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Given that every commercial break on Sky Sports Racing has adverts for Saga holidays, remedies for aches and pains, life insurance, pure cremation and funeral plans; I am not convinced racing is reaching a young audience anyway, with or without Ms Quek and her friends.
“And if the ITV executives believe she will help to bring a new audience to racing”
Top of their agenda is viewer numbers and ad revenue. I’m not sure developing racing is part of or very high up the wider ITV agenda although I guess it might be something the racing team might feel passionate about.
I don’t think Sam Quek is that bad a shout to be honest, ITV is about entertainment first and foremost – it isn’t a racing education show nor a show for the form book enthusiast or racing geek. And she’d be more entertaining and polished than a few they’ve had on in a similar role.
Talking purely in terms of the coverage I’d argue that the commentators are a far bigger factor than the presenters and pundits. If I think back to some of my earlier sporting memories, it’s the commentary that resonates more than anything else. I could tell you who was commentating on all sorts of events going back 25 years or more but I often wouldn’t have a clue who the pundits were.
In fairness, racing has its share of good commentators so personally I think there are other reasons why it struggles to attract viewers/attendees. For a start, plenty of people think it’s bent and let’s face it, they aren’t always wrong are they? Yes cheating goes on in all sports to varying degrees but most of the time people don’t have money on it and whilst you can of course bet on anything, racing and betting are intertwined orders of magnitude more than any other other sport.
This is the problem the relationship with gambling most of my family disapprove of me having a punt they still view bookies as smoky dens with blanked out windows.
The more I know the less I understand.
ITV is a commercial tv station that has to reach as wide as diverse an audience, as possible.
It is NOT, and never will be, a tv station that HAS to ‘bow’ to the ‘purist’ horse racing enthusiasts.It really is that simple, and i’m surprised that some of you still moan about ITV’s coverage and ‘add-ons’, quite frankly.
If you dont like it then just stick to Racing TV with Luck and his chums.Purely anecdotal, but my wife watched every day of ITV’s Cheltenham coverage with me last week; unheard of quite frankly; i’m surprised she watched even one day of it! She really enjoyed the whole ‘package’. So much so, that the comment on Friday was “We really ought to go to a couple of race meetings this Spring/Summer”.
That’s all folks!
For all my antipathy I hope the Quek appointment is a success. Might as well have her for Chester too as she’s from The Wirral which is almost Deeside. At 35 she’s likely to be way past it as far as youngsters are concerned though. Hope she proves me wrong but I suspect she’ll leave me pining for the return of Leonna Mayor.
Totally agree with your comments Wilts, and I’d add that the exposure that racing gets from being on a high profile, free to air channel is still one of the best ways of drawing new people into the sport.
I know the reach of traditional TV has fallen a lot, especially among the young, but am sure that the visibility that it gives racing in households across the country still helps immensely.
“Yes, it was Ascot on Sat, Feb 15th, and I was there. Several thousand young people with zero knowledge of horses or racing, badly dressed and consuming alcohol non stop.”
But if there had been something to engage them while they were there, perhaps it would have helped.
Just letting them in cheap or for free will just lead to what you experienced AP.
If there was some app developed where there was an attractive monetary prize, at least something that would catch their eye and interest…….and I don’t mean a hundred quid!!!!
It couldn’t be something like the ITV7, because a loss in the first race means you’re out and back to the bar. It needs to be something with a points system, so there’s a reward for coming second and third….fourth even and continuing the interest from race to race….always giving ‘hope’.
The person with the most points after the final race wins the prize.
Additional aspects that make racing unique, like form, distances, ground, weight/handicap, etc could be included, but only in a very basic guidance form.
Meet a trainer, jockey, owner, stable staff and see racing from their perspective. It would surprise a few to know the hours many of the stable staff work for instance.Just a thought, but whatever ideas are considered, engagement has to be a major consideration, because just letting them in to run rampant and hoping that the day out will create a life long bond with the sport isn’t enough.
“I suspect she’ll leave me pining for the return of Leonna Mayor.”
I believe Ms Mayor is currently on maternity leave. Considering some of the poorly judged messages she has put on social media recently, a period of absence from our screens is no bad thing for her and her employers.
I see her in a genial, loveable scouser role tapping into the unbridled enthusiasm that Liverpool (and only Liverpool obviously) has for the Grand National.
In much the same way that the BBC employed John Parrott but hopefully not inducing viewers to kick their tv sets in and with less bizarre eyebrows.Or something like that anyway…
Just seen an advert for help with gambling addiction. And it was immediately followed by an advert for…Paddy Power!
Note to the “Racing Post”. If you are going to run a two page interview about Sam Quek by fan boy Lee Mottershead, sneering at anyone who so much as dares to question her appointment and emphasising in a rather heavy handed way that she has been chosen for her racing knowledge rather than for any other consideration, then don’t use a picture like this one as an illustration.
It looks like those dreadful pictures of privately educated schoolgirls receiving their A Level results which used to appear in the “Daily Telegraph” and “Daily Mail”:
Tipping Tom Collins has joined the team. Apparently he’s a professional tipster. Does this mean he doesn’t actually punt with his own money?
The professional punter on Racing TV Dave Nevison is always putting up each way bets with 6, 7 or 8 places or each way thieving bets. Just which betting firms are accommodating him with these bets or are they just for the questionable benefit of viewers?
The downside of the start of the flat season – Francesca Cumani. Is she irritating and completely superfluous? She sure is!
Must admit I used to like Francesca but I just find her voice grating now.
The more I know the less I understand.
Strident and imbued with public school superiority – she sounds like she’s being strangled while inhaling nitrous oxide!
As for presenting horse racing, Francesca is a bimbo, albeit a rich one.
She’s already started trotting these tedious stats, no doubt supplied to her by Tanya. Usually met by understandable silence from Weaver.“4 of the last 8 winners have come from stall 1”
“The winner has never come from stall 14, 18 or 19”. Don’t know whether she included any non runners in her calculations.
etc etc
When discussing the stewards when the result was reversed she said “What was the distance, a short neck?”
My missus who has little interest in racing even said to me “Is a short neck an actual distance?”I’m afraid Cesca doesn’t even know the basics.
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