Tim Ritvo, President of Gulfstream Park and COO of The Stronach Group, was a guest on Tuesday's NTRA national media conference. He candidly discussed the logistics and expectations of creating and executing the inaugural running of Saturday's inaugural $12-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational. Some of his comments are below.
On the biggest considerations and challenges in putting together the Pegasus World Cup:
Any time you have an inaugural running of something and you're starting a new concept, there are always a lot of twists and turns that you have to deal with. We're fortunate that we [at The Stronach Group] run the Preakness, which has run 141 years… But to start something fresh like this, it took a lot of brainstorming and a lot of ideas, from the timing of the race, to the distance of the race… It was very important to the chairman [Frank Stronach] that we position this race so not to be offensive to the Breeders' Cup… not to be offensive to the Dubai World Cup. Basically, look for spots on the calendar that worked better than other spots. There's no football this week–we're between the [NFL Conference Championships] and the Super Bowl. Also, the breeding season, so if people wanted [to retire horses to stud] they had the opportunity to do that [after racing].
But the main concept was, through the years, people have bought million-dollar horses always looking to get in a big race. What we did was say, “Why not buy the spot in the gate and then try to find your horse after that?” So we kind of reverse engineered that…
No one knew exactly what it was going to turn out to be like, but we're thrilled to have the first three finishers from the Breeders' Cup Classic. It definitely expands the racing calendar and makes people think that maybe they don't have to these horses at [three or four] and give their superstars another year [on the track]. These are all things that went into the thinking. By no means are we perfect in the way we got things structured, but I think we'll get better as we continue.
How The Stronach Group will assess the success of the event:
Hopefully we can beat our Florida Derby [day] handle, which is about $36 million a year–one of the highest handles ever in this building. That's something we have as a target. We have a $40-million [goal]–we're hoping we do at least $20 million on the race, and $20 million on the undercard. It might be a little bit of a stretch, but we have high goals.
But the true measure–because of the size of the building and some of the problems we deal with [because attendance is limited]–will be our NBC ratings. We believe, with credit due to [TSG President] Belinda Stronach, that we've done a lot to get involved and to reach outside the bubble and outside the racing industry, with the marketing she's done, with the PR she's done with [UFC champion] Conor McGregor. The true measurement, from The Stronach Group perspective, will be the television ratings. The true return for the partners in future years [will be dependent on those ratings and future interest from networks].
More on television coverage, rights and revenues:
There's no revenue this year [from NBC] to shareholders. We're hoping that by having good ratings, next year networks will bid on it and we'll be able to get more revenue.
We know that, right now, the industry pays for three races: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. What we would like to do is get into that mix so that there's a little bit of a bidding war and they think that it's worth covering and that they can sell [advertising] spots and everything else. Hopefully, in future years… one of these networks will be able to pay, and that money will be divided up equally between the partners…
Actually, we had to pay NBC [for coverage this year]. The Stronach Group put the commitment on itself to take the hit this year and pay for the coverage. Belinda thought it was worth it in the long run to try to have a bigger reach.
Regarding field size:
We have 12 in [the Pegasus], and nine in the [$400,000] Poseidon H., which is like the back-up race in case something happens [with a Pegasus entrant]. So, to have 21 older handicap horses in this area at this time, normally we struggle to get eight in the Donn [H., which was replaced by the Pegasus]… So, obviously having the shareholders put up the money and the $12-million purse has made it different than say what the Donn would be at this time of year.
On the five-pound weight allowance given to Pegasus runners not competing on Lasix:
Mr. Stronach is a no raceday medication guy–he would eventually like to see it get there. Me, as an ex-horseman, I understand both sides and I understand horsemen and the culture–I trained myself for 25 years–we didn't know anything better than Lasix. Everywhere else in the world can do it, so we're trying to go that way. We did have some no-Lasix races [in 2016] for 2-year-olds. We're trying to look at that and eventually, hopefully, be a medication and Lasix-free environment.
On attendance expectations:
It's really hard without turnstiles–we've had free parking and admission for so long–but we've estimated Florida Derby crowds upwards of 20,000 when we've really stacked them in there. We think a success will be somewhere between 15,000 and 17,500 because of the limitations [of the building]… A success, in our way of thinking, isn't how many people we can get in here. It's a comfortable, and fun environment that will be measured by customer service–can they get to concessions, can they get their bets down, can they use the rest rooms, etc.
On $100 general admission:
It was not an easy decision. You try not to alienate your day in and day out fans. It was a balancing act to try and figure out how not to have the place overrun [with large crowds]… It was all a thought process where you just didn't want to have the place where it wouldn't function… If we could do it all over again we probably would've adjusted a little bit downward–maybe half of that–but we still believe that to see two of the greatest athletes compete at any level, in any sport, $100 is still not a big ticket price.
On jockeys' share of purses:
If the [owner] and jockey don't have a side agreement, which they're entitled to have, the basic [jockey's percentage] will be 10% for the winner, 5% for second, 5% for third and a $1000 mount fee for the rest.
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