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Interesting but a rather depressing piece to say the least – can’t say I disagree as it clearly gets lost in the shuffle on a Saturday competing (and losing) against not only other sports events but novelty events too.
Wednesday was always suce a special day as people specifically booked time off (well in advance) from work to attend the day and a lot would often go as a big group either work friends or family in hired coaches etc and the middle of the track was always rammed behind the long line of double decker buses that seemed to take up most of the long straight.
Granted it will never get back to those halcyon days but seeing a lot spaces in the middle of the track and not many double deckers was rather sad – there are just too many things happening on a Saturday to take away even the low levels of attention the race currently gets outside the racing bubble.
Highly unlikely to happen as the perception of it needing a Saturday audience/TV timeslot seems to override any other thinking.
I think we have to just accept that the relative importance of racing in general has massively declined. For many it’s now little more than betting fodder. Rather than the day I think the more important point (which I raised) was the number of pointless race meetings taking place on the Saturday. Just getting rid of those should be an ambition/starting point, but we know racecourses can just do what they like in a world of competing factions.
As I said on another thread, I don’t think moving the race to Wednesday will make a lot of difference. Time has moved on and the Derby doesn’t mean the same nowadays.
People have got far more choice about their leisure time. It is not the same country it was in the Derby’s heyday.
I also rather fear that the animal rights crowd’s argument has gained support from more people. A horse collapsing on the track in front of the stands after the Dash was a gift for racing’s opponents. No amount of explanation about how it could just as easily happened on the gallops is going to convince anyone who does not like racing.
‘I think we have to just accept that the relative importance of racing in general has massively declined.’
Like it or not, this is spot on. Simple as that.
I’ve been making this point for years: once upon a time, people relied upon horses for transportation. Nowadays, we have cars. That alone explains the decline of public interest in horse racing over the last fifty years – as daily contact with horses has decreased, due to our lifestyles becoming increasingly urbanised, and the car become ubiquitous, it’s only natural that public interest in horse racing has declined.
If moving the Derby back to a Wednesday it would need to be an evening meeting.
Value Is EverythingNot sure about a full on evening meeting but maybe a later start (say from 3pm) and I think is should be the only meeting held on the day as well, so that there is nothing (racing wise) to distract away from it.
I used to love going to the Derby on a Wednesday, but I wouldn’t move it back to midweek. The last few Wednesday Derbies, the stands were pretty sparsely attended. I didn’t agree with the shift to Saturday, but I could see why they did it.
Whatever day of the week you hold it, as more than one person has said, racing is simply not as important to the general sports fan as it once was.
I don’t think the event helps itself, though. I live less than 10 miles from Epsom and I’m an active racegoer; I’ve been to Plumpton (several times), Sandown, Ascot, Kempton and Newmarket in the last 12 months or so.
But the idea of going to Epsom on Saturday never crossed my mind. It’s a faff to get to whether you go by car or train, it’s a faff to get away from, it’s an extremely expensive day out, and it’s not a great track for viewing the racing unless you’re on an upper level in the grandstand.
I’ve been asking myself what Epsom would have to do to persuade me to attend Derby Day next year and I’m afraid I just don’t have an answer.
Ironic that the article should come out after a Saturday when there were few if any alternative events to compete against.
Should never have moved from the Wednesday but can’t see it going back now. As is often the case in the sport the powers that be have made a complete pigs ear of it.Also ironic that just before his excellent commentary (he immediately spotted Voyage’s mishap unlike the commentators on the 2 TV channels) on R5 John Hunt stated “They don’t come any bigger than this”
Maybe he should have told the bosses at the BBC that. The coverage of the race before and after was disgraceful on BBC TV.
A few seconds on Breakfast and a few seconds on Sportsday in the evening when it played second fiddle to Womens football involving Wales and N Ireland and wheelchair rugby and table tennis. Don’t know whether its a small factor but I haven’t see a sports presenter on BBC TV who has the slightest clue about horse racing, for years.If they want a bigger crowd maybe they should drop the prices, we are often told supply and demand rules.
I am surprised the BBC even mentioned it, given it is actively hostile to racing and betting.
The Wednesday Derby moving to the Saturday was like a Marathon becoming a Snickers. The Marathon just tasted better.
That may well be the case CAS but that’s not good enough. Us horse racing fans pay our licence fee and deserve better, particularly compared to all the tripe they put out like Dr Who and all them boring trailers for it. As John Hunt said “They don’t come any bigger than this” Paul Fox will be turning in his grave.
How can they be hostile to racing and betting when they know sweet fa about it? The sooner the licence fee is abolished the better.
I agree with you Yeats but the BBC is hostile to racing and betting, whether we like it or not. It will never show racing on television again and probably doesn’t even like broadcasting it on the radio.
Its website only gives racing token coverage. In its report on the Melbourne Cup last year it concluded by advising readers: “But in recent years it has attracted demonstrations over the welfare of animals and its links to gambling.”
A horse race that people bet on! How horrifying! I expect the BBC staffer who typed the sentence needed counselling afterwards.
Hoping for bright ideas from the team that came up with the draw in town scheme is probably in vain. This was the Guardian take on it:
“The Jockey Club have acknowledged this lack of engagement between their racecourse and the local community, but an attempt to address it prompted little more than derision.
This year’s draw was staged behind a table laden with bookie-branded cupcakes outside a local Wetherspoons and had about it the whiff of an extremely low-rent church fete. That was before the ping-pong balls with numbers handwritten on them in black marker were drawn from two old-fashioned tombolas that might have looked modern when the race was conceived 244 years ago.”
Here is the draw in Epsom, in case anyone has not seen it.
To be fair, I don’t think it was a terrible idea. The FA Cup draw is not dissimilar. But it needed more people in the background and to have been better rehearsed. And to have had someone with a bit more enthusiasm than the Mayor was able to muster.
Nick Luck did his best but his attempt to drum up enthusiasm at about 7.38 had a hint of desperation and of someone who knew he was being mercilessly mocked on social media at that very moment.
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