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What can Racing do to attract new people to the sport
I thought racing had solved this last year with the Jenas advert
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
I read this too – at least they canvassed young adults among their own staff for this.
I do think reduced admission for younger adults is a good idea, but what racing needs is young people going racing to engage with the sport and, when they’re old enough, have a bet (and generate Levy income).
Loading racecourses with bouncy castles and funfairs on Family Fundays doesn’t get children into racing – they never see a horse all day.
And selling racecourses as outdoor boozing in scenic surroundings doesn’t get young adults properly into racing either.
Racing needs to take pride in its core product and USP – you can have a bet and feel engaged and invested in each race in a real and meaningful way as the outcome of each race makes a material financial difference to you.
I’ve yet to see racing properly marketed in this way and I won’t be holding my breath over ever seeing it.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"In the “Racing Post” article, Harry Wilson wrote “I had no family ties to the sport and no knowledge even of its existence.”
Is the latter part of that sentence meant to be taken literally? A 19 year old person genuinely did not know horses are raced and had never even heard of the Grand National? If so, racing has declined in the public consciousness even more than I thought.
I am honestly not sure what the answer is. Maybe racing is a sport that has never much appealed to young people. When I was at school, I can only recall one other lad with an interest in racing and that was almost exclusively about the Grand National.
Racing can do all it wants to attract young people but I doubt its voice will be louder than the animal rights crowd and the anti-gambling lobby. While racing is still a popular spectator sport, the opposition to it has become more intense in recent years. I suspect most young people, especially amongst university graduates, are more sympathetic to the anti-racing side of the argument.
Reduced prices for younger adults is a must – also the powers that be need to have a racing theme visible at the meetings so that the younger kids are not being dumped off at the bouncy castle all day.
Maybe have a selected number of retired racehorses present at a certain number of meetings through the year both north and south so that kids can interact with them (i.e. groom and/or feed them or even where they can be put on their backs and walked around an enclosure).
You could also arrange for some of those horse racing equicizers to be made available where the kids can actual get on them and somewhat feel what the riding experience is like – maybe have games/competitions/raffles that they can enter where they can win maybe a racing stable tour, tickets for a free day at the races or a day at the National Horesracing Museum that have all sorts of events/displays going on.
Guess what…..a lot of existing racing fans that regularly go racing actually have families or younger relatives that they are maybe just looking for a way to introduce them to the sport…..lets try playing to those potential future racegoers first that may already have some knowledge that the sport actually exists already.
Just having a days racing with limited advertising and expecting new people just to show up without putting on additional things to capture their attention will get them knowhere in a hurry.
I got into the sport from a work colleague many years ago. I suspect most of us are pulled into it by way of friends and family or maybe work. I can’t really see a way of drawing people in through other means, I have no interest in most other sports so cheap or maybe free entry to watch cricket for example isn’t going to make a difference. I’m sure some maybe enticed and in turn it will draw their friends or family but I suspect it will be the few.
The more I know the less I understand.
I think CAS is right that racing has never had wide appeal to those below betting age. It’s not a sport that children can easily go out and participate in themselves, and it has few high-profile stars to aspire to be like.
For drawing in new people who don’t have family connections to the sport, racing has always been heavily dependent on the media and the adult pursuit of gambling. Animal welfare concerns and an increasing streak of Puritanism in society mean that both of these entry routes are under threat.
I think LD73 has the right ideas in that financial incentives and an increased focus on the horses themselves are likely to be fruitful avenues of appealing to the young. Finding as many ways to engage with schools and universities as possible seems wise as these are such fertile grounds for the one-sided messaging from animal rights organisations to take root.
I disagree. My love of racing has its roots in my uncle taking me to the races and my dad putting a shilling each way on my selection for whatever big race was on telly that Saturday. It’s definitely a sport that can appeal to children (albeit the betting angle may be unacceptable these days). Children love horses. That’s the USP. Racing seems keen to attract children but then keep them “entertained” and far away from seeing actual horses when they get to a race meeting. Mistake. Could argue the same strategy is being employed for young adults with emphasis on bands etc.
My parent’s generation no doubt made various parenting errors, but one thing many of them got right in my view was the way many introduced children to grown-up pastimes.
When my Dad took me to a football match it was on the understanding we were there to sit for 90 minutes and watch and grow our understanding of the actual game, not read a comic, chat to friends or, if it was non league, wander off behind the stands for a kick about with a ball we’d brought with us.
Ditto racing – we were there to watch, and learn more about, the actual racing, not have ice creams, go on bouncy castles etc.
Children don’t get taken racing any more – they get taken to a funfair where elsewhere at the venue there are horses they don’t ever see.
And these children grow up into young adults who might occasionally attend a live music and alfresco event that earlier in the day had horses that they barely noticed.
And all of this is presided over by racing marketing executives with no interest in racing – they might have been marketing bin liners at some company last year and might be destined to be marketing home tacos kits somewhere else next year.
I’d email them at the BHA and set them straight, but I’m terrified any reply might commence: “Thank you for REACHING OUT to us” and, seeing as I couldn’t be held responsible for the consequences in that malign eventuality, I never bother.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Tonge, not sure which part of my post you are disagreeing with as we seem to be saying a lot of the same thing?
I acknowledged that if you have family members who are interested in racing, that is a likely way to draw you in from a young age.
But I think racing has a much harder job connecting with young people who don’t have that link, and I think this route is getting tougher.
We seem to be agreeing that the horses themselves are one of the main things that could be better utilised to appeal to children and young adults.
Not sure if I was disagreeing with you or another post Marlingford. Apologies. It’s been a long day.
I don’t know how useful it is to court people with no interest in racing. Most, if not all, of us got involved through family or friends. Concentrate on enhancing the experience for those already engaged, at whatever level. They will bring friends and family if they have a good time.
