A RACECOURSE THAT COULD DO BETTER FOR ITSELF WITHOUT STAGING HORSE RACING

There can never have been a period before in UK horse racing like now were self examination has become such an obsession with everyone throwing in their two bob's worth in taking an inward look and suggesting solutions on how an ailing sport can be reinvigorated.

Some of the offerings are better than others, though there does disappointingly seem to be a general consensus that concert nights serve a purpose in bringing in a fresh audience to the sport - a claim in  which no evidence whatsoever exists to support it.

One member of the ITV racing team attended the concert night at Goodwood on Friday and witnessed trouble near to where he stood but put a positive on the event because one of two inebriated attendees came up to him to boast of winners they had supported earlier in the evening.

To suggest that this amounts to proof that these events are picking up and retaining a new fanbase for horse racing is ridiculous. They may have had a few bets as they began their boozing session to get in the mood for the concert but back home the following day, are we to expect that they would have watched the racing from their homes and carried on wagering? - Of course not, they'd have been watching and betting on the footy to the exclusion of everything else sporting.

Anyone believing that these attendees will eventually form the backbone of a an emerging young fanbase for the sport is gravely mistaken. I've never heard of anyone who became smitten with the sport after first being 'introduced' to it on a concert night - and these events have been going for some time now, right back as far as the mid 1980's when the Newmarket July course regularly hosted the likes of Suzi Quatro, Tom Jones, and that group that represented the UK in Eurovision who had American parents based at RAF Mildenhall. 

Try speaking to these people who claim to be racing fans. From out of the blue they may suddenly say that so and so had been raised so many pounds in the ratings. You then engage in conversation only to quickly realise that they haven't a clue what they mean and have just read it from an article on a betting site on their smartphones. You then realise that the name Nijinsky does not register with them which is like someone claiming to be a footy fan who had never heard of Pele. And some of these so-called racing fans are as old as forty!

I've spoken to someone around this age who claimed to be a genuine racing fan because he often watched ITV racing on a Saturday and sometimes had a Lucky 15. He did not however know what a classic was or that they were confined to three year olds. Had never heard of Kieren Fallon or Henry Cecil, and none of them have ever heard of Nijinsky.

This may seem harsh but a few weeks back I watched a preview of the British &Irish Lions Rugby tour, watched the three matches and had bets in two of them. Does that make me a fan? Truth be told I do not even know the rules while the only position I can name is a prop forward but I haven't the foggiest what the purpose of that role is and whereabouts on the field they play.

To be a genuine fan of a sport you cannot resist that initial urge to become engrossed and go on to mop up as much information as you can, historical and contemporary, as quickly as possible. The history has so much depth that a lifetime is not enough time to enrich yourself with all the knowledge you wish. And with racing it will mean you'll be a punter for life and the sport could not possibly survive in its present form without betting, which is why the explosion in general sports betting which continues to increase its portion of the betting pie, casts a shadow over the future of the game.

What is becoming clear from the increased importance being placed on these music nights is that there are racecourses, some with bleak balance sheets, which are missing a trick here. Most racing fans would be in denial if they did not agree that a large section of the crowds that now pack the cult venues (we know which courses these are) would not bat an eyelid if they changed the sport on show without prior announcement - which leads to the suspicion that some may already have held off the record discussions about the benefits of utilising their establishments by holding sports that would lessen the dependcy on racing.

Similar to show jumping, the sport of speedway seems to have disappeared from view but it still exists and can be watched on BT Sport and Eurosport, though is not promoted on these channels as much as most of the other sports. There are bookmaking firms who take bets on it too! Those of a certain age will recall that Peter Collins (in picture) was a household name during the 1970's, the sport itself with a prominent profile.

If truth be told this is the ideal sport for the emerging generation of racegoers. Bookmakers on track, a concert to look forward too after, the roar of the engines and smell of petrol, would be a perfect for for the gangs of young bucks and their companions - it's certainly something they would embrace with more passion than horse racing.

And which venue would be the first to go down this route? With all due respect to the venue, Catterick Bridge would be an ideal candidate. It's a long, long time since I've visited this track and there is nothing at all wrong with it lacking any glamour - but it also lacks any quaintness too, something which the likes of Beverley and Ripon certainlypossess.

In fact the stark, harsh coldness about the place makes it ideal for speedway. And being right on the A1 is easily accessible to a large area covering Yorkshire and the North East, with a shuttle bus service operating from Darlington Railway Station on race days. 

