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I asked B Millington on twitter some months ago if the RP could produce a character summary for each horse, as Timeform do, above the standard formline.
"It will be in the iPad version" he said.
Is it?
Not sure what you mean by character summary – spotlights? If so they are in the iPad version as part of the horses form page.
Top class product for me. Well worth the trial.
Waste of money developing this hence the high subscription fee to generate a fast return to cover costs.
The iPad is on the downgrade, people are becoming more clear about what the iPad is and the general consensus is that it’s a luxury item that you don’t need.
Given Horse Racing is a minority sport trying to narrow that consumer base who have an iPad is looking for a needle in a haystack and their only shooting their brand in the foot.
The Racing Post isn’t worth chip paper to me these days and charging people to view a bloodline is the direction they’ve headed and it’s something I wouldn’t want to be a part off.
Horse Racing historically known as a sport that the average British citizen couldn’t afford to get into let a lone participate is shutting the door on those who want to attempt to become involved from a punting stand point at least.
Waste of money developing this hence the high subscription fee to generate a fast return to cover costs.
The iPad is on the downgrade, people are becoming more clear about what the iPad is and the general consensus is that it’s a luxury item that you don’t need.
Given Horse Racing is a minority sport trying to narrow that consumer base who have an iPad is looking for a needle in a haystack and their only shooting their brand in the foot.
The Racing Post isn’t worth chip paper to me these days and charging people to view a bloodline is the direction they’ve headed and it’s something I wouldn’t want to be a part off.
Horse Racing historically known as a sport that the average British citizen couldn’t afford to get into let a lone participate is shutting the door on those who want to attempt to become involved from a punting stand point at least.
What a load of complete nonsense. How are they shutting the door on those who want to get involved in the sport or narrowing down the the consumer base to those who have an ipad ? The paper version is still widely available. Those people who have an ipad can get the ipad version with many extras at half the cost and don’t need the paper. They’re just doing what any sane business is doing. Getting in to the modern age.
Waste of money developing this hence the high subscription fee to generate a fast return to cover costs.
The iPad is on the downgrade, people are becoming more clear about what the iPad is and the general consensus is that it’s a luxury item that you don’t need.
Given Horse Racing is a minority sport trying to narrow that consumer base who have an iPad is looking for a needle in a haystack and their only shooting their brand in the foot.
The Racing Post isn’t worth chip paper to me these days and charging people to view a bloodline is the direction they’ve headed and it’s something I wouldn’t want to be a part off.
Horse Racing historically known as a sport that the average British citizen couldn’t afford to get into let a lone participate is shutting the door on those who want to attempt to become involved from a punting stand point at least.
Apologies, but I just don’t understand any of your arguments. Really not trying to be snotty, but non of these points make any sense whatsoever.
The ipad edition is not
replacing
the Racing Post, just a different way to view it.
Mike
I asked B Millington on twitter some months ago if the RP could produce a character summary for each horse, as Timeform do, above the standard formline.
"It will be in the iPad version" he said.
Is it?
Not sure what you mean by character summary – spotlights? If so they are in the iPad version as part of the horses form page.
Top class product for me. Well worth the trial.
This:
PICTURE DEALER
3 b.g Gary Moore 89+ k 96
Pedigree : ROYAL APPLAUSE – TYCHY (SUAVE DANCER (USA))
Owner : Mr R. A. Green
Comment: brother to 2010 2-y-o 7f winner Little Curtsey and half-brother to 7f winner Paphos (by Oasis Dream): dam 5f to 7f winner: fair performer: won maiden at Brighton (by 2¼ lengths from Ta Ajabb) in June: evens, value for extra when won 5-runner handicap there last time by 1½ lengths from Millibar, readily: stays 6f: acts on soft going: often travels strongly: still unexposed.That’s not available in the app yet, Steeplechasing.
Loving the app on the Retina display. Would never buy the paper and don’t like the online site, but I can see myself taking the app May to October if it stays at £25 p/m.
