On Saturday at Leopardstown, they will run the Matron Stakes as part of Irish Champions Day, one of the roughly one dozen Group races that Coolmore sponsors all over the world annually. We sat down at the Keeneland September Sale and spoke with Coolmore's Director of Sales David O'Loughlin about why giving back through race sponsorships and breeding incentive funds is important to the farm.TDN: Explain the scope of Coolmore's involvement in sponsoring races around the world. DO: At the moment, we're sponsoring races all over the world and on the three continents where we're based–in Europe, in America, and in Australia. We support Group 1 races in all of the countries; in Ireland, we're doing the Matron. In England, the Nunthorpe. In France, we have the Prix Saint Alary at Longchamp. We sponsor the German Guineas as well. In America, we've got the Turf Mile here at Keeneland, and in Australia, we sponsor two Group 1s, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney. So it's a pretty broad spectrum of races. We're supporting about 12 Group races, six or seven Group 1s or Classics.TDN: You also give a lot of support to smaller, local events. DO: We sponsor a lot of other small races all over Ireland, in particular, including races at the country tracks. We do a lot of National Hunt races, and point to points. We're also doing sponsorships in Milan and in Warsaw. Basically, anywhere we're doing business and trying to work with the local breeders, we'll sponsor a race. There's a very symbiotic relationship between racing and breeding, so we feel it's very important to help out, to put something back in, to be seen, to ultimately help the customers for the breeders' stallions. It's a very symbiotic relationship. We're all in this together, so we've got to help out.TDN: Can you estimate how much you spend on this?DO: We spend about $5 million worldwide, €1.9 million of that in Europe, where we spend about €500,000 in direct sponsorships and we put €1.4 million into the European Breeders' Fund. The [Irish EBF] is very, very successful. It has been going for over 40 years now. It's a great organization. All the stallion farms support it, and we put €3.1 million into Irish racing this year. So we're the biggest single sponsor of Ireland. In America, we're doing about the same in dollar terms. We're doing about $1.9 million again, $500,0000 direct and about $1.4 million into the Breeders' Cup, which as we all know has been a huge success. We one of the biggest drivers of the American business and in Australia, again, we do direct sponsorships again of about half a million, and we have about the same again at VOBIS. So when you tie it all up, it's about $5 million in U.S. currency.TDN: Why is this an important focus for Coolmore? DO: It has always been a focus for us. Back 50 years ago, together with Airlie, Coolmore used to sponsor the Irish 2000 Guineas. That's the first big sponsorship I remember. Then Phoenix Park, the Curragh, we were always helping out with races there, and as Coolmore has grown, the whole thing has grown. As I said, we just feel we have to be part of it. We have to help out the industry and we love spreading it around. In Ireland, we're down in Cork, we're in Tipperary, we're in Naas, we're in the Curragh, we're in Leopardstown. We're going back into the grass roots and giving back a bit. And every euro, every dollar is important to racing at the moment. It's really thriving out here in America, but it's not thriving in other areas.So we try and help out. We're sponsoring a race in Warsaw. Germany's a country that's kind of struggling, so we took on the Guineas the last couple of years. We also do a race in Baden-Baden, and we've done a race in Hanover, so we've done a good bit in Germany. We invest in sponsorship in Poland as it is an emerging racing nation. We have also invested in sponsorship in China, as there could be a real future there as we have seen with the China Horse Club. Basically we feel we have to help out.TDN: What's the reaction from local people? Do you feel that people who go to the races, people who race at those small tracks, do they appreciate it? DO: We get good feedback. We provide a bit of client entertainment at some of them, not all of them. We put on a big day in York, and at Longchamp. We do a bit in Baden-Baden, too, and people really love that and it's a great way of meeting people on the ground. A lot of the breeders are quite a distance from where we are, and we don't get a chance to talk to them. We're on the edge of Europe. Mares are coming into us from Germany, Italy, England, France. A lot of time we're dealing through agents, but we find that with a good day at the races and a nice lunch, you get to know the breeders, you get to hear what's going on, what their concerns are, what they're happy with. It helps us build better relationships, so it's very beneficial in that way too.TDN: What will the Matron be like on Saturday in terms of your participation? DO: We look forward to it. It's always a very good race. It really is one of the best one-mile fillies' races in Europe. You get the older fillies meeting the three-year-olds. There is a great, great history to the race and it's on Champions Weekend, a relatively recent innovation in Ireland. It's been a huge success. It's our Breeders' Cup, and there's always great buzz in Leopardstown on the Saturday. They draw a lot of people and it's a really good day out for young people in particular, with music, bands, a good vibe, and so many Group 1 races over the weekend, so it would be one of my favourite sponsorships in the whole year. It's a day you couldn't miss.The post Q And A: Coolmore’s Global Sponsorships On Display In Saturday’s Matron appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.