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It’s going well thanks Colin. We’ve had a slight dip from the early weeks which you would expect but we’re still ahead of expectations and holding nicely at the 20,000 mark.
It was a real shame that The Sportsman didn’t succeed but it was never likely to given the people who were at the very top of the organisation.
The first front cover was a killer – every newspaper and media outlet in Europe gets those bookmaker press releases and no experienced journalist ever gives them much attention. To splash on one was absolute madness.
You must have huge sympathy with the foot soldiers who produced genuinely innovative racing coverage which more than matched the RP on the tipping and analysis front.
I highly doubt whether there is a market for another daily trade paper. Being involved with Racing Ahead, I at least have some idea of how much such an operation would cost and the numbers don’t really add up.
That said, there’s every chance that the Racing Post won’t be able to continue in its current format – ie with the coverage, resources and costs of a national newspaper.
No daily racing paper can survive without the 20-odd thousand guaranteed daily sales from the betting shops
Within five years, there won’t be papers up on the walls in most betting shops, it will be display screens. These are already used in Europe and are like plasma TVs only much, much sharper. The technology is developing and soon these will be as clear as newsprint and cheap to install.
Once these have been rolled out, will the likes of Ladbrokes pay around £2m per year just to put the Racing Post on their walls? There will be many more outlets to provide colours and form to these screens than the expense of paying for the Racing Post.
For once, it seems Trinity Mirror played a blinder in disposing of the paper for somewhere near its top price – although they could have got even more.
So it might be a case of enjoying the one trade paper while it lasts – and certainly their currently free website.
The weekend is a slightly different matter, as Racing Ahead Weekend has proved, but another daily looks highly unlikely.As someone who lives within spitting distance of the Melling Road, I think they are flouting the trades descriptions act calling it the Grand National.
It looks to me like a 2m6f Flat race with some large hairbrushes in the way for horses to run through.
A real shame that there were fatalities but I wouldn’t have thought the race generates a lot of interest with Aussie punters. Is there no tradition of steeplechasing in Australia?This could be another own goal by racing. There is a lot to be said for marketing the sport and trying to create more buzz around the big races. But behind it, there is potentially a huge problem. The 10 races are going to be put into one package for TV rights, separate to all other British racing.
So, for example, Channel 4 could be asked to spend millions on rights to televise British racing – then asked to cough up again for the 10 main races. Why would they spend millions to televise the run-of-the-mill Saturdays only to see someone like Sky or Setanta outbid them for the big Flat races?
Let’s hope this isn’t the end of terrestrial TV racing save for these 10 big races. As boxing has shown when you lose terrestrial TV you lose your place as a major sport, save for the odd one-off big fight.Think there’s a lot of local objections – the proposed site is near Salford’s very own millionaires’ row in Worsley.
There might be some truth in what NWRA says but you want to try watching a race while about 100 people sing a song about various football teams.
I am not a panic merchant myself, I am only in my early 30s and like the odd pint myself so I haven’t quite got a flat cap on yet!The only answer is to limit the amount of drink sold at the racecourse by closing the bars at certain times and having a limit on how many pints each person can buy – to stop someone buying 50 pints etc.
Another possible answer is to only allow drinking inside the bars and not in any outdoor areas – that would at least limit things slightly.
But it would mean the stag trips etc wouldn’t turn up so profits would go down so it’s about as likely as Haydock bringing the drop fences back. And it wouldn’t stop people having 15 cans of Stella on the coach on the way.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the lager vending machines and mobile lager tanks at Haydock a couple of years ago.
There really is nothing wrong with having a few drinks on a day out, nothing at all. It’s just that people are absolutely plastered by 2pm – there are lots of pubs that would throw people out who were that drunk. But I suppose drunks tend to bet big and lose which also helps.
So the idea that racing is a family day out is a nonsense – you don’t take your kids to a place where there are gangs of drunk people staggering around.
That’s why there won’t be a next generation of people who love racing. It’s something that racegoers will always complain about and day-trippers won’t notice.
And don’t start me on stewards at the bigger tracks – these are people who think nothing of ejecting someone for not having the right type of jacket on – but who stand idly by as people get more and more drunk.
Sadly have to echo much of the above. I used to really enjoy going to Haydock and Chester but, the May meeting aside, I will not set foot on either track again in the summer.
It’s not so bad at Aintree because the course is so big and there are lots of places to avoid the aletanks.
Having had the "pleasure" of living in Cambridge for three years I would have to say that the world’s worst racetrack for this kind of behaviour is Newmarket.
