The Big Picture Presented By Excel Equine: What’s The Answer For Marketing Horse Racing?
It’s possible to have too much of a good thing, and that’s the case when it comes to marketing horse racing.
On one hand, it’s great that horse racing has the potential to be so many things to so many people. There’s the sports side with captivating drama from the equine and human athletes striving for victory. There’s the horse side with one of the most fascinating species on Earth. There’s the gambling side with opportunities to make money by finding an edge. There’s the social side with parties, fashion, and food. There’s the historic side with chances to celebrate, build on, and engage with centuries of traditions and accomplishments. There’s the business side that allows people to make a living, industries to exist, and municipalities from Lexington to Saratoga Springs to Del Mar to thrive financially because the sport plays a major role in the fabric of where it takes place.
Throughout the year, “The Big Picture” has been about finding a balance between showcasing the qualities that can make horse racing stand out in a crowded sports and entertainment landscape, while also addressing the issues that threaten its viability and necessitate stakeholders to prove why it’s still relevant.
Because, even with many great qualities on which the sport can hang its hat, and even with improvements in addressing many issues when it comes to integrity and horse welfare, horse racing has been relegated from much of national news, national television, and national consciousness.
In many ways, the sport has accepted the path on which it has been and is going by still boasting about how great indicators like viewership, social media following, and wagering handle are. Today’s stars are talked about in the same breath as old champions when modern careers and accomplishments are becoming less and less. However, there’s a younger generation of enthusiasts like myself who see unachieved potential and get frustrated that more isn’t being done or accomplished.
Like horse racing gets to experience each year when the Triple Crown breaks through to the national consciousness, the equestrian sports of eventing, dressage, and show jumping had that moment during the 2024 Paris Olympics. There are a number of parallels and lessons horse racing can learn from how equestrian sports have chosen to capitalize on being in the national spotlight and to create a marketing strategy to stay on stage longer.
For the Olympic equestrian sports, the moment started brewing at the previous Games in Tokyo when Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart had a field day presenting highlights of dressage, or, as they referred to it, “horse crip walking.”
With more than four million views, it’s the most-viewed sports-related video on Peacock’s YouTube channel.
While horse racing can boast strong visibility and viewership for the Triple Crown races each year, US Equestrian (USEF), the national governing body for the Olympic equestrian sports, recognized that this represented a rare opportunity to “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and took a strategic approach to planning “The Next Episode.”
“Snoop Dogg picked up on it at Tokyo, and then NBC realized it and built on it,” said Vicki Lowell, USEF’s Chief Marketing and Content Officer. “They came back to us and featured equestrian with Megan Thee Stallion on Thanksgiving Day with a major spot for promoting the long leadup to the Olympics. That was driven because, for Tokyo, equestrian was the number one sport in engagement on Instagram of all of the Olympic sports, which really says something.”
In 2024, equestrian sports became a significant part of NBC’s coverage strategy for the Olympics. This time, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart became the recognizable faces for the general public to engage with equestrian sports at the Olympics. The competition delivered dramatic results. The sports’ stakeholders were proud to have their moment in the spotlight.
“You can just see when there’s that crossover with the mainstream to equestrian sport, there’s such a curiosity, engagement, passion, and connection,” Lowell said. “And, all of a sudden, it’s not this kind of elite sport that people can’t relate to. It becomes something that people really want to be a part of.”
Leading up to the Olympics, USEF was planning how it could make equestrian sports part of the national consciousness outside of the Olympics. So, on Aug. 28, USEF announced the creation of the US Equestrian Open Series that will consist of qualifying events culminating in national finals and the crowning of “US Equestrian Open” champions for the sports of eventing, dressage, and show jumping. Organizers set lofty goals of having equestrian sports reach mainstream audiences by having the finals broadcast on ESPN. The goal is to generate a following among general, rather than just horse-centric, fans.
“We have a tendency in the equine world that we have wonderful one-off competitions, even in my sport of [eventing] we have wonderful five-stars,” said David O’Connor, currently USEF’s Chief of Sport after a riding career that would put him on a Mount Rushmore of equestrian sport. “But, there’s not the leadup to them. So, how does somebody learn somebody’s personality, the competitive excellence, their horses. And, if they can do that by being able to see them multiple times, being able to track them in a series leading up to a final, and being able to do that all the way through the year so you create followers, making fans of your horses all the way through that, I think it’s an opportunity here for the sport to be able to encourage people to track their favorites and become true fans.”
O’Connor cited national series for sports like golf, tennis, and auto racing. Horse racing has tried similar initiatives to get back into the national spotlight it once had with the “Road to the Kentucky Derby,” the “Challenge Series” leading up to the Breeders’ Cup and 1/ST’s creation of marquee events like the Pegasus World Cup and California Crown that industry stakeholders hope go beyond how regular race days, even Grade 1 race days, really only reach the niche audience for horse racing.
However, what came out of a 45-minute conversation with O’Connor and Lowell, is that US Equestrian has a different core identity for equestrian sports than horse racing’s stakeholders have for what racing represents.
Any national horse racing event has become about all the things it could possibly be, with marketing of sport, horses, gambling, parties, fashion, history, tradition, and more. The coverage lacks identity and focus. For example, the audience for the Kentucky Derby engages with the event in so many distinct ways that sometimes don’t overlap. Because they don’t overlap, there’s no singular, foundational message. There’s also bickering about whether the Derby should focus more on the gambler, the partier, or the horse enthusiast.
On the other hand, O’Connor and Lowell kept coming back to the same thing during our conversation.
This is an area where horse sports — the Olympic ones and racing — can stand out in a way that has universal appeal. USEF has made the primary financial investment in launching the US Equestrian Open Series, with the hope that sponsors and partners will come on board.
“I’ve always said in eventing, if I can get somebody there the first time, if I can get somebody on the grounds and actually come and watch it, they’re hooked,” O’Connor said.
The other aspects — sports competition, gambling, social scene — can follow organically, whereas focusing on all of them equally can muddle the messaging and camouflage ways that horse sports can stand out.
So, horse racing can learn a lesson from US Equestrian. Just keep going back to that special bond between horse and human. More coverage of the horses and their personalities in the barn and on the track. More opportunities for fans to visit the barn area so they can appreciate how truly special these animals are to accomplish what they do. As much as possible, make the horse the spokesperson.
It may be considered idealistic, and grizzled racetrackers will justifiably have other priorities. However, as horse racing’s niche audience becomes smaller, this is an opportunity to create mass appeal. It was enough to get the attention of Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart and raise equestrian sports to some of the most engaged with on social media during the Olympics. It doesn’t get more mainstream than that, and rather than accepting the fate that horse racing has been relegated to a niche sport, it’s worth the shot that US Equestrian is taking to bring horses back into the mainstream.
