Thinking Breeders' Cup in May? Fravel is Well Ahead of You

The Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships will be hosted for the first time by Del Mar Thoroughbred Club this Nov. 3 and 4. Craig Fravel, the current chief executive officer and president of the Breeders' Cup, previously worked as a Del Mar executive in various capacities between 1990 and 2011. Even though the inaugural “turf meets the surf” Championships are still a half year away, Fravel and his team have been laying the groundwork and planning for several years. TDN caught up with Fravel for a phone interview during GI Kentucky Derby week to get the scoop on what attendees might expect at this year's event, and an edited transcript follows.

TDN: What are the general challenges the Breeders' Cup faces when the event rotates to a track that hasn't hosted the championships before?

CF: One of the things that is unique about the Breeders' Cup is that whenever we go to a host racetrack, we're essentially going into someone else's home and conducting our event along with their home team. We have to integrate our staffs and make sure everybody is on the same page and make sure that nothing gets left to chance, because there are two groups of people working on the same event, and sometimes that can be a little difficult. That's probably the first challenge.

The second challenge is that every track is different. Keeneland certainly presented different challenges than Del Mar, just because the hotel and restaurant infrastructure in Lexington is a lot different. San Diego is a much larger community. It's the sixth-largest city in the country, so I think the thing in San Diego is to make sure everybody is aware of how many things there are to do. There is so much to do for both families and individuals that you want to make sure guests are aware of it, but still have time to really focus on the event.

TDN: What will be unique about the Championships at Del Mar?

CF: One of the things that we try to do is make sure our events are very true to the character of the community. Del Mar is 'where the turf meets the surf,' and so much of our Breeders' Cup activities around town that week will focus on the relationship between the racetrack and the Pacific Ocean.

TDN: You worked for more than two decades at Del Mar. How does the knowledge you accrued during your tenure there assist with the planning for the track's inaugural Breeders' Cup?

CF: When I was at Del Mar, on a big day like Opening Day, we kind of just opened the doors and people just started flowing in, and you didn't exactly have a plan for how many people were actually going to show up. This is a different approach. We've limited our Del Mar Breeders' Cup attendance to 37,500 people per day, we've hired traffic consultants, and have had management teams on both sides working on [both in-facility and outside-the-track] traffic plans for months now. We want to make sure we've pegged the crowd size with what the facility can handle well, and that people walk away with having had a great time in every sense of the experience.

Certainly, I know at least during my tenure there how things have been done operationally, and I know where the choke points can be. One thing that we've focused on at both Keeneland and Del Mar, which we might describe as our smaller facilities, is making sure that [internal] traffic flow is as good as it can be, that our guests who are clearly paying for a top-level racing experience have that experience. So it helps going into a place like Del Mar to know where things get choked up on a normal operating day, and then we can plan around that.

TDN: Can you give a specific example?

CF: Our controls are going to be all vertical. So if your ticket is on the first floor, then that's where your day will be spent unless you happen to have a credential that gets you farther upstairs. In that way, it's a lot like how we operated at Keeneland.

TDN: What else might a person who normally attends during one of Del Mar's other race meets experience differently on the Breeders' Cup days?

CF: What's different about the Breeders' Cup is that a lot of our guests will come from their hotels and go directly to the host racetrack via a hotel shuttle or by the private Breeders' Cup shuttle. That's probably going to be the biggest difference to people who are normal attendees of Del Mar. They'll get a VIP experience from beginning to end in terms of getting in and getting out.

TDN: Every time the Breeders' Cup travels to a new host track, you seem to come up with new amenities that add to the “wow” factor. What's in store this year?

CF: I think anybody that has been to Del Mar knows that the area past the west end of the building is unutilized space. We're going to create a chalet village–not nearly the same scale as we used Keeneland, because the facility itself is bigger and we don't need as much space–of two double-decker chalet tents that will each house about 1,000 people. One of those will be our combination breakfast marquee and VIP trophy lounge. The second one will be for corporate sales, much like we did at Keeneland.

Another fun thing that we're doing at Del Mar is taking a section of the infield that will be called The Beach, and it will be limited to about 300 guests. We'll have Adirondack chairs and beach umbrellas and tables, and we'll be importing sand, so it will be a kind of toes-in-the-sand beach feel.

TDN: Please speak a bit about ticket sales and availability at this point.

CF: We began ticket sales about two months ago, and we've essentially reached our budgeted ticket levels, so we're happy with the response on tickets. The demand has been within our expectations, and we expect that will be reflected in the vibrancy of the event. There are still some good seats left, general admission [non-seat] tickets as well. We still have good options left throughout the facility, although most of the seats we do have left are at higher price points. If people are interested, there are still good seats left for Friday, so if you wanted to come one day and have a seat and then come back on Saturday via general admission, that could be a way to go. So where a lot of times we are focused on selling tickets [at this point in the year], now we're focused 100% on operational matters. A lot of our efforts over the coming months will not be focused so much on selling tickets, but on letting people know how to get there safely and comfortably.

TDN: What about for owners, trainers, and other participants who will have horses in the races?

CF: Certainly for participants, we try to have concierge-level service for them. We'll have folks contacting them to help with hotel rooms, and to make sure they're aware of the events that are both Breeders' Cup sponsored and community events. We'll be coming out with a calendar of activities in the next month and a half that will outline some of the things going on in the community, from art walks to golf tournaments to “fun runs” to live music. It's going to be a week full of activities. I think this is one of those Breeders' Cups where people will want to get there early and experience everything that the community has to offer. And if you just want to lie on the beach, the weather in early November is definitely still beach-worthy, so everybody should know that.

TDN: Anything horsemen should know about the stable area?

CF: The backside at Del Mar is going to be an area where we are focused on making sure all the barns that will house Breeders' Cup horses are being painted. Some landscaping touches will be added. In particular, the quarantine area is going to be spectacular. Our team did a great job working with the Department of Agriculture, and I think the trainers that are coming from overseas are going to love their accommodations.

TDN: You get the last word. What's a key point we haven't discussed that you want people to know?

CF: The one thing I would suggest to people is that they look into their dining options early. When I moved to San Diego in 1985, I think there were like two or three really good restaurants. Now there are hundreds, so folks ought to spend some time in choosing where they want to go to eat. And if anybody has any questions, they're more than welcome to chat with me–because I've been to most of them.