Mike Mulvihill is making a bold bet on an old sport that has been left for dead many times.
Mr. Mulvihill, a Fox Sports executive, knew that the old racetrack in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., had for decades drawn tens of thousands of New Yorkers and New Englanders, but was underappreciated nationally. And he believed that Fox Sports could widen its appeal.
“It is glamorous like Augusta but far more democratic and boisterous,” said Mr. Mulvihill, who is president of insights and analytics at Fox Sports. “I thought the more horseplayers as well as casual sports fans learned about it, it would become destination viewing for them.”
This summer, Fox’s flagship channel broadcast 24 hours of Saratoga racing, while Fox Sports broadcast more than 900 hours of New York horse racing nationally across its channels.
Viewers have responded. Fox’s Saturday broadcasts of Saratoga races have averaged 501,000 viewers — more than the National Hockey League’s regular season on TNT (281,000) or college basketball’s on Fox/FS1 (358,000).
The broadcasts are a result of a deepening relationship among Fox Sports, Saratoga and the broader New York horse racing industry.
In addition to expanding broadcasts, Fox has taken a 25 percent stake in the online betting platform of the New York Racing Association, known as NYRA Bets, which runs horse races around the state. Last year, bets totaling $715 million were placed through the platform, more than double the $306 million it handled at its inception in 2016.
It is a unique partnership that allows Fox Sports to tap into the sports betting market, which is worth more than $150 billion and growing. And it provides New York racing with an expanded national audience.
“We both have skin in the game, which allows us to try different things and put money back into delivering a first-rate viewing experience,” said David O’Rourke, chief executive of the New York Racing Association.
The sport does not come without risks, as the network discovered two summers ago. That was when two racehorses in separate, prominent-stakes races were fatally injured at the finish line and had to be euthanized by injection on the racetrack. Since then, stricter medication rules, stiffer penalties and greater veterinary oversight have helped reduce horse fatalities to their lowest number in decades.
Saratoga Race Course offers a made-for-television setting, with its red-and-white awnings, backyard picnic tables, wooden clubhouse boxes and, of course, ethereal thoroughbreds. Add to that the thrill, for racegoers and television viewers alike, of an opportunity every 28 minutes to get rewarded for betting on the right horse.
To bring it to life, the racing association hired Tony Allevato, a seasoned television producer who helped start the horse racing network TVG in 1999. Rebranded as FanDuel TV, the network has among the largest shares in the online betting market.
The challenge for Mr. Allevato, who is also the president of NYRA Bets, is putting together a three- to five-hour show with two races per hour. To do so, he relies on 40 cameras, a drone, and more than 80 production and broadcast staff members. He says the advertising revenue is split with Fox Sports and pays for his production costs. The number of NYRA Bets accounts has increased 105 percent since 2020.
Beyond the segments about thoroughbred owners, trainers and jockeys, the show runs features on Saratoga Springs and the surrounding towns, highlighting their Victorian homes and main squares that take you back in time.
“We’ve allowed the production team to focus on the big picture, which is creating Saratoga Race Course and Saratoga the town as a destination of bucket-list type of experience,” Mr. Allevato said. “If we’re showing stakes races like the Ballston Spa or Glens Falls, we are going to those towns to show and tell you about them.”
The heart of the show’s coverage is the banter among a dozen or so on-air talents, an eclectic mix of touts, equine experts, a former jockey and a current trainer, alongside proven broadcasters. Their mission is to balance a “Sesame Street” approach for newcomers with behind-the-scenes insight about the sport.
“We are trying to explain the sport in a manner that’s not going to alienate the core fans, but also to help people learn about horse racing and not be intimidated,” Mr. Allevato said.
Maggie Wolfendale, for instance, a paddock reporter, grew up in her father’s barns in Maryland and works alongside her trainer husband, Tom Morley, in the mornings. Ms. Wolfendale explains pedigree, equipment and whether a horse looks fit. The former jockey Richard Migliore analyzes rides and riders, and explains the mind-set of a jockey.
On a recent broadcast, the trainer Tom Amoss explained why a seldom-used jockey, Lane Luzzi, appeared on a prominent trainer’s horse. He said younger jockeys like Mr. Luzzi, who were trying to gain a foothold in the sport, worked out horses in the morning for free.
“You try to pay them back with a live mount,” he said. “I put him on a 33-to-1 shot the other day, and he got beat by a neck.”
Mr. Mulvihill acknowledges that the business of horse racing is contracting, but says Fox Sports sees opportunity at the top levels of the sport.
This year, for example, NBC Sports will present 76 hours of horse racing coverage across NBC, USA Network, CNBC and Peacock, with live races every month from January through November. This year’s Kentucky Derby delivered an average of 17.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock — the largest Kentucky Derby audience since 1989, when Sunday Silence won.
Fox Sports already holds the rights to the Belmont Stakes and is a likely bidder when NBC’s contract with the Preakness Stakes is up next year.
“We think horse racing is premium content,” Mr. Mulvihill said. “Our commitment to New York racing proves it.”
Joe Drape is a Times reporter writing about how the intersection of money, power and sports impacts our culture.
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