Riding a wave of interest powered by the story of almost perfect mare Zenyatta and her near victory in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, Breeders’ Cup officials are reporting record levels of business results and across the board increases from the 2009 Championships for their two-day World Championships held this past weekend at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
Both attendance and wagering handle for the 2010 Breeders’ Cup World Championships increased by double-digits over the 2009 event at Santa Anita Park, Breeders’ Cup officials announced after the conclusion of Saturday’s races. The preliminary rating for the last hour of the ESPN broadcast of the Classic, from 6:15 p.m. Eastern until 7:15, was a 3.1, up 182 percent compared to a 1.1 preliminary rating for the broadcast last year, and preliminary ratings were up in Canada and Europe as well.
“The Breeders’ Cup was created to showcase performances like those we witnessed from Zenyatta, Blame, Goldikova and Uncle Mo,” said Breeders’ Cup President and CEO Greg Avioli. “We experienced unprecedented levels of media coverage and are looking at record levels of revenue and our highest television rating in nearly 15 years thanks in large part to the phenomenon that is Zenyatta. We are grateful that we could provide the platform to help bring the amazing stories of some of the greatest horses in the world to a global audience of racing fans.”
The two-day handle on the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, including separate pools in other countries and exchange wagering in the UK, was $196,354,072. The two-day total, excluding exchange wagering, was $173,339,131, an increase of 13% over the $153, 271,776 wagered in 2009. The strong interest outside the U.S. was bolstered by a record number of 172 entries in the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, including European champions Goldikova (IRE), Midday (GB) and Japanese stars Espoir City (JPN) and Red Desire (JPN). While total international entries declined from a record 35 to 25, the two-day Championships attracted a record 143 horses from North America. In total, there were 163 starters in the 14 Championships races, which is also a Breeders’ Cup record.
The common and separate pool handle for Saturday’s 11-race card was $118,631,943, an increase of 23% from the 2009 Saturday handle of $96,159,747. The $54,707,188 wagered on Friday’s card was an increase of 8% over the $50,662,945 bet on Friday’s card in 2009. On-track handle increased both days compared to 2009. Saturday’s on-track handle was $14,476,867, an increase of 19% over the $12,177,982, wagered on-track in 2009.
Wagering on the 14 Championships races rose over $21 million (16%) to $157,878,232.
In addition to the wagering totals, Breeders’ Cup and Churchill Downs sold over $11 million in tickets to the two-day event. Total attendance for the two days increased 18.5% from 96,496 in 2009 to 114,353 in 2010. After an 11% increase in attendance on Friday,72,739 were on hand Saturday for the 11-race card that included eight Breeders’ Cup World Championship races, a 23.6% increase from the 2009 Saturday attendance of 58,845 at Santa Anita.
Traffic to the Breeders’ Cup web site and micro sites, also experienced strong growth. Traffic to the Breeders’ Cup main web site, http://www.breederscup.com/, was up 25% over 2009 and traffic to its specialty handicapping site, http://www.breederscup360.com/, was up 600%.
The Breeders’ Cup iPhone and iPad apps, launched weeks before the event, were the fourth most downloaded free sports applications in the iTunes App Store on Saturday, and were downloaded in 86 countries around the world.
The Breeders’ Cup digital marketing efforts were augmented by a social media push over the weekend that activated nearly a dozen celebrities with over 5.7 million fans or followers on Facebook and Twitter. These efforts helped Goldikova, Zenyatta and Breeders’ Cup become trending topics on Twitter during Saturday’s races. The Breeders’ Cup also created and managed a Twitter handle for Zenyatta, which saw a 33% increase in the number of followers during Breeders’ Cup week.
“Creating compelling content and more ways for fans to interact with our products has been one of the major points of our marketing effort this year,” said Avioli.
Part of the Breeders’ Cup’s mission is to attract new investment to Thoroughbred racing. Owners including celebrity chef Bobby Flay (More Than Real, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf), Vitaminwater founder Mike Repole (Uncle Mo, Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile) and Under Armor entrepreneur Kevin Plank (Shared Account, Emirates Airline Filly & Mare Turf) were all first-time winners of Breeders’ Cup races in 2010.
“It’s great to see some of the new blood in our game rewarded with a Breeders’ Cup Championship, especially after the effect the economic downturn of the last two years has had on the U.S. breeding industry. One of the main objectives of the Breeders’ Cup is to bring new owners to our terrific sport at the highest level and this year was definitely a success in that regard,” said Avioli.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
