The best kind of gamble is when none of the money at risk is yours. That’s the situation for Gulfstream Park, which hosts the richest-ever horse race on Saturday.
The Pegasus World Cup in Hallandale Beach, Florida, this Saturday, offers $12 million in prize money – a fund created by collecting a $1 million entry fee from the owner of each horse in the race.
If ever there was a lesson for casinos in how to model a pair of big brass ones, here it is, from Gulfstream owner Frank Stronach. The 84-year-old Stronach is one of the few people on the planet still trying to grow the fan base for horse racing, to the point of almost ignoring the slots side of his racino. (In fact, it was announced late last year that Stronach has yielded casino marketing and management duties to Resorts World, a subdivision of casino giant Genting Malaysia Berhad.)
For those of you behind on your mythology, Pegasus (sired by Poseidon, out of Medusa) is a winged divine stallion. Stronach disclosed his mythology preference in 2014, when he placed a 110-foot statue of a winged horse slaying a dragon in the north parking lot of the racino. (Hey, it’s what billionaires do.)
Stronach started going all-in on horse racing about almost 20 years ago, purchasing Gulfstream Park in 1999. He also bought Santa Anita Park in California and Pimlico Race Course in Maryland at about the same time. For years he and his staff noodled around the idea of a world’s richest race; this year he is finally going for it.
He got two-time horse of the year California Chrome as the featured entrant, although that would seem to be a two-edged sword: why would opposing owners put up $1 million each if they knew that the best their horse could finish was second? Fortunately, there’s at least one worthy competitor: Arrogate, who defeated California Chrome by a half-length in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on November 5th. The early line has California Chrome at 6-5 and Arrogate at 7-5. First prize is $7 million.
Interestingly, Gulfstream hasn’t tried to work in even a tiny bit of casino promotion as part of the Pegasus World Cup. In fact, the poker room will be closed from 3 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday – it’s just going to be too hectic for both gaming and racing. The big outreach so far, other than through horse-racing media, has been a four-part series called “The 13th Jockey”, starring UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. McGregor, egged on by comedian Jon Lovitz, is apparently training to ride a horse that didn’t make the final 12. There’s also the Pegasus Win-Win Contest, which yields $1 million to the winner.
The Pegasus World Cup, which is carded as the last of 12 races on Saturday’s program (First Post: 11:30 a.m.) will be broadcast by NBC, from 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m., Eastern Time.
