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I give you a recent meeting at Folkestone, where we almost had a revolt in the press room and refused to mention the full race names, but in the end the race names were emphasised just to illustrate the absurdity.
Ashford Designer Outlet Open Till 8pm Weeknights Handicap
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ashforddesigneroutlet.com Handicap
Joy Is Discovering Your Favourite Brands Handicap
and even the racecourse must have lost the will to live and wanted a change as the final contest was the zippily named:-
plumbase.com Median Auction Maiden Stakes
Although I am all for a prominent position for sponser’s names; do draw a line with the sentence titles.
Value Is EverythingI didn’t realize "Distaff" was something purely American. In 2008 they decided to change the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to the Ladies’ Classic, but I figured it was because Distaff sounded too old-fashioned.
Nothing at all wrong with the word distaff; it’s a succinct name for the female line of a pedigree, if somewhat archaic.
In recent times it’s become ‘americanized’ due to association with your Breeders’ Cup Distaff (fine name) race and it’s the somewhat annoying copycatting over here that irks, which is our problem not yours
Ladies’ Classic – what a shame
Personally, I’m pretty ambivalent where sponsors add their names to the existing race title (e.g. Coral-Eclipse), but this "registered as the Esher Stakes" business is nonsense.
Traditional race names are part of Racings narrative (isn’t this one of THE Racing For Change buzzwords) and the erosion for the quick sponsors buck is destroying this. I remember when Totesport & Newcastle renamed the Eider the "Northern National" about 10 years ago. (This was soon reversed).
In my mind, the Skybet Chase at Donny is still the Great Yorkshire. There are others which escape my mind at the mo.
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Allowing sponsors to relegate traditional names to a bracketed ‘registered as’ is an erosion of racing’s soul and should be banned; they should only be permitted to add their name as an affix, as Bet365 did today with the Lancashire Oaks and Old Newton Cup
Wise words. And thank you, Bet365.
Does it not occur to the Dismal Dorks of marketing, that rendering important race names anonymous does absolutely nothing for "branding" – except of course for the bookies putting up the dosh.
No wonder even racing fans are losing interest, when favourite races – some boasting century-long histories – are prostituted in this disreputable way.
It has to stop.
In my mind, the Skybet Chase at Donny is still the Great Yorkshire. There are others which escape my mind at the mo.
This is what is destroying the soul of the sport. If you told me that todays racing included the SkyBet Chase, i’d say "so what?"
If you then said, "you know that this race used to be the Great Yorkshire?" i’d say WTF, why didn’t you say that already?
SkyBet Chase, bet365 Chase, Betfair Chase, VC Chase, Ryanair Chase, it’s all the same now ie. just another bloody h’cap chase with no identity. They are sucking the marrow out of a once great sport for the quick buck. That just ain’t right.Totally agree with the recent comments, the Great Yorkshire has a long and distibuished history and should not be lost.
On a similar note, why did they ever change the Magnet Cup at York to just the John Smith’s Cup? I’m not a beer drinker so it could be that Magnet beer/lager isn’t made any, but to me its another example of losing the history of a famous handicap.
The problem for John Smiths with continuing to use the Magnet name (apart from no longer brewing that beer) for their York sponsorship, is that Magnet is associated nowadays with a kitchen cabinet company.
Magnet has gone the same way as other branded races from 20 years ago – Charisma Gold Cup, Mackeson Gold Cup, Massey Ferguson Gold Cup, SGB Chase, Agfa Diamond Chase, Greenalls Gold Cup, Embassy Chase, Vaux Gold Tankard etc.
AP
On a similar note, why did they ever change the Magnet Cup at York to just the John Smith’s Cup? I’m not a beer drinker so it could be that Magnet beer/lager isn’t made any, but to me its another example of losing the history of a famous handicap.
If you look at the July Cup thread Phil, similar to the Schweppes at Newbury the majority apart from the likes of Gerald & Maxilon 5 (both sadly no sense of tradition) still refer to it as the Magnet.
Magnet Bitter – a ‘premium’ Best Bitter – is still brewed but in small quantities for sale in a few pubs, though I can’t think of any examples right now
When the Magnet Cup was named, and up until quite recently, all Smith pubs would offer a choice of the two bitters: John Smith’s and Magnet, with pumps side by side on the bar
Magnet is too sweet for me; draught John Smith’s remains an excellent regulation bitter
Magnet was pushed to one side when they decided to market the rather horrid John Smith’s Smoothflow alongside the traditional bitter
So now the choice offered is the same bitter in draught or fizzy form
Huge quantities of ‘Smooth’ will be sunk on course next weekend
The red magnet remains Smith’s pleasant visible trademark
Yeats, I altered my original reply here to include Corals in recognition of their sponsorship. They deserve as much.
In the other thread, I originally referred to the John Smith’s cup as the Magnet – as I do with real life acquaintances – but edited it. You can justifiably criticise me for many things, but not for being untraditional.
I have today noticed that famous handicap, the Bunbury Cup, is now known as the 32 red handicap – total sacrilege in my opinion.
Mentioning other races that have changed their names, am I right in thinking the Falmouth Stakes was once known as the Child Stakes and before that the Milk Stakes?
Dunno about Milk Stakes (catchy name
) but Falmouth is a reversion to its original nameWhat I think is so very sad is when an established race that commemorates a person or horse changes its name. Like the Fred Darling Stakes for instance. I can’t remember what they call it now, but that is an insult to the memory of a famous trainer.
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What I think is so very sad is when an established race that commemorates a person or horse changes its name. Like the Fred Darling Stakes for instance. I can’t remember what they call it now, but that is an insult to the memory of a famous trainer.
Quite. I vote with my wallet. I do my best to avoid giving any dosh at all to any company arrogant enough to replace an established race title with their own brand name.
A small gesture, but if enough of us did it….
I have today noticed that famous handicap, the Bunbury Cup, is now known as the 32 red handicap – total sacrilege in my opinion.
Bear in mind for this dubious pleasure there is also a 20% drop in prize money for the race compared to the previous 3 years.
Meanwhile the 7f International Handicap at Ascot in a few weeks time has no sponsor and the prize money for it has been slashed a massive 50%.The 32RED Trophy?!!! Means sweet FA to me.
Bunbury Cup? Ahh, ultra competitive historic (or should that be Heritage) Handicap.
One thing I think Racing is useless at is utilising it’s history to promote it’s sport.
Before the World Cup we had numerous TV programmes, newspaper or magazine articles such as "50 Greatest World Cup Moments", "50 Most shocking World Cup Moments", "England’s Worst World Cup Team (before the current lot!) etc…etc.I’m off work today and notice RUK are delighting us with endless repeats of "Racing Replay". Whoop-de-bleedin’-do!
Why not a Free-to-air "12 Greatest July Cups" which could be bundles in a hour long package and would be doubtless cheap to put together? This format could be rolled out to other iconic races such as the Sussex Stakes, Goodwood Cup , York Internationals and so on…
) but Falmouth is a reversion to its original name
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