Selling Cigar

SELLING CIGAR

Sometimes in sports, a single event can transform even the most talented athletes, lifting them above the highest level of their particular discipline and placing them on another plane of celebrity. Reggie Jackson in the 1977 World Series, Joe Namath in the 1969 Super Bowl, Dorothy Hamill at the 1976 Winter Olympics—all champions before those events, household names afterward.

Cigar’s transcending moment came on a sandy track in Dubai in March of this year. He was Horse of the Year before the race, Horse of the World afterward. Now every track wants him, and some are going to extraordinary lengths to get him. Owner Allen Paulson on June 13 indicated that he will accept an offer from Arlington International Racecourse for a $1-million race in July. Another track, Sam Houston Race Park has a $1-million offer on the table for a fall, pre-Breeders’ Cup race. Details of the Saam Houston race have yet to be ironed out, but would come as no surprise if they were similar to the conditions of the Arlington event, which sound something like: "Purse $1 million; whatever else it takes to get Cigar."

Arlington chairman Richard Duchossois offered to tailor the race to fit Paulson’s schedule for Cigar, and it appears that the champion will attempt to equal Citation’s modern record of 16 consecutive wins on either July 13 or 14. No official announcement is expected, however, until Cigar fully recovers from the bruised heel that kept him out of the June 30 Hollywood Gold Cup (gr. I). Trainer Bill Mott recently returned the horse to light training at Belmont Park and was expected to breeze him late in the week of June 17 for the first time since the injury.

"They galloped him today," Paulson said on June 14. "He won’t be able to breeze for another week, and he’ll need a couple of good breezes to get ready for his next race."

Paulson said the Arlington race would have allowance conditions, meaning that the champion would give away some weight, but he wasn’t sure exactly how much.

Duchossois said the "Cigar Challenge" would be more than a one-horse race an would offer a "substantial purse," the track owner hedging on the reported $1-million figure. He said that once the race is officially on, it will be held with or without Cigar, much as a race Duchossois created in 1990 went off even after its two principals, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, had to be withdrawn due to injuries.

"If they say the horse can run, we will take nominations," Duchossois said. "If it turns out he can’t run, the race will still be held, but the purse will be reduced."

By not making a formal announcement until Cigar’s presence is affirmed, Duchossois hopes to avoid what happened to Hollywood Park, which spent a bundle on promotions for the Hollywood Gold Cup only to come up with egg on its face when Cigar had to bypass the race he won a year ago.

"I don’t want this thing to build up a head of steam and then be a failure," Duchossois said, "so that it looks like you couldn’t get it done. It’s not our intent to put pressure on anyone. We’re trying to be as quiet as we can be."

Duchossois said that he had not yeat considered how to promote the race. As for the purse money, Duchossois said: "We’re just going to pay for it. The money will not distrub our normal purse schedule."

The pre-Duchossois Arlington Park created a race for Secretariat in 1973. The track put up $125,000 in hoopes of matching the Triple Crown winner against a tough West Coast campaigner, Linda’s Chief, but the latter was withdrawn and Secretariat breezed to a nine-length victory over three lackluster rivals in near track-record time.

Penny Chenery, the most visible of the family members who owned Secretariat, remembers the Chicago event as "kind of a sham" and hopes that Cigar doesn’t race in many similar events. "They were just horses," she said of Big Red’s Arlington foes. "It wasn’t really a race, not much of a challenge."

Chenery believes that ownership of a truly great horse carries with it a responsibility for maintaining the animal’s stature. "I hope they can keep Cigar in real competition," she said, "so he can avoid the rap of having run in ‘gimmes.’ There are plenty of good, competitive races up to 1 Ľ miles for older horses.

"I know I probably should like I’ve joined the ‘knock the favorite’ club," she added, "but races like the MassCap and the Arlington race help Boston and Chicago, but not necessarily Cigar. He is clearly the Horse of the ‘90s, and he as created an earnings record that may be impossible to beat. It has started a little rumble out there, and people are beginning to pay attention to racing. I just hope they don’t louse it up by making things too easy on him."

Paulson, who has been on record since last year as saying he wanted to give as many fans as possible an opportunity to see the champion, was criticized in the Los Angeles Times for bypassing the Hollywood Gold Cup. He responded by saying the he had wanted his $8,069,015-earner to race there, but the injury prevented it. He said the Arlington race was chosen simply because it fit the horse’s schedule, giving him 30 days before the Pacific Classic (gr. I) at Del Mar on Aug. 10.

"He was scheduled to go to Hollywood," Paulson maintained. "I wanted to come out here. I’ve got all kinds of friends that wanted to see him. As for these guys who say that we’re trying to avoid somebody, hell no, we’re not. If everything is okay, we’ll be at Del Mar and they can try us there. Or they can come to Arlington."

