- This topic has 27 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Can’t see the point of comparing horse racing to football, it’s a mistake Mark Johnston often makes with regards betting in the two sports.
Football matches are played at all different times of the week because they are paid to do so by Sky etc, otherwise they would still by and large be played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon.
As we know, horse racing gets paid nothing from C4 and we have to pay C4 for coverage, so there is no real incentive for racing to be moving all these races to a Saturday for C4’s benefit. In fact it is a purely selfish act by the likes of Newmarket (for what benefit?) as it actually produces at least one less day of the sport on C4 and brings in less levy for the sport on those days.The familiar argument that racing must hold its best races ‘when people aren’t working’ viz the weekend (and do remember plenty of folk do work weekends) has little truck with me. The population is ageing and will continue to do so. 23% of folk are over 60 and 17% over the regulation retirement age of 65. In head count that is roughly 13 million and 10 million respectively: a substantial number by any reckoning with time on their hands, and more importantly dsiposable money in their pockets. The ‘Baby Boomer’ generation now entering the ‘third age’ is by general consent likely to be the healthiest and wealthiest set of OAPs we have ever had and quite possibly will ever have
Those in employment now are likely to be faced with a financial squeeze for years to come as Capitalism re-invents itself into who-knows-what; and as for the poor blighted youth entering the workplace, well pity he and she
So should racing concentrate on attracting the seemingly unfashionable ‘old’ with money to burn over a lengthy, largely healthy and quality 20+ years of retirement, or stick with the foolish (IMO) premise that it must attract the cash-strapped worker and even more impecunious seemingly fashionable young?
It would appear to me a ‘no brainer’ as fashionable youths might quip
I could understand Newmarket’s view IF moving the July Cup to the Saturday was going to give the attendance a big boost but it seems even that is not a factor. Stephen Wallis has more or less admitted that he doesn’t expect a big increase in numbers this weekend – may 10,000 instead of 9,000.
Compared with the numbers they get for Newmarket Nights and the number there will be at Epsom tonight (£35 admission), it’s an indictment of the economics of racing – there just aren’t enough dedicated racegoers to make the current model work.
There’s been talk about football but IF the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd moved their fixtures to a time to suit their main betting audience, they’d kick off at 7am to help the Asian betting markets, The strength of football loyalty is such that I would contend they would get close to their Saturday attendances even if they had to play a few games on, say, a Tuesday morning at 11.30. There are enough enthausiastic football fans to make it work.
On the other hand, when I used to go regularly to midweek meetings, I had the sense of intruding into someone else’s workplace. For the jockeys, trainers and owners, the spectators might as well have not been there. The recognition among courses (who stand to benefit most) that racing is a leisure pursuit has changed the dynamic. However, the leisure dynamic meets the racing business/bookmaking dynamic and that’s why we keep the daily diet going in a way football doesn’t. Racing has a foot in both the leisure camp and the business camp and a whole tranche of individuals and organisations are so dependent on the drug of daily racing that they can’t be weened off. Ireland has a number of "blank" days, so does New Zealand. The world won’t end if every other Tuesday was a blank racing day – oh, apparently, it will….
I just took a look at the racing tomorrow. This is absolute madness, a Sunday in July and not one flat meeting.
- Total Posts 17716
It would appear to me a ‘no brainer’ as fashionable youths might quip
It is indeed
Drone
. As ever, you put the argument with clarity and logic.
Unfortunately, though, the current Fixture List is a committee job spatchcocked together by a group of people who can’t muster one workable brain cell between them – as witness the extraordinary prospect (highlighted by the previous poster) of tomorrow’s Sunday fare promising a lovely sunny July day with not a single flat race in the British Isles east of Fairyhouse.
As rambled upon here in the past
ad nauseam
I think Summer Jumps should be restricted to Sundays and a couple of weekday evenings; so from a selfish point of view I’m looking forward to the racing tomorrow and getting stuck into the rather inviting-looking chases tonight, but quite agree that the balance this weekend is weighted in a crazy manner, with a feast to end all feasts of Flat goodies today followed by a Sunday starve
It is, to be frank, wholly ridiculous
- Total Posts 17716
Ridiculous is the word.
RUK had precisely five minutes time available for the "build up" to what is generally acknowledged to be the most prestigious sprint race in the calender (two of which they spent on footage of one horse being saddled in the pre-parade ring).
C4 had a more luxurious seven minutes, after rushing through the post-mortems to the
John Smith Cup
and taking an ad break. They then had five minutes post-mortem on the July Cup (plus more adds) before diving over to Ascot for their valuable and significant Group 2 mile as they were entering the stalls.
Compare this with the space put around major Group 1 events in most other parts of the world. How RfC or anyone else think this kind of hugger-mugger, breakneck whirligig of half-cock coverage helps raise either betting turnover or Racing’s profile … which reminds me.
Mr Street
, you still haven’t responded to our Q&A.
A most ridiculous day’s racing.
As for no flat meetings tomorrow I almost breathed a sigh of relief having waded through 12 handicaps of Class 3 or better this morning and into the afternoon.
I didn’t watch any racing this afternoon, though will watch some replays later so: how much airtime did the Bunbury Cup get? Card-wise it seemed rather ‘lost’ ‘twixt Silver Cup and Smith’s Cup which is a sad fate for such a famous race. I’d also venture that had the Summer Mile at Ascot been the near-headliner it would have been on a ‘normal’ Saturday, much more would have been made of it being won by the estimable Dick Turpin back down in G2 company, rather than the curt mention in dispatches that seems likely
I’d much rather see a proper build-up to a big race with paddock footage, perhaps some footage from stables, etc, and in-depth preview and then watch the aftermath in some detail. Jockeys coming back, connections celebrating, interviews with all connected (inc. stable staff who often capture the emotion best of all – although they might not all make the best interviewees!) and then post-race analysis, replays, etc.
Much, much rather that (on terrestial TV) than off to watch a nondescript handicap before the runners have pulled up. ATR/RUK offer the wall-to-wall miss-nothing coverage. Terrestial should be about quality and the bigger story.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.