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This journalist has been praised in another recent thread but she deserves one all of her own!
The single most impressive work I have ever read on racing/gambling is her book “The Dogs” which takes you to a magical character-filled world of greyhound racing and then charts – mournfully – it’s decline. If you’ve not read it, do so. It is baleful, evocotive and immaculately written.
You’ll get a taste of her talents at the link below, a piece on the demise of Walthamstow for The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jul/27/greyhound.racing
Mike
I seem to remember reading ‘The Dogs’ years ago; did she not write most movingly about all the ex racers that used to live on her Dad’s sofa? [the only place for a sighthound to be, or so my whippet tells me]. I did find her description of greyhound racing very difficult to undertsand, though, with all of the re runs etc. Loved going to Perry Barr when I was a child, and was moved to tears when I saw Mick the Miller at the Natural History Museum..I believe he has gone elsewhere now.
"For me, it ended a few years ago. I still go dog racing from time to time"
So she wrote a famous book, right, about greyhound racing and now, when greyhound racing needs her brilliant skills most, she doesn’t attend. What a shame.
I like her a lot less than I did about six hours ago. Best not read her book either.
Typical Gruniad. We could win the World Cup in South Africa and they’d find some reason to make everyone feel bad about life. A dreadful newspaper. I sussed that out in 1984, after Grenada.
Still, the girl can write, I’ll give her that, but writing without backbone and conviction is just text and punctuation. A bit like the latter half of this disappointing article.
Even though that article was disappointing and seasoned Laura watchers will note a certain (and sometimes unwelcome) Woolfian tendency to melancholy and despair, you have to hand it to her – there isn’t a horse racing writer in this country now that Sir Clement has gone who can hold a candle to this girl.
This is from yesterday’s RP, a 500 word frustrated, understated polemic on Racing For Change which read like some of the writing on here, pleas for reason confronted by ears of stone.
"The idea that people will become interested in a race because it is moved to Ascot, or to a Saturday, has a kind of moderniser logic and I can appreciate that. At the same time, because I understand racing, its unpredictability, its occasional boringness, its absolute dependance on history and myth, without which the Derby is just a dozen horses running downhill round a bend – I also know that people won’t fall in love with it because it is offered to them on a plate."
Then Laura uses herself as an analogy for the Bills of the racing world or in Tony Kelly’s condescending descriptor, "regular enthusiasts", stating that RFC aren’t interested in her and that in 5 years time, she won’t be involved anymore. Which is a pity; racing needs writers of Laura’s quality to record the history and the myth.
She also has a piece in the latest issue of Owner and Breeder, which is headlined ‘Can we have our sport back, please?’.
It reveals that she has owned a sprint handicapper called After The Show for several years, but is now giving up, asking ‘Do I want chuck money away in order to bankroll a sport that regards purists as obstacles in the road to populism?’.
She talks at some length about the Westlife concert at Newbury in August that led Barry Hills to leave the course halfway through the meeting to avoid the ‘relentless proximity of a crowd with no interest whatsoever in racing’.
Near the end of what is apparently her final article for the magazine she writes ‘How I wish we could stop trying to remake this sport in the image of the modern world, because it doesn’t work and the desperation is starting to show’.
I’d provide a link, but the website is password protected, even to ROA members who get the magazine free.
AP
She also has a piece in the latest issue of Owner and Breeder, which is headlined ‘Can we have our sport back, please?’.
It reveals that she has owned a sprint handicapper called After The Show for several years, but is now giving up, asking ‘Do I want chuck money away in order to bankroll a sport that regards purists as obstacles in the road to populism?’.
She talks at some length about the Westlife concert at Newbury in August that led Barry Hills to leave the course halfway through the meeting to avoid the ‘relentless proximity of a crowd with no interest whatsoever in racing’.
Near the end of what is apparently her final article for the magazine she writes ‘How I wish we could stop trying to remake this sport in the image of the modern world, because it doesn’t work and the desperation is starting to show’.
I’d provide a link, but the website is password protected, even to ROA members who get the magazine free.
AP
Interesting.
I have to say on a personal note, i am all for new people watching the sport and becoming horse racing fans, however, what i do not like, is the fact that a lot of people just go to the races as a venue that acts as a ‘posh pub’, so to speak.
I do not go to a lot of race meetings, simply because of the people who just go to drink beer, have no interest in betting, and start chanting rather stupid gestures/songs, etc… at jockeys and horses, which make me cringe.
