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I can’t help noticing how very little publicity the event has generated this year. The prize money is down, the quality is even lower than ever, no Dettori… it’s at best the third most important meet of the afternoon, behind Haydock and Newmarket.
There was no special mention of it at all on R4’s Sport report this morning, which is my personal litmus test for what’s of “general interest” and what isn’t.
One thing which hasn’t changed is the appallingly indistinguishable scheme for the racing colours. I thought they said after last year’s fiasco that they were going back to distinguishing caps? Pity the poor commentators.
In essence the event seems to have accepted its decline in status from “a bit of fun” to “a bit of a joke”. The only oddity is that C4 have chosen to take it on from BBC, reducing coverage at the two major meetings as a result. This means that an interesting listed 2yo race (the Dirk Hern at Haydock ) misses out on terrestrial coverage, along with a batch of good races at Newmarket.
Is this the end for Ascot’s little-known, little-loved and much-derided novelty event?
I don’t really care if it exists or not, with or without Dettori.
As I suggested in another thread for me the Scoop 6 has gone a long way to ‘killing’ Saturday’s, certainly in terms of betting.
Save for Firebeam at Ascot and the Sweet Solera and possibly an interesting maiden at Newmarket today offers next to nothing.
The last Shergar Cup? I do hope so.
It encourages (without actually saying so) team tactics. According to the Morning Line this morning, Mr White has already said that if he can’t win, he’ll try to make sure one of his team is victorious. That is against the rules of racing.
I hear it is a sell out, it seems someone likes the idea.
However, there was also the possibility of reserves added to races if any non-runners, which make it (to my eyes) impossible to work a race out until very late.
I am not betting on it.
Value Is EverythingThe Shergar Cup could be seen as a parable of what’s happened to racing since it began in 1999.
Then it consisted of two handicaps and four weight for age contests, with four races worth £50k and two worth £100k. There were runners from Ireland and France and a winner for Aidan O’Brien. One of the feature contests was won by Diktat, who went on to win two Group 1’s that season.
Now it’s six handicaps, 0-100 quality, mostly B grade jockeys, £30k per race and a pop concert afterwards.
It’s only justification is that it attracts a big crowd, regularly over 27,000 in recent years – whether any attempt is ever made to get those people to attend other days …….
AP
The Shergar Cup could be seen as a parable of what’s happened to racing since it began in 1999.
Then it consisted of two handicaps and four weight for age contests, with four races worth £50k and two worth £100k. There were runners from Ireland and France and a winner for Aidan O’Brien. One of the feature contests was won by Diktat, who went on to win two Group 1’s that season.
Now it’s six handicaps, 0-100 quality, mostly B grade jockeys, £30k per race and a pop concert afterwards.
It’s only justification is that it attracts a big crowd, regularly over 27,000 in recent years – whether any attempt is ever made to get those people to attend other days …….
AP
AP, you just said everything I wanted to say last night. I declined for fear of unintentionally hijacking the York thread by wandering off on a tangent.
Six average 10-runner handicaps, with reserves, with average jocks from Lithuania and Outer Mongolia (deliberate exaggeration to make the point) and the like, and people are actually willing to lay out money on this?
This is not just ‘racing’, this isShergar Cup
racing.
No thanks, i’ll pass, buy myself a Sainsbury’s microwave meal and watch a DVD.Looked quite a big crowd on the telly.
When you say ‘much derided’ is ‘much’ measured in number of people of total weight of ego?
(Though I do wish they’d get rid of the cheerleaders.)
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Looked quite a big crowd on the telly.
They’re there for the pop concert.
I can see that it appeals to some people but to me it is an underwhelming irrelevance of an event.
If it does turn out to be the last such event then good riddance to itOh cheer up. It’s one race-meeting in the entire year. OK, you don’t like it but, as you’ve all noticed, it has drawn a big crowd. I’m sure the pop concert is part of the draw but the crowd has been there all afternoon so it seems that racing is also part of it.
It’s odd to me that anyone who cares about racing would happily wish away an event that attracts 30,000 people to the track, people who are probably not confirmed racegoers. Yes, we should make more effort to get them to come back, but there is no down side to getting them there in the first place.
If you can’t get over your purist natures, why not take an interest in the presence of excellent jockeys who normally ply their trade thousands of miles from here. Doug Whyte has been champion jockey in Hong Kong for 11 years in a row. Can’t you all suppress your knee-jerk reactions for long enough to watch him in action, whether he’s winning or not?
Looked quite a big crowd on the telly.
They’re there for the pop concert.
Yeah, sure they are.
I can’t speak for everyone, but for me leaving the house at 10am, standing around for three hours watching an event that I’m not interested in then standing around for ANOTHER two hours with two sweaty crushed shoe bound balls of blood that used to be my feet, and all because the lady loves Jason Donovan, doesn’t really sound like an appealing day out.
