This week has seen renewed discussion concerning how best ‘we’ should promote our sport. The problem is – as is often the case with racing – ‘we’ refers to a number of the industry’s stakeholders, all of which are singing from rather different hymn sheets.
As an agent representing some of the biggest names in the music industry, Emma Banks would know a thing or two about marketing. “Racing has to concentrate on making people want to go racing, not just making people want to go out,” she said when interviewed by the Racing Post’s Lee Mottershead earlier this month. I agree, but we cannot sit back and criticise racecourses for staging concerts after racing or charging through the nose for food and drink. It is obvious that post-racing concerts are not the most effective means of creating new fans of the sport, but that is not their priority; these are businesses, where profit is paramount. Granted, such an approach can be criticised as short-sighted – clearly racecourses would benefit if the pool of genuine racing fans was larger – but, if and when the day comes that racecourses are closed and sold as development land, the companies that own them will not be out of pocket.
Rod Street, CEO of GBR (the sport’s official promotional body) took to Twitter earlier this week to suggest that, while there is plenty for racing to be proud of in respect of the way it promotes itself, urgent change is required. I do not think anyone can say that GBR do anything other than a good job with the resources they have, but ultimately their annual budget of £1.6m is glaringly inadequate. I do not know how that money is specifically allocated, but I would hazard a guess that once salaries have been paid and the overheads associated with maintaining an office in High Holborn have been covered, there is very little left to do anything particularly constructive with.
Undoubtedly, the industry would benefit from a properly-funded, centralised marketing strategy, coordinated between all major stakeholders. But what exactly should it be promoting? And how would success be measured? Racing is already the second-biggest sport by spectator numbers in the UK. It already has terrestrial TV exposure every week of the year. Additionally, we should not underestimate the value of the Royal Family’s long and distinguished association with the sport. If Reach For The Moon happened to win the Derby next season for Her Majesty The Queen, in the year of her Platinum Jubilee, he would do more in terms of growing racing's audience than any promotional campaign could ever achieve.
However, in addition to identifying the industry’s most marketable elements, it is perhaps more pertinent to ask, what is putting people off the sport? This is not just vital in terms of preventing the alienation of future fans, but also in ensuring that the industry can, once again, be an attractive proposition for sponsors – an area where the sport has a major issue currently.
We have to be able to have confidence in our product. We have to understand and accept that not everybody will become a fan; that there will be an ever-increasing percentage of the population that are fundamentally anti-racing. But simultaneously, we have to realise that, whether we like it or not, there has been a seismic shift in public opinion – particular amongst the younger generation – regarding the use of animals for sport. A recent example of this was the debate sparked by the actions of German modern pentathlon coach, Kim Raisner, who ‘punched’ a horse at the Tokyo Olympics. As a result, there have been calls to replace the showjumping leg of modern pentathlon with an alternative discipline. While the racing industry would certainly not condone the horsemanship exhibited by Raisner, or indeed the competitor she was attempting to assist, we have to understand that from a casual observer’s point of view, there may not be much difference between that ‘punch’ and a racehorse being repeatedly struck with a foam-padded ProCush whip.
It is hard for those of us within the racing bubble to imagine viewing the sport through the eyes of an outsider. We understand the dedication and care that goes into rearing and training a racehorse, but a potential fan’s first interaction with the sport might come via a racecourse’s social media timeline which will invariably be littered with short clips of race finishes: tired horses, hard-ridden, under the whip. Does that create a good first impression? If they have watched one race in the past 12 months, you can bet your bottom dollar it was the Grand National – a race that, as a horse lover, I watch through my fingers. Ironically it is the very nature of the National that has made it the institution it has become, but when marketing the sport to a new, 21st century audience, it is probably the last race we would choose to have as our shop window. I hope I am wrong, but I genuinely believe that, on it’s current trajectory, there is a significant chance that the industry will have to sacrifice jumps racing in order to justify it’s position as a mainstream sport at some point within my lifetime.
For what it is worth, I am not anti-whip; unquestionably, it is required for safety and it is a vital communication tool between horse and rider as far as I am concerned. However, I am of the opinion that, going forward, prohibiting the use of the whip in the final furlong (or after the last over jumps) might be the compromise required in order for us to keep it.
Racing needs to continue to proactively demonstrate to prospective fans that we are on the front foot in terms of horse welfare: show them we care, not merely tell them. If we do not embrace the welfare debate, remain open to increased scrutiny and make the right decisions at the right times as society evolves, these decisions will eventually be made for us.
It is pointless continually forcing the sport in front of a new audience, in the hope that an insignificant minority will catch the racing bug, if the sport simply does not appeal to them – or worse, estranges them. GBR research suggests that 60-70% of people who attend one raceday do not return. The question is not, how do we get people to go racing? It is, how do we develop our product in order that it sells itself?
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