Anyone remember KENTUCKY CLUB Tobacco Prize was a Race Horse

[foxtale]

From what I found out online, this was some sort
of "name a foal or horse" contest with the winner receiving a thoroughbred
race horse as the major prize. I would be interested if any out there remembers this particular contest sponsored by Kentucky Club ... I know they did it in 1956, 57 and 58 and one of those years, the horse was sired by Your Host ( sire of Kelso).... just wondered if anyone had info on the thoroughbreds awarded ? Did any of them become real race horses?
It might be interesting to hear any (recalled) info on other past Horse Racing promotions and contest. I do recall a grocery chain
that offered free cards to match a (weekly horse racing show ) of a day of
races. I'm thinking possibly Krogers grocery and the races were from
either Hialeah or Topical Park.
Maybe we need some sort of gimmick like this again to spark new interest in Horse Racing !!!

[reenci]

From what I found out online, this was some sort
of "name a foal or horse" contest with the winner receiving a thoroughbred
race horse as the major prize. I would be interested if any out there remembers this particular contest sponsored by Kentucky Club ... I know they did it in 1956, 57 and 58 and one of those years, the horse was sired by Your Host ( sire of Kelso).... just wondered if anyone had info on the thoroughbreds awarded ? Did any of them become real race horses?
It might be interesting to hear any (recalled) info on other past Horse Racing promotions and contest. I do recall a grocery chain
that offered free cards to match a (weekly horse racing show ) of a day of
races. I'm thinking possibly Krogers grocery and the races were from
either Hialeah or Topical Park.
Maybe we need some sort of gimmick like this again to spark new interest in Horse Racing !!!

up here in upstate NY, many years ago it was called "lets go to the races "and was promoted by "star markets" a big grocery chain at the time....the way it worked was everytime you shopped at star market you were given tickects or play cards , then the races were shown on tv during the week at night....races were from .. Hialeah i think....funny part was your horse would be winning in deep stretch and out of the clouds some horse would beat you all the time............it was a great promotion.....and as a little kid its what probably hooked me on this game

[Linda_d]

I remember the Kentucky Club contest as a kid. I think it went into the 1960s sometime. I think I once bought my grandfather pipe tobacco in order to get whatever proof of purchase I needed to enter.

[jellac]

Child of the 50's that I am of course I remember the "Win a Kentucky thoroughbred" contests! I seem to recall the sponsor was the company who made the "Lucky Strike" brand of cigaretts.....though perhaps it was Kentucky Club Tobacco?? The latter rings no bells with me whatsoever but since I was growing up in Texas maybe Lucky Strike (or was it Camels?) were the local offerings by the aforementioned Kentucky Club Tobacco company? The contest was featured in center fold, color, double full page ad spreads in 'Life' magazine - definitely catching the eye, if not the imagination!

I do know that I spent a lot of energy 'begging' my father to smoke "that brand" so I'd have the wrappers to send in along with the names I'd thought up and was certain that the horses offered would indeed win the Derby - if only I was the lucky winner!!!!

Don't know if the contests really did much to expand the number of a certain brand of cigarettes or not BUT it did a lot to put thoroughbred horses and horse racing on the map - even in a state that no longer had parimutual betting/horse racing.

I think it would be a great promotion to generate interest in the sport but would have to be thought out and presented in a different offering/context mode to past muster and be effective.

Tobacco was popular and its use widespread back then - with Kentucky well known as "the" tobacco state. (my apologies to Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and other state claimants - I'm not saying it was so, just that's how I remember it.) Similarly horse racing was widely popular and attended in those states where offered. The Kentucky Derby and other Triple Crown races were considered major sporting events with the right to broadcast them higly fought over by the three major networks. So this 'Name the Yearling' contest was an excellent campaign to tie the patronage of certain brands of smokes to Kentucky's reputation for producing superior tobacco and the exhilaration of the 'sport of kings' during it's heyday with the remote possibility that you might be lucky enought to become one of those 'swells' you would see on TV every year in the "Owners' Boxes"!

