- This topic has 70 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 4 months ago by
.
- Posts
I entirely agree with Maxs points but would also add
Racing has been a sport in decline as long as I’ve known it and I’m surprised that people are surprised by this decision. Its core audience is literally dieing out.
As they said about cricket in the 60s and football in the 80s. I recall tHe Observer reporting on ONE first division match (as it was then) around 1989 because it had decided the "game was finished" (as was the sports editor shortly afterwards i think….
Another point is that demographics are in favour of racing. it is a sport which does appeal across the board but is more appealing to those who have perhaps grown out of singing songs about paedo managers. I know quite a few poeple who have had a reasonable interest in racing (cultivtaed by mainstream coverage) who have drifted more towards the sport as they get into their ..ahem …. 40’s. This is the most significant age group now. Baby boom etc etc
And as max says, some racedays are extremely busy now. I have never known such a busy Tingle Creek day as two weeks ago. Goodwood Tuesday this year was busiest ive seen and last Friday at Cheltenham was a very healthy crowd. These are what might be described as "connoiseur" days too
I certainly dont agree with Carv on the "engagement" with the animals. Why does the Tote sport day at Newbury have such a great crowd when it is is usually the case that only 2/3 races are what could be described as punters races?
Football IS dying out though unless you are a traditional powerhouse club, at least insofar as getting paying customers through the turnstiles. What teenager could be bothered standing out in the freezing cold watching, eg Cheltenham Town, when there are up to 7 Premiership matches on Satellite TV that very same weekend.
DB,
My 19-y-old nephew for one – he’s attended the majority of Cambridge Utd matches home and away for the last five or six years and even produced a fanzine to help raise funds when the club was threatened with closure.
He detests Premiership football with it’s ‘overpaid mercenaries’ – his words, not mine.
I’d also refute the idea that racing is dying – crowds at the big days are substantially bigger than 20 years ago. I have a diary I kept of my racing trips in 1984 – first day at Glorious Goodwood the crowd was under 8,000, first day at Royal Ascot it was less than 30,000, first day at Cheltenham in March it was approx 17,500.
Racing has changed since then in two ways – corporate entertainment, which continues to thrive despite the economic situation (I work with a partner who drives all over the country liaising between the customers and the racecourses – he does the travelling, I supply the tips and monitor the markets so that he can provide novices with betting advice. He has contracts with several tracks to cover all their meetings) – and the growth in the number of meetings which produces the low crowds that dilute the average.
The number of horses in training is far greater, and that has produced a rise in quality at the big meetings. In 1981 I ran a horse I owned in the Goowood Stakes and the Cesarewitch, although using the current scale, he was never rated higher than 67. Nowadays the bottom weights in the big handicaps are horses that would have been in the upper half of the weights then.
It all depends what you measure when you talk about decline.
Thats my point exactly. Racing has always primarily been attractive as a betting medium and / or a social day out for the majority of the population. The socialisers don’t fund the levy, they never will. The BHA tell us they need 150 million to adequately fund the program as it stands, their about 40 million short going by the last settlement and apparently the high rollers have gone elsewhere this year.
We’re nations of gamblers, we love to bet on sport, we’ll bet on sport regardless of whether racing is around or not. Horseracing needs to ¨engage¨ with these people, the housewives, the students, the ordinary people who gamble elsewhere and stop wasting time campaigning to have Willie Carson remain on our screens. Attempting to make horses and jockeys attractive as an end in itself is a noble aspiration but its not going to fund the sport, ever, period.
The Derby and the National, the races that got most people hooked in the first place will not be affected and the solution to the rest of it has been mentioned already. Take the RUK feed, no OB expenses for the station, no loss of terrestrial coverage for the sport and better pundits for the viewer, everyone’s a winner, problem solved.
Cav, I would refute that slightly. I think we get quite passionate about the horses themselves in both our countries.
For example I think I’m right in saying that Denman brought the Hennessy crowd to a standstill last year and there were audible gasps. It wasn’t about his saddle cloth number and he was largely unbacked. I’m sure everyone on here can get quite weepy about certain horses and would definitely travel to watch their favourite animal. And as I said earlier those beer boys in the sharp suits – and I meant plenty at the Curragh who were loving the racing – can be turned on to the nitty gritty of the sport.
