It would be foolish for anyone to consider the big year on year increase in the terrestial television viewing figures for the Guineas meeting coverage and believe that racing is on the pathway to securing a new born boost in popularity.
In normal circumstances Saturday would have seen the final qualifying session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while the England cricket team would be in the third day of their first Test Match against the West Indies at the Oval - not to mention all the programmes covering the countdown to the beginning of the Euro Championships which was due to begin in a few days time.
It's a mark of where the once major sport of horse racing now stands in the pecking order in the UK when final Grand Prix qualifying sessions attract a larger television audience.
So together the fates conspired to provide the sport with what could be interpreted as a golden opportunuty to showcase its strengths, with even the dip in temperatures outside keeping many from their gardens.
Looking at the present state of the various sports objectively, horse racing is not reliant on an attending audience to maintain the quality of experience for the living room viewer. Indeed, we were even spared those obtuse and ingratiating interviews with the victorious jockeys, as they are led back in off the course.
This is not to say that a pre or post race opinion of a trainer cannot enhance the viewer experience provided the questions are tailored for the circumstances, similar to an early day recording of a chat with one or two of the riders, or a post race jockey interview after the weigh in, when he is able to watch a replay with the interviewer and offer an insight with his mind now clear and relaxed.
But all in all, given the circumstances, nothing too major is taken away from the core attraction if you are genuinely interested in the sport, which is not something that could be said for the football fanatics who may be facing an impending meltdown of their sport.
If the restart follows the same pattern as the Bundesliga where, as feared by many, the empty venues have whittled away ' home' advantage taking away a component of the game, then SKY will have a job on their hands billing their games. They won't be able to come up with the ' make the journey to....where they will face the hostile atmosphere of...' line and subscriptions are going to be cancelled like never before.
There may be initial enthusiasm but the viewers will soon realise it's not football how they know and like it. The subscription TV companies will try adding all sorts of red button gimmicks but it probably won't wash. This could finally be the time when the endlessly expanding bubble bursts.
This does not mean that those with horse racing's interests at heart should think that they have the product to take advantage of the situation for there is most unlikely to be any substantial increase in online wagering on the sport which means that the pending mass closures of high street betting offices will put the sword to the sport with a massive shortfall in funding. And not to mention the separate issue of those venues that have sold their soul to the cult summer crowds.
For the well being of the sport it would be wiser for those on the power buttons to move their attention away from hoping to get one over on the round ball game and hope for an outcome that favours both - namely the dreaded plague fading away with the realisation that the imposition of lockdown was unnecessary, an opinion shared by some respected scientists.
And if by the end of the month there is no reversal in the pattern of declining fatalities, hopes will increase that no notable second wave will be forthcoming. It would still take until next spring to be confident that it won't be returning but the prospect of sporting venues with large capacities as early as the spring jumping festivals is considerably better than the alternative of seeing this uncertainty lasting for a long, indefinite period of time, that could relegate the status of horse racing here to a level unknown over the past century and a half.
A further area of concern must be drawn to the anti racing groups. Now, those of us who followed the sport in the 1970's and 1980's know full well that the opposition to the sport was far more numerical than it is now. This stems from the fact that a countless number of souls who potentially could have been shaped into animal liberation 'revolutionaries' are instead concentrating their full focus and energy on the just cause of saving the oceans and its inhabitants from the grim affects of pollution.
The problem lies within clever utilisation of social media which can enable a relatively small group of people to allay the impression that they are far more widespread and powerful than is really the case. And as they will be open to new angles to create an impact it is hard not to believe that some of the antics witnessed this past weekend will have had their light bulbs flickering away.
Put it this way, is it that far fetched to imagine a group of wannabe revolutionaries descending on St Jame's Park with the intention of inflicting wanton damage on the Queen Mother Memorial statue, drumming up support by linking the racing connection with crimes of the British Empire.
And even less imagination is required to picture a sizeable mass of stirred up demonstrators descending upon the Charles 11 statues in Soho Square, on the Rowley Mile course in Newmarket or up in Edinburgh, as here they have a luminary who played a pivotal role not only in the development of horse racing but also in the legalisation of Britain's involvement in the slave trade. Oh dear!
image by Prioryman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0!
And if by the end of the month there is no reversal in the pattern of declining fatalities, hopes will increase that no notable second wave will be forthcoming. It would still take until next spring to be confident that it won't be returning but the prospect of sporting venues with large capacities as early as the spring jumping festivals is considerably better than the alternative of seeing this uncertainty lasting for a long, indefinite period of time, that could relegate the status of horse racing here to a level unknown over the past century and a half.
A further area of concern must be drawn to the anti racing groups. Now, those of us who followed the sport in the 1970's and 1980's know full well that the opposition to the sport was far more numerical than it is now. This stems from the fact that a countless number of souls who potentially could have been shaped into animal liberation 'revolutionaries' are instead concentrating their full focus and energy on the just cause of saving the oceans and its inhabitants from the grim affects of pollution.
The problem lies within clever utilisation of social media which can enable a relatively small group of people to allay the impression that they are far more widespread and powerful than is really the case. And as they will be open to new angles to create an impact it is hard not to believe that some of the antics witnessed this past weekend will have had their light bulbs flickering away.
Put it this way, is it that far fetched to imagine a group of wannabe revolutionaries descending on St Jame's Park with the intention of inflicting wanton damage on the Queen Mother Memorial statue, drumming up support by linking the racing connection with crimes of the British Empire.
And even less imagination is required to picture a sizeable mass of stirred up demonstrators descending upon the Charles 11 statues in Soho Square, on the Rowley Mile course in Newmarket or up in Edinburgh, as here they have a luminary who played a pivotal role not only in the development of horse racing but also in the legalisation of Britain's involvement in the slave trade. Oh dear!
image by Prioryman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0!
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