Sarah Tregoning’s outlook on life is one of the key factors that make her just right for the challenging role of promoting the Saudi Cup around the world. And, with the build-up to the third edition in full swing, she’s loving every minute of it, as George Dudley discovers
“If you build it, they will come” is an oft-trotted out sporting maxim that originated in the baseball movie Field of Dreams. It would also be a somewhat lazy perception to attribute to the success of the Saudi Cup.
2022 marks the third edition of the world’s richest race, which already seems like a mainstay on the global calendar after such a brief time. The vast purse has naturally helped attract the finest horsemen from Europe, Latin America, Asia and North America, as well as many up-and-coming domestic competitors.
With the race now officially a G1, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia elevated in status to Part 2 of the IFHA (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities) list of racing jurisdictions, and the undercard races getting Group status, the two-day meeting worth $35.1 million has received even more credence.
An integral person in promotion of the Saudi Cup is Sarah Tregoning, who has just been promoted from media manager to media and communications director at the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA). She not only promotes the event but works on the operational and logistical side.
“It’s quite a varied role,” she says. “It would be fair to say that every day is different. There is always a bit of a challenge each day, as well as daily successes. When you are promoting – or developing in this case – there are lots of different things to think about for all of the various territories.”
‘It’s a lot of back and forth’
Despite her surname, Tregoning is no relation to Derby-winning trainer Marcus, although her Argentine husband, Nicolas, was assistant to South African trainer Herman Brown and later the Bahraini handler Fawzi Nass in Dubai. They co-own Centro Equino San Ramon, a small breeding and pre-training facility for racehorses in Buenos Aires province, Argentina.
The international nature of the Saudi Cup meet and the role appears to fit Tregoning’s outlook and life – “it is a lot of back and forth,” she says. With her time split between Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Wales, that has helped her “look at it from various different perspectives”.
A former journalist with 15 years’ involvement in media, PR and sports-destination event industries, Tregoning has experience in a similar role at Dubai Racing Club and then a period as a freelance media manager for equestrian events in the UAE prior to her stint in Saudi Arabia.
“When I first heard about it, the Saudi Cup really sounded like something that I should get myself involved with,” she says. “So I sent Tom [Ryan, director of strategy and international racing at the Saudi Cup] an email asking whether the club needed someone in that role. It’s been a brilliant experience, that’s for sure.”
Starting a worldwide event, especially one of the enormity of the Saudi Cup, did, of course, present many promotional and logistical challenges in its primary year.
“When you are able to say that you have got the world’s most valuable race, it’s a good hook and gets that initial attention,” Tregoning says.
“What we have always tried to do is establish the event as more than that," she goes on. “As well as the Saudi Cup we have a strong undercard and we have been promoted in our classifications.
"On the Friday before Saudi Cup day we stage the International Jockeys’ Challenge featuring seven female and seven male international jockeys and we also have our international race for horses trained in Part 2 and Part 3 countries.
‘Racing in Saudi Arabia is on a really exciting journey’
“I think that the challenge and the goal is to increase awareness locally, as well as internationally. Horse racing in Saudi Arabia is on a really exciting journey and we are not saying that we have arrived or that we are the best, what we are saying is come with us on this journey.
"We want people to see that we are following a plan to develop this industry in a sustainable way – but yes, absolutely, it is huge to have the world’s richest race and a great thing to market.”
Another major asset Tregoning considers essential to the rapid respect that the Saudi Cup has garnered since its inception in 2019 is HRH Prince Bandar bin Khalid Al Faisal, chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia.
She highlights Bandar’s superb public speaking – first made evident to racing folk at the US launch of the race in 2019 at Saratoga – which Tregoning believes “makes you feel like he is talking directly to you, not just a large audience”.
She says that he is not a “sort of far-off figure that dips in and out”; in fact, he is “knowledgeable, and wants to know about all the different and smaller details of what’s going on because he is interested in the sport and its development. He is a brilliant asset.”
On the track, the Saudi Cup has been a great success with high-calibre contestants – both equine and human – and general goodwill to it from the global and domestic media. Last year it was run behind closed doors due to COVID-19, and Tregoning says that “it is like we are heading into the second ‘normal one’” for the 2022 renewal.
“Year 1 was like saying to everyone ‘hey, here we are – this is a new race, new for the country and new for global racing’,” she recalls. “We did receive a certain amount of recognition on the back of that.
“We had launches in Saratoga, London and one in Riyadh too. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that in year 2. In fact, I think the world has moved away from that kind of promotion right now. So, like everywhere else, we have done a lot of online promotion – this season we did online launches in Asia, the US, Europe and locally all on the same day as live streams into each different time zone.
“Those kinds of activations are really interesting because the conversation evolves a little bit throughout the day. The news is out once you have done the first one, but each jurisdiction has its own interests to talk about with Prince Bandar and Tom Ryan, who were on the top table.”
‘We feel like we are evolving’
With people’s attention spans rapidly shortening and some quarters, especially on social media, seemingly hankering for schadenfreude, how will the race and the build-up remain fresh and successful?
“Happily, we do feel like we are evolving,” she says. “We are hitting targets in that we started as a Part 3 nation and now we have got that elevation to Part 2. We certainly feel that we have put in the work and the effort and done what was required to grow as an event and as a sport. “To have the Saudi Cup as a Group 1 is a really big moment for us.
“In terms of new fresh things, I actually see us now as almost bedding in again. We did the first one and that was a success. The second one was probably more challenging, just in global terms, because of the travel and COVID. So for year 3 we are now selling tickets and engaging with the local community. I almost see it as rebuilding the momentum from year 1 and re-establishing ourselves as an event for the people of Saudi Arabia as well as the wider racing world.”
Saudi Arabia is by no means the only jurisdiction in the Middle East to have seen merit in hosting a international Thoroughbred race. The Dubai World Cup, an event that Tregoning worked on for five years, has long been a popular meet for the international racing fans and horsemen, and new lucrative races in Bahrain and Qatar have added extra depth and narrative to the burgeoning region.
Tregoning recently visited Bahrain for the Bahrain International Trophy and spoke with her opposite numbers there, which she found to be a “valuable exercise”. As well as sharing best practices, the GCC racing nations have been working together on “bringing the jurisdictions closer together in terms of racing calendars”.
Something that Tregoning would love to achieve is immediate recognition that you are at the King Abdulaziz racecourse for an event that has, she suggests, “top-tier delivery but also at one that has its own character and is clearly in Saudi Arabia, reflecting the unique culture and heritage of the country”.
She adds: “I think that, when you see fan engagement quizzes online that say ‘which racecourse is this?’ People love them – and people can easily point out Ascot or Flemington, for example, and getting that visual recognition for us would be great.
“But it’s also the feeling, the ethos and the atmosphere. Because Saudi has opened up only recently, people don’t really know what it is actually like in Riyadh, so it is nice to show people with this event.”
While all eyes are focused on next year, Tregoning remains proud of the speed with which the first one was put together and the reason for the race itself. “Nobody rang up and said, ‘I think that you should have a race,’” she says.
“The leadership here wanted the race – that does make it quite unique. Add to that the fact that the JCSA worked to deliver it so quickly [and it] makes it quite remarkable in global racing. It was only a few months from concept to delivery.”
This article was originally published in Gallop magazine.
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