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But has racing’s overall turnover across all betting dropped?
Given that Ladbrokes and Hills have apparently (Observer today) increased their turnovers in last three years by between 100 and 200% then it would have been some achievement for raing to have grabbed a similar rise and thus held onto its market share
<br>Max,
Can’t say that taking a break has changed my view either. In the last 12 months, I haven’t attended a single race meeting other then the ones at which I had an interest as an owner.
And perhaps the most telling moment came at Goodwood, always my favourite track, in May. My interest was in the second race and after that was over and the post mortem concluded, I couldn’t even summon the enthusiasm to stay and watch the rest of the meeting.
Personally, I’ll watch any sport, so long as I’m seeing the very best competing – so this week I’ve followed the Open Golf, last summer I saw every ball of the Ashes, in the winter I’m an avid Premiership watcher.
But I don’t tune in every Sunday to watch golf, I’ve no love for Tests against Zimbabwe or Bangladesh and I don’t switch on to watch League 1 soccer.
Whilst NH racing still has it’s very obvious highlights at Xmas, Cheltenham and Aintree, for me, flat racing has sold it’s soul. Every meeting is a ‘festival’, every festival has a Ladies Day, the pop concert is king and every racecourse manager is determined to set a new UK Allcomers Lager Drinking record.
Want to look at the horses in the paddock, watch them canter to post, have a bet, watch the race and then have a cup of tea sitting down. Tough luck – they mostly don’t get to the paddock in time, they canter straight to the start at most courses (to save time they tell us), there are very few proper bookies left on course, the stands are full of ‘ladies’ and the only tea comes in a polystyrene mug and tastes like the lager after the ‘boys’ have recycled it.
And even if you can handle all that, the racing is dull, uniform, grey, and totally unpredictable thanks to excessive watering and mentally deficient dwarves pretending to know where the best ground is on the course.
The combination of the ‘competitive racing’ initiatives that have radically altered the nature of the flat race program, the sheer volume of the stuff 24/7, and perhaps the disruption caused by all the other changes in recent seasons (specifically Polytrack, course closures and the resulting fixture moves) have left me behind.
AP
Good post, AP, and some fair points well made but isn’t some of your change of heart attributable to the fact that by staying at home you can see all races live on one of the two dedicated channels and can bet on Betfair at substantially better odds than are available on course?
Quote: from seanboyce on 2:38 pm on July 23, 2006[br]<br>As for the issue of racing’s appeal to youth let’s not kid ourselves.<br>Racing has never been trendy cool or sexy. <br>
Which is exactly what drew me to it as a ‘yoof’ 35 years ago. A parallel little world revolving in an orbit many miles from planet normal, populated by wondrous beasts and strange characters. The sights, sounds and smells of the racecourse; the allure of the taboo that was betting. For a lad with no interest in the great god football or daytime Radio1 it was welcome sanctuary from a teenage ‘real’ world that didn’t cut the mustard. Of course I was one of a small minority but I’ve no reason to doubt that there’s been a similar minority of young’uns since then drawn to racing for similar reasons.
What I wouldn’t have liked was if this staid, tweedy, timeless little world tried it’s hand at ‘sexing up’ in order to attract a younger audience en-masse. Racing will never be attractive to the majority; it’s too time consuming, complex and ‘different’ for want of a better word and therein lies it’s appeal IMO.
Anyway what is this obsession that pervades society in general with attracting the pubescent pound; it’s the grey pound that’s stacking up in bank vaults countrywide – and is the most disposable – with the post war baby-boom generation now approaching retirement age. The populace are ageing.
With betting turnover from racing as a percentage of whole declining due to the introduction of a plethora of new betting/gambling avenues future funding for racing does indeed seem to be a potential problem. The way NOT to spend a declining ‘levy’ from whatever source is to spread it ever more thinly over a burgeoning fixture list.
It strikes me that racing is preparing for a wander down the well-trodden oneway path that leads from boom to bust and my fear is that NH, through no fault of it’s own, will be the first to feel the pinch; it being less economic to stage and less bookie friendly than AW.
