As we head back to beautiful Santa Anita Park for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships this year, we thought it would be a good idea to look at the recent marketing initiatives enacted by the Breeders’ Cup team and get your thoughts on the success of these ideas.

Going from a one day format to a two day format was a big step for the Breeders’ Cup. This will now be the third year with the new format. Going to two days gives more of a racing festival type of vibe and allows for a much bigger handle. In the future, this format does not seem to be set in stone, so it will be interesting to see with the current economic situation, how many more years this will continue until a decision is made to pare down the number of races or stay committed to the expansion.

Last year, as opposed to this year, the Breeders’ Cup Friday was billed as a “Ladies’ Day.” One of the biggest changes was to change the name of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic. Many were upset with the name change and have voiced their opinion that the name should be changed back. The argument for keeping the name is that many people at the track, much less the population at large, don’t know what the term “distaff” means, so the new title makes it easier to understand that the race is for female thoroughbreds.

This is the first time the Breeders’ Cup has been held at the same venue in back to back years. The thought being that the Los Angeles area is one of the largest markets in the nation and that there would be increased synergy by holding the event at the same site from one year to the next. Another plus was that certain marketing agreements could be made for two years instead of a single year. Also, bad weather is virtually a non-factor in Southern California and the all-weather surface will perform well, even if there is rainy weather. Many didn’t want another repeat to happen soon after the rain-soaked, sloppy Breeders’ Cup event held at Monmouth Park. Unfortunately, even when a venue does all it can to put together a first class event like Monmouth did, the inclement weather can spoil the fun, especially on a traditional dirt surface. The connections of some horses that are skipping the event this year have voiced their opinion that the Breeders’ Cup shouldn’t have been held on an all-weather surface in back to back years. Jeremy Plonk recently contributed an excellent piece to ESPN outlining the fallacy of those jumping to conclusions about the horses that raced on traditional dirt prior to last year’s Breeders’ Cup and their subsequent poor performance on the all-weather surface.

Some owners and trainers have stated that they don’t want to run their horses on the all-weather tracks, while the connections of other horses like to train and race on these surfaces. The final verdict on all-weather surfaces is still not in, but here are some of my thoughts from last year on all-weather surfaces in general. One thing seems certain for now, when a Breeders’ Cup is held on an all-weather track, there will be increased participation from horses based in Europe. Last year a record thirty-one horses in the Breeders’ Cup had an international racing background and another strong contingent of foreign horses is expected. This definitely helps support the billing of “World” Championships. Also, the spectacular, new, state-of-the-art, Meydan Racecourse in Dubai which opens at the end of January, has just installed the Tapeta Footings all-weather surface. If an owner or trainer wants to take a shot at the winner’s share of the $10,000,000 purse of the Dubai World Cup, they will have to embrace the all-weather surface. I think that the synthetic surfaces get a bad rap from many here in the United States. I’m glad that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, an intelligent man with a huge stable of horses and vast resources, has not listened to any of the synthetic naysayers and has kept to the task of installing the all-weather surface at the new facility. Would anyone with his expert level of experience with horses really install a surface that would undermine the health and well-being of any of his expensive, well-bred thoroughbreds?

In August it was announced that there would be a switch from the purple saddle towels to the standard colored saddle towel system. I have been a proponent for this change for a long time and mentioned it in a previous blog posting. I don’t know how the economy and other factors will effect the overall handle, but I can guarantee that more money will be wagered with the switch than would have had the change not taken place.

After last year’s ho-hum ticket sales, ticket prices were drastically reduced for this year’s Breeders’ Cup. Also, ticket holders can choose to have a seat on Friday and/or Saturday rather than last year when they were forced to buy tickets for both days. Hopefully more fans will attend this year and handle will be higher since the savings from buying seats can be used for making wagers on the exciting race cards.

This year the Breeders’ Cup has launched a new website, Breeders’ Cup 360, which is loaded with lots of great information for the serious handicapper. You can also find Breeders’ Cup on Facebook and other information on the Breeders’ Cup website. All of these web-based efforts help promote the big day. Other promotions include a “Tweeters Cup” tie-in with Twitter and the Breeders’ Cup Classic Lottery Sweepstakes through the California Lottery.

In recent news, a proposed rotation of tracks is a possibility in the near future. This seems like a good idea since a schedule would be in place well in advance, and the host sites would be in a closer partnership with the Breeders’ Cup.

There is one last thing I’d like to mention, a new TrackMaster Marketing initiative if you will. Just in time for the Breeders’ Cup, TrackMaster has improved the offerings of two of our most popular selections reports. The Turf Club Analysts now propose a ticket to be played for the Super High Five wager when warranted, which is likely to happen on both Breeders’ Cup days (Filly and Mare Turf on Friday and the Classic on Saturday). Also newly added, the TrackMaster F.A.S.T. Sheets now offers wagering suggestions for most exotic wagers. These suggested wagers can be found at the back of the report. Tickets to be played for Exactas, Trifectas, Pick Threes, etc. are laid out for the horseplayer that wants some extra help when making exotic wagers. Perfect for the Breeders’ Cup and other major racing days when large pools offer the chance of large exotic payouts, or any of the other days you want some solid advice when going out to the track.

Which Breeders’ Cup marketing initiatives have been a success in your opinion and which need to be tweaked or dropped altogether. Be sure to add any ideas you think would make the Breeders’ Cup become an even bigger success. Should there be a prime time, “night time” Breeders’ Cup? Should the Breeders’ Cup ever be held outside of North America? Please tell us what you would do if you were in charge of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

Craig Walker
TrackMaster Senior Product Development Specialist

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