Iffezheim, Germany, 16 February 2011 – The joint venture Baden Racing, where Infront Sports & Media acts as majority shareholder, is now entering its first full year as operator of the racetrack Iffezheim/Baden-Baden with optimism and confidence.

"In 2010 we successfully managed the re-launch. We have shown that high-class horse racing can be both attractive and commercially successful in Germany", said Baden Racing President Dr Andreas Jacobs at a press conference in Iffezheim on Wednesday. “In 2011 we want to continue with this trend." 

With 100 days left before the start of the Spring Festival (28 May to 5 June), Jacobs stresses the importance of the races at Baden-Baden: "Despite the challenging horse racing situation in Germany, we are expanding our range and will keep on investing. We are convinced that the events will be a success." In 2011 there will be five more race days than last year, a total of 14 days spread over three meetings with prize money totalling around EUR 3 million. "This makes Baden Racing the largest and most important racecourse in Germany."

International collaboration continued
Baden Racing is not afraid to break new ground, the President said. “There will be an intensified cooperation with the French betting company PMU and the horse association France Galop.”

PMU days are being integrated across five days of racing. This means six races from Iffezheim will be prominent in about 12,000 PMU betting outlets. The races will be shown on the French racing channel ‘Equidia’ in 10 million households across France and Switzerland as well as live on the internet. Two of the PMU days will be held during the Spring Festival (Thursday, 2 June and Saturday, 4 June), and a further three during the Great Festival Week (Saturday, 27 August; Thursday, 1 September; Saturday, 3 September). The PMU race days during the Spring Meetings will begin at 3 pm with the first PMU race starting at 5.40pm.

"The cooperation is an important step towards securing the future of Baden-Baden and reflects the attractiveness of the Iffezheim track", said the new Baden Racing CEO Dr Benedict Forndran.

Forndran has worked for PMU for eight years as International Sales Manager for Central and Northern Europe, Turkey, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. In 2010 he secured an annual betting revenue of around EUR 9.3 billion. Through his role he was closely connected with German racing, global betting products and the technical developments of Tote betting. At Baden Racing Forndran is responsible for racing operations and betting. He became CEO on 1 February as the successor of Andreas Tiedtke, who moved to the German Racing Association in Cologne.

The Spring Festival will see new sports highlights including trials for the two major three year old races – the German Derby and the German Oaks. Other highlights include four pattern races and the first race in 2011 for two year olds. The complete racecard will be published in late February 2011.

Tickets available online
From today onwards it is possible to buy tickets for the meetings online at www.baden-racing.com. "We are the first German race track to offer such a service", said Baden Racing CEO Richard Schmitz, responsible for marketing, sponsorship and hospitality. "The ticket sales have been running at full speed since this morning", he added. "Our Early Bird offer for the exclusive Champions Club with significant discounts is of particularly interesting.“

In 2011 Baden Racing expects more than 150,000 visitors to the public events at the Iffezheim track. In addition to the race meetings - Spring Meeting (28 May – 5 June), Great Festival Week (27 August – 4 September) and the Sales & Racing Festival (8-9 October) – there will be open-air concerts with Unheilig (17 July) and Dieter Thomas Kuhn & Band (15 July) and fairs like Rotor Live (12-13 March) and DIGA (5-7 August).

About Baden Racing
Baden Racing has been in control of operations at the Iffezheim racetrack since June 2010. The company is a joint venture with the international sports marketing agency Infront Sports & Media AG (Zug, Switzerland) as majority shareholder and Baden Racing Entertainment, owned by DSV Deutscher Sportverlag GmbH (Cologne), Stars and Friends GmbH (Bad Harzburg) and weiss media GmbH (Meerbusch). Baden Racing e.V. is responsible for the racing and the betting whilst Baden Racing GmbH handles the maintenance, catering and marketing of the track. Horse racing at the Iffezheim racetrack dates back to 1858.

For further information, please contact:

Peter Mühlfeit
Pressesprecher
Baden Racing
Tel. +49-176-17 22 93 15
presse baden-racing.com
www.baden-racing.com

Jörg Polzer / Nike Möhle
Corporate Communications
Infront Sports & Media AG
Tel. +41-41-723 15 15
Fax +41-41-723 15 16
press infrontsports.com
www.infrontsports.com