A run for the money

Racetracks are not worried so much about Cigar’s place in history as what the star can mean to their operations right now. For his second appearance in the MassCap, he drew a crowd of 22,169 to Suffolk Downs, an increase of nearly 10,000 over last year, which at that time was the largest for a MassCap since 1988. This year’s handle of $3,050,399 was a track record.

"We did everything we could to get him back," said Bob O’Malley, executive vice president of operations at Suffolk. "(General manager) Lou Rafetto stayed in touch with the Paulsons since last year. It helped that they had such a wonderful time here last year."

The prize money also helped. Suffolk twice attached bonuses to the $250,000 race so that Cigar earned $650,000 last year and $400,000 this year. The runner-up got $50,000 both years.

"I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, the way the people reacted to this horse," said Paulson. "I couldn’t take two steps without someone stopping me to thank me for bringing the horse back for a second time. And I think Cigar seemed stronger that day than at any time in his life. Jerry (jockey Jerry Bailey) never had to do anything with him, and he still beat those horses so easy."

Suffolk used Cigar to generate interest in the track that would carry over to the days when he wouldn’t be there. The track avoided the mark-up mentality, holding admission prices at $2 and $4, honoring passers, and keeping other prices in line with normal race days.

Promotion and marketing costs were minimal, O’Malley said, due to the news coverage Cigar’s appearance created. The Boston media, which routinely criticizes the city’s pro sports teams, reported favorably on Cigar and Suffolk.

"I don’t think we spent more than $100,000, including the ESPN telecast," O’Malley said of the marketing effort, which includes billboards, TV ads, caps, and other souvenir items.

O’Malley estimated the total cash outlay for the track at under $1 million. "What we got out of it had a multi-million-dollar value," he said.

Hollywood Park, on the other hand, spent a ton of money and got little in return. Rick Baedeker, vice president of marketing and public relations, declined to put a dollar figure on the Cigar campaign, but said track chairman and CEO R.D. Hubbard told him to "pull out all the stops." He said his department spent "an extra $200,000" on radio, TV, and print advertising alone.

"L.A. hasn’t had too much to hang its hat on in the last few years," Baedeker said. "With the promise of Cigar, the city was coming to life. Media interest was intense, and for us, it seemed like a dream come true. Unfortunately, somebody pinched up and we woke up."

Cigar’s image was plastered all over Hollywood Park and throughout Los Angeles. He was the cover boy on the stakes condition book and racing program, the latter containing a daily "Cigar Update" counting down the days to the big race. The track put together an exciting, 60-second TV spot containing videos of Cigar’s stretch runs, the words "He’s Coming," and the date of the Gold Cup. It gave away 30,000 Cigar T-shirts on opening night and 2,000 Cigar posters at its simulcast outlets.

With Cigar, the Gold Cup crowd was expected to double that of an ordinary Sunday, rising to 45,000 or 50,000, the biggest turnout at Hollywood since the 1987 Breeders’ Cup. The track increased the number of commemorative mug sets it planned to give away from 22,000 to 45,000. "If you know of anybody that could use 20,000, we’re dealing," Baedeker quipped.

Taking a lesson from Hollywood Park, neither Arlington nor Sam Houston has planned any promotions until Cigar is firmly committed. For Paulson the Texas race is a longshot, but a possibility.

"I don’t think so," the owner said when asked about it. "Everybody wants him, and I can see why. But the Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I) is a race that fits his schedule well going into the Breeders’ Cup. But Texas may not be out of the deal. People everywhere want to see this horse, and I’d like to be able to bring him to as many tracks as possible."

The chances of Sam Houston obtaining the champion may be remote, but under vice president Bob Bork, anything seems possible. Bork left Arlington for Sam Houston last fall, and the once-bankrupt track recently concluded its best meeting ever.

Bork predicted that Cigar would attract upwards of 20,000 fans to Sam Houston, approximately 16,000 above average. He said the $1-million purse has been guaranteed by local sponsors, one of whom actually came up with the idea.

"It’s pretty much arranged, although nothing’s in writing," Bork said, adding that the names of the sponsors would not be released until the race is official.

If one of the goals of having Cigar is generating attention for the racetrack, Bork has succeeded even if the race goes no further than the offer. If it does go further, the benefits could be enormous.

"It would be good for Texas racing," understated Bork. "He is a national hero at this point. He’s what we’ve been looking for. He’s the guy everybody wants to see."

That helps explain why Hollywood took such a promotional gamble on the Gold Cup.

"We knew It was an iffy situation," Baedeker explained, "but we still went ahead. We knew some people would be critical, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Baedeker and staff now are promoting a Cigar-less Gold Cup, which figures to be a pretty good race anyway, and refocus their attention on the somewhat forgotten MGM Grand Classic Crown and it $2-million bonus. They also can start getting ready for the return of the Breeders’ Cup in 1997. Still, Cigar is the Horse of the World, the only Thoroughbred alive with the charisma to draw huge numbers of the non-racing public to the track.

