Menu
In-Depth

Breeders’ Cup expands sponsor pitch

The Breeders’ Cup has launched a marketing initiative in which corporate sponsors can buy partnerships that not only include horse racing’s annual event, but exposure at top races and racetracks around the country year round.

“We want to cut down on the confusion of horse racing,” said Bryan Pettigrew, who was named Breeders’ Cup senior vice president of marketing and sponsorship in January. “We work with the other tracks involved, to be more of a singular voice for the sponsors, instead of confusing them.”

The Breeders’ Cup seeks to link some of its sponsors to other tracks and top races.
Photo by: Getty Images
Breeders’ Cup CEO Craig Fravel has set a new mandate for the organization to work more collaboratively with tracks around the country, as well as tracks that are hosting the annual championship event, Pettigrew said. The two-day Breeders’ Cup is held every fall and features 13 stakes races with purses of $1 million to $5 million.

So far, no joint sponsorships have been signed between the Breeders’ Cup and tracks. Also, the organization and the tracks would still have to work out details on how revenue would be split under any such deals, demonstrating the challenges that lie ahead.

The Breeders’ Cup does not have a permanent home but moves the event to racetracks around the country. This year, the event will be held Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. It will be held at Santa Anita Park in the Los Angeles area in 2016 and at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in 2017.

Under the new strategy, the Breeders’ Cup is working to package the assets at different tracks, as well as NBC Sports television media units to sell to sponsors.

Earlier this month, NBC announced it would broadcast nine different programs from June 6 to Oct. 3 on NBC and

NBC Sports Network as part of the 2015 “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In” series. The series is named for the fact that the horses that win the races will get an automatic berth in a Breeders’ Cup race. The qualifying stakes races will be held all over the country, from Belmont Park and Saratoga in New York to Churchill Downs in Kentucky to Santa Anita in California.

Under the new strategy, when Breeders’ Cup officials go into meetings with prospective corporate partners now, it is including signage and hospitality for local racetracks, as well as the television ad units.

“I come to [sponsors] and say, ‘I have tracks in New York, Miami, California and we have signage and hospitality and TV advertising that can be year round in those locations and those markets,” Pettigrew said. “So we package so those sponsors have one point of contact instead of dealing with eight tracks.”

NBC Sports Group owns the rights to the Breeders’ Cup for the next 10 years and holds the rights to the Triple Crown.

“Bryan’s done a good job bringing those challenge and championship races together and he is selling a lot of the media,” said Jon Miller, NBC Sports Group’s president of programming.

Earlier this month, the Breeders’ Cup hosted a marketing summit at its headquarters in Lexington, Ky., in which it invited marketing executives from tracks around the country.

Said Bryan Pettigrew of the Breeders' Cup: “We want to cut down on the confusion of horse racing.”
Photo by: Kevin Thompson / Blood-Horse
Lynn LaRocca, senior vice president and chief experience officer for the New York Racing Association, which owns Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga, attended the summit and said some great ideas were exchanged.

“The last thing that sponsors want is to have to deal with multiple people at multiple tracks because they have one main objective, which is to raise the awareness of their brand,” LaRocca said. “From our end, the people who actually run the racetracks, we want to be able to fulfill the sponsors’ desires. If we can do that, if we can get together, as a group and speak with one voice, it will be great.”

But LaRocca added there was “nothing concrete” to talk about yet and that the plans were in the “early stages.”
Unlike major league team sports in the U.S., racetracks are not required to work together. In horse racing, there is no league office or commissioner to compel tracks to do so.

Under the old strategy, the Breeders’ Cup and all the different tracks sold their own sponsorships separately. At times, it’s been “a challenge,” said Tom Ludt, senior vice president of the Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita Park, as well as five other tracks, including Gulfstream Park in the Miami area and Pimlico, home of the Preakness States.

Santa Anita hosted the Breeders’ Cup for the past three years, and during that time, the track would have to take down its own sponsors’ signs and replace them with Breeders’ Cup sponsors for two days, only to take them down again. “They don’t share the sponsorship income and make us hide all of our current sponsors,” Ludt said of the way it has worked. It would make more sense for the tracks to work together and there are opportunities to do so, Ludt said.

The Breeders’ Cup is negotiating for a new auto sponsor (see related story) and Ludt said he has told the Breeders’ Cup that the Stronach Group’s track will work with them toward that goal.

“If there is an auto deal, and it’s $3 million and they want to do a NYRA-Stronach Group-Breeders’ Cup deal that is a million each, it makes complete sense for us to work together as an industry,” Ludt said.

But the devil is in the details, Ludt noted. A deal that brings separate track owners together with the Breeders’ Cup could be difficult to bring to fruition.

“When I say I have given my word, if he brings Ford to the table, yes, we would go to the meeting for sure,” Ludt said, using Ford as an example. “But if, for whatever reason, Ford wants to do a great deal with them, but Chrysler is more interested in us, then, obviously, we don’t work together on that auto deal.”



Auto deal expected by next event

The Breeders’ Cup has not had a major auto sponsor for about a decade but expects to have one in place for the championship event in October.

Bryan Pettigrew, Breeders’ Cup senior vice president of marketing and sponsorship, said he is in talks with multiple auto companies. “I feel confident we will get an automobile partner in 2015,” he said.

The Breeders’ Cup had a major auto sponsor, Dodge’s Ram truck brand, from 2003-07. Dodge sponsored the event’s most prestigious race, The Breeders’ Cup Classic, as well as a series of television shows leading up to the Breeders’ Cup.

The Breeders’ Cup is looking for a three- to five-year partnership with an automaker, Pettigrew said. The Breeders’ Cup also is targeting airlines as a major category, and the event is close to announcing other deals.

“We have proposals that are out there and we have letters of intent that we are not ready to announce yet,” Pettigrew said. “But yes, we are selling. We had good feedback from sponsors and interest.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/04/27/In-Depth/Breeders-Cup.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/04/27/In-Depth/Breeders-Cup.aspx

CLOSE