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All options should be explored as there is no one answer to solve the problem – tricking people by lures……really……..what exactly do you think offering students cheaper ticket prices and/or a free bet is then?
I wouldn’t call it tricking/lures as the individual still has the choice to go or not but I do think incentives to come racing is always a good idea along with some of the themed race days that are in place at some courses, kids under 16 going free and the after racing concerts at a cheaper overall price (than just going to the concert alone) etc
Due to his smooth laid back style, Des Lynam attracted many female viewers to watch Grandstand and in particular the National coverage he fronted – most of whom probably had no clue or interest in horse racing prior to that so you can argue he did introduce the sport to a demographic that wasn’t being catered to previously.
While I agree 1000% the Powers That Be should have more faith in their product, stating that for all intents and purposes that it is a waste of time having other sporting people appear on ITV Racing engaging in the social media aspect (which is where the biggest group of new fans will be found) and that new people clearly aren’t being attract to the sport based on the Cheltenham Festival attendances being down is short sighted and rather isolationist.
For me it doesn’t really matter where or how new people are introduced to the sport only that when they are, they have a good enjoyable day out and experience the majesty of the racehorse in the flesh and find it something that they want to continue participating in going forward – if it is another unrelated sports star(s) bridging the gap to bring potential new fans to the sport then so what.
There are plenty of other sports stars that have got into racing like Michael Owen, Mick Channon, Harry Redknapp, John Parrott, Alex Ferguson and Victoria Pendelton to name but a few and they all to varying degrees would no doubt have brought a number of new fans to the sport through their involvement.
Personally, I got into racing around 7 or 8 simply by bugging my grandad on the weekends watching him study form in his Daily Mirror and then him taking time to explain about form and trainers/jockeys he followed to me and then both of us watching that afternoon’s racing on World of Sport (with the legend that was Dickie Davis), which led into him taking me on racing days to Sandown or Kempton and then moving up to going on a coach with a group of family/friends to watch the Epsom Derby from the infield for several years.
We have no real clue as to whether these other stars are as into horse racing as we all are or are just in it to further their own profile but again if they are able to reach a wider demographic and bring even just some into the racing family, it is surely better than just hoping that new people will discover racing with no outside influence….especially when you consider that the ‘perception’ and narrative in the media of the sport isn’t condusive to people saying….I know, lets all go out to a day at the races.
Nathan – we have an abundance of racing people on the show already (whether they are your cup of tea notwithstanding) but lets also not forget how Cricket in particular brought in new formats of the game (Twenty Twenty), technological advances to appeal to a younger demographic that had no interest in the longer format of the game that was perceived as boring with nothing happening and a waste of several days.
Snooker has brought in new technology stats (like Cricket did) and opened up to bigger markets in Asia with a new batch of players coming through that play a much more attacking quicker form of Snooker compared to the safety riddled chess games that I remember watching when it was in its TV pomp in the early/mid 80s.
Sports do need to adapt somewhat to maintain their popularity and whilst the racing aspect of the sport itself can’t change format like the aforementioned sports can and have, using race fans from other sports is one way racing can try to gain access to new other fanbase who might not have even considered racing as a sport they would ever be interested in.
She will be on the social media side of things with Oli Bell I believe and as she is a Liverpudlian sporting star (and as she has done I’m A Celebrity. . . Get Me Out Of Here!, Strictly Come Dancing and been a team captain on A Question of Sport) maybe they think she could be the right kind of person to tap into and convert some of that large demographic that probably aren’t currently racing fans.
If they are only trying to attract racing people to be on a racing program (which is probably a smaller pool that has doesn’t have the wider public recognition) it is not likely to have much impact with trying to encourage new people to come racing.
Also (as much as I don’t like making this type of comment) she is very easy on the eye, which might also draw wider attention to what she is doing and thus potentially more eyeballs and future racing fans could be newly introduced to the sport through her.
Racing has always been very insular so the more it can be introduced to the wider public the better the chance of recruiting new fans and you then also have the chance to educate them on what racing is really all about rather than ‘the perception’ that the non race going public seem to have of the sport mainly being a welfare issue.
