Zenyatta & Rachel Alexandra trading cards available at: www.appleblossominvitational.com
“Well have we done, thrice valiant countrymen. But all is not done here. Yet keep the French the field!” – Henry V (Act IV, Scene VI)
Take Back Saturday. Remember that phrase? For about a year or so one could reasonably suggest I was mildly obsessed with the idea and everything it was supposed to stand for. For those who weren’t around back then, it was the rallying cry for the Marketing Report a group of bloggers I was honored to be associated with presented to the NTRA in the fall of 2008 in an effort to put forth ideas on how to engage a new generation of fans. Take Back Saturday, by definition, stood for the notion of “telling a continuous story from the Triple Crown to the Breeders’ Cup.” The idea rested upon two primary pillars for it’s foundation: accessibility and relevance.
The idea was that by making racing more consistently accessible to fans, and then giving them a reason to care about the entire racing season by doing a better job of “telling our story” and explaining why races mattered (rather than just the Kentucky Derby, Triple Crown, and the Breeders’ Cup), we could carve out a niche in the Spring/Summer that would help build excitement about the sport and make it more relevant on the national stage.
The idea was aggressively modeled after what the NFL was able to accomplish in turning Sunday from a day viewed primarily as one of religious worship into what we now refer to casually as “football Sunday.” Folks knew that at 1PM on Sunday afternoons from September to January, they could watch compelling gridiron action on the television. The sport sold itself. It embraced the medium of television even when other sports insisted on doggedly sticking to the old ways. The net result? A country that only decades before cared more about baseball, boxing, and thoroughbred racing was suddenly a people obsessed with football – and we’ve never looked back.
Obviously it would be insane to think we have a chance of ever coming close to the popularity of a sport like football. Nobody’s suggesting that at all. What we can do, however, is learn some lessons from that success and apply them to our own world in an effort to grow the game as much as possible for the future of the sport. Think about it for a moment. The NFL was succesful because they made the sport infinitely more accessible than baseball or horse racing (by virtue of playing games on weekends), and they gave folks a reason to care by telling a continuous story from week to week as the season progressed, building up the hype for the marquee showdowns coming up just over the horizon.
Guess what? We can do a bit of that ourselves. Our biggest racing happens on weekends (usually Saturdays), and if we aggressively promote the sport on nationally televised networks from the Spring through the Summer, we can give folks a reason to care about our bigger races. Consider that the person sitting next to you at work, though likely not a horse racing fan, has at least heard of the Kentucky Derby. Most likely, however, they have never heard a word about other esteemed races like the Stephen Foster, the Woodward, or the Haskell. Why is that? Because the only time they ever see us is on the first Saturday in May (and perhaps an additional Saturday or two for Preakness and Belmont weeks, depending on how much the national press picks up on potential Triple Crown hype). That’s it. That’s our Andy Warhol “15 minutes of fame” each year.
Why not instead make the sport more readily accessible in the major preps leading up to the Derby, and through the marquee summer racing held at numerous tracks each weekend once the Triple Crown season is over? We’ve got what it takes. We’ve got compelling racing action, heated rivalries, and all of the excitement and drama associated with a major sport. What we don’t do is do a solid job of selling those angles to the public, or even making them available for public consumption in the first place.
That was the gist of our pitch.
More than a year has past. In that time the calls for change to the sport have morphed to a degree, but they have not abated. The NTRA, for it’s part, has kept our devoted band of fans informed and promised that we would see movement in the direction we desired sooner rather than later.
This weekend, my friends, the first step shall be taken.
The NTRA has announced today that they will host live streaming video of the seasonal debuts of both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta on their website, www.ntra.com.
Now, let me be clear. This is not “one giant leap for mankind”, or even “equinekind.” This is not the end-all, be-all of what we set out to accomplish with our marketing report. This is, however, a marked improvement over situations that would have presented themselves just a year ago, and an absolutely critical first step.
No racing fan with an internet connection will be shut out from seeing Rachel Alexandra or Zenyatta in their seasonal debuts.