Of course, people are entitled to do what they want, but it does detract from the value on offer at racecourses. I go to the races to enjoy the horses, see more equines up close, keep an eye on some of the horses that i am close to and would like to keep an eye on for the future in regard to betting opportunities.
The above probably makes me come across as pretentious, it isn’t meant that way, i just simply don’t see the need why so many people want to go to the races just to get drunk, when they have no ambitions towards horse racing. It’d be much like someone going to watch a rugby match, just to get drunk on booze before and during the match, and having no interest in the rugby on show, and shouting obscenities whilst they do so.
The other thing which annoys me greatly is how many females make it onto television screens during big meetings such as Ascot, Cheltenham and most noticeably more in recent years, Aintree. Then the question comes to one of them "who do you think is going to win the race".
Then you get the funniest reply ever "A horse with 4 legs", well, i haven’t heard that one before, before they all start rolling about with laughter. Just makes me cringe.
The other thing which annoys me greatly is how many females make it onto television screens during big meetings such as Ascot, Cheltenham and most noticeably more in recent years, Aintree.
That strikes me as needlessly misogynistic. Or perhaps simply Scouse-ist?
AP, is there anywhere I can get a copy of that article?
I do wish she’d cheer up though. All of us are suffering with the village idiots at RFC not just her. I’ve seen some of her upbeat stuff and it is nectar – literary nectar.
If any of the TRF Racing Insiders are acquainted with LT, can you give her a cheeky nudge? Ta.
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Of course, people are entitled to do what they want, but it does detract from the value on offer at racecourses. I go to the races to enjoy the horses, see more equines up close, keep an eye on some of the horses that i am close to and would like to keep an eye on for the future in regard to betting opportunities.
The above probably makes me come across as pretentious
More shame to the Tony Kellys and RFC marketeers of the world who want to make you feel that way. We live in a time and place which values ruthless, quick profiteering without foundations over building to last.
The unsavoury twerps who pedal this junk have the cheek to pose as "modernisers". In placing tradition, horses and regular racegoers at rock bottom of their priorities, they are steering us back towards racing’s dark ages.
They, not you, are the pretentious ones.
When are the "genuine racing fans" going to realise that racecourses cannot survive by just attracting the genuine fans alone? If they don’t go out of their way to attract "normal" people to their events they will go bust, then you really will have something to moan about!
And this snobbish view of the race fan is really annoying – "how dare they encourage people to come to our sport just to drink & enjoy themselves and not bother looking at the horses or even having a bet!"
Plus the all-sweeping statement "people just go to the races to drink" is absolute nonsense. It’s like saying that all teenagers are knife wielding, old lady mugging morons. They’re not, it’s a small percentage of them that gets reported in the press.
Only a small percentage of the crowd at a racecourse gets far too drunk & makes a nuisance of themselves & they’re the ones that get reported. Not the thousands who went to the races, behaved themselves, had a good time & didn’t drink to excess.
Going to the races is a day out, where the horse racing is PART of the entertainment, not the ONLY entertainment (Cheltenham Festival excepted). It gives a chance for the guys & girls to dress up in their best togs, regardless of which day or enclosure they are in. They have a few drinks, maybe a few bets and, even better, a few winners & a good day out.
If the racing fan gets their way & the racecourses discourage the average public from going to the races, then the sport is dead.
Not defending the pissheads but couldn’t she just go to Plumpton of a Monday?
Or she could have gone on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to Newmarket York, Chester, Goodwood…top-class racing held in front of well-behaved crowds
No more, the best racing is to be held at weekends in front of thousands of ill-behaved drunks who couldn’t care less about the races they’re not watching; meanwhile those with an interest in the racing who’ve taken the brave decision to attend will have their day ruined by the always-dangerous mixture of alcohol and testosterone flying about around them
Put the ‘dross’ on at weekends RFC/BHA/XYZ. The drunks will still attend and spend as they do the ‘dross’ at Haydock on Friday nights. The difference being they will have it all to themselves, and we, the maligned forgotten purists will no longer have only fond memories of marvellous midweek days mingling with the best; but will have fond dreams too of what is to come, once again
Spot on, Drone. Pefect logic. Deliver the lower class handicaps at weekends for an audience who like a drink and the Rick Astley/Nik Kershaw/Howard Jones Supergroup and then run the proper stuff in the week for the "regular enthusiast".
the racing fan gets their way & the racecourses discourage the average public from going to the races, then the sport is dead.