In a world in which change rarely takes place subtley it would not be a surprise if some venues began to tailor themselves to the needs of the modern, emerging attendees. For if these audiences have been enticed to the courses for something other than racing, then changing the sport on show would be a risk free gamble for many of the struggling establishments. It really could happen, and happen soon too.

image in public domain 

This released the month that Sea Pigeon finally got one over on Monksfield in the Champion Hurdle and when Tied Cottage took the prize many say he deserved only to be later stripped off his title. However, the only link this song is likely to have with racing in future is that it could be the welcomimg tune for attendees arriving at venues that once staged horse racing but had since moved on.

RACING SHOULD NOT TAKE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER COVERAGE FOR GRANTED

The increasing tendency to starve notoriety seeking mass murders of the 'fame' they seek is in a sense not too dismilar to the long established approach adopted to deal with the trivial subject of streakers at televised sporting events. 

We remember Erica thingyo at a Rugby match a few decades back, but from then on the names became unknown and it's a ' hobby' that may now be defunct  - though of that we can't be sure as if nothing is uttered by the commentator and the camera operators are alert enough to pan away before the offender enters the view of the lens, we'll know no different.

These two areas are as extreme as you can get - one lighthearted, slapstick and childishy funny, the other extremely tragic and disturbing. However, in between lies a large terrain of subjects which fit neither category but are at the mercy of the power of the present media who, intentional or not, participate in blanketing affairs which warrant discussion,

This came to mind when I was surprised at being reminded that the last Waterloo Cup was staged as recently as 2005. What was once the biggest sporting event in the nation and one which outpointed  the popularity of the Grand National to such an extent, it resulted in the Aintree spectacle being moved forward from February to its present slot.

I found an article on the racing page of an Irish newspaper dated in June of 2003 which celebrated the fact that the winners of both the Aintree and Altcar events that year, Monty's Pass and Henrietta, were trained in County Cork and would be paraded at Clonmel racecourse the following day. The article was eleven paragraphs long and the threat to the continuation of the Waterloo Cup was not alluded to.

Fast forward to the present and since the 2004 Hunting Act spelt the end for hare coursing on the Great Britain mainland, with Northern Ireland following in 2011, Eire is alone on the two islands in permitting it to continue.

The reason for this being brought up is not to discuss the rights or wrongs, benefits or hindrances of hare coursing, but to demonstrate how the media can collectively starve a subject of publicity or to use the in vogue term, 'cancel' it, and this is a tactic that racing could be on the wrong end of - don't be fooled by the red tops having weekend racing pull outs, for these are paid for by bookmakers advertising and if truth be told editors are giving less and less space to the sport and snipping the numbers on their racing desks.

I've always considered my memory to be in good working order but from the top of my head I would have guessed that the Altcar event was discontinued in the late eighties as opposed to a decade and a half later, which shows how scarily effective cancel culture can be.

And anyone believing that the sport does not need promotion from the media should consider how Show Jumping feels like it has sunk into oblivion though in reality it's still there if you look hard enough. Put it this way, those of us who are old enough to have been following all of the sports through the seventies will recall that the likes of Harvey Smith, Caroline Bradley, Eddie Macken and Paul Shockemohle were household names,in a different league on the popularity scale to the Snooker and Darts players of that time, and were names on the tip of the tongue as much as Tennis and Golf Players - can anyway name any current show jumping professionals, even a medal winner at the recently staged Olympics?

What is even more chilling is that while show jumping continues and will be found on some of those obscure channels which you need to scan the lists for, horse racing could not survive without its link with betting and would incur indelible damage if newspaper editors considered it was not worthy of coverage and terrestrial television followed down the same route.

Change happens so fast. You don't  see it coming. And no doubt that after the cancel mobs have pulled down all the statues they scornfully object to, they'll want to erase what they see as objectionable 1970's sitcoms from the archives, then, they'll be after those who they view as glorifying dangerously unhealthy lifestyles.

The name of Olly Reed would immediately be worked upon by the Ministry of Truth, and at the same Richard Burton, pound for pound an equal in neglecting his inside workings. Both 5ft 10in. Reed lasted three years longer amid tales of excessive alcohol intake, the volumes of which coming out of hazy recounts, but Burton's intake of five bottles of vodka a day along with up to a a hundred cigarettes makes him at least Reeds equal.

This is from an Album released in 2008 but to get into the spirit of rewriting history, it's too classy to befit that period so the release date is the week in August 1978 during which Hawaiian Sound beat Gunner B in the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup

A SPORT THAT HAS COMPLETELY LOST THE PLOT

That we really do finally seem to be returning to normality after seventeen months in the doldrums may be the much sought after lifeline that many involved racing have been holding out for in a sport which has taken a bigger hit than most and in which the majority of participants away from the very top spheres will not have been financially equipped to withstand a continuation of the restrictions.

