It is another test weekend for the star-crossed sports of horse racing and boxing, brought together to the stage in the form of the Kentucky Derby and Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto fight on pay-per-view. In many ways it is not dissimilar from last May, when Manny Pacquaio’s win over Shane Mosley matched Animal Kingdom’s Kentucky Derby win amidst record attendance at Churchill Downs. In a year has much changed for the two former kings of the sports world, and can Saturday be a chance again for the two to step forward?
This time around the two sports are facing greater short term challenges for attention. The NHL and NBA Playoffs have had more drama than they gave had in years, and the UFC will bring a solid but not blockbuster card to free TV via FOX Saturday, and of course there is always baseball and various other May activities to contend with. Where will the casual fan go with their attention, and has either sport done anything in a year to raise their image to take advantage of the big stage?
In the case of horse racing the answer is yes. In the past year the NTRA and The Jockey Club have worked very hard to create awareness campaigns, new video programs, social media platforms and a series of studies to address the shortcomings of the sport. They have improved and streamlined their television coverage with partner NBC and have presented a more consistent and unified front which will help them in the long run. It has been a good year of laying the foundation to rebuild the sport from the public’s perspective with elements officials can control. The issues of abuse of horses, the viability of tracks and the increased attention on a daily basis for the sport remain problems that are being dealt with, but horse racing overall is stronger in leadership and vision than it was a year ago, and that can help lift the ship when the tide comes in, in the form of more casual viewers for a Triple Crown Saturday. Can there be better promotion of personalities like jockeys, trainers and horses over time? Sure. But those things will come and will be easier to do once we have a Derby winner who will hopefully be a compelling story, and maybe, maybe a Triple Crown contender. Microsoft jumping into the fold this week to use the Derby as a platform to pump their new phone on Hanson is certainly a refreshing sign that brands are taking notice of horse racing’s efforts, and that the future is brighter than it has been in a long while.
In boxing, the last year has really brought stagnation as the world waits for Pacquaio and Mayweather to meet. Talk of Top Rank bringing more fights to broadcast TV have not really gone anywhere, and the same routine of pay-per-view, even with the heavy hype and promotion of partners like HBO hasn’t done a great deal to really move the needle for the sport overall. Mayweather himself remains a promotional machine and a huge asset, but for the sport in general it seems to be stuck still in neutral, certainly not worse but not gaining steam as a brand in the eyes of the consumer or the industry. A blockbuster battle between the two superstars at some point could do it, but unlike horse racing, not much has changed in a year. Could a rise of excitement with the London Olympics change that?
It certainly couldn’t hurt. But right now, even with a telegenic star like Mayweather, the race between the ponies and the studs in the ring seems to be going towards the horses on the track.
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