Along for the Ride or Leveraging the Wave?

Nearly two weeks after American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile)’s GI Belmont S. romp, the headlines are still trickling in about the industry basking in the afterglow of America’s first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. 

Am I the only one concerned about this? At some point shouldn’t the “basking” have evolved into “taking action”? 

Let’s be perfectly clear: fans, customers, and everyone even remotely associated with American Pharoah—bask all you want. You’re entitled to soak up the splendor of this once-in-a-generation accomplishment as long as you’d like. 

Everyone else—industry executives, marketers, and regulators—your primary responsibility is to be hyper-aware that the narrow window of opportunity for building upon the sport’s high point for positive momentum is closing fast. 

The immediacy of winning the Triple Crown diminishes with each passing day. Not the accomplishment itself, of course, but the industry’s ability to proactively capitalize on the most seismic shift in modern racing’s history. 

At best, American Pharoah will be in the public eye (i.e., on the racetrack) for another 4 1/2 months, presuming he completes his 3-year-old campaign through its expected grand finale in the Breeders’ Cup. 

Once the horse has been whisked off to stud duty, will part of his legacy include the footnote that the industry did everything it could to leverage his influence? 

Or will an objective post-mortem reveal that, for the most part, the game coasted along passively in the weeks and months after the Triple Crown, hoping that some merchandise giveaways and a handful of promotional appearances by American Pharoah were enough to elevate the sport’s long-term profile? 

Converting newcomers who witness the Triple Crown spectacle into more engaged fans is a daunting task that the industry has tried to address in recent years with multi-media outreach platforms like America’s Best Racing. Such initiatives are worthwhile building blocks, but the brunt of this responsibility could be better shouldered by individual racetracks nationwide, because they, in theory, will benefit to some degree from American Pharoah’s wild popularity. 

In a 2003 freelance project for a different racing publication, I conducted an experiment in which I anonymously emailed every racetrack in North America and asked “Can you please tell me how I can learn about horse racing?” 

(To put this in the proper perspective, this was at a time when just having a website with an icon on the home page that said “Email Us!” was considered cutting-edge customer outreach). 

The results? A whopping 52% of tracks failed to respond to a request from a potential fan who expressed an interest in finding out more about the sport. 

Now, a dozen years and one Triple Crown champ later, email has become passé and potential customers have a multitude of social media means to engage directly with racetracks. 

But as a gambling man, I’d have to bet the “under” on the same 52% response rate if that exact “How can I learn…” query was repeated today across a different, allegedly more interactive, set of social media contact points. 

In the days after this year’s Belmont, I kept waiting for the industry to step up with a simple way of saying “thank you” and “come back soon” to the fans who were mesmerized by American Pharoah. 

All it would have taken was a Twitter hashtag and a proclamation from any of the Triple Crown racetracks announcing free admission for the rest of the month of June, and a “challenge” to every other track in the land to follow suit. The viral nature of social media-induced peer pressure would have ensured a respectable roster of participating venues. 
But following through on the positive momentum generated by American Pharoah is not limited to fan-based marketing initiatives. 

The sport’s most controversial issues may seem like they’ve been shoved off to the side for the past two weeks, but the problems that plague the game still loom large while awaiting strong industry action: Performance-enhancing drugs, the overuse of legal medications, the abuse of the whip, and ethical equine aftercare are all vying for a top spot on racing’s “to do” list. 

There is a deeply ingrained tendency within the Thoroughbred industry to “let the horse do the talking.” Since the Triple Crown victory, that’s been broadly interpreted as a cue to tone down the rhetoric about difficult issues so as not to taint the feel-good glow generated by American Pharoah. 

But think of the power of turning that concept on its head: What if industry leaders used the sport’s currently untapped positive Triple Crown momentum as a springboard for bringing about meaningful change? 

What if the sport’s most influential movers and shakers had the courage to say, “We’ve just put on a damn good show, and to reinforce the idea that the horse comes first and that we won’t tolerate the ruination of our grand game, we’re going to follow up by tackling our most controversial issues head-on”? 

The timing couldn’t be better for such a bold statement. Last month, the formation of the Coalition for Horse Racing Integrity (horseracingintegrity.com) was announced. Comprised of The Jockey Club, Breeders’ Cup Ltd., Water Hay Oats Alliance, and The Humane Society, the chief stated goal of the coalition is staunch support of pending federal legislation to create a new regulatory organization called the Thoroughbred Horseracing Anti-Doping Organization. But the coalition has been silent since the initial press release announcing its launch on May 29. 

Building upon the momentum of American Pharoah to push for national reform would be quite a contrast to the last time the prospect of federal government intervention and the Triple Crown crossed paths. 

In case anyone needs a reminder, that would have been in 2008, when revelations about Triple Crown steroid abuse rocked the sport in the three-week interim between Big Brown winning the GI Preakness S. and his being eased as the odds-on favorite in the Belmont. 

Now, instead of passively ducking Congressional subpoenas (and ducking for cover with the sky seemingly falling), the industry is in a position of power to shape its own fate by leveraging its most valuable asset. 

Better act quickly, though. It might be 37 more years before the next gift horse graces the Triple Crown winner’s circle.