Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem for Sept. 11, 2025

A good Thursday morning to you all! Final Thursday column for a while as I’m getting ready to head off on my annual vacation after Colonial Downs' closing day on Monday. I will do a Monday morning column and weekend recap podcast, but then I’ll be off for two weeks, returning on September 29. Very excited to visit Quebec for the first time along with going back to Portland, Maine, which is one of my favorite cities. Also planning to finally visit Rhode Island, which is the only one of the lower 48 states I haven’t had the pleasure to visit! 

I wanted to write today about “influencer marketing” in horse racing, because this weekend is the Woodbine Mile (G1) and it was the one time I was hired in some way to be an “influencer.” I can’t stand that word and honestly don’t think I can influence anyone on much of anything, but a free trip to beautiful Woodbine to do some podcasts and tweet some photos, count me in! 

The purpose of influencer marketing is similar to any other kind of marketing. It’s getting people’s eyeballs and ears on your product. To me it’s not really all that different from more traditional advertising. I mean, celebrity endorsements have been a thing for decades and will continue to be going forward. I always think of “influencer marketing” more as simply having people with big social media followings partake in your event and product and hope people take notice. While I can’t imagine someone seeing someone they follow online going to the track will immediately make them want to go, I suppose they are at least being exposed to the fact that racing exists and is happening. Which is indeed awareness marketing. 

This year we’ve seen the appearance of owner Griffin Johnson in horse racing become a big topic amongst folks online. I’ll be honest I’d never heard of Mr. Johnson until videos and discussions about him started happening because of his partial ownership in Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Sandman. I was told he was an influencer with several big platforms, but that’s all I knew. I also can’t say I’ve consumed any of the content he’s done around racing other than maybe seeing a tweet or interview in passing. But from a distance, he seems genuine about loving the game and has opinions on how he thinks it should grow and we need as many people who feel like that as we can get. He was also met by the usual barrage of gatekeepers who seem to want to fight or argue with anyone who gets into the game and has new opinions or thoughts on it. 

This happens in every sport and game by the way. I follow hockey and baseball and there are never ending verbal wars being fought on the Twitter frontlines about “old school vs. new school” ways of thinking about the games. I’m open to listening to anyone’s thoughts about the game and how to grow it unless it involves putting down or belittling gamblers and the gambling side of things, because then I know I’m talking to someone who doesn’t even understand what business we’re in. We are in the gambling business. That is our business. Gambling. 

Awareness is good, but the product has to be great when people do come out to consume it. Of course marketing and product improvement can both happen at the same time, but for me, the dedication to putting out a good product, whether it’s racing content or racing itself, needs to be the first priority. There has to be great facilities and great races for people to try and influence others to come see. 

Have a good weekend everyone!