THE SAUDI CUP 2023 - AN EVENT TURNING JAPANESE?

Senior Account Director Thomas Marriott reports on SITA’s role in promoting the world’s most valuable race meeting, The Saudi Cup , to a rapidly growing Japanese audience.

?? The Saudi Cup (サウジカップ) has taken Japan by storm.

The 1m1f dirt contest is the world’s most valuable horse race where the winning horse earns roughly $91k per second run in the race, and it’s quickly becoming regarded as one of the most important and prestigious races in the calendar.

Surrounded by an undercard of hotly contested Group 3s and top-level Arabian races, the event now dangles prize money of $35.35million in front of the eyes of the racing world, and it’s Japan that have cashed in.

Having trained one winner at the inaugural Saudi Cup in 2020, then two winners in 2021, Japan went on to plunder four of the six Group races on Saudi Cup night in 2022, but they had yet to see a Japanese runner crowned in The Saudi Cup race itself.

We knew that Japan would once again be targeting the meeting with its top thoroughbreds, so engaging racing fans in the Land of the Rising Sun and leveraging their fanatic racing fanbase to raise The Saudi Cup’s rapidly growing profile was a must.

???? Japanese Domination

We worked alongside Japanese video company DigiOne and racing journalist Naohiro Goda to produce a documentary on Japan’s success at The Saudi Cup.

The video was distributed to broadcasters around the world and featured in the output from both Racing TV and leading Japanese broadcaster, Green Channel.

?????? Japan on Twitter

Japan’s racing fanbase is very active on Twitter, to the extent where Saudi Cup winner PANTHALASSA, or パンサラッサ, was trending in the country for 24 hours after he crossed the line in front.

All posts relating to Japanese runners, trainers or jockeys were sure to have Japanese translations and hashtags embedded to guarantee we were hitting the right audience, while we engaged with key Japanese racing accounts: Netkeiba, Tospo Keiba, Nar Keiba and JRA World Racing, among others.

Our post of PANTHALASSA winning The Saudi Cup hit 2.4million organic impressions, the highest reaching post in the account’s history.

Looking ahead to 2023/24, the ever-growing influence of Japan in racing worldwide continues to create new avenues for content and social activation.

On a side note… John Cena ?? now follows The Saudi Cup on Twitter.