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I can see a few champing at the bit
That’s what we’re here for Cav!
I agree with your comments re-media coverage. Racing is, and always has been, very spoilt in this area. Second only to football in coverage.
Two dedicated channels, a whole afternoon a week (at least) on mainstream telly, a daily newspaper plus quite a few weekend papers and periodicals and a veritable raft of online content.
You could argue about whether best use has been made of it (the coverage) though.
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UK coverage of races is the best.
If racing goes down in UK, the rest will be buried 2 miles below the earth.
Look at your history:
Winston Churchill owned horses, the Queen and the late secretary of state Robin Cook was a frequent commentator for the Scotsman.
The leading public figures of other nations are quite wrongly thinking of it as a sin.I don’t think so, Corm. I think the initiative has been a woeful failure. The damage they’ve inflicted on the flat season (American-style focus on Saturdays, the diminuation of the midweek programme and Champions Day) might take a decade to recover from, if ever.
Interestingly, this years "free" April racing programme has been heavily restricted by most participating racecourses. Nottingham, for example, had only 500 free places for next weeks brilliant Further Flight meeting. The cleaner and her extended family of itinerants must have got those because I never saw them.
Apparently (unconfirmed) they’ve given away 70,000 free tickets for April Max – which isn’t bad really.
Ignoring the betting and ownership points, I’m sure Rodders would tell us how wonderful everything has gone.
Racegoing – Attendances are up, which begs the question how hard that was to achieve in the first place.
General Media Coverage – RfC have worked hard at this. There were plenty of articles featuring jockeys and trainers last Autumn/Winter in newspapers in the ‘front’ sections to promote the sport to the widest possible audience etc. McCoy won SPOTY, Kauto Star going for a 5th King George resulted in very good viewing figures. Was that possible without RfC? King George figures probably, McCoy no.
Commercial Revenues – Only obvious one is the Champions’ Series deal with the Qatari company, but that has the potential to help justify the race changes. You could say given it feels like the 44th attempt to do something like this they’d attract some sponsorship eventually.
All Forms Of Engagement – Is that scarf or burger buying?
"show me the metrics"
They’ve had no impact on me so I can’t tell.
Have they managed to get the daily papers to carry all the racecards for a day again? I seem to remember that some time ago space pressures meant many popular papers dropped cards. Don’t think they’ve managed to persuade the papers to pick up their exciting first name innovation, either.
Interestingly, this years "free" April racing programme has been heavily restricted by most participating racecourses. Nottingham, for example, had only 500 free places for next weeks brilliant Further Flight meeting.
Was the restriction at the racecourses’ request or did RFC decide to limit free entry
If the former, it’s another example of how leaderless and rudderless racing is, with any number of warring acronymic acrimonious factions intent only on looking after number 1
If the latter, a good idea proven in practice has been spoilt. Why?
Anyway given the apparent success of free entry last year it really should have been trialled again and again much much sooner and the accumulated data interrogated and audited
Did racecourse gross-take actually suffer or was the shortfall in gate receipts more than made up by increased spend on-course?
How are Towcester doing?
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Racing for change? A double for Ryan Moore and a Paul Hanagan/Richard Fahey first start 2yo winner. Looks like normal service has resumed to me.
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"show me the metrics"
They’ve had no impact on me so I can’t tell.
Have they managed to get the daily papers to carry all the racecards for a day again? I seem to remember that some time ago space pressures meant many popular papers dropped cards. Don’t think they’ve managed to persuade the papers to pick up their exciting first name innovation, either.
We often see horse racing in the front page news in UK journals.
Unless something weird happens in the world on the day, you will see the photo of the Aintree winner.
Then I don’t accept that pleading is a good thing.
Of considerable more interest might be to convince social internet forums to include horse racing.
We have many such forums in Greek language, and they have a standard sports menu starting with football and including such items as kick boxing and kite flying. Sometimes I write emails to their admins but they don’t like the idea or don’t reply. That annoys me.
