Everyone is primed and ready to see California Chrome take on the Pennsylvania Derby this Saturday. It makes sense. After all, it will be the first race for the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner since he finished a troubled fourth in the Belmont Stakes during his attempt at completing the elusive Triple Crown.
A Kentucky Derby winner's moves are always watched closely, and California Chrome is more popular than most. However, America's Best Racing is also launching a campaign this week to broaden the national appeal of a horse who is very much not California Chrome.
Like California Chrome, Wise Dan is the color of a copper penny and has a strip of white running down his face. That's pretty much where the similarities end. Although he is the reigning two-time Horse of the Year and has won just shy of $7 million, Wise Dan's bread and butter is turf racing, which is not what catches the eye of the casual sport's fan in America.
As such, even though Wise Dan is a horse that is at the very least respected by almost everyone in the racing game and is loved by many, unlike California Chrome, he isn't exactly a household name outside of the sport. ABR wants to change that.
"America is fascinated with our sport's quest to crown a Triple Crown champion among 3-year-old Thoroughbreds," said Stephen Panus, the vice president of communications for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association/ABR. "Wise Dan wasn't on the Triple Crown trail. Not all of his races have been televised on national television, and when they are, some have been as the undercard.
"In an effort to draw attention and raise the profile of the two-time Horse of the Year, I came up with the idea to have America's Best Racing launch a unique marketing campaign: a parody on Dos Equis' 'Most Interesting Man In the World' ad."
This summer, Panus was inspired to help increase the national awareness of Wise Dan via Dos Equis after seeing the actor who portrays "The Most Interesting Man in the World" enjoying a day at the races at Saratoga. In all, eight scripts were written using this concept, and a new video featuring a professional voice over specialist will be posted weekly to on the ABR website.
The first video in the series can be seen here.
"Our talented and resourceful videographer, Gregory Charkoudian, spent a day at the stable with Wise Dan, filming at Keeneland," explained Panus. "We also have plenty of stock footage from his past races. Wise Dan's connections thought it was funny and were honored."
For those who don't know much about Wise Dan, there really is a lot to like about him. In a game where we are grateful to have a star runner stick around for a second season, Wise Dan has been racing for five seasons now and has won 22 of 30 of his races.
On top of that, the day before California Chrome claimed the Preakness, news spread around Pimlico that Wise Dan was being rushed to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky for emergency colic surgery. He happily recovered completely from that scare and ran for the first time Aug. 30, holding off longshot Opitmizer by a nose to win the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap.
"Wise Dan is truly an amazing, champion equine athlete," said Panus. "He should be the leading contender for the ESPY Award of Comeback Athlete of the Year. He has the heart of a champion and races with such fierce determination and talent. He's a special horse, a superstar horse, who continues to thrill and amaze horse racing fans from coast to coast. It's not often we're graced with a champion race horse still competing and dominating at age 7."
It is a constant battle in horse racing to remind the world at large that the sport is more than just one Saturday in May and the five weeks that follow it. That is in no way a knock to the Triple Crown. Horses like California Chrome help make the sport great -- but so do horses like Wise Dan, and sometimes that gets lost.
Superstar horses can be found in more than one place and run on more than one surface. There is plenty of love to go around, and it is nice to see an effort being made to raise the national profile of a horse like Wise Dan.
"This is a race horse whose accomplishments and talents deserve greater recognition," said Panus. "Hopefully this parody video campaign will help raise his profile and engender greater awareness for a superstar horse."