This:
PICTURE DEALER
3 b.g Gary Moore 89+ k 96
Pedigree : ROYAL APPLAUSE – TYCHY (SUAVE DANCER (USA))
Owner : Mr R. A. Green
Comment: brother to 2010 2-y-o 7f winner Little Curtsey and half-brother to 7f winner Paphos (by Oasis Dream): dam 5f to 7f winner: fair performer: won maiden at Brighton (by 2¼ lengths from Ta Ajabb) in June: evens, value for extra when won 5-runner handicap there last time by 1½ lengths from Millibar, readily: stays 6f: acts on soft going: often travels strongly: still unexposed.Well for Picture Dealer you obviously get the breeding etc and
Spotlight:
Up-and-coming sprinter who looked promising when making up a lot of ground and unlucky at Doncaster in June (6g, good); didn’t do himself justice at Sandown next time (soft, has won on that ground) but authoritative success at Brighton last month and has some scope off 5lb higher mark despite this more challenging company.and Breeding Comment:
14,500gns Y, E90,000 2yo; third foal; brother to 7f AW winner Little Curtsey, half-brother to 7f AW winner Paphos; dam fairly useful 5f-7f winner at 3-5yrs, out of a fairly useful 5f winner.Which is broadly the same as the Character Summary I think.
Agree the pictures look incredible. Something which I never took notice of really in the paper version but you do find yourself pausing on some of them.
Main negatives for me would be no greyhound cards (token greyhound content really), that you can’t set it to automatically download overnight and the result and analysis are on different tabs (horrible idea). Fair value at £25 per month and I’ll probably pay it when my trial runs out. Definitely worth trying if you have an iPad anyway.
This:
PICTURE DEALER
3 b.g Gary Moore 89+ k 96
Pedigree : ROYAL APPLAUSE – TYCHY (SUAVE DANCER (USA))
Owner : Mr R. A. Green
Comment: brother to 2010 2-y-o 7f winner Little Curtsey and half-brother to 7f winner Paphos (by Oasis Dream): dam 5f to 7f winner: fair performer: won maiden at Brighton (by 2¼ lengths from Ta Ajabb) in June: evens, value for extra when won 5-runner handicap there last time by 1½ lengths from Millibar, readily: stays 6f: acts on soft going: often travels strongly: still unexposed.Well for Picture Dealer you obviously get the breeding etc and
Spotlight:
Up-and-coming sprinter who looked promising when making up a lot of ground and unlucky at Doncaster in June (6g, good); didn’t do himself justice at Sandown next time (soft, has won on that ground) but authoritative success at Brighton last month and has some scope off 5lb higher mark despite this more challenging company.and Breeding Comment:
14,500gns Y, E90,000 2yo; third foal; brother to 7f AW winner Little Curtsey, half-brother to 7f AW winner Paphos; dam fairly useful 5f-7f winner at 3-5yrs, out of a fairly useful 5f winner.Which is broadly the same as the Character Summary I think.
Agree the pictures look incredible. Something which I never took notice of really in the paper version but you do find yourself pausing on some of them.
Main negatives for me would be no greyhound cards (token greyhound content really), that you can’t set it to automatically download overnight and the result and analysis are on different tabs (horrible idea). Fair value at £25 per month and I’ll probably pay it when my trial runs out. Definitely worth trying if you have an iPad anyway.
Thanks Kickback.The trouble with spotlights is that they are only available on the day of the race.
Timeform type summaries can be checked any time and often offer a guide to going preference and conformation. Given the RP’s resources, I wouldn’t have thought it a difficult thing to add. If they had it, I’d almost certainly take an iPad subscription.I can’t be doing with these new-fangled apps, iPads and iPods. I haven’t even got a camera on my mobile phone.
I prefer to nip into the nearest bookmakers, preferably William Hills, where they have the Racing Post out on a stand, and read it for free.
They’ve even started asking me in some shops if I want a cup of tea or coffee. I always politely decline as I’ve got no intention of putting any bets on and don’t like to take advantage THAT much…
On sky news they mentioned that the Racing post is to be sold, it was unclear whether they were only referring to the Irish version or the whole group <!– s:shock: –>
<!– s:shock: –><!– m –>http://news.sky.com/story/1152380/broug … g-post-bid<!– m –>
They could do with a shake up. Can’t quite make up their minds what market to serve. In trying to maintain a position in all of them, they treat their online subs poorly, imo. Much of what is in the paper is missing from the website. They then have an iPad edition as well as different PDFs of different sections of the paper for downloading. It’s a right dog’s dinner.
The whole newspaper should be available online to all subs at say, £15 a month. I think they’d get a substantial upsurge in ‘members’ at that. As it is, they are trying to protect the weakest and most cost-laden (for them) part of their market – the newspaper. That, like many papers, is only going one way – to the grave.
