Endorsed by a Horse, of Course : Horse racing: Down With Debt’s owner hires marketing firm to turn his champion quarter horse into media star.

Turn on the television today and it won’t be long before you see a professional athlete endorsing some product.

Basketball star Michael Jordan is all over the place, pushing athletic shoes, fast food, sports drinks and soft drinks. Arnold Palmer promotes motor oil, and Charles Barkley tells us about his favorite deodorant.

Sometime in the near future, that list could very well include a racehorse.

George Haddad, owner of Down With Debt, last year’s world champion quarter horse, has hired a professional sports marketing agency to promote his mare.

Down With Debt earned the world champion title after winning six of seven races against the best quarter horses in the business.

“I’ve always maintained that we need some stars,” Haddad said. “Each horse has its own unique story. I think that would help increase the public awareness of the horses and the sport.

“I thought it would be one of the ways that Down With Debt could give back to the industry a little. We’re hoping to get more recognition for equine racing, and quarter horse racing in particular.”

Haddad began his search for a marketing firm willing to promote a horse. One of the people he talked to was Paul Feller, vice president of marketing at Pro Sports International, in Long Beach.

“We approached it very cautiously because we haven’t been involved in this type of event before,” said Feller, who spent a month researching the possibilities. “We found that there was an enormous amount of interest.”

Haddad and Feller struck a deal and the marketing of Down With Debt began. One of the items on the agenda was product endorsements. So shortly, there will be a Down With Debt telephone calling card that will carry Down With Debt’s picture and will be available at racetracks and specialty stores.

“The main philosophy behind this campaign is to increase the awareness of horse racing,” Feller said. “Horse racing is a family sport. It has just as many exciting things going on for children as it does for adults.”

As with any marketing scheme, Haddad stands to make some money. Considering the cost of campaigning a racehorse, and that many professional athletes make more money in product endorsements than they earn in pay, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

“I’m a laissez-faire capitalist,” Haddad said. “I think that people who run racehorses should try to make a profit. There’s no guarantee we’re going to make [expenses] back, but I think this should be done, and should have been done a long time ago.”

The Costa Mesa physician said he won’t be the only one benefiting from Down With Debt’s marketing. A percentage of any profits will be donated to the Special Olympics, a sports program for physically and mentally handicapped individuals, to be used nationally in their equine programs.

“You’re dealing with a champion, and people like dealing with the best,” Feller said, predicting success for the venture. “Down With Debt is the best in her field.”

For now, things haven’t changed much for Down With Debt except the color of her silks. In her first start of the year last Friday, Down With Debt stepped onto the track at Los Alamitos with jockey John Creager wearing new red, white and blue silks, symbolic of Down With Debt’s ranking as the leading American quarter horse.

Otherwise, Down With Debt’s training routine is unchanged, and after finishing in a dead heat with Mongoose Effort for first last Friday, she is preparing for her first major challenge of the year, the $114,000 Vessels Maturity next Friday.

After that, publicity could play a bigger role in Down With Debt’s life. And who knows, we may soon be buying products we heard about “straight from the horse’s mouth.”