HURRICANE FLY and Ruby Walsh far side clears the last hurdle © Photo Healy Racing
The pursuit of youth is perpetual in business since they’re the ones with the old long-term-disposable and it is racing’s good fortune is that persuading post-pubers of its attractions is pretty straightforward because you either get this game or you don’t. No embarrassing attempt to fist-bump with the kids is going to persuade any adolescent otherwise if they don’t fundamentally get the gee-gees. So what’s left is to treat the converted properly, something anyone can understand no matter how old.
This is about the casual floating ‘yoof’ vote out there, not puff-stuff about getting young people into “the industry," something which often appears like preaching to the converted since there’s usually a racing link there already. No, this is about racing presenting itself to the world and having the confidence to say to the as yet uninitiated that this is great and you really should pay attention. Because any adolescent will tell you trying too hard is just, uh, ‘TTH.’
Too often racing tries to sell itself through a deflecting prism, such as celebrities, or Ladies Days, or bands, or the whole social scene. That’s all fine and dandy, and has a place. But in terms of truly inculcating the racing bug, it is side-plate material compared to the fundamental which is what happens out on the track. And very often that appears to get lost in the midst of a series of hard-sell contortions which fail to focus on what the whole thing is actually about.
Having a rugby player or soap-actor for a photo-shoot might generate a picture in a social page but it illustrates worrying lack of self-confidence in the product being able to sell itself on its own merits. Racing is game of nuance and jargon that can be indecipherable to some but that same complexity is also its allure. That complexity is actually its selling-point, not something to disguise under a blizzard of social media bells-and-whistles bullshit.
Barely a generation goes by without doom-ridden predictions of the next generation deserting in droves, and yet somehow racing somehow continues, on a basis of people actually being fascinated by racing itself.
Where the actual danger lies is in too great a disconnect between an industry capable of treating those immediately outside the racing tent as mere cash-cows - ponying up while knowing their place far outside the tent - and the audience its supposedly pursuing. If the principle of getting skulls through the gates, and betting through whatever medium, is accepted, then racing’s future is better served in terms of getting its core product right rather than indulging in hard-sell cosmetics.
This might actually involve developing a stewarding policy that aggressively protects punters interests rather than maintaining a veneer of probity which fools nobody: Or pursuing better value-for-money at tracks where racegoers aren’t treated as little more than marks: Maybe even keep people within the loop with solid racing information rather than generating ‘atmosphere’ through the loud dissemination of flannel.
There are any number of other points that can be made in relation to this, points that directly impact on a sport preserving and protecting its core support, a support that gets the sport on its own terms, and which is surely deserving of being appreciated properly.
That might require a skewing of the current mindset among the brass but such a skew has a much better chance of impressing ‘yoof’ than dazzling them with some PR fan-dance which can look as if it is designed to disguise what the whole thing is actually about.
A vital core-product concern right now is the steroids issue, something that everyone within racing must surely recognise they have an interest in trying to get under control. The scale of the problem in combating those willing to cheat is immense however, as much in terms of the breeding side as actual racing, which means it will ultimately come down to money and the will of those prepared to spend it effectively.
One vital area has to be traceability. As one racing professional pointed out recently, keeping rigid track of horses is a major problem when you consider how short a period a horse has to be in an actual trainer’s yard before it goes to the racecourse. In reality, animals are shuttling between properties, often to and from owners anxious to save training fees, and short-cut opportunities are never far away. But keeping on top of that requires both investment and a seriously motivated policing system.
It’s in that light that the current stand-off between government and the Turf Club over the latter’s independent income source can be viewed by those on the outside, even those still young and idealistic enough to believe that it doesn’t mostly come down to money in the end. Ideally, regulation and promotion should always be separate. Reality on the ground has a habit of interfering with any such ideal, but maintaining at least an ambition towards it is hardly something to be cast aside without serious examination.
There’s nothing quite so heart-warming in sport as an old warrior coming back for one last hurrah. And there was an undoubted feel-good factor about Hurricane Fly’s Morgiana win over Jezki. Whether or not that was a last-hurrah, or a prelude to even greater successes later in the season, winning a 20th Grade 1 already justifies persevering with the great old champion. And the bare form of beating the current title-holder can hardly be better.
Those at Punchestown pointed out how both horses are likely to improve considerably for a first spin of the year, a comment that looks to apply particularly to Jezki. He does after all have ‘yoof’ on his side. But plenty old-codgers will happily root for Hurricane Fly through this season.
Dessie Hughes Finally, tributes have justifiably poured in to the late Dessie Hughes, a hugely talented horseman whose courage in the face of serious illness reflected the resilience and fortitude he brought to a long and successful career as both a jockey and a trainer. The word used most often in tribute has been gentleman. There surely can be no better tribute.
