Our Mission
The Project to Preserve African American Turf History (PPAATH) has a clear mission focused on authentic storytelling and culturally-relevant programming centered on horseracing to inspire current and future generations—bridging the gap between historical preservation and modern sports entertainment.
A major cornerstone of our mission leans into high-profile sports and entertainment properties as a multi-platform framework to bring mainstream awareness to horseracing’s forgotten past.
This initiative heavily intersects our core beliefs. Together, with PPAATH’s multi-media assets and celebrity-driven events we honor the legacy of pioneering Black jockeys while expanding horseracing’s global reach.
Key Details of The Project
For over two decades, PPAATH has served as a trusted resource of African American turf history, amplifying authentic stories, curating cultural touchstones, and launching a dedicated media arm to expand into original programming…focusing on a full slate of branded content with universal appeal that resonates with audiences of all backgrounds.
Through strategic investments and partnerships, Bet The World Entertainment and PPAATH aim to deliver more than 500+hours of culture-driven stories, feature films, live sports, a national awards show, and a global games venture at the intersection of history, sports, and culture:
The Isaac Murphy Image Awards: A national awards program spearheaded by PPAATH, BMW North America, and Uptown Magazine. The first-ever national awards showcase strategically timed to align with the Kentucky Derby, curating a made-for-television platform that highlights Lifetime Achievement across Business, Education, Entertainment, and Sports during the Derby season.
Derby Week Celebrity Pro-Am: Leveraging partnerships with entities like the PGA, Jordan Brand, and a network television partner—we’re coordinating a distinct high-profile Derby event and networking space. This platform ties corporate leaders, celebrities, athletes, and entertainers into the cultural and historical landscape of horseracing during the week of the Kentucky Derby.
National Broadcast: Our projects are currently tracking development milestones to transition Derby week into a nationally broadcasted event slated across major linear, cable, or streaming television platforms.
Broader Portfolio: Beyond the Image Awards and Pro-Am, Bet The World Entertainment and PPAATH are recognized for developing premium historical assets. Our commercial film project includes the highly anticipated biopic Photo Finish: The Race of the Century, chronicling the iconic 1890 match race between legendary jockeys Isaac ‘Burns’ Murphy and Edward ‘Snapper’ Garrison.
Strategic Reach: Backed by private equity and partnerships, BTWE and PPAATH are working alongside elite corporate and sports media organizations—including past partnerships and collaborations with brands like BMW North America, NBC Sports, and ESPN.
Economic Development: Our firm’s curated projects are explicitly tied to driving economic growth within both the sports heritage space and global entertainment sector, where our stories will be widely branded and prominently featured alongside mainstream films like Seabiscuit and Secretariat.
Social Impact: The foundation of PPAATH serves as a public stage for conversations on race, equity, and inclusion—transforming horseracing and the Kentucky Derby into compelling cultural opportunities for film, television, documentaries and educational storytelling near the intersection of race and sports; Tina Knowles calls Kentucky Derby racially charged , This Derby season, do all Louisville businesses get a shot at the bag?
Streaming and First-Look Deals: BTWE and PPAATH are actively pursuing strategic first-look deals with networks and platforms like ESPN, Peacock / NBC, Fox Sports, Amazon Prime, and Netflix to intrinsically expand horseracing’s global reach and cultural visibility.
A Call for the Global Marketing of Racing
On a future front, our project also serves as a bridge from the historical endeavors of PPAATH, to what's in store for the future. Bet The World Entertainment - is the lead architect of an industry-sought global Thoroughbred gaming venture created with an eye toward forming a World Team Championship for horseracing.
Our company’s flagship product centers on a vision to introduce a massive global, “team-based” business model to Thoroughbred racing—elevating international horseracing into a unified, high-stakes World Team Championship ecosystem.
A World Team Championships: Positioned as the company’s premier high-stakes property, BTWE is the lead architect behind a proposal for a global, multi-national team competition in horseracing. An international concept that introduces a team-centric structure matching the global appeal of major leagues like The FIFA World Cup, Major League Baseball’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), and the PGA’s Ryder Cup.
Market Target: Our framework targets the $471 billion global horseracing market to elevate the sport’s broadcast footprint, cultural visibility, and reach a broader, younger audience base.
Bet The World Entertainment Network: Our Parent company, Bet The World Entertainment has forward-leaning plans for a dedicated TV linear cable network devoted to horseracing, featuring in-studio production, live commentary shows, pari-mutuel wagering and world pool wagering in partnership with established racetracks around the globe.
Live Streaming: Users will have access to watch live streams of races from around the globe directly within the ‘Bet The World’ account interface.
Streaming Focus: “Netflix’s entry into the Japanese market represents a significant push into live sports broadcasting, testing streaming demand for high-value sports properties and free-to-view sports audiences”.
Impact: Major events like the The World Riding Championships of Thoroughbred Racing will have a dedicated linear, cable and streaming network to broadcast our production assets to a global audience.
Production: Bet The World Entertainment Network (BTWEN) and its media affiliates will produce the world feed for the proposed global games, ensuring consistent quality across international broadcast markets.
