When I first got into Thoroughbred horseracing, everybody had a collective challenge: How do we engage young people?” Belinda Stronach asks rhetorically about her initiation into the Sport of Kings. “Well, our efforts to engage young people are about curating an experience that we feel is compelling and relevant to what they would like to do. So we combine fashion, music, all forms of entertainment, hospitality, and we partner with the best in each jurisdiction to curate this experience. And that’s what Pegasus is.”
We’re sitting in an expansive VIP suite overlooking Gulfstream Park, a storied horseracing track built in 1939 here in Hallandale Beach, Florida, that Stronach’s company 1/ST (under The Stronach Group umbrella since 2011). Beyond Gulfstream, 1/ST also owns a suite of preeminent thoroughbred properties including Santa Anita Park, Golden Gate Fields, the Maryland Jockey Club and Pimlico, home of the Preakness. The beautifully designed suite is no match for the Chairwoman and CEO of 1/ST, impeccably dressed in a pink blouse, not a hair or detail out of place.
Stronach prepares an espresso, sits at her desk and sips. “What makes the Pegasus World Cup unique,” she says of one of the richest races in America,
