A million new horseracing fans. This is how we are going to do it.

First, we need a horseracing event that is fast paced, easy to understand and mind-blowingly fun. Triple 8 Racing is all of these in spades. It is a team-based, short format, off-the-wall racing series.

Next, we need to get people, and lots of them, to care. And this is the hard part. We have spent almost 10 years designing, building and selling racing events and even though Triple 8 Racing is built specifically for an entirely new, and younger, market it is still going to take something special to get people interested and invested.

Fortunately, we have been here before. We built the Gauteng Summer Cup into the fastest growing, and the second largest, horseracing event in the country by providing a platform for others to grow their businesses. When people have an incentive that works for them then things really start to happen. We partnered with predominantly young black entrepreneurs. We gave them an opportunity and platform to realize their dreams of building their businesses. They owned their hospitality areas, sold the tickets, designed everything, found sponsors, booked all the entertainment, and did whatever they felt would work for them. They paid us the price of an entry ticket for each person but any profits after that were theirs to keep. Using this model, we had DJs, performers, celebs, etc. all promoting the race and selling the event to their followers. As the overall race organizers, we saw our marketing reach grow exponentially over the last 4 years despite zero increase in budget. We achieved this by reallocating our small marketing budget to these entrepreneurs and by giving them a platform to do what they did best.

Our marketing campaign for T8 Racing will build on this model but be even bigger and more innovative. We have planned a reality TV series based around a competition where entrepreneurs fight to own the rights for each of the T8 Racing teams. Think Dragons Den meets Idols plus a touch of Muvhango. These young entrepreneurs will be our entrants into the competition, and the main characters for the reality show. They come in all shapes and sizes and range from real hustlers to great business individuals. They generally crave exposure and attention because they know that their business success depends on them getting noticed. What they all do, to a greater or lesser degree, is connect with celebs, want-to-be celebs, influencers etc. and it is these connections that makes them successful because they are able to communicate to fans across the country using these influential networks.

Right now, there are thousands of event professionals and businesses desperately fighting to somehow try and save themselves. The Covid-19 Lockdown has been brutal for this sector. If we give these companies and business owners something that will help them survive and grow, then horseracing will benefit too. Event companies have not worked for months. They are desperate. Let us attempt to provide a solution.

Event business owners and suppliers have time to plan now. They want to know how they can make money now. They want to work on projects that will get them work in the future and they want exposure for themselves and their businesses so they can show their clients, sponsors, and partners that they are worth investing in. (Many event sponsors, like alcohol brands, are also trying to find solutions to the current predicament). Event companies have not worked in months and will not be doing any work for the foreseeable future. By putting up a cash prize and by running the competition we give all these businesses some hope and a way to work on something that, at the very least, will get them exposure and incentivise them to talk to their sponsors and clients.

By way of explanation, the competition will be for these entrepreneurs to own the rights to one of the eight Triple 8 Racing teams which will compete in the first Triple 8 Racing series which we are aiming to run in 2021. For a final prize of R1million they will enter and go through various stages on their way to the announcement of the winner. By putting out a call to entry and by offering a big prize we get the attention we need for T8 Racing which we believe will have a far bigger impact than any traditional advertising campaign.

And the result for racing? At best a broadcast deal for racing live on TV and a reality TV show watched by millions across Africa. The worst-case scenario; hundreds of entrepreneurs planning and building their businesses around horseracing and pushing racing into the hearts and minds of their followers.

A pipe dream perhaps or perhaps desperate times call for desperate measures. It is time to create an entirely new horseracing market using a new racing product (Triple 8 Racing) and then empowering and enticing individuals and businesses to invest their time, energy, and resources in taking it to the masses.