Quote: from apracing on 7:44 pm on July 23, 2006[br]<br> flat racing has sold it’s soul.
Indeed. The pruning of the Craven/Predominate meetings and general buggering about with the Guineas/Chester/Dante meetings in May has spoilt what was long my favourite period on the Flat from an enjoyment point of view (not betting). The sequence of mid-weekly three day ‘festivals’ leading upto the – now equally pruned – Derby meeting was for many years a beautifully structured all too fleeting feast of top class racing.
Agree entirely, Drone.
Up till this year, you could set your watch by the fixtures in a flat season. If it’s the last Wednesday in May…it’s the Predominate.
A pattern that’s stood the test of time and enabled flat racing to become more of a summer lifestyle and less of a sport, at least from the Lincoln to Glorious Goodwood.
I even knew what evening meetings preceded the main festivals; designed to reduce your bank – or to bet for three glorious weekdays with the bookies dough, as the case may be.
I suppose the ebbing away of tradition in favour of – what, Year Zero? – began with the Derby being moved from the first Wednesday in June. Once the first domino tumbles, the rest will follow.
What they have done to Goodwood in May is a scandal, btw.
For me, AP and Drone have summed up flat racing’s current situation very well. Perhaps the questions to be asked are – how did this situation come about, what can be done about it and is it likely racing’s authorities will do anything about it?
In my view the moral cancer at the heart of racing started under PDS’s tenure as BHB chairman, the details of which can be gleaned from the now somewhat discredited "Modernisation of British Racing" report.
Basically, the BHB plan, as I understand it was that all racing below Group/Listed/Heritage Handicap should be structured to maximise betting operator profits. Hence banded racing, handicaps graded in straight 10lbs ranges instead of the previous five, a 14lb handicap range (with gleeful announcements from the BHB that they would like to reduce it to 6), 14 runner field limitations to be reduced to 12 in high summer and so on.
The increase in the number of fixtures is described as an increase in "betting sessions" (note, not more opportunities for horses to run or for fans to watch racing) The BHB announce that all this is succesful because the number of favourites winning has declined therfore racing is more "competitive".
In other words, the BHB, racing’s ruling authority was conniving, nay deliberately setting up a situation where the majority of racing was to be run to fleece betting shop punters. Punters are b-f’s who will just willingly bet more and lose more and any owner who can’t afford to buy high priced stock isn’t worth bothering with.
In actual fact the wheels came off the details of that plan. Punters, probably inductively rather than deductively, realised it was harder to find winners and turned to other forms of gambling.
To the eternal discredit of racing hacks, the re-action of owners – ordinary owners not the majority of members of the ROA council – was never reported. But it was so severe, expressed through the NTF that the BHB had to re-institute 5lb handicap ranges and now the handicap 14lb limit has been enlarged to 19lbs. After all who is going to pay very large amounts of money to keep a horse in training if the horse can’t even get into a race, let alone one in which he or she can compete?
Again not a word from the RP or other hacks about the implications of these changes or why they were made. Can’t afford to offend those who provide hospitality, can we?
So what needs to be done? Well without going into great detail the race program needs to be re-formatted to provide racing that people will pay to come to watch and that gives owners the chance to run their horses in races in which they can compete. Which means among other things, cutting out the low level dross racing – as Ireland has done. Above all the race program should be constituted for the benefit of racing, not just to make profits for betting operators
Any chance this will happen? Not a prayer. Where’s flat racing in this country going? As the Americans would say, to hell in a handbasket.
richard
Will the next proposed changes to our sport like the dog track for horses in Essex and Musselburgh floodlit winter flat racing help? Don’t think so.
Maybe there is hope with Newbury stalling on their sand track.
<br>Just to answer Gus – yes the BF option does mean that I do my betting at home, and I have the TV on. But such is my loss of interest in the bulk of the flat program, that I no longer watch it (or bet on it) at home either.
AP
I’ve lost count of how many Saturday’s this summer that I didn’t watch any racing at all (for example last Saturday), simply because the racing wasn’t up to much.
