- This topic has 27 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 1 month ago by
.
- Posts
…or as the great Bill Hicks might have said, "…a flag featuring my two parents *******…" (paraphrased)
Anyway. Six races at Market Rasen, six at Yarmouth, an astonishing seven at Exeter.
This is dreadful value for money for the consumer. I wouldn’t have attended even if I could. Well,yes I would, but you get my drift.
Look at the value for US simulcast punters. About 200 races to choose from today… and I forgot to mention the greyhounds. Tremendous value and for those going racing, a minimum of ten races.
And also, what other industry comfortably in the country’s top ten for employment, in the sports top ten for attendance, ceases production like they have done today, whenever they feel like it?
There should be a minimum of five meetings per day, each with eight races. It’s an important industry. A purist doesn’t
have to
bet on them all: he or she can pick and choose.
Those who have no interest whatsoever in todays three rather unappetising offerings (i.e. your correspondent), are ill served and the levy
must
have suffered.
Today feels like Wednesday half-day on the suburban High Street – and that eventually faded away as times changed, thank the stars.
Look at the value for US simulcast punters. About 200 races to choose from today… and I forgot to mention the greyhounds. Tremendous value and for those going racing, a minimum of ten races
And just look at the plummeting betting turnover and attendances at American racecourses. Not working, is it?
Track owners are starting to talk about closing the loss-making racing side and just concentrating on the slots, something which will be immensely popular with those outside the sport as it will lead to lots more money being paid to cash-strapped states to spend on roads etc.
Pimlico, home of the Preakness, looks doomed, as does Hialeah. There are plenty of tracks that are begging for state assistance to stop them going bust, something which is unlikely to be forthcoming, given the sport’s 30-year refusal to reform itself and its business model
The sport there is on a really sharp downward slide. There is nothing in American racing that we should try to emulate.
I’m firmly in the camp that wants no reduction in the volume of racing, too.
That’s a personal view, to which you’re entitled gc. However, I’m sure that many others, including those involved in racing in a professional capacity, would argue otherwise.
On many days, I’ll take a cursory look at the fare on offer and will venture no further. With over 30 years of interest in racing, the majority of cards now hold no interest for me whatsoever. Am I the only follower to be affected in such a way? I doubt it.
For me, there are just too many days of betting shop fodder and direction has been lost. For example, the ludicrous all-weather cards of an allegedly Listed or Group contest surrounded by class 5 and 6 races. Who is that aimed at? Similarly, at some courses, the majority of races on a given raceday being over a single distance – perhaps most ‘racegoers’ are too pissed to notice the monotony.
Reverting to my original point, I believe that a complete, European-wide, overhaul of the flat racing programme offers a way forward – unlike a recent domestic initiative. There are too many Group 1 races being contested by horses that are nowhere near to that class and which do little to promote the sport outside it’s own little clique.
With over 30 years of interest in racing, the majority of cards now hold no interest for me whatsoever. Am I the only follower to be affected in such a way? I doubt it.
For me, there are just too many days of betting shop fodder and direction has been lost.
Absolutely spot on.
But try telling that to the myopic bookmakers’ poodles who run the sport (and most of those who write about it). They don’t understand, or want to understand.
I’m sure that many others, including those involved in racing in a professional capacity, would argue otherwise.
Given that (unless there’s another Great Leighs scenario about to explode somewhere) the racing calendar should suffer no diminuition during the rest of 2009, whilst other industries contract markedly in the face of the economic slowdown, I’d venture there’s a lot of counting of blessings among racing’s employees at a host of levels just now rather than annoyance at the workload.
For example, the ludicrous all-weather cards of an allegedly Listed or Group contest surrounded by class 5 and 6 races. Who is that aimed at?
At a guess mostly class 5 and 6-calibre horses. Facetiousness aside, there would be no need to lay on so many fixtures of ordinary fare were there not a horse population so clearly capable of sustaining them. Ergo the Dascombe example quoted earlier.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
At a guess mostly class 5 and 6-calibre horses. Facetiousness aside, there would be no need to lay on so many fixtures of ordinary fare were there not a horse population so clearly capable of sustaining them. Ergo the Dascombe example quoted earlier.
The very fact that you can make such a statement is indicative of an industry that has long-since forgotten the plot.
I’d also suggest that the plethora of cards for class 5 and 6-calibre horses will continue to generate an appropriate level of interest in the sport.
With your preferred scenario there’s one thing for sure – headlines will be thin on the ground and media coverage will continue to shrink. Unless there’s a dramatic reversal in the current global economic climate, your impression of racing’s immunity also seems doomed to failure given that, for example, the plans for breeding horses will have been made well in advance of the current recession.
If there is any restructuring of horse racing they will ask people within racing what they want.
Few owners, trainers or jockeys will say there is too much racing because it is in their best interests to have as much racing as possible.
If there is less racing there will be fewer winners, therefore some trainers / jockeys will not be able to show a profit and be out of a job.
The more races there are the less competitive those races will be, the easier they are to win, the easier it is to make a profit.
More competitive racing would bring more public interest, but as long as the money is the same, don’t expect many within racing to be in favour of it.
Mark
Value Is EverythingVenusian, as you well know, Pimilico is the subject of buyout talks. If Stronach sees reason, he’ll sell it to the horse racing fanatic (i forget his name at the moment). Stronach is not seeing reason though is he which is why the Maryland legislature will soon force him to.