I still remember the huge ruck on the day they opened the new grandstand – and the residue of cocaine in the toilets. It looked like the Bullingham Club had been in. Sadly, Newbury isn’t much better on a summer Saturday either.
Would also echo the comment about Ireland. I was shocked at the Punchestown Festival to find very modest queues at the main bars and a properly poured pint of Guinness on offer. Aside from the old boys struggling with the no-smoking rule, there wasn’t a semblance of trouble or the feeling of being stranded in a drinking competition.
Is it like this at The Curragh in the summer too?I have to agree Prufrock – having Superform in The Sportsman would have taken it to another level.
I think Timeform is excellent as an alternative to Superform although I think the writers of the black book/racecard comments would benefit from a little more freedom although I understand why there is uniformity.As for the earlier question about publishing racing results, there are no restrictions at all on publishing your ‘notebook’ online or wherever.
If you want something more detailed, you would have to pay a licence fee to the BHA.
I think the restrictions are on the SPs, racetitles and official winning distances.
But your observations on a race are your own business – maybe Wikiform should be born!Reading the message on the Superform website they at least closed down because the proprietor wanted to retire rather than a failing business.
It’s a shame because the web service was fantastic value at less than £11 per month for ratings, results and commentaries.
I suppose the £11 contributed to the company not being able to continue as a web-only venture at the moment. It was very good value – too good!
I may have a vested interest but it does us all good to have different sources of information and for some smaller, independent companies to survive as long as they provide a good service or something different.
It does mean that we’ve gone from race analysis from four sources: Racing Post, Raceform (when it was independent), Timeform and Superform. It’s now just two with Racing Post/Raceform and Timeform.
There are plenty of fantastic ratings services from small providers on the net but it’s the commentaries that will be missed most by Superform subscribers, myself included.
Everyone sees the Racing Post and Timeform is read by huge numbers – there were plenty of gems in Superform that went below the radar.Zoe Bird writes a column in The Sun every Saturday. One week she led off on the lovely new escalators at Ascot. No more comment needed really.
This is a real shame – their commentaries have always been much better than their rivals and they will be a sad loss.
Did the letter say when and why they were packing in? Maybe news of their demise could bring some old subscribers out of the woodwork and something could be salvaged.Ho-ho Carvills – as a Mullen colt out of a Donnelly mare I am more Irish than English!
Thanks for all the help everyone.Trying to read between the lines, if the proposal is for just four meetings on a Saturday afternoon that would be most welcome.
Very interesting about Sunday continuing to perform badly turnover wise. Betting shops are empty on a Sunday but the tracks are busy – it would be interesting to see what the turnover is on 1,000 Guineas day compared to a normal Sunday to see if the quality argument holds up.
Fewer meetings is an absolute must – as a publisher, the seven meetings scheduled on Derby day makes it difficult to give the great race the coverage it deserves. The sport must stop diluting its star attractions as the brew is getting weaker every year.I was also surprised about the number of non-completers in the National this year, especially as on the official ratings it was probably the classiest renewal of the race.
ESPN Classic on Sky have been showing some of the old races from the 70s and it did strike me that the older style of riding probably suits horses more when tackling the big fences.
There were more jockeys in those days that would be given the modern euphemism of "good horseman" because they were a lot less forceful than many of today’s riders. There was more hunting around in the race with the contest only really developing in the final mile or so.
I know that still happens to some extent but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the calmer riders like Timmy Murphy, Paul Carberry, Ruby Walsh etc have done well in the race in recent years.
There could also be the matter of jumping becoming less of a test all round with even Haydock Park’s fences looking pretty soft and the drops have gone. It stands to reason that if horses aren’t used to large drop fences they may find them more of a challenge when they get to Aintree.
On the other hand, all of the above may be cobblers.High Ken – they have just shown the 77 National on ESPN Classic and The Voice indeed did miss the leader coming down – but a youthful-sounding John Hanmer picked it up immediately.
I was at Aintree on Saturday and the groan when Bewleys Berry was announced as a faller was huge – if he’d won there would have been lots of ripped up tickets being sellotaped back together!
Thought Richard Hoiles did a really good job but I think they could do with another caller out in the country for next year.It’s a good day – Tatts is actually the best view from the hill. It is terrible if it rains though.
As for the Liverpool ladies, I am a Liverpudlian born and bred and would normally defend the city to anybody but they are a real sight to behold.
Going to the track they look a million dollars, going home they look a million Zimbabwe dollars.
Just remember, they hit far, far harder than the men so don’t take the mickey in their earshot!!
