Ten Years On, Fan Engagement A Focus For QIPCO

This weekend's QIPCO Guineas Festival at Newmarket will mark a handful of milestones, not least being the return to its rightful place on the calendar after the pandemic-ravaged season of 2020. Additionally, this year marks a decade not only since Frankel (GB) scorched up the Rowley Mile to one of the most exciting Guineas wins that likely any of us can remember, but also since the Qatar-based, Al Thani family-owned private investment company QIPCO took up the title sponsorship of the Guineas Festival as well as the QIPCO British Champions Series and QIPCO British Champions Day.

Sheikh Fahad al Thani announced his arrival on the British racing scene in a big way in 2010 with the private purchase of that year's G1 2000 Guineas scorer Makfi (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), and within a year had solidified his family's long-term involvement in the business with a series of significant sponsorships.

“Since Sheikh Fahad and his brothers became involved in British racing 10 years ago, they've thrown themselves at every facet of it,” said David Redvers, racing and bloodstock manager for Qatar Racing. “Luckily for British racing their involvement coincided with the debate to begin the British Champions Series and British Champions Day. They leapt at the challenge of sponsoring it because they loved the idea of being able to have a positive effect on the sport.”

The QIPCO British Champions Series comprises 35 of the nation's top flat races throughout the season and aims to promote the best that the sport has to offer. The series kicks off each spring with the Guineas Festival and concludes with QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot in late October. And while the series has been successful in shining the spotlight on Britain's best equine athletes, another important facet of the sponsorship has been a conscious effort to grow the sport's fan base and engage a younger audience. With the exception of 2020, of course, British Champions Day has provided special access to students and pony club members including free or discounted entry, behind-the-scenes tours and special access on site.

“Something that was really important to Sheikh Fahad when we set out with the British Champions Series and QIPCO back in 2011 was that we engaged a new audience-in particular a young audience–with the best racing,” said Rod Street, chief executive of Great British Racing and British Champions Series. “Over the years we've developed the biggest student raceday in the UK at Ascot on QIPCO British Champions Day. Pre-Covid, 2,500 students attended Champions Day.”

“We've been very keen that we make it not just a discounted day out and then we forget all about them,” Street continued. “We've done lots to activate their engagement during the day. We've created a student zone. We do goodie bags for them with a few interesting free gifts; we give away scarves in the Qatar Racing colours so there is a bit of an extra connection to the day. We do guest tipping sessions where we get a couple leading jockeys to talk about the card, and we encourage the students to come and immerse themselves in the raceday and get close to the action.

“It's been really popular. Since we've been doing it now we've moved thousands and thousands of students through. It's the way you build racing fans for the future. Many of them will come and go, but we know that by engaging as many as possible you give yourself the best chance of creating lifelong fans. And as these students go into the workplace and start earning income, they might become syndicate members of the future or fully-fledged owners. It's taken a lot of effort and a lot of investment from QIPCO and ourselves to facilitate it, but Sheikh Fahad has been really passionate about it.”

Simultaneous with the student day on Champions Day is a concerted effort for members of Pony Club of Great Britain, where horse-loving kids are likewise given behind-the-scenes access on a major raceday.

“It all comes down to Sheikh Fahad's support and vision with his brothers, including Sheikh Hamad, the chief executive of QIPCO,” said Street. “They want the day to feel really different, to be something that stands out, and we think we're developing that.”

Street said that QIPCO embodies what a modern-day sponsor looks like. Since launching its racing sponsorship portfolio in 2011, QIPCO has brought Royal Ascot, the Irish Champion S. the Prix du Jockey Club and the Goffs London Sale under its banner.

“QIPCO is a really good example of a partner for the sport, with a vision, and that's a really important point to make,” he said. “I think the old-fashioned approach of someone giving you money and you plastering their name over a few things isn't [how it works] anymore. I think sponsors are partners and they want to grow and develop and be associated with good ideas and progress.”

Sponsorship has been a key topic in racing industry news in recent weeks with the revelation that online car retailer Cazoo has taken on sponsorship of the Derby and St Leger Festivals, and Redvers said it is “critical” for the future of the sport that racing develop partnerships with leading mainstream brands.

“You have to take a world view now rather than just a domestic one, and it's been one of the great frustrations about British racing that it's struggled to gain mainstream sponsorship here,” he said. “If anything it's almost been tainted by the sport's relationship with bookmakers that bookmakers tend to be the big raceday sponsors, because racing here is perceived to be so tightly interwoven with the gambling industry, which is crazy when you consider that there is so much more to the sport. It's fascinating now to see that sponsorship costs are coming down quite steeply–because of lack of demand as a result of the pandemic, partially. Big races are becoming more affordable to sponsor, so maybe it'll open back up again to more mainstream sponsors.”

Redvers said that the tendency of the British ownership ranks to be dominated by a few superpowers has also potentially deterred mainstream brands.

“If you look at Australian racing or Hong Kong racing, they've got massive international elite brands sponsoring those race meetings, because they have a much wider demographic of owners and fans,” he said. “I think that's something in which we're still miles behind in the UK, because we've historically relied on a handful of very, very big owners. The broad appeal for a wider cross-section of the public isn't there like it is in Australia because we lag behind so badly on syndication and the way in which syndicates are looked after at the races. Hopefully, there will be a fresh review of all of those operations as we come out of the pandemic and people will look to build it back a bit better.”

Street concurred, “The sport needs a broad array of sponsors. QIPCO has been the facilitator of real change in British racing; the QIPCO British Champions Series shines a light on the really top-class races during the summer. In bringing about QIPCO British Champions Day, it was a finale the season never previously had and it's the richest raceday in the UK. They've shown what a really engaged, invested sponsor can do in terms of being a game-changer.”

QIPCO remains the biggest non-bookmaker sponsor of British racing, and can serve as a blueprint of what is possible in the realm of modern sponsorship.

“It's a hell of an achievement to put 10 years of solid investment into a sport, and there has to be some lasting legacy from that,” said Redvers. “The thing that really excites me about the outcome of our sponsorship is that a young Sheikh and his brothers came in and understood immediately that simplifying things and highlighting what's best about British racing has the effect of engaging a younger audience. When you add to that all of the other initiatives they've put around Champions Day and the Champions Series, that's when you actually see there is a lasting legacy, because the young fan base is growing and growing. That's something they justifiably should be applauded for.”