- This topic has 23 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 5 months ago by
.
- Posts
Thanks apracing. Interesting. I suppose it is a pretty effective way to advertise – with a captive audience browsing the card for several hours. Probably reasonably cheap too compared with, say, an ad in a newspaper which people just flick over. I’m sure many members will be thinking along the same lines as Purwell though so they’d need to justify it by proving it’s resulted in new members if they ever wanted to do it again. Do you know if Unison members got free (or cheaper) admission?
“As for your sponsorship offer Ian, I suspect an empty hobnobs packet didn’t cut it as a prize”
That will probably be correct tbf.
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’d be surprised if there wasn’t some sort of concession for Unison members/staff. Not much of a union if it can’t even negotiate a freebie at a race day!
A bit of searching showed that Unison is not alone – check out the Ayr results on June 24th this year:
https://www.racingpost.com/results/2023-06-24
Sponsoring a Listed race is a surprise.
The politics of racegoers (and many owners) may skew conservative, but the jockeys, horsemen and track workers themselves are union members and it is natural that they would show solidarity with other workers.
Although I didn’t express myself as well as I wished with my original post may I take this opportunity to thank all contributors whatever view is held.
To end on a humorous note the following is something I came across quite by accident and perhaps should be made essential reading for all political parties whatever their hue.
Listed among unusual items purchased on a government credit card by the Scottish Assembly.
A book entitled ‘How to run a government so citizens benefit and taxpayers don’t go crazy’
good luck to allI wonder who wrote the book, there aren’t many, if any, who have pulled that off.
Coming back to the topic, I’d argue the sight of politicians being wined and dined on bookmaker freebies is probably a worse look for racing than occasional union sponsorship. Not that racing authorities have any control over that of course and I don’t think much of it registers with the wider public anyway.
Blackcountry Kid, I thought your original point was well made and definitely worthy of some thought. It has led to a very interesting thread.
In today’s polarised world, the concept of impartiality seems to be little appreciated, and is often viewed as taking sides because you are not agreeing with a particular viewpoint.
Racing should definitely think carefully about who it partners with, albeit this is very difficult as so many of the people and organisations who have money to splash around are problematic in some way.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.