What difference will it make if McCoy wins BBC Sports Personality Of The Year award?
McCoy has been the subject of an orchestrated and concerted campaign in Britain, by many strands of the racing industry, to literally push him over the line.
The view appears to be that victory for McCoy will offer a major boost to the game. Indeed a particular writer, on hearing the news that McCoy had been nominated for the honour, declared: “Racing last night breathed a huge sigh of relief.”
I really do despair. Why does racing, not just in Britain, but very much here as well, not accept it is a minority sport and just get on with enjoying itself? So many people within racing seem to have this dreadful desire to be part of something bigger and continue to delude themselves that there are actually ways of popularising the sport.
Let’s assume for a second that McCoy does win a week tomorrow. Will anything have changed on the Monday morning?
Well the Racing Post will be full of it, the two racing channels will also go big on the story and racing will congratulate itself that, finally, it has come to be accepted by the masses.
The reality, however, is that nothing will have changed and racing will be no more popular on the Monday than it was prior to the announcement.
Remember, this is an award which was once won by Zara Phillips for three-day eventing. Now that’s a sport which didn’t half take off subsequently!
We all hope McCoy is successful and, if comes to pass, will be wonderful for him and his family. But, in the overall scheme of things, it’s of little importance.
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I’VE been taking a keen interest of late in this market research conducted for HRI on behalf of what’s known as Horse Racing Ireland’s Strategic Marketing Group.
The Group’s mission, apparently, is to arrest the decline in attendances at race meetings. Well, good luck with that.
While HRI, obviously, has to be seen to be doing something, this really is a case of closing the gate after the horse has long since bolted.
I have been reading about the recent meeting HRI had with the likes of trainers, jockeys and owners, regarding this subject, and had to smile.
At the risk of getting a belt of a whip, I think jockeys are the last people you should ask. When coming to a racecourse they are going to work and have no idea, for instance, how the betting ring operates.
I have heard a suggestion that there should be less than 30 minutes between races, which is utterly ridiculous.
The real racing follower has no problem with such a gap and pictures to the betting offices and the racing channels have to be considered in attempting to fit in everything without meetings running into each other.
The bottom line is that HRI can bring together whoever they like to talk all day, but little or nothing will change.
Wasn’t all of this tried before? Do you recall HRI holding those consultative forums nationwide? They were held in various locations throughout the country, with everyone and anyone given a chance to air their views. There wasn’t a punter in Ireland who didn’t have the opportunity to tell it as he saw it and a report was duly produced.
What the entire project amounted to was simply a load of waffle. Did it make the slightest difference? Of course not.
I thought a letter in the Irish Field recently was most interesting. It came from Cyril B Harty, from Newbridge, and he reported that the creation of the Strategic Marketing Group had brought him “to the brink of despair”.
Harty wrote: “If memory serves, it is not long since HRI squandered copious amounts of public money on a campaign to convince the gullible that racehorse ownership was an essential entrée to high society.
“The consequence? Genuine, long-standing owners were consistently frustrated by endless balloting and gave up in disgust. The newcomers soon followed suit.
“Are we now to anticipate similar ‘success’, whereby our pleasant, peaceful enclosures are to be overrun by elements more commonly associated with the ‘beautiful game’?
Mr Harty needn’t worry, the enclosures will not be overrun any time soon. Racing in Ireland is in turmoil, with inadequate funding and facilities and a betting ring which gets weaker by the day.
At the moment, for instance, two of the bigger players in the ring have their pitches up for sale. They have clearly decided that going racing, at least when it’s about working as a bookmaker, has become a waste of time.
Of course, we have to try and attract new racegoers and that’s hugely important. But the sooner we recognise it is going to be a massive, uphill struggle the better.
We can talk and talk ‘til blue in the face, but the bottom line will always be that the vast majority of people have no interest in racing.
This is no one’s fault, just a fact of life, and why racing continues to beat itself up over that beats me.
