News Releases

Thursday, December 17, 2015Contact: Bob Curran Jr. (212) 521-5326
America’s Best Racing and Breeders’ Cup Expand Cross-Promotional Agreement

America’s Best Racing (ABR), a multi-media fan development platform initiated and funded by The Jockey Club to increase the profile and visibility of North America’s best Thoroughbred racing events, and Breeders’ Cup Limited have expanded their multi-year cross-promotional marketing agreement. As a result, ABR will now create, produce, distribute and maintain digital content (video and written) for the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series television shows to be used on breederscup.comand americasbestracing.net.

The joint announcement was made today by James L. Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club, and Craig Fravel, president and chief executive officer of Breeders’ Cup. On Monday, Breeders’ Cup announced that America’s Best Racing will be a presenting sponsor with Lane’s End Farm of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In.

In 2016, that series will consist of nine telecasts on NBC and NBCSN and feature 16 “Win And You’re In” races plus other major stakes races on the road to the Breeders’ Cup, such as the Travers Stakes from Saratoga. Winners of these challenge races, which combined offer more than $10 million in purses, automatically qualify for a spot in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park, Nov. 4-5, 2016.

“The Jockey Club and Breeders’ Cup have a long history of fruitful collaboration and this adds an exciting new chapter to it,” said Gagliano. “Combining brand recognition, their events and their television programming with our expanding marketing capabilities was a natural step to take.”

“Over a short period of time, America’s Best Racing has used social media, video production and on-site promotion to reach and attract a new demographic to Thoroughbred racing and promote the gambling, racing and lifestyle elements of the sport,” Fravel said. “We are thrilled to be working so closely with this group.”

Among the other highlights of the expanded, multi-faceted agreement:

  • ABR and Breeders’ Cup will distribute content as part of a coordinated social and digital media plan
  • ABR and Breeders’ Cup will host a group of bloggers and local influencers in New York and California when televised challenge races are conducted in those states and during both days of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships each year
  • ABR will have access to archival Breeders’ Cup video footage and photos
  • Breeders’ Cup will provide on-air promotion of the ABR Internet presence on telecasts
  • ABR and Breeders’ Cup will continue to develop plans for  video streaming of non-televised races on their respective websites

The agreement features several other media, marketing, and hospitality benefits for both groups.

In 2015, the America’s Best Racing website has attracted approximately 6,000,000 pageviews, nearly 2,000,000 sessions and more than 1,000,000 users. ABR also produced 130 digital videos, which garnered in excess of 2,500,000 video views combined on Facebook and YouTube.

In addition to its website, America’s Best Racing maintains a prominent presence on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, and Instagram.