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You would hope the Derby would be a strong enough event not to have to be at half-time during the football.
It would also help if the Racing Post was a bit cheaper than £1.80 because I am sure that puts a lot of people off buying it.Think there’s a couple of arguments going on here – there is certainly too much racing in the UK and the sheer amount of it detracts from the flagship events.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put as many of those flagship events at weekends as possible.
Maybe arrange Saturday big-race times slightly differently so the day’s main event goes off at 3.50 to fit into the half-time break at football. That would help with the TV and radio coverage. That’s not belittling racing, it’s coping with the situation we find ourselves in.
Why not run the midweek meetings later in the day so, for example, the Ebor goes off at 7pm as the last race on the card with the first race at 4.00. Run the other main races at 5.30, 6.00 and 6.30 so people at least have a chance to watch after work.
Just a thought.Fair enough about Melbourne Max – but the point is our country doesn’t and wouldn’t stop for a race that’s run in midweek. It didn’t stop for the Derby and doesn’t stop for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
1.7million people watched the Gold Cup this year on Channel 4. To put that into perspective, 2.1million watched Eggheads an hour later on BBC2. None of the Cheltenham broadcasts made it into the top 30 shows on ch4 during festival week.
3.7million watched last year’s Derby.
Even football have cottoned on and are moving the Champions League final to a Saturday afternoon in two years’ time.
I wish it wasn’t so but without the weekend stag dos etc, there would be many fewer courses in this country. Even the large venues struggle midweek, places like Newbury are half-empty except at the weekend. We can’t organise racing around the social season any more – there aren’t enough toffs to keep it going!
Can’t agree with a lot of this – it makes lots more sense to stack racing’s main events at weekends.
Racing takes centre stage when big races are held during the week? Really – what stage is this exactly? Royal Ascot and Cheltenham are the only racing events that hold up during the week and only one of those is a true racing event.
Look at the attendances, sales of the Racing Post, betting turnover and TV viewing figures for a midweek meeting and compare it to a Saturday – there is no contest.
Glorious Goodwood – the biggest day in all those terms is the Saturday as it is every other week.
I know Chester in May is well attended but it’s a social event and they could be racing donkeys off Blackpool beach for most of the crowd. Betting turnover and national interest would be much higher for the Chester Cup if it was on a Saturday. It doesn’t compete with football during the summer and the major jumps races seem to do OK on a Saturday.
We can’t live in the past – racing exists on its current scale because of betting turnover and nothing, nothing else.
We risk the sport becoming like four-day county cricket – completely irrelevant outside the few thousand people who turn up to watch it over the season. The Grand National, Derby, Royal Ascot, Cheltenham and few other meetings will be our Test matches and the rest will fade away.Thought the commentary was a bit strange – I have never heard a horse described as being rank before. Believe me, it means something very different where I come from!
But if we can in any way get American punters interested in betting on British racing it must be a good thing – in 10 years’ time our bookies will be even less interested than they are now and overseas money may keep the sport going.
And if it meant sectional timing etc being readily available that too would be a good thing.
But no British racecourse has a club house!I assume C4 will pick up the good Saturday meetings that the BBC don’t want?
In years to come, if the BBC and C4 pull out, I would have thought someone like Channel Five might pick up racing.
If no-one else wanted it, they could offer real peanuts for the rights, do it without any outside broadcast etc and it would be just as cheap as the American B movies they show now and surely bring in more viewers.
Get the bookies to take a few ads and bob’s your uncle.Whatever it was, something would have to be done to get racing shown on one of the terrestrial freeview TV channels.
We know bookies’ turnover rockets when the racing is on terrestrial TV so, without that, the bookies will become even less interested in racing and, without the bookies, there will be no sport as we know it now.
Nothing that hasn’t been said before I know – but every year the sport seems to be pushed further to the margins. It’s only after the Gold Cup/National/Derby when you see all the national papers featuring Kauto Star etc on the cover that you remember racing isn’t a minority sport at all – but it’s run like a minority sport by people who largely haven’t a clue what they’re doing.
We don’t know if it’s true in this case but many of these telephone tipster ads are on a revenue-share basis these days – ie the newspaper gets XXp per call so gives the advertising space as their side of the deal
You’ll notice that the trade papers put them in where there are awkward gaps in the form etc and often repeat the same ads in an issue.
At least one mainstream national paper has a revenue share system for their tipster ads.On another note, there is no hard and fast rule to say that a tipster couldn’t start a tipping line and, on day one before it has any callers to upset/complain, tip every horse in every race at a particular meeting and then run an advert boasting "5,900-1 stunner – we gave ALL SEVEN winners at Course X on March 5, 2009".
This would technically be true and would get you a rap over the knuckles at the very worst from the Advertising Standards Authority.I run the Racing Ahead monthly mag – when we started we always thought we would have a software section just like the old Odds On mag did but, with a few exceptions, we have barely had any software developers contact us about their wares.