If it takes the likes of a Sam Quek and/or others of a similar ilk to spread the racing word to the masses then so be it (especially if whatever percentage of new people it brings into the sport end up becoming regular racegoers/fans) and as many on here have said, the mute and/or fast forward buttons (if you have it program on record) are your best friends and can be liberally used so that you don’t have to engage when these people and their segments show up during the show.
Incapsulates the glorious highs and desperate lows in one race. Condolences to all especially Corbetts groom.
Winner has improved massively to take this in the manner he did – GDC went down on his sword and was well clear of the rest and Townend looked after him on the run in when he knew it was a hopeless task. Sods law he will probably go and win at Punchestown now!
It will go down as one of the most surprising Festivals of all time that had a bit of everything what with what happened in the Champion Hurdle/Champion Chase/Gold Cup, throw in a 100-1 winner of the Triumph Hurdle making his jumping debut, Mullins with a record equalling 10 winners (with the chance to beat his record in the last) but missing out on the big two and the emotionally poignant fairytale wins of Marine Nationale/Jazzy Matty and you literally had a narrative that not even Hollywood would believe if you wrote it.
FTF at 8 is only a year younger than GDC and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that he will be a better horse over the Gold Cup trip as a 9 yr old and he will need to be an infinitely better horse over that trip to get near GDC, who has outstayed much stronger stayers than FTF to win his two Gold Cups.
Yes I get that ‘out of the norm’ things can happen in races (as this week has ably shown us) but that isn’t a common thing and rightly or wrongly (wrongly in my opinion) we do have the G1 Ryanair Chase at the intermediate distance of 2m4½f that gives those horse that fall between two stools another more viable option.
That trip is clearly FTF’s optimum given that his best two performances (today and in the 2m3½f John Durkan) have both been at or around that trip and lets be honest, JP is the type of owner that if he truly felt that FTF was capable of beating GDC over 3m2f he would have been running in the Gold Cup. The fact that he has subsequently supplemented a stouter stayer (Inothewayurthinkin) into the line up with his other strong stayer Corbetts Cross is rather telling to me.
I really can’t see any chaser (both current and those coming up from the novice division) being able to lay a finger on the FTF that showed up today and quite clearly connections felt this was the best race for him especially given that it was always going to be run to suit his free going style of racing.
To me a bigger question to answer wouldn’t be could he be a Gold Cup horse but that could he drop down in trip and be a Champion Chase horse instead?
I know JP has Jonbon but…..well we all saw how well that went yesterday and FTF looks a much more natural/safer jumper at speed round Cheltenham.
An end to end gallop at the ideal trip was the perfect race scenario for FTF to produce his best – Mullins talking nonsense about him being a Gold Cup horse, he didn’t see out the trip over 3m at Leopardstown twice because he didn’t (and won’t) settle well enough off the slower gallop, so he has no chance in a Gold Cup over 2f further where even great 3m horses have found it a step too far.
Last year’s Brown Advisory was run very sedately (slow by 36.82s) and he beat staying types purely for speed and if you look at his family, it is all form from 2m2f-2m6f. Only way he beats GDC over 3m is at Punchestown where GDC always gets beat after his Cheltenham exertions
His program looks tailor made for him with the John Durkan, King George, Ryanair and then maybe either the Melling Chase and/or Punchestown the obvious races – if we didn’t have the Ryanair, I think he would have a better chance of winning a QMCC than the Gold Cup.
Night Nurse and Monksfield I think are rated pretty much correctly based on their Aintree dead heat where Night Nurse was conceeding weight to Monksfield but Istabraq is highly overrated in my opinion.
Sea Pigeon’s rating is actually laughable when you consider he is on the same mark as Baracouda and Gaye Brief and somehow is rated 2lbs inferior to Limestone Lad!
Arkle and Flyingbolt’s ratings are most likely due to the insane weight carrying performances they produced (you could argue that Flyingbolt’s were even greater than Arkle’s if you look at their Irish National wins especially) and because it is now extremely rare for the top horses to run in handicap races (a big deal is made when the 7lbs mare’s allowance comes into play) and now I highly doubt any of them would ever find themselves in the circumstances needed to record even a rating of 200 let alone above that.
That being said it would be nice to someone from Timeform come out and explain exactly how some of the aforementioned ratings were actually achieved…..just out of idle curiosity.
