Television is one of the most popular things in the world as is sport and these two things go hand in hand, with some of the most watched channels in the world being sports channels. Horse racing is one of the most watched and bet-on sports in the world and as more people want to watch horse racing the more views it gets on TV. When more people watch the sport it invites more money and a better viewing experience for the fans. More viewers means a bigger prize purse and more fun for the attendees.
Grand National
The Grand National is the biggest racing event in the world, attracting the biggest crowds and most viewers worldwide. According to the BBC, people from 140 countries watched the race with around 600 million people from these countries, which is very clear of every other horse festival.
Having an astonishing 600 million viewers is so good for the sport and has drastically improved the Grand National. The Grand National getting so many viewers is massive for horse race betting and is one of the reasons why horse racing is so popular because of the betting culture that surrounds it.
Kentucky Derby
The derby is the biggest horse racing event in the US and one of the most recognisable events in the sport. It is globally recognised by a lot of horse racing fans and has been mentioned in a lot of pop culture, most recently being mentioned in the very popular and charting Jack Harlow song ‘Churchill Downs’. The Kentucky Derby is watched around the world by around 15,000,000 people watching around the world, which is a lot less than the Grand National but still very impressive.
Saudi Cup
The Saudi Cup is one of the newest horse racing festivals but is still very very popular. It is also already the most valuable event in the world, with the prize pool being $30.5 million, which is a $20 million increase from when it first started in 2020. The viewing figures show around 6.5 million people watch it each year and this has grown a lot during its inception.
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is one of the biggest events in the world, being the biggest for Australia. It gets around 11.5 million viewers a year and around 300,000 people go each year which is a huge number. With last year’s 11.5 million worldwide viewers, we can see the Melbourne cup getting even more globally recognised and even more punters betting on it and watching it.
The Royal Ascot and Cheltenham
Two more of the UK’s biggest horse racing festivals are the very famous Cheltenham and, arguably, even more famous – the Royal Ascot. Cheltenham is the horse racing event that is for the more hardcore horse racing fan, it doesn’t get as many viewers as the Grand National as that is for everyone, even none horse racing fans enjoy watching the Grand National. Cheltenham gets around 1.2 million viewers for every day of the for day racing festival, with Wednesday getting the most viewers with an increase of around 15%.
Royal Ascot is one of the most attended horse races with a whopping 300,000 people attending it, including famous people and even the royal family. The Royal Ascot moved to Sky Sports in 2019 and recently resigned a new deal which means fewer people can watch it as you need to pay. In 2017 we can see that the Royal Ascot was available in around 650 million households around the world which was a great number for the time, unfortunately, the specific numbers are available.
Obviously, there are a lot of other racing events that have a big viewership worldwide as horse racing is such a big sport around the world. The ever-growing betting aspect of horse racing does make the viewership grow, with big horse racing fans and non-horse racing fans watching the sport.
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.