Churchill Downs Racetrack and Yum! Brands on Thursday announced a five-year
extension of their 2006 agreement that made the restaurant company the first
named presenting sponsor of the $2 million Kentucky Derby (G1), the historic
track’s signature race and one of the country’s major sports and entertainment
events.
Under the agreement negotiated by the two Louisville, Kentucky,-based
companies, the race will again be run as the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum!
Brands when it is renewed for the 137th consecutive year on May 7 at Churchill
Downs. It will be the sixth consecutive Kentucky Derby in which Yum! Brands has
served as the race’s presenting sponsor.
Terms of the extended agreement were not released.
The first major Kentucky Derby sponsorship contract between Churchill Downs
and Yum! Brands was announced on February 1, 2006, and the agreement announced
Thursday will continue the partnership through 2015. Churchill Downs, which
opened with the running of the first Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875, is the
flagship racetrack of Churchill Downs Inc. Yum! Brands, a Fortune 500 company
that operates more than 37,000 restaurants in 110 countries, is the parent
company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s.
“Churchill Downs is very pleased to have reached this agreement with Yum!
Brands, a great corporate citizen in our hometown, that extends its presenting
sponsorship of the Kentucky Derby for five more years,” said Kevin Flanery,
president of Churchill Downs Racetrack. “Our partnership with Yum! Brands has
been positive for both companies and good for the Kentucky Derby, an event that
is a great American tradition and a springtime sports party known and loved
around the world.”
“Yum! Brands is pleased to renew our presenting sponsorship of the Kentucky
Derby, the Greatest Two Minutes in Sports,” said Jonathan Blum, senior vice
president of Yum! Brands Inc. “While millions of people know and love our
leading restaurant brands, they may not know Yum! Brands. The sponsorship of the
Kentucky Derby allows us to build awareness of Yum!, the world’s largest
restaurant company.”
The Derby is coming off a very successful renewal on May 1, when, a crowd of
155,804 braved a daylong rain to witness victory by WinStar Farm’s homebred
Super Saver. The Derby 136 winner provided Kentucky-based WinStar Farm and
trainer Todd Pletcher with their first victories in the “Run for the Roses,”
while jockey Calvin Borel won the race for the third time in four years.
Total wagering on the 2010 Derby was $112.7 million, an increase of 7.8
percent from the previous year. Total wagering from all sources on the 13-race
Derby Day card at Churchill Downs was $162.7 million, an increase of 4.3 percent
from the $156.0 million wagered a year earlier.
The Kentucky Derby is the only race in North America to attract wagering of
more than $100 million. The Derby’s attendance figure for 2010 marked the 10th
time — and the sixth consecutive year — that America’s greatest race had
attracted a crowd in excess of 150,000.
The presenting sponsorship agreement will not impact the purse of the
Kentucky Derby, which stands at $2 million guaranteed. But, like Churchill
Downs’ previous agreement with Yum! Brands, owners and trainers who race their
horses at Churchill Downs’ spring and fall meets will benefit as a portion of
the sponsorship’s revenues will go to race purses through a formula agreed upon
in the most recent agreement between the track and horsemen.