The Kentucky Derby is always a huge moment in the horse racing world and beyond. One person who can speak to that is FanDuel TV host and anchor Todd Schrupp, who’s been attending the Derby for 35 years. Schrupp said the Derby stands out yearly for the crowd it draws beyond the racing world.
“My favorite moment of going to the racetrack is interacting with the fans, interacting with the horse players,” he told Awful Announcing. “And what I think’s fascinating about the Kentucky Derby is the draw that it has, because it’s not just a draw of bringing people in from around the United States, it brings in people from all over the world.
“The Kentucky Derby truly is, for a sporting fan, yes, it’s on quote unquote the bucket list, but I just think as a cultural event, it is something that everybody wants to see. I’m amazed at how many people will show up and take more pride in how they dress for the event than in what’s going on the racetrack. So it is an all-inclusive event.”
How has Churchill Downs evolved?
Schrupp noted that the most significant change he’s seen at the Kentucky Derby over the years is with the racetrack itself. One example he cites there is the famed twin spires, part of the original grandstand that Churchill Downs has been able to retain while expanding around it.
“Those twin spires are something everybody wants to see. They have built the racetrack up around it. They have a very interesting line that they have to toe between respecting the past, which, obviously, the twin spires means so much to what Churchill Downs is, and then moving on to the future for an event that will host 150,000 people in one day.
“You’re not going to make a Super Bowl-type stadium where you would hold that type of audience, say, for a football game. You’re going to make something that has unique experiences all over the ground. So, for me, thinking of how the Kentucky Derby has changed, it’s watching how that physical plan has changed at Churchill Downs. And they have done some remarkable things.”
Some of those modern innovations come with even things like paddock-level restaurant seats.
“You’re sitting there at your table eating fine food, having a phenomenal experience, and you can see the horses walking by your table,” Schrupp said. “That’s one of the unique experiences. And then within that little area, they have a bourbon tasting experience and everything you want. Whatever experience you want at the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs will find a way to make that happen. It’s going to cost a lot of money, but they will find a way to make it happen.”
While much has changed with the Derby over the decades, Schrupp said fans’ passion has remained constant.
“The one thing that stays true is the fans. They’re all there with enthusiasm, and they want to take it all in, and whether you know, you spend $100 on a ticket or you spend $10,000 for a spot at a table with that type of experience around the paddock, everybody’s going to walk away from the Derby and say ‘That’s nothing like I’ve ever experienced,’ outside of the sporting world or inside the sporting world.”
‘I didn’t unpack all my boxes the first two years’
Speaking of changes in horse racing, Schrupp has been through those himself. He’s been with FanDuel TV since its 1999 beginnings as horse racing network TVG. He said he loves where the network is now.
“I’m finally where I wanted to be. And we all find that in our careers, you finally get to a point and you’re comfortable, it’s like, ‘Well, I’m not on the last chapter,’ and it takes a while to get there, but once you get there, you don’t want to leave. So working now with FanDuel, it’s the company that I always hoped TVG could be.”
He said the 1999 launch of TVG was fraught with uncertainty, as it even predated most of the current league networks.
“When TVG started, we were dedicated solely to horse racing. And that was in 1999, there was Tennis Channel, and there was Golf Channel, and that was it. So this idea of each channel dedicated to a sport, even the entire broadcasting industry, I didn’t know if that concept could ever work.”
Schrupp said that was a gamble worth taking for the sport and a reversal from its sometimes behind-the-media-times approach.
“Horse racing had never been on the forefront of anything in media. There was a time in the early 50s where horse racing was as huge as the National Football League.
“And then along came the opportunity, the big three networks wanted to put sports on TV, and horse racing said no, and the NFL said yes. And look how that turned out. So here was an opportunity in 1999 for horse racing to kind of reverse that and have its own niche channel.”
But the TVG launch came with uncertainty for Schrupp and others working at the new network.
“The difference between 1999 and now, let me put it this way, the first two years of TVG, I moved from Miami to Los Angeles, I didn’t unpack all my boxes the first two years because it was never going to work,” he said. “Now I have the comfort of knowing we’re going to be here next week, the month after that, the year after that, years after that.
“FanDuel is the company that I always hoped TVG could be. But there were several points along the way. I thought, ‘This is never working, and I don’t know how I’m going to reinvent myself.’”
How the pandemic boosted racing’s place in the ‘sandbox’
Of course, one change now is that the current FanDuel TV covers much more than just horse racing. But Schrupp echoed past comments from colleague Christina Blacker that the company’s broader focus, and the resulting wider attention to it, carries its own benefits for the racing side.
“There’s part of this that you know, you can look and say ‘All right, there’s this giant sandbox, we’re over in the small corner here,’” Schrupp said. “Sports betting is the star. I don’t think anybody who works in horse racing for FanDuel is like ‘Oh, we’re as big as sports betting.’ No, sports betting is the biggest thing in the gaming industry going on. But the fact that we have a seat at the table is everything to us in the horse racing part.”
Schrupp thinks the 2020 pandemic and racing’s continuation through much of it helped particularly show horse racing’s value to the wider company.
“When the global pandemic happened, every sport shut down except horse racing. So here, think of this giant company, you’ve got all these revenue streams, and all of a sudden, 90% of the revenue streams are gone. It’s like, ‘What’s this stream down here? Oh, it’s horse racing.’ They’re still racing.”
Speaking of that pandemic, Schrupp said his work in the FanDuel TV studios during early days there remains a career highlight for him.
“For me, it’s one of my proudest moments,” he said. “I usually do things and just kind of move on and let other people say if they were good or not. But during the pandemic. I volunteered to be the guy in the studio.
“They had a thing in Los Angeles where if you had a certain amount of employees, you could remain open, and you had to be a news network or some type of outlet like we were. But there was a number of people you could have. So I said, ‘I’ll be the guy on-air.’ So I would drive every day into the studio.”
He said that was particularly notable for him, as it’s not usually what he enjoys.
“People who know me know I hate the studio. I want to be at the track, I want to be doing all these things, I want to be outside. I don’t want to be in the studio. So anyways, I did that, and then I kind of led the way with ‘Let’s get on a plane, let’s go cover some events’ when things opened up.”
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“It was that moment that I think our company realized, ‘Okay, horse racing is dependable. They’ve got a good thing going there.’ And ever since then, they’ve supported this. And all I have to do is look at what FanDuel is doing at the Kentucky Derby.
“They struck a partnership with Churchill Downs. They’ve got a huge concert the night before on Oaks night, and it’s actually one of the biggest parties now that people want to go to, and that’s hard to do with the Kentucky Derby and all the history that they have.”
The support and investment have extended to on-air coverage at FanDuel TV, too, including bringing an extensive team to the Derby each year. Schrupp said that kind of backing has him excited about where horse racing coverage will go at FanDuel TV.
“After the pandemic, they have not only said they value horse racing, they have put up the money to the point where we feel wanted and we feel needed. So I’m so happy to be in my corner of the sandbox and have a parent company like FanDuel.”