SITA’s B2C team were in action from Hong Kong, Ireland as well as closer to home in April.

Shoe-venir from Hong Kong

PR Director Tom Marriott reports from a week in Hong Kong

We were on the ground for the week in Hong Kong, promoting their FWD Champions Day to the UK & Irish media, handling PR & Comms for World Pool and reporting for City A.M.

The racing in Hong Kong at the moment is some of the very best on the planet, with the world’s best sprinter Ka Ying Rising breaking track records for fun and Romantic Warrior establishing himself as the highest-earning racehorse of all time, being just a couple of highlights.

But for all the interest the homegrown world-beating superstars and globe-trotting challengers generated, it was a social post unveiling the recovery of Japanese sprinter Satono Reve’s shoe from trackwork that got tongues wagging most of all.

Having spotted (through hazy early morning eyes) a flash of metal spiral into the air mid-gallop, I retrieved it from the Sha Tin turf and thought it’d be a good idea to show fans on Hong Kong Racing’s social media channels… 140k views on X later and we’d generated an extra buzz in the build-up to the meeting.

Satono Reve’s shoe aside, we had a great week raising awareness of the event; landing over 70 pieces of print and online news coverage totalling 2.7 million views, producing a HK Racing special podcast for City A.M, and pushing social numbers through 1 million organic impressions barrier.

Onto the next one!

Going the Each Way Extra mile

The William Hill Each Way Extra Challenge Series concluded with five races at Kilbeggan Racecourse on Friday, 24 April, with Paddy Crossan from the B2C team on course to capture live social content and manage the press as the competition concluded across the evening.

Before and throughout the series, we ensured the fantastic grassroots success story of the series was covered across Irish and national racing media, while also producing and managing social media for every race day for William Hill.

The series concluded with Phillip Rothwell securing the €50,000 trainers’ prize, while his yard also claimed the €10,000 stable staff award. Phillip Enright held off Tiernan Power Roche to win the €10,000 jockeys’ prize. In total, €135,000 in prize money was awarded on what proved to be a memorable finale.

Kempton Races

In April, the B2C team came together for an evening social at Kempton Park Racecourse, enjoying the excitement of floodlit racing.

One of the standout moments of the night came from Felix, who was completing a period of work experience with the team at the time. Showing impressive initiative, he placed a £1 each-way accumulator bet across all seven races. As the evening progressed, each selection delivered, building anticipation right up to the final race. Needing True Promise, ridden by champion jockey Oisin Murphy, to secure the final leg of a remarkable 4,000/1 accumulator, Felix came agonisingly close, finishing second after looking like the likely winner. An excellent effort, nonetheless, and evidence that he clearly learnt a thing or two from the other B2C members.

The evening also featured a tipping competition, with Rob Ellis emerging as the overall winner.

Keep an eye on the SITA blog page for all the latest news from the team.