No worries Tonge, hope tomorrow is less taxing
I wonder if there has been any research into how existing racing fans became interested to begin with. Whatever route was taken clearly “worked”, so this could be a useful thing for those trying to secure the future of the sport to be aware of.
Perhaps I’m an anomaly, but my family only took a fleeting interest in racing on Grand National day, and my interest was developed without significant familial involvement.
I stumbled across my first horse race aged 11 as I sought refuge in the living room from a house full of screaming seven-year-old girls (it was my sister’s seventh birthday party), turned on the television and they were on the second circuit of the 1974 Grand National.
I was at Junior School then, but by September I was at secondary school where I became a decent cross country runner, I would get home exhausted at Saturday lunchtime each weekend after a Saturday race in and around Sheffield, I’d switch on Grandstand and found myself identifying with the horse racing, especially NH, more than anything else – it was like cross country running, only horses, not people, according to my 11yo logic.
It then turned out my maths teacher was into racing, he got me to run a hypothetical book on The Derby in 1975, but he seemed more interested in Flat racing which interested me less at the time (I’d been mortified back in March to discover Flat racing even existed when I watched the Lincoln meeting).
In 1976 my family moved to Hull and I begged my Dad – whose only past flirtation with racing had been when flirting with posh older female racehorse owners when sharing a train carriage to Chester (them to go racing, my Dad to go to his then clerical job there) who proved a good source of winning tips – to take me to the races.
Despite our first visit on a non race day to check it out resulting in me running down to the 3f marker before finally accepting this was a Flat only racecourse with clearly not an obstacle in sight, we returned in April 1977 to Beverley for our first day at the races.
My first ever bet – Silver Cygnet – was only second.
But my next, Hit The Deck, won at 4/6 and my third, Money To Spare, came from last to first in a 1m2f handicap and bolted in under Jimmy Bleasdale at 10/1.
But, err, I’d over excitedly asked my Dad to back him for me at the opening Silver Ring Show of 5/1 with Dave Wallis.
But it was still a 5/1 winner – and I was forever after hooked.
Everyone has a different story.
The problem, I suspect, with the marketeers the BHA employ, is that they never got into racing at all – it’s just another marketing job to them.
So they don’t understand the myriad factors that combine to make racing’s unique pull.
It’s the usual lack of respect for domain expertise that blights so many industries.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I do think National Racehorse Week – which includes yard open days – is a great way to explain the sport to those with a vague interest in horses.
When you speak to people about horseracing they often don’t have a clue about the infrastructure/ training involved to get the horse to the track.
When I’m explaining it I use some footballing analogy, where the trainer is Sir Alex Ferguson and the horses are the players.
I think it’s a mistake to confuse “marketing” with “educating.”
Most people don’t want to be “educated” – they just want a day out.
I might go Stateside and attend a baseball fixture one day – if I do, I’ll want a pre- or post-match tour of some baseball museum, a seminar on how to make the perfect baseball bat and a histheir lecture on Babe Ruth like I’ll want a hole in the head.
I’ll just want to sit and watch the action, while stuffing my face with hot dogs, washed down with absurd amounts of root beer.
It’s just a bit of fun for most, so keep it light.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I wished that I had the answer to this problem. My parents had little interest in
racing, in fact zilch. I don’t recall ever watching a race with them, not even a
Grand National. It was my Gran I had to thank for my initiation into, as I saw it,
this magical sport. I didn’t have very good health as a kid and although we lived
in (or just outside) Glasgow, I used to spend months up at my Gran’s in Aberdeen
(the sea air and all that). My Gran was a real horsey woman through and through
and from about 9 or 10 I used to be fascinated listening to her talking about the
horses and jockeys with real enthusiasm. On a Saturday I’d get to pick out 3 tanner
(sixpence) doubles and a treble. We’d watch the racing on TV and she’d shout at the
telly when she got excited. Her enthusiasm was electric to me and it’s never left me
ever since.I’ve got two sons, one in London who was always interested in how I’d pour over the
form and thankfully he’s taken to it like a duck to water. He’ll phone (or Whatsap)
on a Saturday and now his partner, who is Greek, both pick out their ITV7 and we keep
a check by text as to how we’re all doing. My other son didn’t really get the racing/betting
bug but he got a real appreciation for horses. He sends me the books he’s come across
(he’s a real bookworm, with a brain the size of a planet), and when he and his wife
were over staying in Paris they sent me a cast replica of a beautiful horse by Degas
which has pride of place in my livingroom.The ITV7, doesn’t cost a penny, could win you a fortune and I think a lot of younger
people are aware of it, in the way they are aware of the lottery. It’s not a perfect
answer, but I think it has appeal to the young and might get a few interested. I think
it’s going to come down to you and me, or our sons, (or the like of Ian’s Maths teacher)
to kindle the fire at an early age. If we don’t pass it down, the way my Gran did with
me, I don’t think all the concerts and bouncy castles will do the trick.It would be a crying shame if there was a lost generation to Horse Racing, I
don’t know how we would ever get them back. I doubt shoot em up PC games
“see if you can get past Tattenham Corner without getting splattered” will
do the trick.Great post IMO, Graham – I really enjoyed reading it.
And, actually, I think you’re bang on with the ITV7 – it’s the weekly free mini lottery bet and racing should be selling it hard.
Might help if they stuck to seven of the actual ITV-televised races as sometimes they put in a race at a lesser meeting that is actually less competitive – go figure.
Even in 2023 it’s a myth that most people need millions to materially change their lives – £50,000 plus would make a significant difference to most individuals in a country where the average adult person is, mortgages included, over £30,000 in debt.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
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