Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
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Article by Owen Gibson in The Guardian
The head of the Jockey Club, which owns Cheltenham and 14 other courses, has claimed Sprinter Sacre can help drive the popularity of jump racing for years to come as it seeks to restructure the calendar to provide the season with more highlights in the run-up to the Festival.
Simon Bazalgette, the Jockey Club chief executive, admitted the jump racing season became "a bit dull" after Christmas and said he would be leading talks to restructure it in order to boost the season beyond Cheltenham week, using the Champions Series on the Flat as a template.
Confirming that it was exploring a range of funding options for a long overdue but potentially controversial redevelopment of the Cheltenham course, he insisted the revamp would not rob the meeting of its soul in the face of possible objections from those in stands that will have to be demolished.
With the Cheltenham Festival pulling in record attendances on the first three days and selling out a purposefully reduced capacity of 67,000 on Gold Cup day, Bazalgette said that the emergence of Sprinter Sacre, who powered to victory by 19 lengths in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, was important for the sport.
"You've got to have the stars. They are what gets the most interest. We've been lucky to have some great ones like Kauto Star and Denman and horses like Frankel on the Flat. Sprinter Sacre could be the next one on that conveyor belt. We've all seen the horses who have been built up and haven't quite delivered. But he has," he said.
"The great thing about jumps racing is that horses stay around for several years and he's still relatively young, so hopefully we'll get a good few years out of him."
But he admitted that the biggest names had to be encouraged to race more in the run-up to Cheltenham in order to provide racegoers and punters with highlights throughout the season.
"Where I think there is an issue is that the season is not really very well defined in the run-up to Cheltenham. Really, you've got a couple of key moments but horses don't need to run and you don't have the milestones. You've got the end and you've sort of got the beginning, but the middle bit is not really very well defined," said Bazalgette.
"If you want to follow it and for people to pay attention you need to have some pretty clear milestones. That's where I think the focus needs to be in jumps. And perhaps to get them running out more often, particularly after Christmas when it does tend to get a bit dull for a while."
He said the Champions Series, developed over the Flat season to try to provide a climax that mirrors Cheltenham, could be the model and would help other courses get "a piece of the action".
"In Flat, we had the milestones but we didn't have the end, so we created the end. In the jumps, we have the end but we don't have the milestones," said Bazalgette.
The Jockey Club has been reluctant to confirm its plans to redevelop the course until it has applied for planning permission later this year. But it is understood to be examining a number of financing options for the £40m scheme, expected to take at least three years, from bank loans to long term debentures or a bond scheme for high net worth individuals.
There is already concern among those who sit in the Queen Mother stand that they will be displaced by higher prices when it is demolished to make way for an extended modern grandstand, but Bazalgette insisted that it would be sympathetic to all racegoers.
"What we're looking at doing is adding to the end of the grandstand, bringing that into the 21st century. You'll get a better view of the paddock, more people will be able to see the parade ring which means there'll be less people taking up space. It'll just mean more room for everybody. And we'll stick more loos in, upgrade the bars and all that sort of stuff," he said.
"It'll be of significant benefit to everybody and hopefully it'll make financial sense as well. If anything, I think it will enhance the atmosphere because it will make it easier for people to see the horses, easier to move around. All the things people have trouble with we'll improve quite a lot."
Bazalgette said the sport had proved over recent years it could grow despite the recession, with attendances increasing by 1.5% year on year, a new broadcasting deal with Channel 4 and an ongoing effort to widen the audience.
But he admitted that an ongoing impasse with the government over a replacement for the anachronistic Levy scheme, and the divisions it created between bookmakers and racing, was a major blot on the landscape.
"The one thing that is a blot on the sport and makes life very difficult is the whole funding position. Statutory funding is falling apart and needs fixing. That's a long-term battle we've been fighting for a long time. There are things going on that I hope will improve that over the next year or two and we'll be heavily involved in that," he said.
"There's a recognition on the betting side and the racing side that in the end we've got more to gain by working together. Eventually we will get there, but it's a slow process – partly because to fix it properly you have to change the law."