AI & Micro-Betting: As our platforms scale their physical and digital footprints, we will increasingly deploy generative AI-tools, with the goal of optimizing operations, driving commercial wagering revenue, and delivering a more personalized fan experience by integrating real-time data analytics, rapid odds updates, and artificial intelligence to create universal interactive in-race wagering experiences.
Investor Call: The company recently launched a strategic call for investors to review its business plan to finance and scale its proposed global thoroughbred racing framework.
Isaac Burns Murphy (April 16, 1861 - February 12, 1896): An astonishing talent who rightly emerged as one of horse racing's biggest stars throughout 19th century sports. Isaac Murphy dominated in the early years of Thoroughbred racing and is widely regarded as one of the best jockeys in the world.
Murphy was the first to win the Kentucky Derby on three occasions (1884, 1890 and 1891); the first Jockey inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame, and the only jockey to have won the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap in the same year (1884). His 44% career win-rate remains an all-time industry record.
According to the late Dr. Pellom McDaniels lll, author of The Prince of Jockeys, The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy, “Isaac Murphy became an important figure – not just in sports, but in the social, political, and cultural consciousness of African Americans!”
Organizer's of PPAATH, an educational platform dedicated to sharing the full scope of horseracing’s Black racing heritage, alongside Bet The World Entertainment, PPAATH’s media and entertainment arm that encompasses a national awards show, a film and television division, a live sports program and global games brand— all with the shared mission of bridging the gap between historical preservation and modern sports entertainment.
BTWE and PPAATH are aiming to broadcast on network, cable, or streaming television the first original programming in 153-years that focuses on a full slate of branded content and cultural programming associated with horseracing and the Kentucky Derby’s Black racing heritage.
Mainstream Derby coverage consistently delivers upwards of 16-million viewers annually and is a top ratings draw year-over-year for Comcast/NBC’s “Big Event Saturday.” In 2018, NBC broadcasted a record live five-hour Kentucky Derby coverage which included a fashion and lifestyle feature by former Olympic Skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. Source:Bloodhorse/NBC Universal
Despite the massive ratings Kentucky Derby programming generates for NBC, Adriana Waterston, EVP and Insights & Strategy Lead for Horowitz Research, emphasizes the significance of culturally relevant content. “Culturally relevant content has always been an important piece of the media pie for Black audiences,” she notes. “With retention being a challenge in the SVOD and vMVPD spaces and engagement a challenge for FAST/AVOD, offering top-notch Black content can be an important differentiator.”
The study, FOCUS Black Volume I: ” reveals that content aimed at Black audiences is a key factor in determining which streaming platforms and services Black households choose to use.”
As traditional cable and satellite subscriptions decline, streaming services are popular among Black viewers. About two-thirds of Black TV content viewers subscribe to at least one streaming video on demand (SVOD) service, with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video being the most popular choices. However, the study also found that over 40% of Black viewers have access to at least one Black-targeted SVOD service, such as BET+ or ALLBLK.
According to the report, free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels have significantly increased popularity among Black audiences. Three-quarters of Black TV content viewers now use FAST services, a dramatic increase from just 13% in 2019. This growth outpaces the overall market, where FAST service usage increased by 25% during the same period.
Virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) services like YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV are also gaining traction among Black households, with nearly one-third subscribing to at least one such service.
The importance of content for diverse audiences was a central theme at the Cultural Insights Forum in 2024. The Forum focused on how brands and media companies can drive ROI by reaching and serving America’s diverse, multicultural, and intersectional audiences. Source: Black viewers drive growth
To date, the Kentucky Derby’s Black racing heritage has inspired a growing phenomenon in many communities across the U.S., these Derby-themed productions include the following Kentucky Derby events:
Alpha Derby Weekend – Atlanta, GA, The True Alpha Derby Experience
Aurora Derby Party - Denver, CO
Detroit Kentucky Derby Day Party – Detroit, MI, Charles H. Wright Museum of AA History
Ebony- Louisville, KY.
Race to Greatness – Louisville, KY
The Isaac Murphy Image Awards – Louisville, KY
NBC's Neckar Island and PPAATH Derby 146 Feature
To support our ambitions, the Commonwealth of Kentucky by way of The Kentucky Entertainment Incentive (KEI) Program is offering aggressive tax incentives and resources to production companies that spend a minimum of $250,000 to produce feature films and T.V. shows in the Bluegrass state.
Bet The World Entertainment and PPAATH are pursuing historic partnerships with private equity firms specializing in the investment of mass media assets to serve as the centerpiece of an economic development initiative dedicated to the complex challenge of dismantling a century-old "Jim Crow" era ideology with regards to horseracing and the Kentucky Derby's Black racing heritage.
As North America's oldest consecutively held sporting event dating back to 1875, the Kentucky Derby is distinctively recognized as a Louisville tradition and attracts more than (1) million attendees annually along with high-profile personalities from media, fashion, sports, and entertainment from across the globe.
