Horse racing is the Sport of Kings, and yet it’s no longer the king of sports, not even close. The picture you have of a horse racing fan in your head is probably one with gray hair, sitting at the corner of a bar, locked into TVG. Power players are trying to change that in the same way that marketers grow their brands, through social media influencers.
The phenomenon first drew eyeballs at the 2024 Pegasus World Cup. Alix Earle was invited to Gulfstream Park for the ceremonial “Riders Up” ahead of the race on NBC Sports.
It seemed pretty innocent, but there were a few curmudgeons in the horse racing world who wondered what she had done to earn the spotlight ahead of such a lucrative race. The actual decision-makers had the exact opposite response.
“Her fans followed her on social, and we saw a huge bump on our television broadcast,” said Gregg Colvin, CEO of 1/ST Content, who owns and operates Gulfstream Park. “I’m not saying it was directly related because there are other elements, but the last quarter hour from the time she did ‘Riders up!’ to the race, we almost doubled our viewership.”
The videos she shared on social media generated more than 6.5 million views in less than 24 hours. That’s about a third of the average viewership of this year’s record-breaking Kentucky Derby on NBC Sports.
Clearly, the folks at Churchill Downs saw the response online. While Simone Biles earned the brightest spotlight on Derby Day, Livvy Dunne was tabbed to perform Riders Up ahead of the Kentucky Oaks. The four videos she shared on Tik Tok from the event have more than 4 million views.
A Tik Tok Star Falls in Love with Horse Racing
Influencers like Dunne and Earle show the glamorous side to attending high-profile races. The experience they share is not one that the Average Joe will ever experience, even if it is appealing to watch from afar.
What if an influencer could show their followers what it’s actually like for horsemen leading up to a big race? That’s what America’s Best Racing did with West Point Thoroughbreds in the “Stake for Stardom” initiative.
Griffin Johnson is a 26-year-old from Southern Illinois with just shy of 10 million Tik Tok followers. He has 3 million more on X and Instagram. Johnson joined Sandman’s ownership group before his racing debut at Churchill Downs in the summer of 2024 and was with the horse every step of the way through the Kentucky Derby.
It’s striking to see someone fall in love with horse racing right before your eyes. He went from the guy who is betting the horse that takes a dump in the Paddock, to the guy who’s with him when he takes his morning dumps, then feeds him treats after training sessions.
“I’m fully involved in his life. I go to all of his races. I travel anywhere in the world where he’s racing,” Johnson told his hometown newspaper The Prairie Press.
“I wash and feed him. I’m super involved with the team, his training, his progress reports and how he’s doing. I’ve pretty much done it all, from prep to seeing him after his race. So I would say we’ve become pretty good buddies. He might say I’m just good for treats, but he at least puts on a good show.”
It all reached a crescendo in Louisville in the first weekend of May. Sandman was a popular choice who finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby. Johnson was in tears the day after the race, grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Sandman’s ride in the Triple Crown of horse racing.
Thank you all.. onto the next race
pic.twitter.com/ZwlX7zkjtb
— Griffin Johnson (@lmgriffjohnson) May 4, 2025
Netflix executives will happily share the number of streams on Race for the Crown, and marketers can tell you what impressions are worth from social media views. That doesn’t accurately quantify the experience that Griffin Johnson conveyed from his time at the Kentucky Derby with Sandman. That’s the kind of experience that creates a lifetime horse racing fan, something this sport desperately needs.
The post Horse Racing is Betting on Influencers to Grow the Sport, and it just might work appeared first on On3.