The head of the Jockey Club, which owns Cheltenham and 14 other courses, has claimed Sprinter Sacre can help drive the popularity of jump racing for years to come as it seeks to restructure the calendar to provide the season with more highlights in the run-up to the Festival.
Simon Bazalgette, the Jockey Club chief executive, admitted the jump racing season became "a bit dull" after Christmas and said he would be leading talks to restructure it in order to boost the season beyond Cheltenham week, using the Champions Series on the Flat as a template.
Confirming that it was exploring a range of funding options for a long overdue but potentially controversial redevelopment of the Cheltenham course, he insisted the revamp would not rob the meeting of its soul in the face of possible objections from those in stands that will have to be demolished.
With the Cheltenham Festival pulling in record attendances on the first three days and selling out a purposefully reduced capacity of 67,000 on Gold Cup day, Bazalgette said that the emergence of Sprinter Sacre, who powered to victory by 19 lengths in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, was important for the sport.
"You've got to have the stars. They are what gets the most interest. We've been lucky to have some great ones like Kauto Star and Denman and horses like Frankel on the Flat. Sprinter Sacre could be the next one on that conveyor belt. We've all seen the horses who have been built up and haven't quite delivered. But he has," he said.
"The great thing about jumps racing is that horses stay around for several years and he's still relatively young, so hopefully we'll get a good few years out of him."
But he admitted that the biggest names had to be encouraged to race more in the run-up to Cheltenham in order to provide racegoers and punters with highlights throughout the season.
"Where I think there is an issue is that the season is not really very well defined in the run-up to Cheltenham. Really, you've got a couple of key moments but horses don't need to run and you don't have the milestones. You've got the end and you've sort of got the beginning, but the middle bit is not really very well defined," said Bazalgette.
"If you want to follow it and for people to pay attention you need to have some pretty clear milestones. That's where I think the focus needs to be in jumps. And perhaps to get them running out more often, particularly after Christmas when it does tend to get a bit dull for a while."
He said the Champions Series, developed over the Flat season to try to provide a climax that mirrors Cheltenham, could be the model and would help other courses get "a piece of the action".
"In Flat, we had the milestones but we didn't have the end, so we created the end. In the jumps, we have the end but we don't have the milestones," said Bazalgette.
The Jockey Club has been reluctant to confirm its plans to redevelop the course until it has applied for planning permission later this year. But it is understood to be examining a number of financing options for the £40m scheme, expected to take at least three years, from bank loans to long term debentures or a bond scheme for high net worth individuals.
There is already concern among those who sit in the Queen Mother stand that they will be displaced by higher prices when it is demolished to make way for an extended modern grandstand, but Bazalgette insisted that it would be sympathetic to all racegoers.
"What we're looking at doing is adding to the end of the grandstand, bringing that into the 21st century. You'll get a better view of the paddock, more people will be able to see the parade ring which means there'll be less people taking up space. It'll just mean more room for everybody. And we'll stick more loos in, upgrade the bars and all that sort of stuff," he said.
"It'll be of significant benefit to everybody and hopefully it'll make financial sense as well. If anything, I think it will enhance the atmosphere because it will make it easier for people to see the horses, easier to move around. All the things people have trouble with we'll improve quite a lot."
Bazalgette said the sport had proved over recent years it could grow despite the recession, with attendances increasing by 1.5% year on year, a new broadcasting deal with Channel 4 and an ongoing effort to widen the audience.
But he admitted that an ongoing impasse with the government over a replacement for the anachronistic Levy scheme, and the divisions it created between bookmakers and racing, was a major blot on the landscape.
"The one thing that is a blot on the sport and makes life very difficult is the whole funding position. Statutory funding is falling apart and needs fixing. That's a long-term battle we've been fighting for a long time. There are things going on that I hope will improve that over the next year or two and we'll be heavily involved in that," he said.
"There's a recognition on the betting side and the racing side that in the end we've got more to gain by working together. Eventually we will get there, but it's a slow process – partly because to fix it properly you have to change the law."