Contrast this with what happened in 2008, when the defending Horse of the Year and Breeders’ Cup Classic Champion, Curlin, hot off his victory overseas in the world’s richest dirt race (the Dubai World Cup), came back to the U.S. to run in the Stephen Foster, and almost nobody here got to see it live. Oh sure, a few folks with the correct satellite/cable tv packages were able to view the race live with no problems, but when devoted (and indeed self proclaimed “world’s biggest”) fans of the horse like me were relegated to watching the race on tape delay, well, let’s just say the situation left much to be desired. This was our biggest star, running in a prestigious Grade 1 race at one of our most famous racetracks – and we couldn’t get the race nationally televised? I remember thinking to myself at the time “no wonder the general population doesn’t care about us. They don’t even know this race exists, let alone why they should care.”
Fast forward to today. Now, any human being with access to the internet (sorry Somalia, looks like you’ll be shut out) will have access to the races LIVE. Obviously it would be better to have the races this weekend being broadcast live on national television via one of the major networks (or ESPN), but let’s not kid ourselves here – this is huge. In an era dominated by exclusivity in terms of track signals and televised races, suddenly we have a rare opportunity to ensure everyone can participate in a major event. All of us will be able to watch with eager anticipation as our two biggest stars kickstart their 2010 campaigns, which already have everyone drooling in anticipation for the impending Apple Blossom on April 9 at Oaklawn Park.
Speaking of the Apple Blossom, good news arrived in the mail today just in time for this post. See those photos up top? Those are trading cards of Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta that Oaklawn has issued to help build hype for the Apple Blossom showdown. Suffice to say, for a lad who was raised on baseball cards in the 1980′s, they were an instant “must have” addition to our memorabilia collection. If you want some of your own, you’ve got to move quickly, as they are only distributing “while supplies last.” Full details for the trading cards are available here.
For now, racing fans, rejoice and be glad that we shall not be “shut out” of one of this weekend’s big races. It may not be all we asked for with the Take Back Saturday pitch, but certainly it’s a start. The first element of the proposal was all about availability. The sport has to be accessible to it’s fans and to others if it is ever going to prosper again. Personally, I’d just like to tip my hat to Keith Chamblin, Alex Waldrop, Eric Wing, Fritz Widaman, and everyone else at the NTRA for making this a reality.
In closing, and I hope I’m not crossing any lines by doing this, I’ll share with you the note from Keith Chamblin that accompanied the email we received today announcing this development:
“…This is the first step-albeit a small one-in a multi-phased approach to “Take Back Saturday.”
That’s how a process begins.
To put a closing note on a totally unrelated (yet extremely relevant) topic, I’ll simply note that nearly 147 years after his heroic actions at Gettysburg during the repulse of Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863, Lt. Alonzo Cushing of Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery is finally going to receive his Medal of Honor.
And that, my friends, is closure.
Real nice post Big Man, I am right with you on the Take back Saturday thoughts.
By the way , Big Man, are you as excited as I am to watch Pacific starting this Sunday.?
nervous.
people nearby better go see these girls. no excuses. and no certainty they’ll both win.
Thanks for promoting the Webcasts and for challenging us to explore new ways to utilize the Internet to promote our game.
This is great Kevin, it means that the industry is starting to listen AND act which is an all too race occurrence now days. The NTRA could be onto something big if they follow through with this.
Gongrats on your “Take Back Saturday” idea taking off finally! (:
I meant: rare occurrence! (:
Not showing the Lucky race this weekend on a national TV station is not good. He is one of the top Derby contenders as of now. Since he hasn’t raced in three months, it is important to see how he looks and is progressing. These Derby prep races have to be shown nationally on a channel most people get.
@Tony – can’t wait for the Pacific series to start. If it’s anything like Band of Brothers, it’ll be AWESOME!
@Ernie – I’m nervous as well. More so for Rachel than for Zenyatta. Partly because of Jess’s “85%” remarks, and partly because she may have some capable of the upset against her.
@Keith – thanks for stopping over – and thank you for making these races accessible to the multitude of fans out there that don’t get the races on television.
@Brian – I knew you meant rare.
