Racing For Change

One tiny niggle, Simon (but thanks for putting up the article) - I know many people think we live in a Godless society, but even some tic-tac men are believers: it's for 'aesthetic', not 'atheistic' reasons to have one on-course!
 
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krizon said:
One tiny niggle, Simon (but thanks for putting up the article) - I know many people think we live in a Godless society, but even some tic-tac men are believers: it's for 'aesthetic', not 'atheistic' reasons to have one on-course!
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Thanks for that, I shall change it forthwith!
 
That'll be £25 for proof reading. I thanggyeww...

Please do put up some more articles for us when you can, Simon. I like Racing Ahead magazine - one of our very elderly but still fairly compos mentis members has written the occasional article for it, too. Colin, can you hear me? (Poor old stick, he's probably forgotten to put his batteries in.)
 
(But many an unseemly brawl in the rhododendrons at Goodwood, I can tell you, Simon. She's tiny, but so strong!)
 
That would be the best thing that could happen to racing Grey - probably the only time I'd agree with Romanet on anything (he'd be certain to reject if providing he sits on the panel).
 
Grey said:
I hope it's rejected emphatically.
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As far as I’m concerned it’s a no-brainer that they should reject RFC’s proposals. I fear, however, that Paul Roy has engineered a fait accompli.
 
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From an article on the Sporting Life site by Rachel Wyse of Sky News:

Nick [Attenborough, of Racing For Change] told me about an interesting survey they did back in March 2010. They asked 1000 people (representative of the UK as a whole) to name three jockeys currently riding. Only 4% of the UK could name three correctly. About 25% of the population could spontaneously name Frankie Dettori but far fewer could name a couple more.
They conducted the same research in early December after work to raise the profile and jockeys and were pleased to see that 5.5% could name three. The biggest change in awareness was for AP McCoy from 6% to 12%. The research was conducted two weeks prior to Sports Personality of the Year awards you;d confident that he'd do even better now. However, it does illustrate that there's a long way to go.
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If you asked 1000 random people to name half a dozen Prime Ministers the results would be poor. Pointless survey.
 
Ask the same one thousand people (representative of the UK as a whole)to name a race-horse currently in training, and you're looking at about 2%, I reckon.

Racing for Change are a shower of twats (representative of the UK as a whole).
 
Euronymous said:
If you asked 1000 random people to name half a dozen Prime Ministers the results would be poor. Pointless survey.
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Your head in the sand response is unfortunately all too typical of people in racing.

A better comparison would be to ask people to name, say, 3 MPs or 3 tennis players.

Anyway, it's a far from pointless survey. It indicates that the sport needs to do vastly more to connect with people in this 21st century in which we live. There's a tendency for people to imagine that the sport has a greater following than it really does, often citing the 6 million through the gates each year ("It's the second most popular spectator sport in Britain don't you know?"), ignoring the simple truth that most racegoers are just there for a day out.

Example: Take a look at the sports blogs on the Guardian site, by a very long way the most popular and commented news site in the country, much more than all the other newspaper sites put together. Apart from the daily tipping competition (for which there is a prize), commentable articles by Greg Wood or Chris Cook are lucky to get half a dozen responses. I'd say the general average for other sports is around 50 or so, for football or cricket you're talking 100s.

The fact is, most regrettably, racing is hardly followed by anybody these days and a "everyone hates us but we don't care" attitude is a quite hopeless one to adopt.

RFC is not going to get everything right, but at least they're making an effort. I've followed this wonderful sport for 50 years and this is the first time in those 50 years that I've seen any sort of coordinated effort to sell the sport to other than the already converted.
 
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One of the big stumbling blocks to racing is that not everyone can have a go at it. You take footie, rugby, cricket, tennis - there are municipal facilities, school clubs, free or low cost coaching, or just a general get-together among kids. You can see boys have a kick-about in every country of the world, because their height and weight won't matter, they won't need to be backed up by thousands of spare pounds to buy a football or a cricket bat, and even if they're never going to be club class, let alone superstars, they can have a thoroughly good work-out and enjoyable few hours.

