Super Bowl in Ratings but It’s OK for NBC

When racing patriarch John Gaines dreamed up the concept of the Breeders’ Cup, he had the illusion of grandeur that this would be the Super Bowl of horse racing. Not only would it be an end-of-season single blockbuster afternoon of championship races, but it would capture the imagination of the ordinary sports fan and be one of the major television sports galas of the year.

The Breeders’ Cup has been a smashing success from a horse racing standpoint. The great TV expectations have not been realized, though.

“Six years ago, we were disappointed,” said D. G. Van Clef Jr., executive director of the Breeders’ Cup. “We have come to accept the lower ratings as a fact of life. We see that it rates as a championship event like the big golf and tennis tournaments which have prestige but which do not command high ratings.”

Hall of Fame trainer John Nerud, one of the big boosters along with Gaines of the Breeders’ Cup, said, “We were disappointed by the low ratings, yes, devastated, no. It hasn’t reached the ratings we wanted, but TV has made it a national event.”

Its boosters advance legitimate reasons for the relatively low TV ratings of what ranks as a blockbuster event, second only to the Kentucky Derby as the most important racing day of the year.

--The fact that bettors are attending races at more than 100 other tracks, watching a simulcast feed and betting on the Breeders’ Cup takes away many potential viewers from NBC.

--The Breeders’ Cup has often run into tough opposition from the other networks, specifically big college football games. It would rate higher if it were run in the spring when there is less intense competition on the air. The Cup gets a bit of a break this year because CBS and ABC are presenting some blah games today.

--It is difficult to sustain interest for a high rating over more than four hours as compared to a 90-minute, one-race program. It is of some note that the featured Breeders’ Classic races in the last half hours have averaged more than a point higher rating and almost two share points higher than the overall Cup numbers.

Jon Miller, vice president of program planning at NBC, says, “While the household numbers aren’t great, the Breeders’ Cup gets good demographic numbers. Just like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open it draws well in upscale 18-49 and 35-54 men’s categories.”

The Breeders’ Cup has a solid lineup of sponsors, including Mobil, Alberto-Culver, Budweiser and, new this year, Toyota.

Mike Trager, who has been in from the beginning selling the Breeders’ Cup as head of Sports Marketing & Television International (SMTI), said, “The idea at the start was that racing needed a year-end championship. We had doubts that it would even get on TV because of the (low rating) history of racing on TV. But now, it’s significance is that it is a championship event. That is what the networks want. And that is why the other networks (ABC and CBS) have shown an interest in it.”

NBC bought the Breeders’ Cup rights for three years starting with the inaugural running in 1984. After the second year, it extended through 1989 and then renegotiated in 1988 to 1994 with an option to 1996.

TV economics don’t rest only on the ratings. If a network can buy an event for a certain amount and sell ads for it at a figure which nets it a profit, that makes good business sense--better than overspending for an event which has high ratings that are not high enough to justify the expenditure. The defunct United States Football League was a bust as a league,, but it provided programming in the spring that made money for ABC.

NBC reportedly pays in the neighborhood of a million dollars a year for the rights to the Breeders’ Cup and sells commercials at an average rate of $30,000 for a 30-second commercial. Miller said the combination of the Breeders’ Cup, Notre Dame football and NBA basketball will bolster NBC’s lineup next fall. “That’s a strong Saturday afternoon package for advertisers. We haven’t had a strong Saturday fourth quarter in the past.”

It’s boosters point out that the Cup is only in its seventh year. The Triple Crown races have had more than a hundred years to build interest. “People in the racing business have to help more, too,” Nerud said. “At the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park, John Galbreath brought (former President) Gerald Ford there and he (Ford) said on television that he’d rather be back watching Ohio State play football.”

The NBC telecast of the Breeders’ Cup will be on from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. PDT.

Isaacs Cup Pick: The tout who gave Newsday loyalists winner Go and Go in the Belmont offers this Breeders’ Cup serving: 1. Mr. Nickerson, 2. Doradoradora, 3. Bayakoa, 4. Steinlen, 5. Best Pal, 6. Saumarez, 7. Izvestia.