Preach To The Converted

Without wishing to pee on the Aga Khan Cup parade, showjumping's place in the sporting consciousness provides racing with salutary warnings about smugly presuming a public profile. There was a time when showjumping was a big deal. Last week RTE news ran a clip on the Dublin Horse Show which didn't feature a single horse. Instead it was all about who won the Best Dressed Lady competition. Anyone 100 per cent confident such a scenario can't happen with racing hasn't been paying attention.

It is Ladies Days after all which mostly attract the biggest crowds. They're also actively pushed as a major selling point. Music after racing is another, as is the whole social side, where some rather ragged glamour is hung around 'c-list' characters with personalities supposedly so vivid they bring the under-35's flooding through the gates like digital Pied-Pipers of Hamelin. And there's no point being too sniffy since it is pretty well established by now that the quality of actual racing is mostly irrelevant to crowd figures.

But there's a presumption in the underlying logic that just doesn't sit right. The argument is that if you get 50 newcomers to racing through the gates - however the means - one of them might become a genuine fan. I haven't met a single person with a real interest in the gee-gees who's been turned onto the game in this way. Not one. In fact if the 'morkoting' bods in HRI and the racecourses can resurrect such a character it would be interesting to examine them for scientific and conservation purposes.

It has to be a real fan, as distinct from some press-release spouting mouthpiece: someone who's felt the frustration of watching their money done by a 'no-try;' knows that New Approach is a stallion, not a party political slogan; maybe even make a stab at the four racecourses in Ireland and Britain that begin and end with the same letter - answers at the bottom. Basically, someone who can't tell you precisely how they got the racing bug, because it's an osmosis thing you either get or you don't, and almost invariably before you ever go racing in the first place.

In Britain, the 'Racing for Change' campaign appeared to boil down to an attempt at making racing trendy, 'down' with kids who quite rightly treated such wheedling desperation with the contempt it deserved, neglecting to learn off their terminology homework, snapping up the freebies and ultimately going back to what actually interested them. Ultimately an awful lot of jargon resulted in an awful lot of sound and movement that amounted to very little if anything.

And you wonder is there a firm idea of who's being targeted here, a real plan to expand racing's customer base or is it just more of the same; a bells and whistles exercise in generating noise and activity.

It is four years since HRI's Strategic Marketing Group reported the "central role of betting in attracting and retaining fans." There was a lot of other grandiose stuff surrounding the use of social media but peel away the fluff and it came down to betting, which, once a theoretical virgin has been lured to the racing volcano is ultimately the means for finally pushing most of them over the edge. So it is surely logical that that the fundamentals should be properly in place before going a wooing.

A reminder that such fundamentals remain shaky came in a nondescript maiden hurdle at Sligo last week when Whisky Galore got promoted to first after the Jack Kennedy ridden He Is Top Class was judged to have caused interference which improved his placing after the last flight. He Is Top Class may have been idling in front but that's unknowable. What is a fact is that after the interference, Whisky Galore closed the gap to half a length at the line. The steward's decision was logical, valid, and in the opinion of many completely daft, since it was so at odds with what so often happens elsewhere.

One long-time punter of my acquaintance could see the logic of the call but still lost a considerable sum betting on the outcome of the enquiry which he maintains wouldn't have even been called at all at some tracks. A lack of consistency is often the plaintive cry in relation to refereeing. That presumes some form of perfection is possible which it isn't. But a toss-of-a-coin interpretation of the rulebook is not good enough either.

All of which is only of slight interest to customers lured through the gates for non-racing reasons. But a lot of racing's core custom is becoming increasingly fed up with what can be perceived as a 'if you don't like it, then lump it' attitude when it comes to a wide range of actual racing issues, which includes stewarding with its blatant inconsistency, whether in terms of interpreting the rules or in imposing them no matter who the culprits might be.

Actual fans are getting turned off, disillusioned by a perceived inertia when it comes to addressing fundamental problems which is often disguised behind a lot of posturing. The posturing might get people through the gates. It might even convert them to the real stuff. But surely the most important thing is to keep the already converted inside the gates and not making for the exits.

That Aussie commentator doing himself a mischief over Bashboy's victory down under at least got it right when describing Ruby Walsh as the best in the world right now. But since he spent the race shovelling verbiage so enthusiastically, the law of averages suggested he was bound to get something right eventually. Walsh was clearly in a different league to his opposition. There are a few commentators here who might fancy their chances in Australia too, mainly by toning the histrionics down a notch or ten.

As for the Shergar Cup, scoff about it all you like but over 30,000 showed up: the real question though is how many were there for Yutaka Take and how many for Rick Astley. Answers to Navan, Listowel, Redcar and...Kempton Park.