Don’t subscribe to his not liking Cheltenham – his 6 runs at the course has resulted in 2 wins and 4 2nd places which hardly suggest that he doesn’t operate at the place.
He had no chance with Constitution Hill in the Supreme but the race report stated that the vet confirmed that he lost his left hind shoe and in the Arkle, the race report alluded to him ‘jumping slightly left throughout along with ‘drifting left when challenging 2 out’ and ‘hung left and no extra run-in’.
Serious jumping mistakes have now cost him two G1 wins at Cheltenham but then he has also made jumping mistakes and/or had race reports that said ‘not fluent’ or ‘jumped left’ at several others courses like Aintree, Ascot, Sandown and Warwick respectively.
Is he better at other tracks…..maybe but I wouldn’t blame Cheltenham itself for two of his three most recent failures as it has been jumping mistakes (that isn’t just reserved for Cheltenham) that has been his downfall.
Hope Energumene is ok as he was pulled up and dismounted – likely the better ground as he cut out rather quickly as they came down the hill.
Had to be really – sometimes racing provides those feel good fairytale results and this is probably the one that trumps them all.
The start was messy and put Jonbon on the back foot to start with but he does have previous with throwing in howlers at the wrong time in races but full credit to the horses to run on and Nico just said he didn’t like the tape underneath his nose.
With the way the big hot pots in the big races have been getting sunk, starting to worry a bit for things going pear shaped for GDC now as well.
Could look at it one of a few ways with BDA – one the effort that it took to produce that performance at Leopardstown has left a much more lasting mark on her, two it was just an anomaly of a race (as State Man clearly never showed up) and the others runners were clearly ridden simply to get placed (it was suspect form that you couldn’t put trust at face value in) or she has just had an off day.
Not sure I can have that last one as she had the run of the race and it is not like they went the some crazy fast fractions today (at one point starting down the back I didn’t think they were going quick enough) but she was still travelling well until State Man loomed upside her just before turning for home but when asked there was not much of a response.
The overall form clearly won’t hold up as this was simply a case of the three outsiders taking full advantage of an unexpectedly rare set of circumstances to befall the three principles….nothing more nothing less.
Interestingly Kribensis only ran in the 1990 Kingwell Hurdle (en-route to winning the 1990 Champion Hurdle) due to the fact that connections felt that the thing that beat him in the 1989 Champion Hurdle was the fact that they opted not to run him between the Christmas Hurdle and Cheltenham (where he faded badly after leading going to the last).
I think for trainers now its closeness to the Champion Hurdle puts more off of running Champion Hurdle contenders but look through its history and the first 6 runnings were won by Champion Hudle winners in Bula (who did the double back to back in 1971-72) and Lanzarote (both won it 3 times) and after Kribensis and Alderbrook you also had Hors La Lois III (2002) and Katchit (2008) do the double.
Would have thought Lossiemouth would be the best candidate for the Aintree Hurdle (seeing as she didn’t have much of a race today) and State Man after falling will probably be left until Punchestown – seriously doubt whether we will see CH again until the Fighting Fifth.
The owner can override the trainer’s suggestion if they are not on board with their advice and I am not sure that Ricci took much convincing to swerve the race.
Ricci also doesn’t really have the same depth of firepower at Closutton now that he has had in past years, so a G1 Cheltenham Festival winner (no matter the level of competition) is probably more cherished now than ever, lets face it, outside of Lossiemouth & Gaelic Warrior (who seems to be regressing based on his form this season) I struggle to name any other top or potential G1 horses that Ricci has.
Once again the Mares race has detracted from the quality of the Champion Hurdle field – maybe a G1 winning mare needs to carry a penalty if subsequently contesting the Mares race to try and make the race less inviting for the potential Champion Hurdle types and give the other less talented mares a chance to have their moment in the sun.
Moral of the story is that you have to be in it to win it and jumping is the name of the game.
CH has flirted with falling in the past and on the replay he was long at the hurdle but simply didn’t get anywhere near high enough to clear the hurdle and his front hoof actually landed halfway up the hurdle. Strangely I am more shocked that State Man fell than I am of CH if I am honest.
Fortune favours the bold so I am very happy for connections of the winner and was that a case of fate giving the middle finger to Lossiemouth’s connections for bottling it?
