Racing should look to Snooker for inspiration
Maybe one reason for the lack of spectators and enthusiasts for horse racing today is that it a non-participation sport. This is not entirely true, but if someone did want to participate in horse racing they would need excessively large pockets to fund it. Target readers of the Horse and Hound according to Willings Press Guide from 2008 are those people within society who have 'high disposable incomes'. Ok, the Horse and Hound maybe gear itself up for this class of people, but there is nothing available for the average citizen. The Racing Post enlightens it's readers by going into great form detail, publishing features, stable tours, tipping columns, everything a racing enthusiast would possibly want but it costs. At around £1.60 per day and more at the weekends the paper loses any potential wider audience down to its vast price. Fair enough the daily Racing Post is highly specialist, but it is just this attitude of specialism and uniqueness which pushes people further and further away from this wonderful sport. It is worth mentioning that past comments have referred to horse racing as 'The sport of Kings'. This may be because of the opinions that only a King would ever be capable of affording to participate.
Looking around at other sports you cannot help but notice the BBC's coverage of the World Championship Snooker. The nation got behind The Nugget this week as six time champion 52 year old Steve Davis eliminated the current holder of the title John Higgins. Stories similar to that of Dream Alliance's chances of winning the National were told, the prospect that Steve 'interesting' Davis could be on his way to World Championship Glory were the highlight of the morning back pages. The truth is the 'Grandad' of the snooker circuit was inevitably left embarrassed in defeat at the hands of Australian Neil Robertson. But what is the point of mentioning this on a horse racing blog? The point is that snooker has managed to dominate the daily sports pages this past week, the BBC pushes for young people to get involved and encourages them to play snooker. Steve Davis himself has been know to stop behind during exhibition matches in the past just to tutor his young fans. Fair enough, David will have earned appearance money, but horse racing is also capable of funding such appearances by influential characters in the racing industry.
More should be made of horse racing, snooker takes a firm grasp of the nation at this time of year in a similar way that cricket does when England are beating Australia for the Ashes. Everything is marketed to the wider audience, more average citizens are made aware of the respective sports and people in the public houses, in offices and even children in schools discuss whether or not Freddie Flintoff will beat the Aussies. Flintoff is a good example of how racing can be promoted as he already promotes Dubai Racing. Thanks should also be given to John Parrot who yesterday afternoon spoke during an interval of his favourite race, the Champion Hurdle. The difference with cricket and racing and snooker and racing is that it is easy to pick up a cricket bat, it is easy to pick up a snooker cue, but it is not all that easy to pick up a whip, don the racing colours and ride in a Listed race at Newmarket. This could be the eventual downfall of horse racing, it is a major reason why knowledge of the sport is limited and it is why there will always be this difference in the classes.
(A colourful character: Parrot loves the excitement of a day at the races)
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