Irish tie-in with RPGTV would be a sure-fire winner

Racing Post Greyhound TV goes from strength to strength and must be applauded for its efforts and success in doing so. Such has been the quick take-up on the programme, they are currently doing a trial period of five shows per week.

Sure, it’s quite basic in some ways, but it’s presented by knowledgeable people, has plenty of interaction and the most important aspect is that it shows decent, varied racing, which will attract an audience of interested punters and spectators.

The news that the Scottish Derby, which starts on Saturday night at Shawfield, will be shown live, is something of a coup, even if it is a very much curtailed Classic, with only two rounds. Only 18 runners contest the £10,000-to-the-winner event but Ballymac Eske, Eden Star, Irish challenger Tarbrook Tornado and a number of ex-Irish greyhounds are a real draw and I’m sure it’ll get strong figures for the two nights.

But an even bigger draw is the news the first two rounds of the English Derby from Wimbledon will also be shown live on the station. The remainder of the event will be shown on Sky, meaning the entire competition is available to greyhound racing fans.

Even leaving the bigger meetings aside for a moment, wouldn’t it be great to have something similar over here, or, possibly, a tie-in with RPGTV?

Retrospective shows have their merit but could you imagine even having one night per week on RPGTV or a similar station where the racing was focused on, say, Shelbourne, Curraheen and Tralee? Just imagine the interest it would attract, not only in Ireland, but in Britain, also.

As we stand, there is no presented package for Irish racing and that’s somewhere we’re losing out. The bookmaking firms which are involved with the Racing Post in bringing RPGTV (Sky 212, FreeSat 401 & online at racingpost.com) to our screens have clearly been quite happy with turnover and interest, and hence the reason to extend it to five nights. Is there a reason it couldn’t be successful over here?

For many reasons, I dislike the idea of having the Pick Six Jackpot divided across two meetings, but packaged in a single programme where the focus is on the meetings, with ready access to the Tote pools, would be a huge draw and something that could work.

Saturday night would be a wrong time for such a programme, but it could be a midweek smash.

Concerns that some such an initiative would impact negatively on attendances should be the furthest thing from our minds as the numbers going through the gates at midweek meetings are already beyond alarmingly small.

The fact is you can’t lose what you don’t have and presenting the game to people in a new way, in keeping with modern living and technology, has got to be the way forward. Wouldn’t it be great if such progress was to the forefront of the five-year plan?

* Kilkenny track hosts one of its bigger nights of the year tomorrow, with the final of the Kilford Arms Hotel McCalmont Cup featuring on the programme.

Racing manager Tom Kinane also revealed the €5,000-to-the-winner Red Mills Champion Unraced Stake, scheduled to start on Sunday, May 5, has been brought forward a couple of days. The reason? To avoid a clash with the Hurling League final, in which Kilkenny meet Tipperary.

I suspect the recuperating Brian Cody will be a touch disappointed such an occurrence wasn’t anticipated. Or were those clever Cats playing mind games again?