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Every time I hear the phrase, "leaner, fitter beast" the hairs on the back of my head start to bristle. I can remember someone else, a dark shadow, a long time back who was obsessed with the leaner and fitter beast and ended up starving an entire country and wiping out three industries.
Apologies that was a regrettable slip into cliche-dom. Heaven forbid I should be associated with that particular darkside
Racing for the converted has never been better. Drone, do you remember the eighties in midwinter, the days of Extel? No racing for a week; now we’ve got the sand, the seemingly hated sand, we haven’t missed a days betting.
Nothing against AW, just doesn’t interest me. Keep on keeping-on sand lovers. Would agree that it serves a useful purpose when NH is off.
Bookies open at eight in the morning where I’m from for people to bet on late night aussie dogs. You can bet in the evenings under lights. South Africa, Hong Kong. Germany, France, Italy. The US. The Czech Republic. Last year, on several occasions, I bet for 24 hours on events from three continents, horses and dogs, plus several multi table poker tournaments.
Why would anyone want to trim this down? For what reason? It’s the closest thing to nirvana I can think of while keeping my boxer shorts on.
Trying to discern the character of folk from their posts on a message board is a dangerous game to play but it’s one I enjoy and I’ve come to the conclusion that you and I, though we share a deep love of the sport and were drawn to it for similar reasons, are chalk and cheese.
You the impulsive, emotional, inveterate gambler who relishes and maybe needs constant ‘action’ and the more of it, whatever it is, the better. More-is-more. Hasten to add that is not meant to be judgemental, just an observation.
Me the over-controlled, reflective quiet guy who enjoys a relaxed poring-over of a couple of races a day when the mood takes me, for whom a day, a week without punting is of little consequence and when faced with the prospect of too much potential ‘action’ (busy Saturday syndrome) tends to get a sinking feeling. More-is-less.
So being essentially at polar opposition temperamentally it is hardly surprising we’ll never agree on how racing should advertise itself, to whom it should be made to appeal, and how much of it there should be.
Young people would LOVE it!
Football? Twice a week and most good bets odds on. Golf? How many runners??? Both pale shadows of the sport of kings in terms of betting. Our sport isn’t marketing the possibilities, the lifestyle, the culture to anything like it’s potential.
In 2009 there will always be an opportunity to win money, as Martyn says at Southwell, "without work!" To quote McMillan, we’ve never had it so good.
How come the message isn’t getting across?
Is it complacency? Worse, is it elitism? Do we actually want the young involved? I’m beginning to wonder.Personally I’m keen to differentiate racing as a sport from racing as a betting medium, and as such in the unlikely event of an aggressive marketing campaign I believe it would be healthier and more constructive if the sport for its own sake was promoted in preference to the gambling aspect. Many – the majority – of those who fall in love with the spectacle will gravitate to punting anyway; and though I’m loath to take the moral high ground about any matter, I actually do believe that gambling should not be actively encouraged, particularly in the young.
Good craic as ever Max, and thought-provoking posts from Graeme and Fister
I’ll see your Steve McQ and raise you an Edward G
You can raise me all in, Drone, with a post as good as that sah!
You’re bang on about me. I’d like to add the obvious point that I am very, very passionate about horse racing though. And or the best of reasons, not just to preserve my own pleasure. I’ve had some superb times, the best. I can’t imagine a world without top quality racing in this country – and lets be honest, at it’s best, it IS top quality.
We should nurture it and develop it – one way or another.
"According to Lydia today, horse racing is the second most attended sporting activity in the country"
Probably because it’s on every single day.
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I thought about saying myself and wondered how racing actually compares to football pound for pound?
How many meetings in the year? What’s the total attendance figures?.
How many football games in a season? What’s the total attendance figures?.
How many pies do they both sell? That’s important to back up your figures
I’ll let you work it… I’ll wait here
"According to Lydia today, horse racing is the second most attended sporting activity in the country"
Probably because it’s on every single day.
.
I thought about saying myself and wondered how racing actually compares to football pound for pound?
How many meetings in the year? What’s the total attendance figures?.
How many football games in a season? What’s the total attendance figures?.
How many pies do they both sell? That’s important to back up your figures
I’ll let you work it… I’ll wait here
For January to October 2008
5,108,329 attended 1,221 race meetings giving an average of 4,184 per meeting
This compares with 5,152,872 (1,119) average 4,605 in the same period in 2007
Average attendance at a Premier leage match 34,990 ranging from 75,413 at Man Utd to 18,097 at Wigan.
For the other leagues the averages are as follows:
Championship 17,508
League One 7,591
League Two 4,192
Conference 1,781(Football stats based on the 2008 / 2009 season)
Thanks for those stats, Paul.
At it’s most basic, firefox, marketing is about knowledge about the people purchasing the product. There isn’t a single enterprise known to man which can sustain it’s activity without knowing who the customer is and how to reach that customer.
It’s fashionable to hammer marketeers, (shock comic Bill Hicks’ exhortation to all marketers in his audience to commit suicide immediately is a case in point), but marketing is essential.
Who is watching racing? How are they watching it? What is it about racing they like or dislike?
This entire thread (well, the last thirty posts), may have been debated on a baseless premise.
You’re quite right, firefox. We may find out that you and people with like mind are THE customer; the Hexham set, the Kelso clan, the customers who would quite happily watch racing amongst two or three hundred people of like mind, Clubs in London have survived for three hundred years plus on similar lines, Whites, the Garrick. We may find out that racing no longer has mass appeal. But one things for sure, we need to find out and racing needs to spend money doing it.
Firefox, I’ve just read your post in the other thread about marketing and Lydia Hislop. For the sake of ease if anyone is reading this, I’ll ask two questions.
Do you accept that the sport of horse racing will eventually fade away unless we replenish the audience?
and
If so, are you content for this to happen?
At least you’re honest, firefox. I couldn’t disagree more with your opinion, but there you go.
A thirty runner Cambridgeshire run in sunlight in front of a cast of partying thousands is more my cup of char, particularly if everyone in the stands has backed the one horse, now a length up with a furlong to go.
Remember Pasternak?
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She rode a fine race on Areoplane today at Kempton, didn’t ask the horse too soon and cruised into contention and pushed it over the line.
It was a very good, well timed ride and she almost had a double with a contrasting front running ride on Andean Margin in the last, only getting done by Blaise Tower in the final strides.
Too busy frantically packing up by then to notice the race Paul!!!
Can’t say I blame you.
I counted just over 90 in front of the stands before the third race!!!
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