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I have a prior engagement watching gloss paint drying this Saturday. However, I’ve heard good tips for Cleethorpes in the water buckets over the assault course contest (get that measuring stick out Arthur) and Bournemouth have been clocking good times in the grossly over-sized costume three-legged race event.
Enjoy!!
For me it is one of the most fun days racing of the year and I’m absolutely gutted I shall be missing it this year.
It should be possible to entice families/newcomers to a day at the races without having to introduce the crazy "team" element. Most of the kids at Ascot I guess will be itching to get on the fairgound-like attractions and snaffle some ice-creams and obesity-inducing gloop from the numerous vendors rather than watch the gee-gees walking around the pre-parade ring or work out which bookie is offering the best odds (something that at least might benefit them when doing maths exams).
The crowds, whilst admirable, don’t mean too much with regards to attacting future racegoers. The local county show attracts similar numbers, but the kids don’t all want to go back home and become dairy farmers or cheese makers.
Furthermore, if this event is REALLY about encouraging newcomers to the sport why has it always been staged in one corner of the country? Don’t those who are responsible for the promotion of the sport want the next generation of tykes/geordies/jocks/mancs/taffys and west-country bumpkins etc to follow the sport too? They do have racecourses in these parts of the country so I’m told. Still, I’m not surprised that when it comes to sloshing out hundreds of thousands of Horse Racing’s cash, the powers-that-be are, once again, incapable of thinking outside the golden-triangle that is the S.E. of England. Perhaps they think that no sponsors capable of providing the champagne would consider venturing beyond, say Newbury, with Newmarket only just considered sub-arctic.
The Shergar Cup is also stained by the memory of all those years when Willie Carson and Clare Balding tried to talk up the event with such over-zealous faux enthusiasm. Okay, they couldn’t say the whole thing was a crock-of-you-know-what but there is such a thing as trying too hard. They tried too hard.
Now I like Clare Balding but on Shergar Cup Day she was rather like a school-ma’m telling her ungrateful pupils at dinner time that theywill
enjoy their sprouts. I fear we’ll get much the same message tomorrow, or rather those that watch the thing will: I’ll make a point of watching something else.
Ascot put the meeting on – any other course in the country could do their own initiatives and lots do.. There is more to racing than just putting on 6 races and hoping people turn up. In the modern era where every course is battling for the leisure pound this sort of concept – as long as it is only once a year – is a successful diversion from the mundane.
What on earth do you mean by "sloshing out hundreds of thousands of Horse Racings cash"? The event is a large money spinner thanks to the sponsorship and attendance – certainly not a drain on anybody’s finances.
I think it’s safe to say that many of the big name international jockeys come because it is Ascot and they fancy riding at it in front of a large audience.
Lets see what Channel 4/More 4’s take is tomorrow…
For me it is one of the most fun days racing of the year and I’m absolutely gutted I shall be missing it this year.
Well good luck to you Paul, it takes all sorts to be a racing fan, but the day I highlight a 6 race card of 10 runner handicaps, contrived to suit a totally alien format, as one of my meetings of the year will be the day I know that my heart has died and it is time to move on. Horses are THE stars of racing, jockeys are incidental to the equation.
It may bring punters in but it is NOT representative of what horse racing is actually about. Loads of people spend money on virtual racing ahead of real racing, does that make it a good thing? It is like so many areas of life, where something is pulling in cash and it is deemed to
prove
that it is the way forward. One million people betting on two globules of saliva running down a wall can never be wrong.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
It may well pull in the crowds, as do the meetings around the country where after racing concerts are held. But doesn’t that prove that the people marketing racing have given up trying to sell racing as a great sport and relied upon completely unrelated activities to increase attendances?
That may balance the books but is it not the case that they people earning the fat pay cheques have failed at what their sole purpose is – to promote and widen the appeal of horse racing as opposed to pop and rock acts far past their sell by dates.
At Leicester a few saturdays ago you couldnt get near the bar to he served and the Owners and Trainers area was filled to bursting. If a course cant even provide comfort in that facility designed as an exlusive reward for the people who put more into the sport than most then it really is time to have a serious rethink. After all the race fans and the owners are all racing has got once the fair weather lot disappear.
It may well pull in the crowds, as do the meetings around the country where after racing concerts are held. But doesn’t that prove that the people marketing racing have given up trying to sell racing as a great sport and relied upon completely unrelated activities to increase attendances?
Comparing Shergar Cup day with a concert with low grade racing attached is not comparing like for like.
From your comments it is clear you have never attended Shergar Cup Day – more than any other race day an attempt is made to explain to those on course what is happening.
The jockeys and trainers are far more accessible than usual and even those who are already racing fans get the chance to see some top International jockeys live.
Don’t be fooled by the "team" branding – there is decent money at stake for the top jockey of the afternoon as well as the kudos.
At the end of the day it is one meeting out of some 1,500 and I believe is does far more good for the sport than it does bad.
The courses who should be criticised are those like Epsom and Sandown who stage a concert then pay lip service to the racing by framing a card of low grade races most punters would not even pay a tenner to watch.
I think racing in general is fooling itself that the majority of people care anything about the day’s action, it is just a diversion until the concert starts. In that regard courses such as Epsom Haydock and Newmarket are the worst to blame.
This year Ascot have got uninterrupted coverage on ATR from next year the competition will have to share the day with Haydcock, Newmarket and Redcar (if the fixtures are the same) on Racing UK.
So it could become just another day in the race calendar if RUK cannot give it the prominence ATR have today.
So it could become just another day in the race calendar if RUK cannot give it the prominence ATR have today.
Thought it was all on C4/More4?
Not a huge fan – it’s a bit like pro-celebrity golf, probably alright if you are there but of little interest otherwise.
I thought Channel 4 made a very good fist of conveying the atmosphere. Wish I’d be there but it was a good show and I enjoyed seeing Haydock/Newmarket as well.
A lot of the people crabbing the Shergar Cup are also the first to ask why racing isn’t trying to reach out to new, younger audiences. I think ideas like the Shergar Cup show that Ascot is doing it’s best in this regard.
Just good racing alone isn’t enough these days. You need to make the racing the star attraction for the day – which Shergar Cup is – and then add value (concert, entertainment etc).
Jim "Croc" McGrath commentary wasn’t good today a lot of erms and trying to grasp the names, I think he is retiring at the right time.
Not sure how people can crab at the Shergar Cup after yesterdays contest – some great finishes.
It does seem weird they decide the ride of the day before the last race though as Gary Stevens ride in the last should have won that prize hands-down.
Jim "Croc" McGrath commentary wasn’t good today a lot of erms and trying to grasp the names, I think he is retiring at the right time.
A totally uninspired choice as commentator for the day.
I reckon Stevens would have won on the second horse in the last race, she should have won on Noble Deeds.
I happened to be in a Working Men’s Club (yes they do still exist) yesterday where I go to enjoy the Samuel Smith’s Dark Mild and had hoped to watch the Test Match; but yer ‘working men’ were glued to the Shergar Cup and seemed to be revelling in the team tactics and which team is gonna win stuff. All very animated towards the end
Didn’t do much for me so I ruminated on greater things in the company of my foaming brown pints
Suggest those that feel the same do the same: it’s an amusing one-off, so let it be
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