What's the nearest racing can manage? There is absolutely no low cost way to get into racing if you want to be a trainer, for example. And who trains the trainers? Half of it is who-you-know, another half is what-you've-got in money terms. There are no college or uni courses teaching 'Racing Studies' - there are disparate colleges chucking in how to look after horses in among how to look after pigs and sheep in agricultural studies. The British Racing School accepts only a small intake, and they have to weigh about three stone.

Thus, racing's already hidebound by weight constraints for anyone desperate to ride in it, the intake of grooms is predicated on their cost (Eastern Europeans and Asians very popular) and also work-riding weights where required, trainers have to be rich as Croesus to withstand the whims of tyrannical owners, and the rest of the show - stewarding, starting, Clerking, weighing-room positions, etc. - come mainly from ex-jockeys or from the county classes.

Where, in all of it, are the possibilities for the vast majority of youngsters to be involved? They're not there, and they'll never be there. You can be a 9-stone kid whacking the old leather, or punting from the 50-yard line, but you're already 7lbs too heavy to ride out. And that's the weight you'd have to keep to all of your working life, unless you evolve into box-driving or non-riding THL if you 'balloon' to 10 stone! But there are plenty of healthy, very chunky golfers, cricketers, etc. - in that respect alone, 'anyone' can have a go.

You can market racing as a fun day out, if it is in fact 'fun' for children - hence Family Fun Days, carousels, pets' corners, falconry, etc., etc. What you cannot market it as is something in itself that anyone can have a go at.
 
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Grasshopper said:
Ask the same one thousand people (representative of the UK as a whole)to name a race-horse currently in training, and you're looking at about 2%, I reckon.

Racing for Change are a shower of twats (representative of the UK as a whole).
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If you asked a thousand people to name three good things Racing For Change had done for racing, you’d get zero percent.:(
 
krizon said:
One of the big stumbling blocks to racing is that not everyone can have a go at it. You take footie, rugby, cricket, tennis - there are municipal facilities, school clubs, free or low cost coaching, or just a general get-together among kids. You can see boys have a kick-about in every country of the world, because their height and weight won't matter, they won't need to be backed up by thousands of spare pounds to buy a football or a cricket bat, and even if they're never going to be club class, let alone superstars, they can have a thoroughly good work-out and enjoyable few hours.

What's the nearest racing can manage? There is absolutely no low cost way to get into racing if you want to be a trainer, for example. And who trains the trainers? Half of it is who-you-know, another half is what-you've-got in money terms. There are no college or uni courses teaching 'Racing Studies' - there are disparate colleges chucking in how to look after horses in among how to look after pigs and sheep in agricultural studies. The British Racing School accepts only a small intake, and they have to weigh about three stone.

Thus, racing's already hidebound by weight constraints for anyone desperate to ride in it, the intake of grooms is predicated on their cost (Eastern Europeans and Asians very popular) and also work-riding weights where required, trainers have to be rich as Croesus to withstand the whims of tyrannical owners, and the rest of the show - stewarding, starting, Clerking, weighing-room positions, etc. - come mainly from ex-jockeys or from the county classes.

Where, in all of it, are the possibilities for the vast majority of youngsters to be involved? They're not there, and they'll never be there. You can be a 9-stone kid whacking the old leather, or punting from the 50-yard line, but you're already 7lbs too heavy to ride out. And that's the weight you'd have to keep to all of your working life, unless you evolve into box-driving or non-riding THL if you 'balloon' to 10 stone! But there are plenty of healthy, very chunky golfers, cricketers, etc. - in that respect alone, 'anyone' can have a go.

You can market racing as a fun day out, if it is in fact 'fun' for children - hence Family Fun Days, carousels, pets' corners, falconry, etc., etc. What you cannot market it as is something in itself that anyone can have a go at.
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They should tie a horse or a donkey to a stake on every green in the country that does not have one. All the local kids will learn to ride in no time. Ask Cathy Gannon. Not alone is horse riding more accessable, greens are easier maintained, and rose bushes will never have had it so good. Its really a no brainer.
 
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