Burger King paid $200,000 to have its mascot stand next to American Pharoah’s trainer

Burger King is on a hot streak when it comes to picking the winners for hugely popular—yet still weirdly niche—sporting events. Back in May, the Burger King himself (first of his name, lord of the seven kingdoms, protector of the realm) was a part of Floyd Mayweather’s entourage and walked alongside him to the ring before his big fight with Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather went on to win that fight, most likely because he had the nutritional power of Burger King Chicken Fries on his side.

Just a few days ago, the Burger King did it again when he appeared alongside horse trainer Bob Baffert at the Belmont Stakes. Baffert’s horse, American Pharoah, not only won the Belmont that day, but he also won The Triple Crown, the most difficult achievement in all of horse racing. American Pharoah probably wasn’t fueled by the nutritional power of Burger King Chicken Fries, but he will soon have the honor of becoming Burger King Chicken Fries, so that’s still pretty cool.

But how did this happen? Well, other than the fact that we live in a bonkers society where things like this happen all the time, Burger King also paid a ton of money to convince Baffert to let its mascot into his private box. After Baffert rejected the fast food monarch’s initial offer of $150,000, Burger King upped it to $200,000 and Baffert accepted. We’d make a snarky joke about the rich getting richer, but Baffert reportedly donated all of that money to horse-related charities, so that’s fine. Horses are an important part of modern society, so forwarding some of Burger King’s greasy money into a horse charity has to be a good thing.

This all may seem pretty weird, but we should treasure this moment in history. It might be another 37 years before we see the Burger King hanging out with the trainer of a Triple Crown-winning horse!