Don’t worry bro – this is just the start. Hopefully it’s a successful start. One thing I forgot to mention in the post is that they are doing a series of races like this – with Randy Moss hosting!
http://www.ntra.com/content/display/news/NDUwMDQ=
@Mike – agree – in a perfect world they’d all be on, but I’ll take this as a start.
[...] The NTRA, which unveiled a fresh new web site look last Friday, launches a new feature, NTRA Live!, a series of webcasts hosted by Randy Moss, this Saturday. Beginning at 6:00 PM, racing fans with an Internet connection anywhere in the world will be able to watch a live video stream — free! — of both the New Orleans Ladies and Santa Margarita Handicap. Very cool. (And not just because the video venture was inspired by “Take Back Saturday!“) [...]
I’m more than stoked to see this happen… I feel like James Carville after Frank the Tank aka Big Cat aka Will Ferell “blacked out” during the debate in Old School. James Carville’s rebuttal was “We have nothing more to add… that was perfect.” We need warriors for horse racing, horseplayers and I can’t wait for the day when I can speak with my bros about horse racing the same way I currently do about sports and “extreme” sports. (You’ve heard that before, I know). I’m impressed by the suits this time around… nice to see them take note your ideas and hard work, better yet, it’s great to see them actually IMPLEMENT these ideas. Hats off to you from a fellow warrior.
Now let’s see about classing up the joint, just like the golden days of horse racing.
Great article…This sport needs all the aspiring horseplayers we can get.” Take Back Saturday” is a call to arms for all existing horseplayers anxious to spread the enjoyment and thrill of our game. The opportunity to promote our game through Racheal and Zenyatta is fleeting. Two hall of famers who’s careers have enriched our lives in the same vein as the likes of Affirmed and Alydar. “Take Back Saturday” indeed.
is this CUSHING any relation to the makers/designer/s of the CUSHING RIFLED CANNON?
@Mr. Del Mar – one thing we are lucky about is that the “suits” in this game are horse racing fans through and through. Alex and Keith have been in this game for a long time. I sat next to Fritz at the Breeders’ Cup and he is 100% a fan just like us. Good guys all – and I think they’re with you on cleaning up the place. We just have to remember that they don’t have the same sweeping powers as say the NFL commish or Bud Selig. Small moves – we’ll get there…but we’ve got to keep pushing.
@football711 – I love your writing style just from that comment. I had to do a double take because it sounds so familiar. $20 says we’re long lost relatives.
@zyskander – hmmmm…I don’t really know. Ironically, all of Cushing’s six guns in Battery A that day were 3-inch ordinance rifles (as opposed to the smoothbores and other assorted types of guns sprinkled throughout the reb and yank batteries).
Since I didn’t put any official picks up this week, here’s a 50-Cent Tampa Bay Pick-4 that starts on the Hillsborough (Race 8):
1,4,6 WITH 3,6 WITH 2,3,5,6,9 WITH 7
It’s a $15 play overall that is somewhat aggressively singled on Odysseus in the Tampa Bay Derby, even though I feel he, Super Saver, Downtowncharlybrown, or even Schoolyard Dreams could win (can’t play ‘em all).
I had to spread in the Turf Dash (3rd leg) because I’m god-awful picking turf sprints that don’t involve Linda Rice.
WOW! You and Football711 may indeed be long lost relatives… I see you both like playing Tampa Bay.
Del Mar.. not only Tampa but how about the trainer reference to Rice and turf sprints?
I don’t know…but I think I better have a look in the ancestry registry?
WIth Musket Man scratched from the Turf Dash, I have to adjust my play:
1,4,6 with 3,6 with 2,3,6,9 with 6,7
I’m adding in Super Saver just so I don’t have to feel the pain of being “Pletchered” once again this year.
[...] « Rachel and Zenyatta: The Return of Take Back Saturday! [...]
[...] doubt that we could “Take Back Saturday” now (if we’d just get our butts in gear)? Temper a bit of the excitement with the fact [...]
[...] but also another chance at capturing a sliver of relevance from amongst the general populace. Take Back Saturday returns, at least in theory, thanks to NBC Sports’ “Road to the Kentucky Derby” [...]
[...] friends, the Take Back Saturday cause is alive and well and now we must keep the mojo going to help tell the continuous story through the [...]