Making changes for the wrong reasons

By Alan Conway

Sometimes change is good. If it is done for the right reasons. Over the past number of months Racing For Change, the body in charge of rebranding horse racing, have made public some of their ideas that will attract a new fan base into racing. Some are simple ideas like having different coloured saddle cloths and having decimal odds instead of fractions. Some are more serious and will have a huge effect on racing. The rebranding of “Champions Day” is becoming a thorny issue within racing circles.

The main objective that Racing For Change, quoted on their website, is “To broaden the appeal of racing, reaching a wider consumer audience and maximising participation through betting, racegoing, ownership and all forms of engagement with the sport.”

The idea that Racing For Change have in mind is to create an end of season spectacular for British racing. The race day due to be held at Ascot next October will feature the QEII and the Champion Stakes on the same card along with the Jockey Club Cup and Pride Stakes. The Middle Park and the Dewhurst have been moved and will form the back-bone of the “Future Champions” card to be held at Newmarket.

Suffice to say the proposals have been met with various responses. Jim McGrath, a former member of the BHA board, has been the most outspoken critic. When you listen to him he speaks a lot of sense. Racing For Change may be right. The British flat season ends with more a whimper than a spectacular ending. But to people in the game it has its own unique ending. Newmarket in October. It’s the day on which many a championship season has been rounded off and when we crown the stars of the future. One day. One great card.

Now under the new proposals they want to turn the season on its head. As McGrath pointed out “How can a top QEII performer needing a step up in trip participate in the Champion Stakes, now on the same afternoon?” If the arrangement was in effect this year then Poets Voice could not have run in the Champion Stakes.

To me it seems as if a marketing person dreamt up this concept not a person with knowledge of horse racing. How could a racing person honestly want to lump the QEII and the Champion on the same card. Furthermore the idea of combining the Middle Park and Dewhurst together is a puzzler. Both races are worthy in their own right.

This new proposal is all about attracting a new fan base into racing. What it doesn’t take into account is the fan already in racing. It is alienating a core group of loyal followers of racing for people who may or may not fall in love with the game.

What Racing For Change don’t seem to realise is that no matter what they try horse racing will be very unlikely to gain a mainstream audience. It will struggle to be as big as football, rugby and other sports.

By Alan Conway