A British firm is floating a crazy, but very Las Vegas, idea of bringing horse racing to the Las Vegas Strip.
Known as City Racing, the idea was featured last week in a Thoroughbred Daily News article that suggested Las Vegas could become one of the streetscapes organizers are looking at.
It’s an idea that’s as exciting as it is outlandish. What if, for just a day or two, you could turn a few city blocks into racetrack? What if you could literally bring racing to the masses and send a cascade of sprinting Thoroughbreds down the Champs-Élysées in Paris, or Fifth Avenue in Manhattan?
If you are Peter Phillips, these are more than just late-night, spirit-fueled hypotheticals. Phillips, first son of Queen Elizabeth II’s daughter Anne and eldest grandson of the British monarch, has been working over these questions for some time now. And within the next year, his dreams might become our reality.
Through a partnership that includes his company, Sports Entertainment Ltd. (SEL UK), Phillips is set to launch City Racing, which will organize a day’s racing on some of the most iconic streets in the world. Or at least that’s the plan. City Racing will feature a five-furlong, synthetic straight course laid down over existing avenues. The racing will operate under the rules of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and, it’s expected, will be sanctioned wagering events. The rest will be part block party, part afternoon at the track.
City Racing will most often be held near existing tracks. That provides a pool of local horses to draw from, and, more importantly in the eyes of Phillips, opportunities of cross-marketing with those tracks.
If all this sounds like an impossible task, Phillips, 40, has already made a name for himself as a down-to-earth, hands-on entrepreneur who embraces a challenge. His accomplishments include hosting 10,000 guests for The Patron’s Lunch in honor of the Queen’s 90th birthday in 2016, as well as organizing a major showjumping event, The Longines Global Champions Tour meeting, in the heart of London in 2014.
In 2016, City Racing Ltd was founded and has developed an innovative and exciting global horse racing series. The founders of the company (SEL UK, Andrews Bowen, JS Communications and The Jockey Club) bring together significant industry leadership across horse racing, media, marketing, event delivery and management to offer the ultimate in competitive racing to previously inaccessible iconic sites.
The City Racing Global Series will kick off in Europe, before continuing on to Australia, Asia and the US.