But for many it will already be too late as pre-covid this was a sport much in need of a solution to provide a better funding model and it must be remembered that some racing professionals even took strike action in protest against what they considered to be meager prize money levels at the ARC courses - though some may say that amid a fixture list too big to thrive, the prize money was befitting of the general low quality of animal that filled the cards.

Those pesky protesters probably wish they could turn the clock back as the financial state of the sport is now a tier deeper in the mire with many bracing themselves for the fall out from the covid crisis that will have a detrimental affect for many years to come. 

There has been no plus side. When the circuit started back up last June to deliver a topsy turvy, asterisk season, marked by one of the most forgetful runnings of the Epsom Derby ever, some saw it as a big opportunity for the sport to pull in new viewers with less competition from the other traditional midsummer sports and a postponed Euro Championship in the football, a postponed Olympics, a cancelled Wimbledon, and cancelled Open Golf.

In reality though horse racing lost its mojo long ago and has fallen behind the other major sports of which it once could compete with. And let no one kid themselves - the  type of people who would become smitten watching the sport on TV during the lockdown are the same category who have been following the Olympic coverage over the past few weeks and familiarising themselves with names the general public are not familiar with and sports of which the general public have no grasp of the rules.

Certain races are fair barometers to guage the engagement level with the sport. One is the traditional midsummer highlight of the King George V1 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. This years renewal  promised  to be a cracker and as things turned out the event received a boost by falling to the present Epsom Derby winner - it was once an expected target of any Derby winner who aspired to go on to stake his claim to top the all aged middle distant rankings and the race had been much the poorer that it's now skipped by many, though it was only the underfoot conditions that hastened Golden Horn's withdrawal, the last above the norm Epsom Victor.

This year was the first running that I have not seen in real time since 1975. I would guess that many other maturing long term racing fans are beginning to gradually put many things racing lower down the order of priorities, as they find it is morphing into something they neither get a buzz over or respect very much anymore.

I recall, around fifteen years ago, recognising that my enthusiasm for the game must be waining when I was in the stands as the runners entered the stalls for the Chester Vase, reading a preview of the forthcoming Player's Championship at Sawgrass, and finding the prospect of settling down in the house to watch all four days of the Golfing event preferable than being at a course that has changed for the worse, hosting a sport that too has seen better days.

Since then Chester had continued to slide downwards thanks to the business model that dictates how the course operates. A modus operandi to take advantage of the cult status that the course holds for large throngs of people who could at anytime be enticed away from visiting racecourses to any rival attraction with a good supply of alcohol, that becomes fashionable.

Back to King George day - I was going from pub to pub in and around a Welsh town, packed with citizens proudly wearing  British and Irish Lions shirts. No sign of anything racing anywhere, no hearing of conversations anything racing, and in all the pubs with screens, only Cricket was showing apart from the dominant Rugby - and this from as early as 1pm, four hours prior to the starting time down in South Africa. 

The decline of horse racing's popularity in the UK is picking up pace, masked in parts by the large crowds that frequent the cult venues. They say one of the barriers to the sport halting its freefall is that the main stakeholding bodies are unable to blend in harmony, as the only aspect that seems to be consensual across the board is the toleration of a blatant sell out to the modern woke trends.

The appalling Ladbrokes advert, the just know you know one, seems to infer that betting on horses is more popular than it really is, with the masses involved daily as though every day was Grand National day, and with it spread equally across racial groups, sexes, and orientations. It's also damn annoying, even more so than that group of odd characters which were in those cringeworthy ' the Ladbroke life'  commercials.

Then we have these adverts for ' Diva Racing'  which is a very curious name indeed for a horse racing syndicate. The characters portraying the owners are seen hovering around a yard, probably to the frustration of those carrying out their tasks, that is, if you pretend they are real or maybe they are. Then there is that character in the green T shirt who appears to have taken up a hands on role or why else would he be opening the door on a horse transporter? Have never seen so called owners cast like this but of course they could not resist a shot of them drinking glasses of bubbly though I've no idea why they would do this walking around the stables.

This is the image that all the influential parties in the sport wish to beam out. It fits snuggly with the increasing tendency to give every gimmick a try - the doomed to fail team competition being the latest. No doubt there will be further attempts along the line to bring in ' city racing'.  They'll not give up on this idea, a frightful one which really does have the potential to produce a catastrophic accident, warts and all, that will make the sport appear crueller than any of the historic Grand Nationals ever could.

It would be a sin to take a glass half full attitude to the present state of UK racing as wherever you look, there are a shadows in every corner of the sport. It can't be repeated enough that not only has it seen better days that won't return, but that it could be on its way out.

This from an album that was released three days before the mighty Mill Reef won the 1971 King George. Since then music has gone down the swanny to the same degree as racing. This track is typical of what would be playing when you wander inadvertently into some Hell's Angels bar abroad.