LOOKING A GIFT BAG IN THE MOUTH
Though a leading Thoroughbred owner said "it didn’t pass the smell test," there was nothing fishy about a Breeders’ Cup board member getting a potentially huge publicity boost when the Breeders’ Cup placed a free ownership interest in some of his horses in 125 "gift bags" distributed to prominent celebrities and athletes attending Wednesday night’s ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. At least that’s the word from the Breeders’ Cup executive who put the promotion together.
ESPY host Justin Timberlake, presenter Will Ferrell and star athletes ranging from David Beckham to Brett Favre and Danica Patrick were among those who received the 125 gift bags loaded with goodies: apparel, luggage, jewelry, technology, spa treatments and entertainment experiences were among the 50-plus freebies stuffed in each bag and handed out to the celebrities attending the ESPY Awards, which was taped Wednesday and airs Sunday night on ESPN at 9 p.m. Eastern.
According to Peter Rotondo, vice president of media and entertainment for the Breeders’ Cup, Indy car driver Helio Castroneves went through the gift bag for the ESPY telecast and identified the Breeders’ Cup package, which included a VIP experience at this year’s event and a small ownership interest in a horse, as the "number one" giveaway because "I get to own a horse." The certificate included a large cardboard cutout of a racehorse.
The horse ownership is a 2% stake in one of three Thoroughbreds offered by New Jersey-based West Point Thoroughbreds. To claim ownership to the non-transferable certificate, the athlete or celebrity must call West Point to redeem the certificate and agree to allow their name to be used in future promotions by West Point.
Rotondo said West Point was the only racing partnership contacted about the promotion. West Point is operated by Terry Finley, a member of the 14-member Breeders’ Cup board of directors who was recently re-elected in a hotly contested vote July 11 among the 48-member board of members and trustees. Finley is also a close friend of Breeders’ Cup CEO Greg Avioli.
And those factors, a competing racing partnership owner said, "didn’t pass the smell test."
"That is so predictable," another partnership operator said. "This is a great opportunity for West Point to promote its business. It was an inside job, obviously. It’s just the way they go about their business at the Breeders’ Cup."
A third individual, who sits on the board of members and trustees, called the non-bid selection of West Point "outrageous," adding: "It’s clear the Breeders’ Cup board doesn’t feel accountable to the members and trustees or to the rest of the nominators who fund the entire organization."
Peter Land, the chief marketing officer and Rotondo’s boss at Breeders’ Cup, defended the practice. "My job is to work with the board," Land said. "Different board members offer up different ideas. We have a great relationship with our board members, and have worked with (board members) R.D. Hubbard and B. Wayne Hughes on other projects. Terry (Finley) was very receptive to (the ESPY promotion), so we worked with his marketing people."
Asked whether it was "free" publicity for West Point, Land said that it wasn’t: "He’s got to give up partnership interests in the horses," Land said.
Rotondo said he gave no thought to whether or not Finley was a board member when he contacted his close friend, Justin McDonald, a former associate of Rotondo from his days at the NTRA who is now doing marketing work for West Point.
"The whole point of doing this was to get a little buzz for the Breeders’ Cup," Rotondo said. "The second thing was, let’s do something cool to give people something to talk about it. Third, it’s great for West Point if someone redeems the certificate. When I brought the idea to Justin, who’s like a brother to me, he said, ‘We’ll do it.’"
In hindsight, Rotondo admitted the selection of West Point "could" give them a leg up on other racing partnerships in the competitive marketing battle for new investors and racehorse partners.
"Look, it’s good for the whole sport if Justin Timberlake wants to own a piece of a horse," Rotondo said.
And it’s even better for West Point Thoroughbreds to land a celebrity racehorse owner.
Rotondo’s concept was extremely clever, and if anyone redeems the ownership certificates it’s a winner. It’s a good way to generate publicity involving the Hollywood celebrities the Breeders’ Cup desperately want to bring to their championship races at nearby Santa Anita Park this year and in 2009. It’s too bad other partnerships weren’t invited to participate or even bid on the promotion.