Nobody’s discouraging anyone, deep sensation. I love crowds and I love the massive attendance figures. I like a drink too, as my landlord knows only too well. I could watch pretty girls in nice dresses, hoop earrings and St Tropez every day of the week and I’m well used to hanging round big gangs of lads in my football incarnation.
How are we going to get them into the racing itself? Or is it just the cash that the likes of, say, Northern Racing are interested in. Hmmm? What do you think?
Even you have would have to admit that us "regular enthusiasts" have not been particularly well served by RFC and that the Grockles there to watch the boy bands have had the red carpet treatment. There’s a balance and Laura’s point is it isn’t being achieved.
Unfortunately, some of us have to work during the week, although the present Government is doing it’s level best to rectify that situation.
Incidentally, further back in this thraad Mick The Miller was mentioned, he is now housed at Tring Museum along with a lot of other stuffed animals and birds, well worth a visit.I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysYour choice of the term "regular enthusisast" Max is rather better than my somewhat divisive "purist" which smacks of elistism, us and them
To be clear, I too have nothing against those who enjoy a jolly good lube or even those who like Rick Astley; I’ve enjoyed many of the former but have never felt the need to over-indulge at the racecourse, because I find the prospect of the day’s sport and betting is more inviting than the prospect of downing pints.
Each to their own, so please feel free to chuck it down all Saturday if that’s your thing; but the splosh tastes the same and the ‘vibe’ feels the same be it downed and danced to a backdrop of Group1 or Selling Plate
Doesn’t it?
Whatever, if you’re gonna get smashed do it with panache. The uncouth drunk has no place on the racecourse, nor anywhere else
Nobody’s discouraging anyone, deep sensation. I love crowds and I love the massive attendance figures. I like a drink too, as my landlord knows only too well. I could watch pretty girls in nice dresses, hoop earrings and St Tropez every day of the week and I’m well used to hanging round big gangs of lads in my football incarnation.
How are we going to get them into the racing itself? Or is it just the cash that the likes of, say, Northern Racing are interested in. Hmmm? What do you think?
Even you have would have to admit that us "regular enthusiasts" have not been particularly well served by RFC and that the Grockles there to watch the boy bands have had the red carpet treatment. There’s a balance and Laura’s point is it isn’t being achieved.
How are we going to get the average joe interested in racing? Just leave them be, they’ll either like it or they won’t. Why did you get into horse racing?
Also, when I hear the phrase "get the public interested in racing" and suchlike I’m not sure what anyone means, including RFC. Do they mean they want to get people interested in watching a load of brown horses running up & down a field for no apparent reason? Or do they want to get them betting? Now that’s a completely different animal than to just going to the races & having a nice day out!
The problem racecourses have is that there are not enough racing/betting fans out there, especially when there is now no reason to go racing as you can watch all the races in the comfort of your own armchair & bet on the internet.
So what would you do to boost turnover? Put on a concert & get 30k through the turnstiles, who may have a few bets, some food & some drink? Or knock that on the head, only get around 3k through the door, most of which may only place 1 bet & have a couple of drinks? Which one of those situations is good for business and which one isn’t?
If I’ve understood Laura’s piece correctly, Newbury should now tell 30k people to sod off next year because 1 old duffer didn’t like it?
And, interestingly, my point about not everyone who doesn’t know or appreciates racing but has a great day out and doesn’t get incredibly drunk and starts fights etc was easily passed over with more nonsense of everyone is getting drunk and starting fights etc! Should The Racing Forum be sponsored by the Daily Mail? Who’s going to be the 1st to blame the immigrants?
Leaving aside the insulting reference to the trainer Barry Hills as an ‘old duffer’ – the point of the complaint about the situation at Newbury was that the pop concert was scheduled to coincide with a top class card containing the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes and the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes.
That’s a card designed to attract racing enthusiasts, not first timers. Almost all the pop concerts attached to race meetings are scheduled for midweek evening meetings – as at Sandown, Epsom, Newmarket etc. Newbury had a Friday card as well, but as that was an afternoon meeting, obviously they wouldn’t have got the crowd they did on the Saturday.
It looks from the outside as if Newbury were backed into a corner – the two days racing were already scheduled as afternoon cards before they had the idea of a pop concert. They couldn’t change the Friday meeting to the evening, because there were already three evening cards planned and nobody would switch. So they had to go to Saturday for the concert. But they were also unable to move the Group races to Friday, because of terrestrial TV demands.
Newbury do have three evening meetings, so hopefully their long term planning for 2011 will avoid a repeat of this conflict. There’s something wrong with your basic business if you need a cash generating concert on your second biggest day of the flat season.
AP
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