Posts Tagged ‘travers’

By Ray Paulick

To hear Carl Pascarella tell it, you’d think corporate marketers would have lined up from Louisville, Ky., all the way to New York’s Madison Avenue to bid on the Triple Crown sponsorship that Visa USA dropped in 1995 after a 10-year run. The relationship between the Triple Crown and Visa ended the same year Pascarella retired as the credit card giant’s chief executive officer.

Pascarella, speaking at a Tuesday afternoon session on Marketing & the Customer Experience at the 32^nd Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo, used the familiar introduction from ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” to describe sponsorship of American racing’s highest-profile series, which begins with the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, continues two weeks later in the Preakness, and concludes three weeks after that with the Belmont Stakes.

First, there is the “thrill of victory,” Pascarella said. “From a sponsor’s standpoint, nothing gives you more of a thrill than the Kentucky Derby winner driving down the Preakness stretch with a three- or four-length lead and knowing, as a sponsor, that you’ve got legs, with another three or four weeks to promote in and outside the world of sports. It was something we could use from April on through to June.”

On the other hand, he said, there is “the agony of defeat. In six of eight years we had horses that won the first two legs and didn’t win the Belmont.” That defeat eliminated the possibility of further promotions congratulating the winner of the Visa Triple Crown Challenge and the accompanying $5-million bonus, as well as any additional races the winner might compete in, including the Travers Stakes or Breeders’ Cup.

The Triple Crown was one of several world-class sponsorships for Visa in the sports and entertainment world. “Each one of them,” Pascarella said, “had a common focus on a couple of very important things: understanding who their fan and audience was; and secondly, they understood how to drive value to that fan base. They had an unwavering commitment to both things. At Visa, we looked more to sports as being the pinnacle of entertainment for fans, or our customers. No other form of entertainment brings the same kind of excitement or elation as sports does.

“The sports that are best for our sponsorship,” Pascarella continued, “put the fan in the center of the activity. They create deeper relationships because it’s a fan-centric approach. They give the fan a way to get into the event itself.”
 
Pascarella recalled how much value he was able to give to Visa’s best customers — bankers and merchants — who would come to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. “We’d bring them on a backside tour of Churchill Downs on the day before the Derby,” he said. “They’d see the horses who would be racing in the Derby the next day, meet trainers like Bobby Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas, and these people felt like they were part of it all. We were giving them something special because of a sponsorship that was invaluable. That’s what we were paying for, that extra feeling that allowed our customers to get inside the sport.

“We’re not looking at fan numbers, we are looking at fans who are engaged, fans who will be engaged with us and our products and services,” Pascarella said. “We look at selecting and evaluating sponsorships based on being able to drive consumer behavior. How have we lifted the brand, how have we changed behavior, how have we made the consumer closer to us as a result of the association? The more we win, the more we put into a sponsorship. But it’s not just about the money. It’s about the relationships you can build with your sponsor and what you can give your sponsor in return. You need mutually beneficial objectives.”

Interestingly, while Visa dropped its sponsorship of the Triple Crown, it entered into a five-year agreement with Churchill Downs to sponsor the Kentucky Derby. No company has stepped forward to sponsor the Triple Crown since Visa’s exit from the series. One reason may have been a decision by the New York Racing Association to end its association with NBC Sports, and put the Belmont on ABC/ESPN. Another may have been fragmentation within the three tracks that comprise Triple Crown Productions and a power struggle over how sponsorship revenues were divided. Currently, of course, they have nothing to divide from a Triple Crown title sponsor.

 Pascarella, now an executive adviser to TPG Capital, also cautioned racing associations that the current economic climate will cause nearly every major corporation to reevaluate its advertising, marketing and sponsorship budgets. “Every economist projects a very deep and long recession,” he said. “That means your sponsors are going to be under a great deal of pressure. You need to reach out to them, even though your revenues also are going to be under pressure. If you reach out to them, and say, ‘How do we work together to get through this?’ that will go a long way.”

BRANDING GURU DAVID AAKER , professor emeritus of marketing strategy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, talked about how racing can build its brand.