An unintended consequence of this promotion will be hard feelings among those who were left out of the process.
By Ray Paulick
Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Breeders' Cup, brett favre, danica patrick, david beckham, espy awards, Greg Avioli, Horse Racing, justin timberlake, Paulick Report, peter land, peter rotondo, racehorse ownership, racing partnership, Ray Paulick, santa anita, Terry Finley, west point thoroughbreds
July 18th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I have no idea about the inner workings of this project but I think it is great! Whatever it takes to uplift our favorite sport.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I was thinking the same thing, NancyBen. Having Will Ferrell or Justin Timberlake in victory circle or even on camera on Breeders’ Cup Weekend would be huge for the sport…
July 18th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I think it was a brilliant idea on the BCs end. We need these kind of people involved. But it could have been handled better. They could be sent to a third party (TOBA, NTRA, or BC)) that says here are the people that have agreed to do it. You can contact them and choose one. We all spend $ to nominate our horses. If I was a competitor of West Point I’d be unhappy that I wasn’t provided the opportunity.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
What a great idea! Congrats to the guys who are innovative thinkers for thoroughbred racing. Time to move forward with this sport. If you want to bring new people to the game - you’ve got to go to them. With all the bad publicity in racing theses days, we’re lucky some high profile celebs want to be a part of the game.
Also, good start to drumming up the publicity that the BC is coming to LA in a few months.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Well at least the celebrities will get some exposure on the Breeders’ Cup telecast, even if the LA Times doesn’t cover the event. Maybe they will send some entertainment reporter to the track those days since they don’t have any writers who deal with horse racing now.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I can only imagine the other conflict of interest time bombs simmering over at the Breeders’ Cup. After all, it’s all about them, not racing. That said, not a bad concept but the result will no doubt be the addition of a few more Grade B celebrities to match the Grade.B talent at the racing alphabet soup helm. (That’s a gentleman;s B by the way).
July 18th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I don’t trust that guy with my dog. Look at who his main trainer was last year…the Frog.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
No big deal. With the way that West Point marks its horses up it’s probably only 0.2% anyway.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:01 am
It is a good idea but the way it was handled was just another example of the good ole boy mentality at Breeder’s Cup. It definitely is all about them, not racing, and certainly not the horses.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Cheap. crass, and an insult to the everyday fans who can’t get good tickets - or if they get them, have to pay through the nose while brainless “VIPS” waltz in the door for free.
And it is financially impossible to make something - anything - “free.”
What is given gratis to one person is paid for by others whose costs are jacked up to cover the shortfall created by the “gifted” deadbeats.
It must be fun to be a celeb - whose spineless friendship can be rented with bribes stuffed into a “gift” bag.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Diane and Don, Good ole boy mentality.???..gifted deabeats???,,,,,you people need to move out of of kentucky and live in another part of world for 1 year…it should be madantory…
July 19th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Wow. Someone comes up with a GREAT marketing/pr idea and it gets picked apart due to intramural industry bull– this is a microcosm of the problems with the game. I understand the sour grapes on the part of the other partnership operations but everyone, even them, should applaud the effort. When was the last time the celebrity pages picked up stories about Will Ferrell, David Beckham and Danica Patrick owning a racehorse together?
July 19th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Dear “G.A.L.”: Although I don’t live in Kentucky, I am honored by your casual yet mistaken assumption that I do.
And I’m grateful for the opportunity that you’ve provided to say that during my visits to Lexington, I witnessed Kentuckians everywhere display a basic, decent warmth and integrity that is the exact antithesis of the “gift bag” culture.
In fact, the only time I offended a Bluegrass citizen was the day an acquaintance, after a failed U-turn attempt on a remote country road, ended up steering his car backwards into a deep ditch. When the dust settled, we were in the Space Shuttle position, ready to launch.
