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… his instinct is to just keep talking rather than picking out a telling detail or insight and allowing viewers to digest it.
I strongly suspect that he’s "riding to orders" there; it’s probably an offence punishable by death to have periods of silence on TV these days.
How interesting that this week’s biggest racing topic hasn’t got a dedicated thread on this forum.
The British racing industry thinks that Fixed Odds Betting Terminals should remain untouched.
Think about that for a minute or two. Those who run this venerable sport, responsible for its long-term survival, genuinely believe that having B2 machines in betting shops is in the best interests of the sport. This is as blatant a case of short-term thinking as you’ll ever find.
Bookmakers pay substantial amounts of money to show live racing in betting shops (none of the betting shop managers to whom I have spoken knows exactly how much this figure is and calls/emails to their head offices didn’t elicit much response, sadly). The major high street bookmakers have all revealed that they make more money from FOBTs than they do from betting on horse racing.
Throw in the incessant barrage of virtual racing (no thought required from the punter’s perspective- just pick your lucky number and go) and the interminable increase in Self Service Betting Terminals (pop into your local Paddy Power shop and see how much space which was once dedicated to the Racing Post shop display has now been given over to SSBTs and virtual racing screens) and it is clear that bookmakers are placing less and less importance on racing.
Apart from during a dedicated racing programme, when did you last see betting on horses advertised? All the bookies’ ads are for online roulette and football betting. There is a reason for this: these are products with a high profit margin, certainly higher than horse racing can provide. The final win/loss figure is why any successful punter will soon find his bets limited, as has been discussed in various threads on this forum. Bookmaking is dead: the industry is now run by accountants and slave drivers (why are betting shop staff often pressurised into working 14 or 15 hour shifts?)
There will inevitably come a time when the bookmakers will turn around and say that betting on horse racing does not justify the outlay on live pictures. If punters are spending more money on FOBTs, virtual racing and football coupons (which very rarely win- how many times has one team let you down on an acca?), why should the bookies pay to have live racing shown?
It is most disconcerting that those responsible for safeguarding the future of our sport are naive enough to think that this day will never come. Mind you, most of them will have made their money by then and probably couldn’t care less.
Money.
Cecil without the old owner-breeders and Sheikh Mohammed? Nada.
Stoute without the above and HRH the Aga Khan? Ditto.
Aiden O’Brien sans Coolmore? Don’t think so.The only trainers to have truly changed the game since WWII are Vincent O’Brien and Martin Pipe.
…folk who are not the least interested in racing just propping up the bar all day and maybe taking a sideways glance at the TV to see if their lucky number came up.
Careful, now. Without these people, betting shops wouldn’t exist.
I have not noticed anyone catching out Barry Greragty as an habitual liar before, so why would he start now? Or perhaps you believe that he is so untutored in the way of the horse in general, and this horse in particular, that his opinion is due no regard at all. Or perhaps you had a better feel of the horse’s style of running from your view on the rails (or the sofa in front of the TV), than did BG from the horse’s back.
So the jockey was being completely honest after the Tingle Creek, was he? Nonsense: he knew full well that Sprinter Sacre could beat Moscow Flyer on the bit; he was just trying to be political.
It’s easy to bet at William Hill? Not if you want to get more than £25 on, it isn’t.
Y’all might as well legalize slot machines and turn your less successful tracks into racinos.
We’ve already tried that with our betting shops. It’s been great for the bookmakers, but not so beneficial to racing.
In other words there was an element of everyone, management and staff, all working together with give and take on both sides. On the other side there was flexibility when we did want time off – I considered it an adult approach to working hours.
Your erstwhile employers sound like a paragon of virtue compared to the bookmakers, judging by what my chats with betting shop employees have revealed.
It’s interesting that you mention (and represent) USDAW, Kenh.
My partner is an assistant manager for one of the big three bookies and she has found that many of her colleagues have joined a different union, Community.
Obviously, this fragmentation of the workforce is not a good thing for employees.
Quite why there should be no all-weather racing once the turf has started I don’t understand.
The most obvious reason is because the already meagre levy funding has to be stretched even further to subsidise these meetings, with their pitiful attendance levels.
A liberalisation of gaming regulations has allowed punters to put money on sports and lotteries of all kinds, and the cash has just drained away from the horses.
And the same thing is going to happen here in a few years’ time.
….In the words of Channel 4 mock Japanese Gameshow "Banzai" – "BET….NOW!!!"
How long before one of the major bookmakers has Mr Cheeky Chappie imploring us all to do just that?
The traditional two day Kempton Easter meeting has been broken up with the Magnolia and Rosebery being run last Saturday and, as far as I’m aware based on last year, the Queen’s Prize, Snowdrop and rebranded, watered-down Easter & Masaka due to be run on Saturday 13th April
Thanks for the response, Drone. It’s a pity that the early Classic trials have withered so badly over the last couple of decades, but switching them to the artificial surface can’t have helped.
I think it was something to do with the bookmakers saying there were too many meetings
Any evidence to support that statement?
I would agree that the field for the world’s richest race was very average. But to say that the race has therefore failed in it’s ambition is to misunderstand that ambition.
The problem is that if the race continues on its current downward spiral in quality terms, there will come a point where nobody pays any attention to Dubai on its most prestigious raceday.
It’s my assertion that with the plethora of alternative betting ‘opportunities’ now available, bookmakers will shortly find it beneficial to distance themselves from racing.
I concur wholeheartedly, betlarge; in fact, I have been asking all my friends and colleagues to refrain from betting on virtual racing and FOBTs because we can’t be too far from the day when bookies decide that paying to show live racing in their shops isn’t worth their while and stop showing live racing pictures.
Being a racing fan first and foremost, as opposed to a punter, I would rather see racing find a way of funding itself without the levy; the question, as it has been for the last few decades, is exactly how this can be done.
