21st January 2021 – The fifth running of the $3 million USD Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) will enjoy significant and improved reach in 2021, with North America’s premier lifestyle horseracing event securing a multi-million global audience.
The 2021 Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational Series includes the $3 million USD Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and the $1 million USD Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1). Two of North America’s richest stakes races will co-headline the Saturday, 23rd January race card 1/ST ’s Gulfstream Park, Miami. A 90-minute live bespoke on-air package will start at 16:30 local time (21:30 GMT).
1/ST and its appointed distribution partner, HBA Media, has secured a number of major networks for the 2021 Pegasus World Cup, headlined by NBC in the US and nine first-time broadcasters. These include:
·European broadcasters: Sky Sports Racing (UK and Ireland), Sky Italia (Italy), Match TV (Russia), Polsat (Poland), Movistar (Spain), SilkNet (Georgia), BEIN (Turkey), Sport TV (Portugal) and Setanta Sports (Baltics / Eurasia).
·Latin America via ESPN and the Caribbean through a partnership with Sportsmax.
·Australia is covered by Racing.com and Sky Thoroughbred Central.
·FITE, a leading global OTT platform for live sport and entertainment, will make its horseracing debut by showcasing the Pegasus World Cup across 20+ territories.
·Sports Confidential, SNTV and Reuters will provide race content to news outlets across the world.
The 2021 race will be headed in the betting by Knicks Go, owned by Korea Racing Authority (KRA) and trained by Louisville native Brad Cox. With 20-years of experience, Cox has developed a world-class stable that earned nearly $19 million in 2020 and successfully produced four Breeders’ Cup winners in November. The four-year-old has all the potential to win this race; and has showcased his credentials already this season having been undefeated in three starts since being transferred to the yard. Other contenders with a significant chance of winning the feature race include Tax and Code of Honor - both are high speed performers with reputational form and campaigns centred around the Pegasus World Cup.
Henry Birtles, Chief Executive of HBA Media, said:
“In these extraordinary times, our team has once again successfully delivered a global distribution worthy of this wonderful hybrid event; one that blends the best of sport with an enviable lifestyle / celebrity nuance that only Miami could serve up.
“Throughout the pandemic, horseracing has shone as a sport that works exceptionally well for broadcasters – with or without spectators - and consequently, the channels have been rewarded with increased interest from their audience. The Pegasus World Cup continues to go from strength to strength.”
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