Houston-based retailer Gallery Furniture "is out" as
the title sponsor of the Gallery Furniture.com Stakes --
considered to be Turfway Park's "key spring race" -- after
one year, according to Jane Prendergast of the CINCINNATI
ENQUIRER. Gallery Furniture Owner Jim McIngvale said that
the company "will focus on selling in Texas instead of the
'.com' idea." However, Turfway officials "don't expect big
problems replacing" Gallery Furniture, and Turfway President
& CEO Bob Elliston said the track is "aggressively pursuing
new sponsors." However, Prendergast writes that
"sponsorship isn't cheap," with estimates of Gallery's
"investment at more than $300,000 for the one-day event."
Turfway Park spokesperson Robert Forbeck said that the event
"might reinstate a name that would stand no matter the
sponsor, such as the Spiral Stakes, its name before" Jim
Beam's 17-year title sponsorship (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER,
8/26). Gallery Furniture's original deal was to run at
least through the next two years (THE DAILY).
RACING FOR DOLLARS: LA-based Fair Grounds Race Course
will provide The Racing Network (TRN) with extensive ad
exposure and on-site promotion during the track's upcoming
meet through a marketing agreement that begins in November
and runs through March. TRN also receives ad exposure on
call-in talk show "Track Talk," commercials on the track's
closed-circuit TVs, full-page ads in track publications and
an on-site display kiosk (TRN).
