf Dynasty." It "is a horse stable management game for fans of thoroughbred racing! Build your very own championship stable!" These games have taken fans from the grandstand to the driver's seat, with over 200,000 combined downloads, Ryan Clements and The Farm Ventures have taken the horse racing gaming world by storm.
Clements hopes to build off his success in the gaming field, but has aspirations to play a major role in the industry from a technology standpoint, "There is an opportunity for software development in every part of our industry," said Clements. This opportunity is something that Clements plans to take on in the coming future. As an outsider of the industry (not working for a major organization in the industry), Clements feels he is carving a path for himself and his company through innovation to identify and solve issues that the industry faces.
"Ryan is probably one of the most driven people I know. When Ryan and Sean started building Off and Pacing at the end of 2016, he was able to utilize his knowledge and expertise in software to promote a sport he loves (harness racing) in a whole new way. I think one of his biggest accomplishments was assembling a great team of people at The Farm Games/Farm Ventures. With our current team we have been able to maintain our success and improve our games. We know we have much more to provide to the horse racing community, virtually and in real life!" said Landon Mulhall, who works closely with Clements as the marketing coordinator at The Farm Ventures. It is clear that Clements' innovative ideas and drive for success is quite prevalent, but it is also his ability to surround himself with a great team that has grown The Farm Ventures to this point.
Clements and The Farm Ventures have become the premium partner with Hanover Raceway this season. They have partnered to bring two major initiatives to Hanover Raceway, the Catch Driver Showdown and the Catch Driver Pick 4. The Showdown is a season-long driving championship, but with a unique twist. Drivers will receive points based on the two-dollar win, place and show payouts for horses they drive. The top driver each week will win a prize from Catch Driver and the Grand Champion at the end of the season will receive a sponsorship offer from Catch Driver, that includes a brand new custom helmet. Should the winning driver choose to accept the offer, they will represent Catch Driver and The Farm Games and receive other perks that include a product allowance, branding and design from The Farm Games' team, promotion and more.
The Catch Driver Pick 4 partnership helped bring the first ever low takeout pick 4 to Hanover Raceway. The Pick 4 has a 15% low takeout and is guaranteed at $2000. This play is featured every race card at Hanover Raceway.
With a notebook full of ideas in hand and the drive to make change, Ryan Clements will undoubtedly be in the driver seat, bringing positive change to the industry.
Tony Elliott is the Assistant to The General Manager of Hanover Raceway.
Follow him on Twitter @elliottracing99