At a time when brand trustworthiness and quality perceptions of most brands are down significantly in the minds of the public, Aaker said there are opportunities to improve branding through increased energy. He cited the Nintendo video game brand as one recent phenomenon in the branding world. Five years ago, Aker said, Nintendo ranked 165^th among brand names in Japan, moved up to 65^th three y ears ago, fifth two years ago, and now ranks as the country’s leading brand, thanks to the energy created by the Nintendo Wii platform and games.

He cited five other very diverse brands that have energized themselves in recent years: 1) the Memphis Redbirds minor league baseball team; 2) the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; 3) PGA Tour golf; 4) Harley Davidson; and 5) Avon cosmetics.

All of those brands used one of two methods: energizing the business itself, or finding something with energy that is interesting and involving and attach it to the brand. “Both options are really powerful,” Aaker said.

The Memphis Redbirds, Indianapolis Speedway and Harley Davidson energized their brand by engaging their customers in multiple activities that built on the customer experience. The PGA Tour and Avon tied themselves to something with energy. The PGA Tour used Tiger Woods to its best advantage, and Avon linked its products to a breast cancer crusade and created the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, with millions of people engaged each year. Similarly, Aaker said, Lowe’s home improvement stores attach their brand to Habitat for Humanity. In the case of Avon, he said, “Breast cancer is so important an issue and involving to the target audience that it provides Avon a way to get energy that it could never do through their products and services.”

Aaker said companies seeking to strengthen their brand should “find role models, companies in related or unrelated industries…someone who’s done it well with a brand people are talking about. What can you learn from them?”

In addition, he said, self-reflection is necessary. “What about the customer experience is boring or unpleasant? How can you mitigate that? What can be added to en rich and improve the customer experience.”

To find what he calls “branded energizers” like Avon’s breast cancer campaign, Aaker said companies should examine “what existing program has energy that fits your brand and can be connected to your brand…programs that aren’t part of the experience people are currently buying? What new program with energy can be developed that fits the brand and can be connected to the brand?”

“You have one of the most exciting events in sports and entertainment,” Aaker said. “But you need to ask yourself, ‘How can I add energy to my brand?’”

TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS PROMOTING RACING around the world were shown to the group and  audience members were asked to vote on their favorites. The ads were divided into five categories: Celebrating the Horse; Sex and Glamour; The Punt; A Good Laugh; and The Buzz.Most provocative were ads from Australia promoting sex and glamour. Other countries featured included France, Turkey, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Ireland and the United States (two ads from Santa Anita were featured). Details tomorrow on the winning ad.

By Ray Paulick

WinStar Farm’s Colonel John may have had an advantage over his 11 rival 3-year-olds in last Saturday’s $1-million Travers Stakes when it was learned that jockey Garrett Gomez was carrying an angel on his shoulders.

Gomez, who miraculously put Colonel John’s nose on the wire millimeters in front of Mambo in Seattle (who was in front a jump before and a jump after the finish), was wearing WinStar’s green and white silks that were bearing the initials “KC,” in memory of Karri Casner — the daughter of WinStar co-owners Bill and Susan Casner — who was among the 202 people killed in the Oct. 12, 2002, terrorist bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The WinStar silks designed in memory of Karri Casner are not technically permitted at New York Racing Association tracks, the only ones in the United States that follow the strict guidelines established by the Jockey Club for racing colors. No lettering or asymmetrical designs are permitted on silks at NYRA tracks, according to the guidelines. Somehow, the “wrong” silks ended up on Gomez before the Travers, a race that resulted in the closest finish of a New York stakes since 1991, according to NYRA’s photo finish camera operator.

Karri, the younger of two daughters of Bill and Susan Casner, was just 23 years old when she was killed during a visit to Bali. A day doesn’t go by when her parents and her older sister, Kayce, don’t think of her. The Casners designed the silks with the “KC” on the left shoulder as a memorial to Karri. The idea came from Kenny Troutt, who with wife Lisa are partners in WinStar with the Casners.

Colonel John was named after Army Reserve Lt. Col John Geider, a longtime family friend of the Casners and Troutts. Geider assisted the Casners in the aftermath of the bombing when they flew to Bali in search of their missing daughter.

