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I came across a copy of today’s ‘ I’ newspaper which presented "pick of today’s racing" – four from Perth four from Huntingdon and that was it! I seriously did not realise coverage had deteriorated quite that much, and in this case, why even bother?
Is the game up?
There is too much racing.
Why should normal newspapers carry all racecards/races Trickmeister?Value Is EverythingOn reflection, I suppose the question was a bit rhetorical. I get most of my info electronically and I’m often surprised by the amount of space racing is able to command against other sports but using, say, The Sun as a benchmark I’d kind of taken it for granted that other papers were on a par.
The volume and mediocrity of the day to day racing product provides little weight to any case for its coverage in the newspapers. Racing has no divine right to any space in the dailies, and I have no problem with that but it was a reality check for me to realise how low a profile ‘my’ sport has nowadays.
I’m only involved peripherally with racing but I do wonder whether those more closely involved realise just how irrelevant it is to the wider world.
The volume and mediocrity of the day to day racing product provides little weight to any case for its coverage in the newspapers. Racing has no divine right to any space in the dailies, and I have no problem with that but it was a reality check for me to realise how low a profile ‘my’ sport has nowadays.
I’m only involved peripherally with racing but I do wonder whether those more closely involved realise just how irrelevant it is to the wider world.
It does have two specialist television channels, how many sports have that?
Racecards don’t take up that much room and personally I wouldn’t entertain any newspaper that didn’t include them.
The ‘I’ is the tabloid, bite-sized version of The Independent so it would make sense for them to not necessarily cover all the cards in full.
Anyway, they need more space to tell you how to find a weekend break in a Tuscan villa for under two grand and what a jolly nice PM that Ed Miliband chappie will make.
Mike
The ‘I’ is the tabloid, bite-sized version of The Independent so it would make sense for them to not necessarily cover all the cards in full.
Anyway, they need more space to tell you how to find a weekend break in a Tuscan villa for under two grand and what a jolly nice PM that Ed Miliband chappie will make.
Mike
They don’t take sides in politics – they, leave the reader’s to vent their spleens in the letter section; also, they have a broad range of writers that come from all political persuasions which is refreshing.
At 20p the paper is a steal.
Regards
The Guardian stopped printing all the day’s racecards a long time ago & I’m amazed more newspapers haven’t followed their lead.
The Guardian stopped printing all the day’s racecards a long time ago & I’m amazed more newspapers haven’t followed their lead.
That’s to free up space to tell you how to find a weekend break in a Tuscan villa for under two grand and what a jolly nice PM that Ed Miliband chappie will make.
Mike
At 20p the paper is a steal.
Regards
I would certainly agree with that.
I’m not actually sure I’m that concerned with this matter as so many people get their information on-line nowadays. It just seems as though this would be a natural migration.
I think one could make a serious case for racing being overly represented considering the number of followers it has.
Mike
Racecards don’t take up that much room and personally I wouldn’t entertain any newspaper that didn’t include them.
Eh? racecards, even in the abridged form common to most newspapers nowadays, take up a heck of a lot of room compared to a list of other sporting fixtures; it surprises me that ‘Fleet Street’ still bother with most of them and I guess it must be due to it being a time-honoured tradition, now grudgingly tolerated
I don’t buy any newspapers other than chucking an occasional ‘value’ 4-bob at the aforementioned I and if I did it wouldn’t be for the racecards
I also don’t buy the Racing Post but if I did it wouldn’t be for info on Syria or Ed Miliband’s Tuscan holiday
The Guardian stopped printing all the day’s racecards a long time ago & I’m amazed more newspapers haven’t followed their lead.
That’s to free up space to tell you how to find a weekend break in a Tuscan villa for under two grand and what a jolly nice PM that Ed Miliband chappie will make.
Mike
Really? I thought it was to take up space regarding the new sport, second only to football, which is called football transfers.
Essentially, it kicks off with somebody suggesting player x might leave and goes on for two months with indept analysis of whether player x will leave, where he will go and how everyone feels about it. It is often usually supported by no facts or actual events…..people love it!!
SHL
Racecards don’t take up that much room and personally I wouldn’t entertain any newspaper that didn’t include them.
Eh? racecards, even in the abridged form common to most newspapers nowadays, take up a heck of a lot of room compared to a list of other sporting fixtures; it surprises me that ‘Fleet Street’ still bother with most of them and I guess it must be due to it being a time-honoured tradition, now grudgingly tolerated
I don’t buy any newspapers other than chucking an occasional ‘value’ 4-bob at the aforementioned I and if I did it wouldn’t be for the racecards
I also don’t buy the Racing Post but if I did it wouldn’t be for info on Syria or Ed Miliband’s Tuscan holiday
Less than 2 pages in today’s Daily Mirror of horse racing including all the cards, I don’t consider that excessive particularly with all the tripe in about football day after day.
Racing in the UK gets far bigger coverage in the media than it’s popularity deserves. The amount of press coverage is very good compared to most sports and TV coverage is more than any other sport including football. We seem to get far better coverage than other countries.
Racing in the UK gets far bigger coverage in the media than it’s popularity deserves. The amount of press coverage is very good compared to most sports and TV coverage is more than any other sport including football. We seem to get far better coverage than other countries.
I would suggest Kenh that the amount of television coverage is related to money. Subscriptions, betting and advertising.
You do have to wonder if some posters on here actually like the sport, some waste no time in knocking it despite it being the second best spectator sport in the country.
The racing fixture list has become so bloated that more than one newspaper don’t carry all the cards, citing "pressure for space" and "decisions made by the sports editor".
Whilst I’m sick of reading about football, football, football racing has become like dog racing and dog cards aren’t carried in the nationals.
racing has become like dog racing and dog cards aren’t carried in the nationals.
On that basis it palpably hasn’t as, in the main, full racing cards are still in the majority of national newspapers. In fact from that point of view the sport is quite lucky bearing in mind the ‘pressure of space’. The cards carried by the likes of the Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Express, Daily Mail and Daily Record are pretty decent when all is considered. Those publications give ratings and sufficinet data for the casual punter to at least make some reasoned selections without resort to deeper research.
The Daily Mirror has decent pull out on a Saturday (I believe the Sun does the same) with last run form for a good proportion of races along with a page set aside for Sunday. There are very readable columns by Newsboy (Daivd Yates) and Chris Forwood, the latter giving a successions of hints as to how to get ahead of the market.
A regional paper in Scotland, the Dundee based Courier, only covers two meetings a day, but does at least have an editorial everyday on it’s racing page, something not all dailies can manage.
In this age driven by newer technology, aside from the newspapers
there is a wealth of information available on the sport. It’s a quantum leap on from my younger days* when searching up to date information on racing was a nightmare and I relied on the weekly Raceform Handicap Book to keep me in form records. Well thumbed weekly form sections tucked away in home-made cardboard binders, reams of notebooks with my own jottings, marvellous! These days I can access any British based horse’s record at a click of a mouse…, some don’t how lucky they are.*My primary school project was a notebook containing details of all the racecourse in Britain. Thank you Mr Rich and Mr Bennett for encouraging me!
Rob
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