We have reviewed the Boxform software before, and OIAL but that’s about it. We have covered Raceform Interactive etc but it would be great if there was more software out there to talk about. If anyone reading this has produces predictor software get in touch!I think for simple predictor software, Compunter was the daddy in the mid to late nineties. The C module in high-value races did very well and was based on the VDW methods. It also only took about five minutes to do each race and it even advised when to bet.
Sadly the author of the software passed away but if you can get hold of a copy, the C module wasn’t updated each year so would still be useful.
On the subject of Pro Punter Gold, I still have an old Amiga gathering dust in the loft so if anyone has a copy I would be very interested to have a go at it!Ayr racecourse is also up for sale – let’s hope one of the big groups doesn’t get its hands on the Scottish Grand National. Here’s the press release they have sent out today:
AYR RACECOURSE AND HOTEL BUSINESS FOR SALE
AYR Racecourse and Western House Hotel have been put up for sale after the present owners decided it would be in the Racecourse’s best interests in order for the business to be taken to the next level.
Ayrshire businessmen Alan Macdonald and Richard Johnstone announced their decision on Friday and cited a combination of the poor state of the housing market and the planning system in Scotland as the reasons behind their decision.
Alan and Richard bought the racecourse just over five years ago and have overseen a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of Scotland’s premier racecourse.
More than £14 million has been spent on a raft of improvements including the four star Western House Hotel – Ayrshire’s premier wedding destination, the Princess Royal and Ayrshire Suite Conference centre and upgraded hospitality facilities.
Major investment has also been made in racing with prize money for races including the two flagship fixtures the Coral Scottish Grand National Festival and the John Smith’s Ayr Gold Cup Festival being substantially increased.
Ayr has thrived over the last five years and attendance figures have shown sustained increases and the 2008 crowds to date boast the highest attendances at the track for more than 50 years. Advance ticket sales for this month’s John Smith’s Ayr Gold Cup Festival also sit at a record high.
Christie + Co have been appointed as agents to oversee the sale of the leasehold racecourse and the freehold Western House Hotel.
Alan Macdonald, Chairman of Ayr Racecourse spoke of the decision to sell and the reasons for doing so.
He said : “Richard and I stated when we bought the course five years ago that our intentions were to restore Ayr to its former glory and to ensure a long term sustainable future as Scotland’s only Grade One track.
“Crossfunding to finance both that goal and to also bring all the facilities up to a high standard was to come from residential and commercial developments on surplus land held by the racecourse.
“The planning process took five years, considerably longer than anticipated, and we had to go to Public Inquiry but finally in May this year the process was completed.
“We now have planning consents in place for these developments but the property market is such that it could be a few years before value can be realised from this.
“Having already spent £14 million on taking the business to where it is now and growing our status both as a racecourse and as the operator of one of Scotland’s finest hotels we feel the time is right to invite offers from people who feel they can take it to the next level. More importantly Richard and I need to believe these are the right people.
“Significantly both these businesses – the racecourse and the hotel – operate on a profitable basis.”
William Gorol, Ayr Racecourse General Manager, said :”Its business as usual. We are very proud of what we have achieved and we look forward to providing the same high standards for the new owners.”
Attendances of all the major meetings at Ayr have shown dramatic increases with the Coral Scottish Grand National Saturday topping 17,000 this year – a rise of more than 8 % on 2007 while Coral Scottish Grand National Friday was 43.5 % up, and the two Family Days up by 19% and 14 %.
Ayr also staged the Saints and Sinners Racenight for the first time this year and almost 8000 people attended.
Western House Hotel has been voted Scotland’s Wedding Hotel of the Year in 2007 and 2008 and was also awarded a Thistle Award for Customer Care by VisitScotland. The Princess Royal Centre will cater for more than 40,000 banquet covers in 2008 and a host of major conferences including the Scottish Conservative Party Conference.
Alan Macdonald added : “We have turned a sleeping giant into a vibrant multi purpose business but the time is right to hand the baton over.”Mind you, I should probably say that I backed the O’Brien horse so may have blinkers on myself.
Does anyone else think that Lush Lashes didn’t really act on the track so took longer to pick up than might be expected?
Granted it was a poor ride but maybe she would have gone through that gap on a flatter track.
I haven’t been around as long as some but I have seen dozens of hard luck stories like that at Goodwood in the past 20-odd years.
That said, it’s surprising that Lush Lashes’ connections didn’t employ a pacemaker or go from the front themselves. The tactics weren’t wrong in the final 3f, they were wrong in the first 3f.The programme was much less sensationalist than previous efforts I thought. Strangely it seemed to give equal weight to jockeys telling their mates that they don’t fancy something they are riding to actually stopping horses.
Inside trading is a very difficult subject for racing. If you get a tip from a stable lad, is that inside trading? If a sub-editor at the Racing Post backs the Pricewise tip once he’s seen the page is that inside trading?
Maybe betting exchanges need to be more stringently controlled and the FSA should step in – if nothing else, shouldn’t people who back and lay on exchanges pay income tax on their profits?
Is he not Robin Goodfellow on the Daily Mail these days? Could have my wires crossed of course but thought he got that job. Agree that’s he’s very good.
On the same note, Mark Howard is also excellent and always talks with authority when he’s on RUK.