DB, I echo AP’s comments about footy (and the attendances). I follow a minor side home and away and there are 3,000 people who would sell their houses rather than let the club die despite us being seriously rubbish. Stuff is done in the community with the kids to keep them interested in their two local sides – but it isn’t easy.
Re people going principally to see the horses, didn’t Master Minded reportedly add about 5,000 to the crowd for the Tingle Creek according to quotes from the course management.
And I can remember going to Wincanton for an early season midweek meeting in the late 80’s, when a crowd of about 8,000 turned out to see Desert Orchid win in a small field at about 3’s on. Their passion was only slightly tarnished by the cheers that greeted the arrival of a grey in the parade ring who turned out to be one of his opponents!
Someone in Ireland the other year when we went to Punchestown told me that the Irish don’t understand why we get so sentimental about horses over here; I found that difficult to believe at the time; everyone I know that’s interested in racing [male and female] are as interested in the horses as they are in the betting side of it. If horses all just had just numbers people wouldn’t be as interested in the National as they are; people tend to relate to them because they have names and possibly anthropomorphise about them as well..[also, a couple of years ago when England did really well I became interested in cricket…when it moved off terrestrial television I didn’t develop that interest].
Yes we do get passionate about horses and rightly so. How could anyone not be passionate about these magnificent animals, all of them! I wish the masses would be less passionate about Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo and more passionate about racehorses but it doesnt work like that, it never will. Not in quantities sufficient enough to provide a large portion of funding for the sport anyway.
Yes we do get passionate about horses and rightly so. How could anyone not be passionate about these magnificent animals, all of them! I wish the masses would be less passionate about Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo and more passionate about racehorses but it doesnt work like that, it never will. Not in quantities sufficient enough to provide a large portion of funding for the sport anyway.
I love the horses, that’s why I go. If it was not for the horses we would have no sport. It is right and proper that we should be passionate (and sentimental – I cried buckets when Arkle died) about them. If the sport is just about gambling go to a casino or bingo.
I’m as passionate about racing as you are, I’m also a realist. So bbobbell, we all to go the casino or bingo tomorrow and nobody gambles on the horses anymore…
Whats your plan of action after that happens please?
A few questions:
a) Is anyone at the forum planning to set up a petition on the Number 10 website?
b) Does this method succeed/has this method ever worked?
I’m writing to my MP today and am working on a submission to Roger Mosey. I’m going to ask him to state his case in public (Ascot in January?), and allow the expression of an opposing point of view. The lack of consultation inherent in this is really irritating me.
The reason it is irritating me is because of the licence fee. I am a "stakeholder" in this organisation yet they are behaving in a completely undemocratic, prescriptive way. If Channel Four dropped racing, I would never watch the channel again – that’s consumer sovereignty.
Yet this action cannot be taken effectively with BBC because of the licence fee; it’s irrelevant whether you watch or not.
I’m surprised EU Anti-Competitive Practices panjandrums haven’t had a look at the BBC.
Here’s a quote from Roger Mosey that appeared in his blog on the BBC Sport website a while back…..
In fact, I’m about the least horsey type imaginable. Having been brought up in Bradford and now living in London, I’m allergic to green fields. I’ve nothing at all against horses – they seem relatively benign animals – but it’s the one subject on which there’s a unbridgeable chasm between Clare Balding and me. She grew up with them, while the only horse I knew as a kid was Mister Ed.
Here’s a quote from Roger Mosey that appeared in his blog on the BBC Sport website a while back…..
In fact, I’m about the least horsey type imaginable. Having been brought up in Bradford and now living in London, I’m allergic to green fields. I’ve nothing at all against horses – they seem relatively benign animals – but it’s the one subject on which there’s a unbridgeable chasm between Clare Balding and me. She grew up with them, while the only horse I knew as a kid was Mister Ed. Sack the ******* and bring back Jonathan Martin
I’m as passionate about racing as you are, I’m also a realist. So bbobbell, we all to go the casino or bingo tomorrow and nobody gambles on the horses anymore…
Whats your plan of action after that happens please?
That was no what I said. I was making the point that without the horses we have no sport. I accept that gambling is part of it and always will be. Bookis are all part of the coulour and atmosphere of the day in this country. We have just got to be mindful of the main protagonists who cannot speak up for themselves, which is what I and others are doing.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.