Kathy Harty, wife of Colonel John’s trainer Eoin Harty, produced a short video documentary of Travers day that can be viewed at Youtube.com. The video, set to the sound of Green Day’s “Time of Your Life,” concludes with two photographs of Karri Casner.

"I feel like she’s with us all the time," Susan Casner told a reporter for Daily Racing form earlier this year as Colonel John was preparing for the Kentucky Derby. "Karri loved horses, and she loved horse racing."

And she would love to have been at Saratoga last Saturday to witness Colonel John’s tenacious victory in the Travers.

Perhaps she was.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

WinStar Farm homebred Colonel John won Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes by a nose in a head-bobbing finish with William S. Farish and Mrs. William Kilroy’s Mambo in Seattle. Pyro, the 7-2 favorite, finished third, 5 1/4 lengths back, with Harlem Rocker fourth in the 139th running of the $1-million "midsummer classic" for 3-year-olds.. Time of the race on a fast track was 2:03.20 for the mile and a quarter on a fast track.

(VIDEO)

(Today’s Saratoga charts)

Colonel John, breaking from the two post, saved ground as Belmont Stakes winner Da’ Tara set all the fractions under Alan Garcia, the opening quarter-mile in :23.91, the half-mile in :48.06 and six furlongs in 1:12.12. When the field turned for home, Gomez had to alter course sharply behind Da’ Tara, then went to his outside, taking the lead inside the furlong pole. Mambo in Seattle, under Robbie Albarado, was forced to take the overland route, rallying from well off the pace but avoiding a scrum to his inside at the head of the stretch that may have compromised the chances of Harlem Rocker and Pyro. The Kinbmambo colt ranged up alongside Colonel John nearing the sixteenth pole, and the two raced to the wire together. Colonel John appeared to be edging ahead, but Mambo in Seattle made one final, valiant run, losing the victory in a head-bob. The official margin was a nose, but the photo finish showed it to be no more than an inch.
 
The victory was Colonel John’s first on a traditional dirt track. He had previously won four of eight starts, all on synthetic tracks, including three stakes. He came into the Kentucky Derby off a half-length victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, and was the 9-2 second choice behind Big Brown at Churchill Downs. The son of Tiznow out of the Turkoman mare Sweet Damsel was never a factor that day, finishing sixth, 14 1/4 lengths behind Big Brown. He skipped the rest of the Triple Crown, then returned to action with a third-place finish behind Tres Borrachos July 12 in the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Colonel John did all of his serious preparation work before the Travers on Polytrack at Del Mar for his trainer, Eoin Harty. The win could set up a rematch between Colonel John and Big Brown in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park, which will be contested on that track’s new Pro-Ride synthetic surface.

The winner paid $10.40 and earned $600,000 to increase his earnings to $1,468,830.

IN THE GRADE 1 NETJETS KING’S BISHOP,  a race for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs that immediately preceded the Travers, Team Valor International and Vision Racing’s Visionaire, benefited from a hot pace and rallied from last to first to win going away by 2 1/4 lengths under Alan Garcia.

Gentleman James, Golden Spikes and 8-5 favorite J Be K threw down fractions of :22.39 and :44.73 for the opening half mile, with J Be K taking a narrow advantage when the 10-horse field turned for home, and it looked like anyone’s race. Desert Key, had to await room on the inside, then found an opening to gain the lead in the final furlong, but Garcia had Visionaire picking ‘em and mowing ‘em down on in the middle of the track after rallying widest into the stretch.

The son of Grand Slam hit the front in the final 70 yards and drew off, with Desert Key holding second by a nose from I’m So Lucky. The winner, bred in Kentucky by Eaton Sales co-owner Reiley McDonald and trained by Michael Matz, paid $15.60 for the win after covering seven furlongs on a fast track in 1:21.94.

The win was Visionaire’s fifth from 10 starts and second starts victory, following a win in the Gotham at Aqueduct in March. Visionaire ran fifth in the Blue Grass Stakes and 12^th behind Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby.

SHADWELL STAALE’S IRISH-BRED SHAKIS won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch by three parts of a length over War Monger, with Operation Red Dawn finishing third. The 8-year-old by Machiavellian was ridden by Alan Garcia and is trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. He covered nine furlongs on firm turf in 1:46.78.