Pimlico has other problems other than the business model – it’s location (I’ve been – imagine an old style football stadium in the middle of the inner city of, say, Bristol), and an ageing audience (the same as here). The Maryland Jockey Club and related industries is huge and I don’t see why the state shouldn’t protect it. Do you? Maryland will never let Pimlico die. Man O’ Wars track? Yeh right. (Hialeah is another story, granted).
Personally speaking, I had more fun simulcasting over there then I have ever had at a bookmakers here. For a start, its horses horses horses and lots of them. A race every five minutes from a continent the size of a planet. No regional voice overs, poker machines, roulette machines, "tips", promotions, virtual racing or comments from the "hosts" about other boring sports. Golf huh. My life…
For a horse racing fanatic,simulcasting is paradise. They don”t have Dan Marino going on about tomorrows match ups, or Barry Bonds talking about the Red Sox. No Playstation World Cups.
It’s horses all the way.
You can have a pint or two and you get your own booth. No stinky fingered old get breathing death into your face while he asks you for a quid to back one of Hendersons in the first.
It’s a great model for a horse racing enthusiast. And as you well know, there are one or two other reasons ewhy racing is in decline in the US rather than a business model which would massively reinvigorate the sport here. 51,000 for the Santa Anita Derby suggests that reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
How much did the levy grow by yesterday? Not much I would imagine. We need more rather than less. The purists can pick and choose from a wide variety – which is why I don’t understand the too much racing argument.
How can you pick and choose when there isn’t enough in the first place.
I’d be of the opinion that factions and self interest groups such as state regulators, track owners, trainers and betting providers would be responsible for the decline in betting turnover in the US over the last 6 months rather than the volume of racing that they have over there.
The recent decision by the Maryland Jockey Club to increase takeout on popular exotics from 14% to almost 26% in tough economic times a case in point.
France with a similar size and population seems to have as much if not more racing then the UK yet racing there is well funded and appears to be in good shape. Of course they have a funding model not founded on pure greed.
So its not the volume of racing, its when people get less money back, they bet less and business goes down over the long term. A point the scammers who run the betting firms in the UK/Ireland would do well to remember.
For a horse racing fanatic,simulcasting is paradise. They don”t have Dan Marino going on about tomorrows match ups, or Barry Bonds talking about the Red Sox. No Playstation World Cups. It’s horses all the way.
It might as well be flies on the wall – no character, no variety, no nuthin’ – just so long as the 3 horse wins.
there would be no need to lay on so many fixtures of ordinary fare were there not a horse population so clearly capable of sustaining them. Ergo the Dascombe example quoted earlier.
The very fact that you can make such a statement is indicative of an industry that has long-since forgotten the plot.
In so far as? There may be more horses running under Rules nowadays than in previous eras, but I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced that the numerical influx has occurred solely at the bottom end of the ability scale, if that is what you’re driving at.
That influx is more likely to have been felt at all points on the scale, and one broadly speaking in proportion – that being the case, the required swelling of the fixture list could only ever have been at its greatest in class 4-5 contests and below.
That’s not indicative of racing having lost the plot to any great extent. That’s indicative of racing providing the right spread of races for the horses it is proud to call its participants.
And let’s not labour under any impression that cards of universally poor animals are a recent invention. A glance at the racing result annuals from 30 years ago will reveal cards around the gaffs including big-field novice chases (split into two divisions of mid- to high-teen runners, just imagine), in which half of the field would have a succession of PUs before their names and nothing else. Go back only 20 years ago and we’re still in the era of pre-summer jumping, often hard-ground cards of no more than 25 runners in total.
With your preferred scenario there’s one thing for sure – headlines will be thin on the ground and media coverage will continue to shrink.
To quote Mr Mousebender in
Monty Python
‘s Cheese Shop sketch; "Explain the logic underlying that conclusion". How is coverage of racing compromised by meetings that the broader media has no interest in, much less knows exists in most cases?
The Craven Meeting this week has been mentioned on Five Live, BBC News 24, etc. in much the same way as usual, utterly untrammelled by even a token mention of lesser fare at Ripon, Wolverhampton, Beverley or wheresoever else. The more meritworthy racing competes rather less for airtime with the lower-grade incarnation of itself, and rather more with both other sports and certain media organs’ editorial prejudices.
Unless there’s a dramatic reversal in the current global economic climate, your impression of racing’s immunity also seems doomed to failure
I have been misinterpreted here. My point was that racing has thus far appeared less on the brink of spectacularly collapsing in on itself in the face of the economic slowdown than certain other industries, be that within or outwith sport, unless anyone out there knows of any racecourse or high street bookies days away from making a grave announcement.
That doesn’t really amount to any suggestion of "immunity", and I wouldn’t dare claim there aren’t either facets within racing currently enduring thinner times than previously, or previous / continuing practices that appear less desirable than others given the prevailing climate (the breeding planning you mentioned may be one of those, but I know too little about the numbers involved to be able to agree with any degree of conviction).
By the same token, however, there are no outward signs indicating that those racecourses not called Great Leighs won’t be able to honour their remaining 2009 fixtures, or that horses are about to be pulled out of the sport at unprecedented levels through wholesale withdrawal by owners. Further, the racecourse group arguably most entitled to return catastrophic financial figures for 2008, Arena Leisure, took far less of a hit during that period than envisaged, and declared itself reasonably pleased with its performance when its spokesperson was interviewed about said figures on Five Live a few weeks ago.
Times are different and in some cases difficult for racing just now, but I’d venture they’re still some way short of apocalyptic.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.