You may be right, depends what time they took the attendance figure I suppose. If they took it at five to three just as the last of the ‘Here & Now’ crowd arrived, you might have a point.
Granted, there wasn’t much there for your actual racing fan. The first & second placed jockeys in last year’s championship, the leading lady rider in the UK & the man that has won on Goldikova 14 times, the Irish Derby winning jockey & some other no marks all riding class 6, no 5, no wait 4, actually wasn’t it 3? No it was just some poor low grade pretty decent handicappers.
The great horse must be turning in his unknown grave, having such a non event carrying his name.
I’m not a fan of The Shergar Cup.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
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If you can’t get over your purist natures … [snip] … Can’t you all suppress your knee-jerk reactions for long enough to watch him in action, whether he’s winning or not?
There is nothing
"knee-jerk"
about the
"purist"
reaction to an event which has never had much to do with real racing, since it became apparent that Group-quality races on such a card was an impossibility.
So it’s taken quite a few years for my knee at least to jerk about this fatuous non-Day at the Races. Perhaps you should monitor the swift spasm of your own in defending such a half-cock, team-sport event put on for young boozers and pop fans.
Quote Sporting Life:
"With cheerleaders and plenty of razzmatazz, the Shergar Cup attracts some derision from within the sport but a young-looking crowd of over 30,000 had made their way to Ascot so Berry’s instincts appeared to be correct."
The crowd figure was released after the last race, and doesn’t reflect the thin-looking bunch of hopefuls (judging from the ATR coverage) who turned up for the first at 12:50.
You’d better believe it, they are there for the pop concert. And of course the cut-price drinks. Not to see Jim Crowley or Fran Berry plying their estimable trades.
When I read that Ascot were expecting a crowd of over 30,000 my first reaction was that there must be some pop concert happening at the end of the day.
It was a very low key event this year hardly advertised at all, and not even Channel 4 could make it more exciting, though they would have done better had Tommo and Big Mac been there. I hope this was the last running of the event.
When I read that Ascot were expecting a crowd of over 30,000 my first reaction was that there must be some pop concert happening at the end of the day.
It was a very low key event this year hardly advertised at all, and not even Channel 4 could make it more exciting, though they would have done better had Tommo and Big Mac been there. I hope this was the last running of the event.
Big Mac was on ATR. We’re in full agreement on that one though, Cattermole & Spencer are too earnest for a supposed ‘fun’ event. To be honest, I can’t be doing with Channel 4 in the summer. Those two bore me to tears.
If this is the last year of the Shergar Cup & next year Ascot have a six race card on the same day, with races of the same level & only half the crowd, I take it that would be fine then?
From a racing viewpoint , its rubbish , grade 1 , no doubt , however it gathers a good crowd to watch it and a pop concert after…cant be bad
Let folks have fun , besides its just a one off ,its easy to ignore it
Ricky
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Let folks have fun , besides its just a one off ,its easy to ignore it
Their
"fun"
comes at Racing’s expense. This event siphons off valuable resources from elsewhere. You could just as easily have a pop concert and cheap booze tent on a non-racing day. As it is the racecourse gets a certain part of its overhead costs paid by Racing, and gives back nothing at all.
I am not alone in being fed up of hearing the unverified and (I suspect) wholly bogus mantra that these sort of novelty events
"bring new fans into the sport".
Whilst there is absolutely
no
evidence that they do anything of the kind, there is
plenty
of evidence that they alienate genuine racegoers, who feel robbed of a potentially good day’s racing at one of the finest courses, on one of their hard-earned weekend days off.
That’s why it’s not possible to ignore it, much though one would like to. I suspect the morose-looking McCririck marooned with Robert Cooper on ATR wished he could have ignored it as well. Needs must when C4 give you the boot…
Not sure there’s much point in debating this with you, Pinza, since you seem very entrenched in your position, not to say a little angry.
But for what it’s worth, my reaction in defending this event is no knee-jerk. In the early years of the Shergar Cup, the idea of it used to bore me something terrible, but then I actually went along one year and enjoyed it, when Russell Baze and Jorge Ricardo took part. There was a large crowd from long before the first race and it seemed to me that at least half of it left after the last race, before the concert.
Clearly, it’s not your thing, but there are many other days when the racing is arranged to suit your wishes, and there was Newmarket, Haydock and Redcar today. Why does this one race-meeting have to be the same as all the others just because you want it that way?
Whether you like it or not, the event is a success, even when it attracts almost no advance publicity. There is no reason to suspect it might be killed off, despite your prayers.
It’ll be difficult for you to absorb the lesson that the world doesn’t revolve around you and your desires but everyone has to learn it eventually.
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