And there have been other Saturday’s when I’ve just tuned in for one or two races while doing other things.
It’s sad to say but, I’ve bet on cricket, football, tennis and golf in the last 20 days, but not racing.
Making each Saturday (in particular) something to really look forward to should be the main priority of the BHB.
A big part of the problem is the "festivals". They suck the quality from the rest of the calendar.
Another problem is the decision to pretend that racing only happens in the UK.
If the TV companies, the BHB and the RP woke up and realised that they can feature top class racing from Ireland and France (maybe even from Italy & Germany), we, as fans, could watch the best horses.
(right now, it seems most of the best horses in Europe are running outside the UK)
The BHB have gone down the "quantity" road, and it’s turned most racing on terrestial TV into low quality betting fodder.
I’d like to see them go the other way and present viewers with high quality sport.
If we don’t, who’s going to be watching, and betting on, racing 20 years from now?
Just a bunch of guys who are 50+ and dying off by the day?
Steve
I’m sure Jack Logan used to herald the imminent downfall of the sport in his hey-day at theSporting Life in the ’70’s. The sport had serious problems then, has problems now and will continue to have them.<br>The sport has so far survived crass decisions made by those in authority in the past and will (I hope) survive those being made now. <br>By the way, this has been an enjoyable thread to read with some great comments by a host of great contributors. It would be a shame for the quality of this type of post to be lost if TRF should fold.
Quote: from stevedvg on 10:02 am on July 24, 2006[br]A big part of the problem is the "festivals". They suck the quality from the rest of the calendar.
Although I’m inclined to agree with the general point I think it’s only fair to point out – with Goodwood only a week away – that there’s some excellent fare lined up over the next few days and not just at Ascot.
To go back to Paul’s original point – that cynicism is so ingrained amongst sports fans that they expect participants to cheat, the fall out over the latest Tour de France drugs scandal will be very interesting.<br>If Paul is right the Tour will continue unharmed by this latest debacle.<br>If those of us who think there is a limit to what sports fans and punters will stomach are right, then this may prove the straw that breaks the camel’s back.<br>Landis’ win was feted not just for his apparent courage but because it seemed to represent a return to a ‘cleaner’ sport.<br>The Tour has already slipped from C4 to Eurosport over here and I’ll be fascinated to see how it copes now.<br>I’d be amazed if sponsors, broadcasters etc consider the race now to be as valuable as it was. Will we see proof positive now that there is a limit to what punters will put up with, or will it – as Paul argues – make no difference?
<br>Particularly as the 2007 Tour is scheduled to start in London, following an invitation from the mayor, Ken Livingstone.
It’s a very odd dope test result though – how do you get a surfeit of testosterone in your system one day, but not the day before or the day after ?
AP
In this day and age, anything is possible and nothing suprises. There was a huge discussion with a few of us in the pub after his performance last Thursday. Most felt that summit was up. He finished absolutely shattered on Wednesday and looked a beaten and dejected man. Then to blitze the rest by nearly six mins, and the yellow by over 8 mins the day after, on a gruelling mountain stage??
The sport is an utter disgrace, an I agree with Sean that there is only so much punters will take. Your not getting a fair crack of the whip.
I’ve not much experience of surges of testosterone I don’t think.<br>:biggrin: <br>Not sure he was tested days either side was he? He was tested after his miraculous 11th to 1st stage I believe. You’re right that there may yet be an explanation but if that’s not the case then the question is can the sport recover or will this be the beginning of the end for pro cycling/the Tour as a serious business?
with Goodwood only a week away – that there’s some excellent fare lined up over the next few days and not just at Ascot.
GLorious Goodwood is a fairly mediocre festival, IMO. It only has 2 G1’s. And that’s over 5 days of racing.
By comparison, York has 4 in 3 days next month.
Tomorrow will be the first G1 or G2 for 15 days. Which, in the heart of the season, is poor stuff.
The KG is one of the top races of the UK season and I’m looking forward to it.However, I’m not so happy that I’ve had to wait 2 weeks to see top class horses.
Steve
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