Pettigrew resigns as head of marketing, sponsorship for Breeders’ Cup

Bryan Pettigrew, the senior vice president of marketing and sponsorship for the Breeders’ Cup since early 2015, has stepped down from the position “to pursue other interests,” according to the organization, which is based in Lexington, Ky.

Pettigrew came to the Breeders’ Cup from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, where he was hired in 2011 as the senior vice president of NTRA Advantage, a cooperative buying program for NTRA members that also solicited and developed sponsorship agreements with NTRA members. Pettigrew had formerly been president of a Dallas-based sports marketing company he had founded in 2004.

According to the Breeders’ Cup’s latest financial statements, revenue from sponsorship and licensing in fiscal-year 2017, which ended in January 2018, was $6.56 million, up from $5.89 million in the year prior, although the majority of the “positive variance” between the two years was related to increased sales of licensed merchandise, notes to the statements said. In fiscal-year 2016, the first year in which Pettigrew headed up the department, revenue from the same sources was $6.38 million. Figures for the just-concluded fiscal year are not yet available.

Expenses related to sponsorships were $1.63 million in fiscal-year 2017, $1.37 million in 2016, and $1.78 million in 2015, according to the statements.

A Breeders'' Cup spokesman, Jim Gluckson, declined to comment about plans for the open position, citing company policy “not to comment on personnel matters or staffing plans until we have an announcement in the future.”

“We appreciate Bryan’s work building the Breeders’ Cup brand and managing our partnership program,” Craig Fravel, Breeders’ Cup’s president and chief executive, said in a release. “We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”