They have a Betting Shop Edition, but that will be killed, eventually, by the in-shop electronic panels.
In my view, they should commit everything to the online product and then upsell where they can for tipster packages etc.
Piecing together the background:
We know something has to happen by December 2014:
https://theracingforum.co.uk/horse-r … 1&p=487468
Then:
" As part of the Government’s decision on 7th February 2013 to appoint Special Liquidators to IBRC, it was decided that the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) would acquire any loans which were unsold after the Special Liquidators had completed a loan valuation and sales process.
NAMA has established a special purpose vehicle (National Asset Resolution Ltd) to acquire and manage unsold IBRC loans.
The Special Liquidators’ loan valuation process is currently underway and it is expected that the loan sales process will begin in September."
http://www.nama.ie/news/nama-announces- … idators-2/
"..[The Special Liquidators are] expected to undertake…a simultaneous multiple sales strategy.
Borrowers will be invited to bid to buy back their debt, based on …assessment of each loan’s fair value, along with third parties for individual loans…"
http://costarfinance.com/2013/04/11/kpm … loan-pool/
So basically the latter stage has now been reached in relation to the Anglo Irish loan to the Racing Post.
Would be good business for the RP owners if the RP can buy back its own marker to the bank for say 50 per cent of face value (RP goodwill in Oct 2007 was 172m, in Dec 2012 was 87.69m).
That might involve bidding say GBP 73m for the GBP 147m last reported as outstanding.
The Special Liquidators will be hoping interest from third parties (like Sports Investment Partners LLP, if in fact it has bid – the Sky report says it made no comment) will help avoid low bidding for the marker.
If the RP owners can put in an acceptable bid for their own debt, that would be the quickest and least disruptive outcome for the RP’s operation.
What would Sports Investment Partners – if it has bid – do differently in the RP operation? Its current portfolio:
http://www.sportsip.co.uk/Portfolio
and investment approach:
GB dog racing fans may care to note that if post #149 on this page is accurate:
http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ … 153&st=135
then the GRA and its tracks (Wimbledon, Perry Barr, Hall Green & Belle Vue) would seem to be in a similar position to the RP in terms of NAMA looking to recover loan money for the Irish taxpayer.
They could do with a shake up. Can’t quite make up their minds what market to serve. In trying to maintain a position in all of them, they treat their online subs poorly, imo. Much of what is in the paper is missing from the website. They then have an iPad edition as well as different PDFs of different sections of the paper for downloading. It’s a right dog’s dinner.
The whole newspaper should be available online to all subs at say, £15 a month. I think they’d get a substantial upsurge in ‘members’ at that. As it is, they are trying to protect the weakest and most cost-laden (for them) part of their market – the newspaper. That, like many papers, is only going one way – to the grave.
They have a Betting Shop Edition, but that will be killed, eventually, by the in-shop electronic panels.
In my view, they should commit everything to the online product and then upsell where they can for tipster packages etc.
Agreed with you, the main website is very poor ,however i’ve started using the Android version on tablet and I think it is excellent for use if you are after a higher level of racecard/form/overview rather than indepth analysis. Hills and Ladbrokes must be contributing to it’s developement and the ease with which you can bet is astonishing. And fair play to them for their saturday money-back free bet 2nds, which is an excellent concession.
Agreed, their money back as free bet offer has been very good for me this season. Android app keeps telling me to update it. I do that and it keeps asking.
I’ll use this thread to vent what I was thinking earlier when I was trying to find out today’s racing news: the Racing Post website is bloody awful. I’m not a subscriber so I use it primarily for news, cards and form, but it is the news aspect which is really shocking.
The format (click and reveal, and scroll down a million times until you get to something relevant)is exceptionally poor. It is impossible to find news stories, and as someone else has mentioned, there are very few stories on there which are in the paper. I know there are "members’ section" stories which I can’t access but they could still do something with the layout.
In fact it is the worst newspaper site I’m aware of. While I’m far from a Guardian reader, they have their website spot on, and even if the RP got half way to replicating that, it would be a vast improvement on what we’ve got now. All I want is a user-friendly website to access horse racing news, but it seems like I either haven’t discovered it or we just really need one built! (I currently use Sporting Life for a basic overview).
<!– s:shock: –>
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