Irish Racing Post

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According to their Facebook page...

Tomorrow will see the first major improvements in the paper ahead of the up coming launch of an Irish specific edition of the Racing Post. For the first time, the Irish card (Clonmel) will contain runner-by-runner Spotlights, Topspeed and Postdata.
 
About bloody time. The best thing they have done in recent years is Tom Segal doing the Pricewise on Irish racing. Not enough coverage in the paper and al ot of the time its the best card of the day.
 
They were advertising a few weeks back for Irish-based freelance journalists, and a few months back for an Irish editor. Interesting times.
 
Welcome news indeed, something I've asked for in questionnaires and e-mails.

It probably makes good commercial sense. If Betfair turnover is anything to go by, betting on Irish races seems to be on the rise, despite a decrease in betting turnover in Ireland itself. The average Irish race seems to attract between a third and a half of the turnover of an equivalent UK race.

I'd say that before ATR came along that proportion would have been not much more than 15%, though those of you who work in the betting industry might be able to provide a more accurate estimate.
 
It will be interesting to see how the editorials, articles etc deal with many of the problems in Irish Racing which goes pretty much unquestioned by the press here. I am not saying the Racing Post in the UK has much of a back bone but in comparison to the Irish journalists it really is in a different league. I say this on the back of good articles by Gary O'Brien (highlighted on another thread) and Alan Sweetman in the RP today. Regularly you see BHA giving quotes to the RP or explaining their decisions - well if there are a number of full time journalists hopefully a similar case will happen here. Hopefully....
 
I have also requested more detail to the Irish racing. Makes perfect sense given the coverage on TV and the dominance of the Irish stables. Glad someone took notice.
 
It's excellent news for just about everybody, bar perhaps the Post ironically as I doubt they will get a big enough increase in sales to justify the extra expenditure.
 
If interest in Irish racing as a betting medium continues to grow, though, the RP has an opportunity to develop its niche as the only print medium in the UK providing cards and form.
 
davidjohnson said:
It's excellent news for just about everybody, bar perhaps the Post ironically as I doubt they will get a big enough increase in sales to justify the extra expenditure.
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a very valid point. Id imagine the hardened racing fans over here read the Irish Field which is full of content but obviously a weekly publication.
 
Gearoid said:
a very valid point. Id imagine the hardened racing fans over here read the Irish Field which is full of content but obviously a weekly publication.
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I've been reading the Field for a number of years and the content is just not cutting edge enough. They once took a swipe at Coolmore, then lost half their advertising from them and haven't said a bad word about them since. That paper is too reliant on a small number of advertisers. The Irish RP could be different though as it will be driven by bookmaker advertising which the Field doesn't have. So it can be more controversial and blame the freelancers!!

Plus the Field is also aimed at the showjumping crew as I understand it's a must have if you are in that side of the horsey world. I tend to just look at the pictures in that section to see how Joseph O'Brien is getting on.
 
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Fair points and probably why I only read the ring tones secfion when I do ever pick it. I think DJs point is correct that while good for the readers unless the Racing Post are going to get extra revenue from the Irish bookmakers and the Irish arm of the other bookmakers. ( c)
 
I assume they're trawling for freelancers because they'll obviously be much cheaper to run. They won't need office space, equipment, or staff and they can pay them by the article plus expenses, not a permanent annual salary. As for blaming them for any controversy, they won't be doing that as they'll want to keep on the right side of the big yards and trainers. I wouldn't expect the slightest change in tone - that's to say, the usual unctuous toadying, as we're so used to getting in the UK. (Apart from the standing soft targets like jockeys, Clerks, and starters, of course, since they don't contribute advertising space.)
 
Jonathan Mullin of the RTE Gaa dept is to be the new Editor.

I like the field but in the stallion reviews they never say anything negative, they're all perfect !
 
Sheikh, can you think of anything that's been really incisive about any aspect of racing, where the subject wasn't already bleedingly obvious? Even when it's been a whopping black spot on the public's perception of the game, the cracks are swiftly papered over. Racing journalism is reactive, not proactive. When there have been rumours of something pretty ugly, like the verbal stories about dozens of mares and foals being sent to the abattoirs post-sales in 2008 and 2009, there was no journo which went digging around to get facts, just anodyne denials that this was happening. It was either a slur on any number of breeders and never defended by facts, or it was true, either in a significant way or just in 'here and there' cases. But nobody took it up and ran with it. If it wasn't true, then have those foals been presented at the yearling sales? And if they haven't, then where are they and what's happening with them? But no, nothing.

Racing still has a number of doors which it prefers to keep closed to the inquirer. Projects such as 'Racing for Change' might like to consider how useful it is to the industry to keep them closed. If you're going to be selectively transparent and not genuinely tackle the less attractive stories when they pop up, then you can hardly blame those not connected to it for believing it's got bad things to hide, whether it's a continuing undercurrent of corruption, cronyism, inadequate welfare, and so on.

It shouldn't be the tabloids who break the unattractive stories - there should be an interest in racing's own media to be the first with these, factually and sensibly, with the hysteria taken out. But it'll never happen. Nothing bad ever happens in racing: all the horses are run truly, every foal finds a brilliant trainer, every stallion is superb. Racing journalism contributes to the sense that racing lives in La-La Land, while the tabloids can't wait to pounce on the sport when it lets itself down.
 
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Well said krizon. Alas, the type of investigative journalism you talk about appears to be a dying art in general unless it involve salacious gossip and digging the dirt.
 
Turtle's fan said:
Well said krizon. Alas, the type of investigative journalism you talk about appears to be a dying art in general unless it involve salacious gossip and digging the dirt.
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Investigative journalism takes time and effort. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys - that almost inevitably will be content with copying out press releases and taking the lazy option of received information.
 
It wasn't just investigative journalism I was thinking of, though - just honest stuff, which just said what the journo really thought, not what he thinks he should say in order to keep his income. They should be backed up by editors with some cojones, interested in racing news - not what seem to be commercial interests only (i.e. advertising revenue) or the fear of courting some brickbats from those he's stirred up. There's so much complacency, so much toadying, and nothing like the Paulick Report in the USA! How I'd love to see something here like that site, taking a few swipes at the establishment and the neglectful, the inhumane trainer, the reckless jockey, and so on. Its current spat with owner Mr Gill and what it considers to be his brutal over-racing of horses is the sort of example I mean. The guy's so bad that any number of jocks won't ride for him now - not, I feel, because they really wouldn't mind battering seven bells out of something for ride money, but because so many of their Gill mounts have been shattering their legs and falling, thus worrying them that they may end up in A&E. Paulick's thoughts on consignors and bloodsucking agents versus breeders aren't much more complimentary, either. But where are our challengers to what's wrong and who's making it wrong?
 
First edition today....Jonathan Mullin is the editor (or will be in the next few weeks), Willie Mullins does a weekly column and further announcements in coming weeks.

There was mention that the Irish Investors now behind the Racing Post were the main drivers behind this addition.
 
Galileo said:
There was mention that the Irish Investors now behind the Racing Post were the main drivers behind this addition.
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I'd say you're right.....more revenue means more profit means value of the business goes up. This is simply an exercise to increase profits by appealing to a wider audience like GAA people, point to point people etc. It will put significant pressure on the Irish Field which will have to up its game and be more cutting edge.
 
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