What racing needs to do to attract bigger crowds
It’s hard to know what will happen right now and everyone is taking it day by day. You wouldn’t imagine that there would be racing before next weekend but you’d never know.
As the photographs we took for our website www.jessicaharringtonracing.com show, it is very picturesque at Commonstown but I’m not exaggerating when I say that we have had 18 inches of snow. We have managed to keep things going though and kept the horses ticking over throughout the week.
We had them all trotting on the gallops until yesterday, when it got a bit rough as the temperatures dropped to minus 10 degrees. So we walked them steadily up to the field and cantered them there. They absolutely loved it, cantering around with the snow up to their knees. Hopefully it helped a bit with their fitness.
Obviously it’s far from ideal that they’re not doing the type of work you’d like but it would be worse if they were stuck in their boxes. And as I said before, we’re all in the same boat, although for many of the trainers, frost is a bigger problem than snow.
Plans for the next few weeks are a bit up in the air as a result and I might well have to run some of my horses against each other. It’s something I’d like to avoid but the weather leaves me with little choice.
Dundrum hasn’t jumped a fence in public and was due to run on Saturday so it’s likely that he will run in the Grade 1 novice chase at Leopardstown, along with Saludos.
Got Attitude will head for the Paddy Power. We had been hoping for a better run in the Troytown but he has never run well at Navan and is fine since so he’s entitled to have a go.
Top Of The Rock is in a few races and I’m really looking forward to him coming back after a year off, while Ricardian is another who’s entered up everywhere and will hopefully get another run sun after his opener at Navan. He has been difficult to train as he is very highly strung but we were thrilled with his fourth first time out.
As well as that, we have eight yearlings who are being broken and pre-trained with a view to the next flat season. Pathfork and Laughing Lashes are back in as well. You’re always looking ahead in this game.
I was at a very important meeting during the week which was a sort of brainstorming session the HRI organised with owners, trainers and jockeys. It was a very good idea and there was no sense of ‘them and us’ as we all want the same thing, which is to get more people going racing.
There were a couple of interesting things that came out of it. There was a girl there called Ciara Kennedy who is involved in PR for Leinster Rugby and actually plays for Leinster. She reminded us that it was only five or six years ago that rugby started changing from the traditional times that game started and that the benefits had been huge.
It’s about time racing does the same. Punchestown is the only track that has been flexible in that way, ensuring that the big races are on prime time television on RTÉ. The rest are too stuck in the 2pm/2.30pm start. We’ll have to change that, even having the Classic meetings as twilight meetings. The racecourses mightn’t like it but we need to be proactive about getting the crowds in.
It might also be worth looking at shortening the time between races outside of the festivals. Even as trainers, when we don’t have runners we find it a bit boring. 30 minutes is a bit too long unless there’s some form of entertainment provided.
We need to make racing family oriented and courses need to be more family friendly. We must encourage and make it easier for people to bring their children by providing the necessary facilities and entertainment. We also need to do more to get students coming. The children and students might enjoy it and come back.
We were all dragged around to various race meetings when we were young and we just got used to it. But surveys have been done and the frightening thing that has come out of them is that most of the people that go racing are over 50.
So we have to provide entertainment, and make it comfortable. Give people seats to sit on. Make it less of a drag.
There are other issues too like the cost, which can be fairly high if you’re bringing a family. When you compare what you get for a day’s racing to a price of a rugby ticket, I think it compares favourably but for families it can still be expensive so more packages to make it less off-putting for them to go racing might be looked at.
Overall, it was a good exercise and hopefully we will reap the benefits.
