Attracting Young Fans to the Preakness: A Report from the Infield

by Harper Hutchins 

Editor’s Note: This week, we asked our college intern to attend the Preakness and report on it for us from a younger fan’s perspective, and to produce content for the TDN’s various social media feeds; Twitter, Facebook and Vine. Her report follows. 

The Preakness Stakes on Saturday was a prime example of the racing industry’s push to invite young people into the excitement. This is an incredibly tough task and in my opinion a vital one if we want to see racing thrive over the next 50 years. It is a task that America’s Best Racing is taking head on and other parts of the industry are beginning to follow suit. The Preakness Stakes has the reputation of being more of a party than a great horse race. This in retrospect is good for the race day numbers and is good for the income of the people involved. The larger issue with the school buses filled with rowdy partiers is the fact that this is probably the first and only race they will see–if they even saw it. 

In the infield of Pimlico on Saturday, there were two main concerts: Childish Gambino and Armin van Buuren. Standing in and around the concert venue for the day I would have had no idea that there were races going on. There were no TV’s, no loud speakers, only tents of beer and rowdy teenagers. At one point, one of the performers had confetti that blew all the way onto the turf course. The separation of the concert goers from the racing fans was evident and impossible to ignore. Walking from one side of the infield to the other was like walking through a music festival and somehow ending up at the Preakness. The attendance was there and the effort was there but the execution was poor. It seems as if racing has just given in to the fact that racing itself cannot appeal to young people and it has to have added perks in order to get the numbers it desires. With this, there should be some way in which there was a visible effort made to get young people to watch the race. The race carries its own excitement and its own energy that can translate to young people. There was no easy access for people at the infield concerts to get to the rail or anywhere they could see the race. In order to watch the race live easily, I had to use my press pass to get into the very nice, very reserved turfside terrace. 

Though despite these ailments, there was a noticeable effort in certain areas of the infield to impact the larger goal. The best part of the infield was the Wagering 101 tent. This tent was packed nearly all day with teenagers and young adults listening to the handicappers teach them how to bet. This definitely helped to create an atmosphere where young people can make money and truly feel like they are part of the game. Jack D’anna of Boston College agreed, saying it “helped to create the same excitement around betting as the older generations.” D’anna’s group of friends emphasized that their favorite part of this attempt to bring younger generations into the sport was the help they were getting with betting. They believed that tents like these were a great way to get people to understand and care about betting. There need to be a mass of these tents throughout the infield. This will at least give people the option to bet and to root for their horse without being packed into a small tent with 50 other people. The lack of TV’s and loudspeakers in the infield was truly appalling. Taking away the main reason we are all in Baltimore for the weekend is incredibly counterintuitive for the means of creating young fans. There should be an abundance of TV’s and loudspeakers all showcasing the true heart of racing, the race. 

The Preakness truly raises the question of what it is that we are aiming for? There will be a time where racing has to decide if it wants to book great concerts for a day and reach their numbers for that day, or create lasting racing fans and have people to carry the sport through the years. There has to be a balance between the newfound party scene of the Preakness and the traditional high-class Preakness in order to create young racing fans.

 One other note: part of my job for the TDN was supposed to be Tweeting and posting Vines on their feeds, which was made virtually impossible by a lack of cell phone connectivity. If racing hopes to lure young people to their events, not being able to share the fun on social media is a big negative.