Maroon PR serves as the agency of record for Sagamore Racing, a thoroughbred horse racing team based at historic Sagamore Farm and owned by Under Armour founder and CEO, Kevin Plank and dedicated to bringing energy and winning back to Maryland thoroughbred racing.

In the spring of 2012 one of the team’s three-year-old colts, Tiger Walk, became a contender for the prestigious Preakness Stakes. In addition, two other horses, four-year-old colt Humble and Hungry and three-year-old filly Millionreasonswhy would be running in additional Stakes races over the course of Preakness Weekend. Maroon PR was determined to promote these accomplishments and to generate greater awareness of Sagamore Racing.

Maroon PR first scheduled a media day at Sagamore Farm prior to the start of the Triple Crown. At the end of April, Maroon PR secured a day and invited select media out to Sagamore Farm for lunch, a tour of the property, and one-on-one interviews with Plank. The day resulted in numerous positive stories for Sagamore Racing leading up to Preakness Weekend, including a Baltimore Sun cover story, segments by each affiliate TV station and a feature story by the Associated Press (AP). The AP story was picked up by more than 35 outlets including Yahoo! Sports, SI.com, NBCSports.com, WTOP Radio and garnered more than 100 million impressions and $1 million in publicity value.

Maroon PR also designed and wrote the content for Sagamore Racing’s first media guide under Plank’s ownership. The book features an historic infographic of Sagamore Farm’s timeline, farm facts, individual horse profiles and more. Printed copies of the media guide were used for media day, and they were handed out to the hundreds of guests invited to Sagamore Racing’s trackside brunch event and hospitality tent at Pimlico Race Course.

The week leading up to the Preakness, Maroon PR facilitated all media requests including a feature segment with NBC Sports that aired nationally during their pre-race coverage. Maroon PR worked closely with the producers from NBC to set-up interviews with Sagamore Racing’s general manager, Tom Mullikin and trainer, Ignacio Correas, and we provided video b-roll and various photos to use during the piece.
To coincide with all of the media attention, Maroon PR also focused on keeping Sagamore Racing’s social media platforms updated with behind-the-scenes content and information about Preakness Weekend. The Maroon PR team shot videos of Tiger Walk’s workouts, posted articles featuring the Farm, and interacted with media covering the races.

Maroon PR’s efforts earned over 209 million impressions with a publicity value worth over $2.2 million. Sagamore Racing’s Facebook page garnered 500 new likes and their Twitter page received over 400 new followers in the course of one month.