Needless to say a lot has changed since then! Advertising contests appealing to amateur poets, jingle writers, etc. not to mention 'recipe' contests were so widespread back then for selling all manner of products. For some entering all these contests was a way of life - I saw a great movie about this era in advertising/American life recently. So this ad campaign would need a differnt focus and the proper care and consideration for the horse would have to be built into it as well.

[KBEquine]

I remember the Kentucky Club contest as a kid. I think it went into the 1960s sometime. I think I once bought my grandfather pipe tobacco in order to get whatever proof of purchase I needed to enter.

My father smoked a pipe at the time & for the duration of the contest every year, switched from his favorite tobacco brand "Half and Half" (I'm not sure what it was half of . . .) to Kentucky Club. The brand's packaging was primarily blue with red & white & the horse on the front was probably actually a field hunter - I've got a vague recollection of a red hunting "pink" and a horse jumping a hedge or a fence or something.

I remember the contest as not only did you win a TB, but one actually entered in the Derby (or a cash equivalent - and I'm pretty sure we're talking the cash equivalent of a 10000 to 1 shot), . . . all I knew is I collected the proofs-of-purchase like crazy because I knew just where in our suburban back yard I'd put the stable . . .

That was probably around the mid-60s some time.

[Tbird]

I remember it well; entered every year even when we lived in England.
I figured I'd put the horse at my grandparents' "farm" which was really just a small acreage near a small town in MO.
I was always deeply disappointed when one of my wonderful names, which were usually "Karen's (something)", did not win. One year I deviated and presented "Say Hey" but that wasn't good enough either.
You could submit multiple entries since you had to show a "proof of (tobacco) purchase" thing off the product.
It would be interesting to know what the winning names were and what became of the horses.

[Barbaro06]

we had "let's go to the races" in wisconsin too. remember the "rubber race course" at one track. first crack at synthetics!

[merse]

Oh, thanks for reopening an old wound! The heck with my recent sales results woes - they are NOTHING compared to my disappointment at not winning when I was a kid.

[cng]

http://cgi.ebay.com/1957-Ky-Derby-Day-K ... 64005r8928

[winds]

I'm originally from upstate NY too and remember the "Let's go to the races" promotion also...........wow, I'd forgotten all about it.

winds

[Turn-To Fan]

The racing partnership, Westpoint Thoroughbreds, gives away 5% of one of their horses every year around the time of the Kentucky Derby. In the past, the contest has been advertised on ESPN's horse racing website.

I always enter as often as possible, with highest hopes for winning, but have yet to take home the prize.

[pembroke]

I remember those contests and I only had to beg dad to buy that tobacco, Kentucky Club...once.There was a horse jumping or foxhunting on the package... After that he bought them every year. I remember one year there was a Porterhouse colt and one year a Globemaster colt. (why do I remember this since I can't remember what happened yesterday?)LOL!!! We also had "Let's Go To The Races" and yes you always got beat at the wire....I thought it was Pic N Pay in Ohio but Krogers sounded familiar too....What memories this brings back!

[Patuxet]

Here's a link to a April 13, 1964 Sports Illustrated column on the contest:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

At that point 12 horses had been given away, some with such God awful names it seems more like a lottery than a contest.

The first win-a-horse contest I entered was to win an Arabian colt by naming a son of the Black Stallion.

[Kari]

The first win-a-horse contest I entered was to win an Arabian colt by naming a son of the Black Stallion.

I remember that! I have a copy of the entry form in the dust jacket of one of my Black Stallion books! I think the kid that won it came up with the name of the filly Black Minx. If only I was around when that contest happened- I woulda been all over it!

[jellac]

I collected the proofs-of-purchase like crazy because I knew just where in our suburban back yard I'd put the stable . . .

Right On, KBE!