Horse racing is not the talking thing in Greece, especially at this hour, but it’s not an ultra minority sport either, justifying neglect. The number of horse racing fans, both active and inactive is estimated at 30,000. If you go away from football and basket ball, we are thereabouts.Another good idea belonging to a friend of mine is to open horse racing luxury show rooms in central areas.
On topic, RFC can be proud of the aforementioned Free Entry scheme despite it not having been built on. An obvious idea though, mooted by many here and elsewhere for years
And the ‘Students Racing Club’ idea, though how successful that’s proven to be I don’t know
Other than that RFC have just annoyed and decipherment of the phrase "all forms of engagement" has proven to be more complex than the unravelling of Linear-B
Drone , Towcester are doing very nicely I am told , they are mega busy with conferences and weddings regardless of racing programme
Race meetings well attended , as its mostly free, if its a sunny day they clean up with sales of cards , food , drinks , and a tote cut
Why no other course has given it a go is quite beyond me …still this year will be tough for some smaller courses , and their greed will lead them to the wall eventually
Ricky
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It’s a shame ‘overseeing the implementation of accurate going descriptions and appropriate watering procedures’ wasn’t one of their objectives, given the almost comical events at Hereford this afternoon.
Corm, I can’t believe that 70,000 have been given out. Are you sure? Off the top of my head, Musselburgh gave out 5,000, which was the most subscribed offer.
Stop press: I discovered this from the Press Association. "Seventeen fixtures are entirely free in at least one major enclosure at each racecourse, while there are a total of 5,500 free tickets available in advance at a further 11 meetings."
Maybe you’re right, sir.
Drone, I’ve no idea why the further 11 racecourses restricted free entry, but Ludlow, who race this month, have no part of the initiative because the Head Honcho there believes that Free admission doesn’t work and, if I can paraphrase, "it becomes a freebie for people who would come anyway and does nothing to attract new racegoers." Therein may lie the answer.
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Why are race courses divided into areas in UK ?
I ‘m against this.
The ancient Greeks did not have barriers.
In the theatres where Aristophanes and Euripides were staging their plays the rule was that the public could occupy any empty seats.
Furthermore we go to the race course to gather intelligence and it spoils the fun if we cannot move all over the place.- Total Posts 17716
Why are race courses divided into areas in UK ?
I ‘m against this.
The ancient Greeks did not have barriers.
In the theatres where Aristophanes and Euripides were staging their plays the rule was that the public could occupy any empty seats.
Furthermore we go to the race course to gather intelligence and it spoils the fun if we cannot move all over the place.Aristophanes and Euripides didn’t have to worry about lager louts in Tatts, otherwise they’d have had a Member’s Enclosure too to keep the decent playgoers safe.
And I should point out that, as
Froddo
will know, you had to be a
citizen
to gain admission to the Athenian auditorium, thus barring
children
,
women
,
foreigners
and
slaves
from attendance.
Mind you, I understand Rod Street is working to a similar plan, so your vision might come to fruition soon enough.
- Total Posts 17716
Why are race courses divided into areas in UK ?
I ‘m against this.
The ancient Greeks did not have barriers.
In the theatres where Aristophanes and Euripides were staging their plays the rule was that the public could occupy any empty seats.
Furthermore we go to the race course to gather intelligence and it spoils the fun if we cannot move all over the place.Aristophanes and Euripides didn’t have to worry about lager louts in Tatts, otherwise they’d have had a Member’s Enclosure too to keep the decent playgoers safe.
And I should point out that, as
Froddo
will know, you had to be a
citizen
to gain admission to the Athenian auditorium, thus barring
children
,
women
,
foreigners
and
slaves
from attendance.
Mind you, I understand Rod Street is working to a similar plan, so your vision might come to fruition soon enough.
I was n’t around to tell you the truth.
But this story about the citizens and non citizens is blown out of proportion and it’s not real history. Also slave meant labourer (doulos = labourer). The word slave is also used in Greek -though I ‘m not sure of its linguistic origin- and it means a slave like the Mississipi slaves. But the "doulos" was not a slave.Except for ceremonial occasions like Ascot it should be like I say in the race courses.
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