This Tuesday, Bloodhorse published an interesting article coming out of the Jockeys’ Guild Assembly, which was held in Hollywood, Fla. on January 19 and 20. (Article available here: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/89718/track-executives-work-to-promote-jockeys). The article discussed efforts described by Kentucky Downs president Corey Johnson and Remington Park president Scott Wells to attract fans and customers to horse racing by marketing and promoting the jockeys. Mr. Johnson’s proposal includes commencing a new media outlet, JockeyTalk360.com. It also, admirably, includes an aspect that will seek to raise money for the PDJF. The question that we have, however, is will a new (or renewed) focus on the riders lead to any appreciable increase in the number of new fans that begin to follow the sport?
There are a number of virtues to promoting the sport by using jockeys. First, they are humans and are therefore able to communicate (I know that’s obvious). That naturally makes the jockeys a more ready vehicle to interact with fans than the horses. Second, the jockeys ride every day or nearly every day. If you are a fan of say, Javier Castellano, you can go out any day at Belmont or Saratoga and see Javier ride. On the other hand, if you are a fan of Cornelio Velasquez, you are likely broke. In any event, if you are going to the track to see a jockey or jockeys, you are more likely to come out or watch frequently. If you are a fan of Wise Dan, you get to see him maybe once every couple months. Third, jockeys have a unique perspective that the average person will never get to understand. I think the average person would be really interested in knowing how it feels to be traveling at 30-40 mph on the back of a 2,000 pound animal, while surrounded by 7-10 other people doing the exact same thing. It sounds (and I’m sure is) exhilarating, exciting, physically and mentally taxing, fun and terrifying all at the same time. Finally, presently many, if not most, of the current jockeys are Hispanic, and therefore are natural candidates to reach out to and connect with the rapidly growing United States Hispanic community.
For all these reasons, I think the initiatives described by Messrs. Johnson and Wells are encouraging. I always like to see tracks and track executives trying to do more than just the status quo to increase attendance, viewership and participation in the sport. Moreover, I think that Kentucky Downs and Remington are two of the more innovative, forward thinking and nimble tracks in the country. Kentucky Downs, in particular, has had stunning success with its boutique turf meet, with giant purses, great attendance and exceptional handle figures. Further, the point that Mr. Johnson makes in the Bloodhorse piece is a good one, I think – it’s one thing if Kentucky Downs and Remington make a commitment to this, but quite another if Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Saratoga, Del Mar, Belmont and Parx do the same thing (j/k about Parx, I don’t know if they want to promote the recent behavior of their jockeys). For the jockey colonies that include the best riders in the world, the chance that one of them becomes a real draw to fans increases and, more importantly, the fans then will get to watch that jockey compete in the biggest races across the country or in Europe and the Middle East (assuming the jockey gets a mount at Ascot or Meydan or Longchamps, etc.).
With that said, I think that the “jockey promotion” idea, as it has been relayed by Bloodhorse’s reporting on the presentations at the Jockeys’ Guild Assembly, has essentially been talked about and tried before. Put simply, I appreciate that certain tracks and executives are willing to try things aimed at bringing in new fans, but I am not sure the industry is going far enough with these initiatives (although I do appreciate that these things may just be a first step). For instance, why couldn’t we have a nationwide jockey competition that would decide the Eclipse Award for top jockey? We currently have standings for wins, stake wins, and earnings, but none of these are particularly useful metrics for determining the top jockey (for example, G1s are not all created equal, all wins are obviously not created equal, and purse structures differ wildly from track to track and circuit to circuit). How about coming up with a point system tied to the key races that will allow jockeys to accumulate points over the year and then the top jock is crowned the champion and the top 5 win some money? You could assign points for winning or finishing in the money in the Triple Crown races or the Breeders’ Cup races, then a lesser number of points for winning or finishing in the money in a grade 1 race, then descending point amounts through Grade IIIs or ungraded stakes, depending on how far you want to go. You could even assign a certain number of points per maiden special weight win (or a certain number of points per 10 MSW wins or something like that) if you wanted to include other conditions. If you did something like that, and had all the tracks buy-in (and why wouldn’t they, at most all it would take from the tracks would be a modest financial contribution that would go to the jockey prize money), then every year the fall would feature not only the road to the Breeders’ Cup for the top horses, but a constantly evolving race among the best riders in the world to see who will be crowned that year’s top jockey.
And that idea could evolve too – for instance, you could have a “regular season” that concluded with the end of the Saratoga and Del Mar meetings, and then have the top 10 jockeys in the standings advance to the “playoffs,” which would conclude with the Breeders’ Cup, similar to NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup or Golf’s FedEx Cup. The bottom line, to me at least, is that you need more than just an initiative to “promote the jockeys,” but you need a real plan to turn that promotion (and more importantly, the dollars you use on that promotion) into real, serious new fans for the sport. And in order to do that, I think the industry needs to do more than simply hope that new fan X really likes Rajiv Maragh, I think you need to give the new fan: (i) something to follow; and (ii) a real rooting interest in the outcome. The best way to do that is to have a cohesive and easy to follow competition structure, with a clear set of rules, qualifications and a championship goal at the end of the season.
So, at the end of the day, I was encouraged by the Bloodhorse article. But, at the end of the day, I was left in the position I generally am after having read about a new horse racing initiative – I liked it, but I wish the industry was thinking bigger.