"In Southern California, he was the elixir we needed to recharge the batteries," said Baedeker. "People wanted to meet the horse at the airport. It was going to be awfully special."

Merchandising Cigar

Give the people what they want , advertisers say, and right now, the people want Cigar memorabilia. Baseball-type trading cards featuring Cigar are being distributed by Star Cards, MassCap hats were sold by Suffolk Downs (with part of the proceeds benefiting the Disabled Jockeys Fund), and Hollywood Park gave away T-shirts and posters in anticipation of Cigar’s canceled appearance in the Hollywood Gold Cup (gr. I).

There appears to be much more to come. According to Janet Pieren, personal assistant to Allen Paulson and his wife, Madeleine, Cigar’s owner has been approached with a number of proposals, including Visa and MCI phone cards with Cigar’s likeness; Cigar caps with the Paulson’s red, white, and blue colors; and wall plaques similar to those made for other sports stars. Racetracks hoping to sell or give away Cigar merchandise include Del Mar, which plans to distribute memorabilia in conjunction with Cigar’s scheduled appearance in the Pacific Classic (gr. I), and Bay Meadows, which plans to give away Cigar coffee mugs.

"We’ve been approached by several people, big and small," said Pieren. Her boss was less diplomatic: "They’re driving us nuts with ideas," he said.

Cigar’s popularity has put Paulson in a position shared by few in racing, and the multitude of offers has caused him to turn over the marketing of his horse to an outside agency. Such a move involving a horse in training is not unprecedented. After Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973, Penny Chenery and her family hired the William Morris theatrical agency to handle the hundreds of offers made for the horse and his image.

"Nobody in our camp had the time or expertise to sort this out," Chenery explained. "Some wrote that we just wanted more publicity, but that just wasn’t so. We didn’t need it."

Offers rejected as inappropriate for Secretariat included a guest shot on the Sonny and Cher TV show, twice-a-day appearances at a Las Vegas casino, and selling the champion’s manure in transparent plastic disks. "We didn’t want anything junky associated with him," recalled Chenery, who said the family settled on a Richard Stone Reeves lithograph, a William Nack biography, a Raymie Woolfe photo book, and a New York Racing Association film.

There also was plenty of unauthorized material produced, or as Chenery called, "an awful lot of junk." No doubt Paulson will be dealing with the same thing.

"The good guys ask you for permission," advised Chenery. "The bad guys go ahead and do it."

Chenery said the family was unable to trademark Secretariat’s name, since it was "not unique enough," and that probably would apply to Cigar as well. Secretariat’s owners were able to copyright the Meadow Stable blue and whit racing colors however.

The agency Paulson chose for the merchandising of Cigar, CMG Worldwide, Inc., is the same firm that now handles the name and image rights of Secretariat and Ruffian. Royalties from the sale of licensed Secretariat and Ruffian products go to the Grayson-Jockey Club Foundation for equine research. Even so, it’s hard to please an owner when it comes to a beloved horse’s image.

"I wish they’d be more selective," Chenery said of CMG. "I’ve seen many so-called works of art my grandson could surpass."

One new product Chenery recently approved, a Secretariat-brand ale, might not seem entirely appropriate at first gulp, but she had her reasons. "I think this ale can open up a missing market, the kids who drink beer" she said. "If we can get them thinking about racing, I think it’s worth doing. Maybe not 20 years ago, but now I think is the right time."

Such are the dilemmas Paulson is facing with Cigar, choosing what merchandise accurately reflects his horse’s image. While that may be an enviable position from any other owner’s point of view, it is nevertheless a difficult one. Paulson, however, figures to handle it with the same professionalism, devotion to racing, and concern for the horse he has shown throughout Cigar’s rise to stardom.

"I just want to see that a percentage of the proceeds go to a racing charity—whether it be for injured jockeys, the Grayson-Jockey Club’s research fund, or some other charity," Paulson said. "I haven’t taken a nickel, and I don’t want to."

Cigar may be a priceless commodity as a racehorse, but his ultimate worth in dollars and cents may rest with his value as a stallion. Asked if he planned to race the champion next year at seven, Paulson said: "I doubt it." It has been suggested the horse could command a stud fee of $100,000 in this counttry. Would Paulson be disappointed enough to sell the horse abroad if it turned out such expectations were too high?

"There’s been a $20-million offer from Japan," the owner said. "I think he’s worth more, but I want to stand him anyway. He’s insured for $20 million."

That Cigar is likely to stand at stud in this country is good news for his admirers and followers, for although he is Horse of the World, he remains a distinctly American hero. It can be expected that Cigar, like Secretariat, will attract countless visitors and receive stacks of fan mail for the rest of his life.

Secretariat was syndicated before his 3-year-old campaign, but offers were made for the horse nonetheless, particularly after he showed a low sperm count in his first year at stud. Consideration never was given, however, to standing him outside the U.S.

"I had the feeling we had a national treasure," said Chenery, "and there was no question he wsa going to remain in this country."