A
nyone with a manager
who’s better at jargon than
creativity will be familiar
with the term ‘disrupt’.
In the business context, it
essentially means applying
a radical new model to an established
industry then watching the money roll
in. Think Netflix with television.
The business of sport has also been
impacted. A prime example is cricket as
the IPL and The Big Bash Twenty20 leagues
secure the crowds and ratings Test matches
(aside from The Ashes) long for. Elsewhere,
tennis and rugby have also experimented
with televised format shake-ups in the
hopes of injecting some extra adrenaline
into the brand.
It’s now horse-racing’s turn and the
challenge is formidable considering the
stranglehold of tradition that the Melbourne
Cup and its associated carnival holds over
the nation. One tactic has been to throw
bank vaults of cash at certain high-profile
races – Sydney’s recent Everest came billed
as “the world’s richest race on turf” and the
massive marketing spend, aimed at attracting
peak attention seemed to have worked, with
a packed Randwick and TV coverage that
interrupted Melbourne’s Spring Carnival.
Further north, however, the Magic
Millions carnival on the Gold Coast
has taken a more holistic approach –
a horsapalooza if you will.
It’s a long way from what it launched as
in 1986 – a horse sale that was then bolstered
by the inaugural ‘2YO Classic’ 12 months
later. It was a niche event – far removed from
all it currently offers – and one that lured
thoroughbred horse enthusiasts, few others.
Come the late ’90s and the auction house
was almost bankrupt – to be put out to
pasture were it not for retail businessman
(and horse breeder) Gerry Harvery and
throwback ad-man, John Singleton.
Cut to today and the Magic Millions’ is
a glittering event (now solely co-owned by
Harvey and wife, Katie Page) on both thefirst past
the post
HOW THE MAGIC MILLIONS BROKE THE MOULD
TO REDEFINE THE AUSTRALIAN RACE INDUSTRY.equine and standard calendar. Because
the brains trust were quick to realise that
true brand growth lay in giving a wider
demographic access to the heady glamour of
the occasion. And that meant hoof-thumping,
thoroughbred-galloping, by-a-nose-winning
race days. Aside from getting behind a series
of regional events, its showstopper is run
on the Gold Coast – which in 2016 became
Australia’s first $10m day, where seven of thePurchased
at Magic
Millions in
2013, Winx
boasts a
ROIof165.4
per cent..