After a 10-year run as the title sponsor of horse racing’s most prestigious event, the Triple Crown, Visa USA plans to put that deal to pasture and focus on one major race.
Visa has entered into a five-year partnership with Churchill Downs Inc. to be the exclusive credit card consumers can use to buy tickets to the Kentucky Derby. That race is the first of the three Triple Crown races—also including The Preakness Stakes and The Belmont Stakes—and is held every year on the first Saturday in May.
The partnership will create exclusive access opportunities for Visa Signature cardholders, including access to a luxury finish line suite and hard-to-obtain box seats to the Kentucky Derby, the company said.
“We’ve had an unbelievably successful partnership with the Visa Triple Crown, but we must always work to keep our approach fresh and relevant to our cardholders,” said Visa Senior VP Michael Lynch in a statement. “By creating unique new programs like this, we increase the value of Visa Signature cards to cardholders and increase cardholders’ loyalty to the member financial institutions that issue them.”
Specifically, Visa will create a limited number of suite trip packages exclusively for Signature cardholders, offering tickets, stable area tours, and access to coveted invitation-only events during one of horse racing’s biggest weekends. Visa’s deal with the Triple Crown ends after The Belmont Stakes in June.
Since the Triple Crown sponsorship began, Visa has offered a $5 million bonus to the owner of the horse that could win each of the three races. No horse has won all three during that period, however Smarty Jones looked promising last year but was overtaken at the finish line at the Belmont Stakes after victories in the first two races. The last horse to win all three races was Affirmed in 1978.
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