Miraculously, minutes later, someone drove by in a pick-up with a winch. He expertly leveraged our lopsided vehicle back on the road. But when I then offered him a hefty percentage of what had been intended for the Keeneland tellers, he took instantaneous & ferocious offense, and drove away in ire.
Eventually, it dawned on me that I had mistakenly offered him a “gratuity” - instead of gratitude.
Finally, I suspect that people in Kentucky do know to correctly spell the word “deadbeats.” So the possibility that you are also a resident of this fine state is, at best, remote.
And if you are the lucky recipient of such a gift bag in your future business dealings, request in advance that it also contains a complimentary pocket-size dictionary - unless you’re intent upon using the influence of your 2% interest in the horse to have him named “Madantory.”
July 21st, 2008 at 10:42 pm
This idea is a good one. However, as someone who succeeded at hosting nearly the entire cast and writing crew of The Sopranos (not the big guy as he HATES horseracing), Law & Order star L. Jessie Martin, and other celebrities to the 2001 Breeders’ Cup event in NY (the only major sporting event going on in that horrible time period after 9/11) and other well-recognized celebrities at the Kentucky Derby, I can tell you with absolute certainty that no matter what kind of star power is at the Breeders’ Cup and no matter who is hosting them, it will not make a difference in viewership or ratings for two reasons:
1. The inability of the BC staff (sorry Peter, but you’ve been with the BC/NTRA for how long now with little to no improvement??) to get our sport in the mainstream media on a regular basis. And,
2. The major stars they are courting have business managers who will undoubtedly rip apart any agreement for a lousy 2% deal no matter who the racing partnership is. Our sport is just one step above dog fighting to the general public. Can you imagine the PR nightmare when the horse who David Beckham owns breaks down or gets a positive? Can you imagine David Beckham allowing use of his name for 2% of our purses? Be real people! It’s not going to happen. Let’s focus on more realistic, and therefore more productive, goals.
Let’s not forget Bobby Hurley has been in the game for quite some time. Don’t you think he’s tried to get his co-celeb sport stars in the game? What ever happened to Wayne Gretzky? (Would love to hear why he left the sport?) Why not focus on Mr. Yankee himself, Joe Torre, who’s already a partner in IEAH? Don’t you dare ask any female athletes as they will undoubtedly noticed the girls’ recent separation from the boys…not sure they’d appreciate it. Could you imagine Danica’s response to that sexist decision?!
Peter knows first hand the excitement of our sport. He’s a huge fan and is obviously still trying to apply the good-ol’ bandage to the bleeding artery. However, there’s a lot of sports cross-overs, it ain’t new. Just look at the celebrity golf tournaments.
Unfortunately, our sport is being marketed to the wrong crowd and by the wrong people. When Greg Avioli and Tim Smith shut down the Thoroughbred Racing Communications office back when they first took positions with the NTRA, we severed all of the strong media ties to the rest of the world. As any good PR person will tell you, it’s relationships that get the stories in the press (and keep the bad ones out - Breeders’ Cup, where you the morning the Eight Belles story was on the Today Show?). With the trend toward firing turf writers from major newspapers, it’s not looking good that more stories will surface.
The good press will come when the game is fixed. When there is a good story to be written. When the super horse, the admirable owner and the gritty jockey go back to being the story of racing, we’ll get the coverage. Where was Breeders’ Cup’s marketing support during the Eight Belles fiasco? It’s a shame as we really do have a great sport with lots of stories. We just keep finding the bad ones on the front pages.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Hey GETALIFE - Don’t know why you would assume that I live in KY, or that I’ve never lived anywhere as metropolitan as you seem to think you are. I lived in KY briefly and actually liked it but left quite a few years ago. The industry is what it is. They have a golden opportunity to do something that would actually make them look good for a change and they’re not doing it.. Typical.