This is Richard Hughes's column from yesterday's Racing Post. I was one of those who argued that too many of the big days in British racing were mid-week. The 1000 Gns used to be on a Friday, the Oaks and Derby were midweek, Royal Ascot week was Tuesday to Friday, and so on through the season. I still think it's only common sense to hold most of the bigger events at a time when as many people as possible can enjoy them.
Saturating Saturdays is a Massive Mistake
Richard Hughes steers Vent De Force to victory in the Henry II Stakes
PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
Saturating Saturdays
is a massive mistake
Champion Flat jockey and Racing Post columnist Richard Hughes says piling up fixtures on a Saturday is the wrong approach for the sport to take
AS EVER, Brigadier Gerard night at Sandown more than lived up to its billing of being the best evening fixture of the year and one of the leading single-day midweek meetings in the calendar. I am therefore incredibly disappointed there is talk of switching the card to a Saturday.
It's true the Sandown grandstands were not heaving on Thursday night, just as they never have been for this high-quality evening's entertainment. That is a shame, but at the same time you can pretty much guarantee the vast majority of those who did go were committed racing fans who appreciate the fact the Brigadier Gerard Stakes, Henry II Stakes and National Stakes, not to mention the Heron Stakes and Whitsun Cup, are packaged together to form a cracking, and sadly all too unusual, midweek treat. I know loads of people who went on Thursday and had been looking forward to it for ages.
Those who went to Sandown are examples of some of the most important people in this sport. They are the ones who buy the Racing Post, watch Channel 4 every Saturday, press 415 or 432 on their remote controls on a regular basis and make an effort to go racing. They are the customers racing already has, yet all too often the sport is guilty of annoying and alienating these people in an effort to bring in a different, younger crowd. In my opinion that is a massive mistake.
Tons of money and time seem to go into attracting new people to racecourses, the vast majority of whom have no interest in the sport and never will have. That would be fine if it were not for the fact that by trying to please the new racegoers those responsible upset the existing ones, a prime example being the moving of quality fixtures from midweek slots to Saturdays.
The most important people to a trainer are owners. The trainer has to look after owners as well as he or she possibly can. They have to come first, just as any business will always consider the needs and interests of faithful, existing customers before potential new ones, especially if the needs and interests of those existing customers differ from the perceived needs and interests of the potential new ones.
The Sandown crowd on Thursday was different to the crowd the track will get for its upcoming summer music nights. The Brigadier Gerard racegoers went because they are enthusiastic, loyal lovers of racing who were attracted by the finest evening meeting of the year and a relatively rare chance to enjoy some top-notch midweek action.
To get the next generation of racegoers we all hear about, racecourses think they should put all their goodies in a Saturday basket. From what I've seen, what that often leads to is racecourses simply being full of stag and hen parties.
One of the biggest complaints of racing's core fan base is the bias towards Saturdays in the staging of the top meetings. People who love racing love to see good racing, but on a Saturday, when sometimes faced with three or four high-quality meetings, those people can still only get to one track. However, there are sometimes so many good meetings on a Saturday they actually end up going nowhere and instead simply watch everything on television. What you are then left with are uncommitted racegoers with minimal interest in what happens.
We have saturated the sport with rubbish racing, especially midweek. Real racing fans don't want to go to see it because, with the exception of those who have runners, it doesn't really mean anything to anyone. You certainly wouldn't find me watching Kempton on a Wednesday night if I wasn't riding there. Tracks like Chelmsford have actually said some of what they put on isn't intended to attract people through the turnstiles. I'm sure there are quite a few tracks who don't even really want racegoers because it's cheaper if they don't turn up.
Western Hymn and Arab Spring (near) fight for the Brigadier Gerard
PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
TOO many people who are in racing and love racing are now getting fed up with the game. The sad truth is the biggest cause of that is racing itself. I can't help but think racing is one of those sports you either like or you don't like - and it has survived for centuries on that basis. Those people who do like it are the ones who will make an effort to attend in midweek, perhaps in the evening after work.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned - I'm one of those who keeps banging the ‘Derby should be on a Wednesday' drum. However, even if we can't free our greatest race from competing with what are already congested sporting weekends, we can surely beef up a few midweek days.
There are far too many weeks in the year when jockeys, and I'm sure racing fans as well, end up wishing their time away trying to get to Saturday. Yet then, come the weekend, a jockey like myself is faced with having to pick between two, three or four meetings, which creates enormous problems for trainers, never more so than on the ridiculous July Cup Saturday. All too often during the week all we get is run-of-the-mill rubbish.
The whole fixture list is full of too much bad racing. It devalues everything. The more oil there is on the market the less expensive it becomes. To increase the value of oil there needs to be less of it for sale.
The same is true of racing. Less really can be more if what you get rid of is the stuff that leaves real racing fans cold.
Part of the problem is racecourses having too much power, so maybe something could be done to make staging racing on a Saturday more expensive for the tracks? In Hong Kong and India people chomp at the bit for midweek meetings, often staged after they have finished work. That's what needs to happen here.
What we certainly don't need is to lose another major fixture like Brigadier Gerard night from its midweek home. If Sandown move it, the group most annoyed will be the ones who already love racing, the ones racing's rulers should have at the front of their minds all the time.
There is something very wrong if trying to attract new people costs you the ones you've already got. The powers that be need to be thinking about that - and the bigger picture - as opposed to immediate profit.
Saturating Saturdays is a Massive Mistake
PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
Saturating Saturdays
is a massive mistake
Champion Flat jockey and Racing Post columnist Richard Hughes says piling up fixtures on a Saturday is the wrong approach for the sport to take
AS EVER, Brigadier Gerard night at Sandown more than lived up to its billing of being the best evening fixture of the year and one of the leading single-day midweek meetings in the calendar. I am therefore incredibly disappointed there is talk of switching the card to a Saturday.
It's true the Sandown grandstands were not heaving on Thursday night, just as they never have been for this high-quality evening's entertainment. That is a shame, but at the same time you can pretty much guarantee the vast majority of those who did go were committed racing fans who appreciate the fact the Brigadier Gerard Stakes, Henry II Stakes and National Stakes, not to mention the Heron Stakes and Whitsun Cup, are packaged together to form a cracking, and sadly all too unusual, midweek treat. I know loads of people who went on Thursday and had been looking forward to it for ages.
Those who went to Sandown are examples of some of the most important people in this sport. They are the ones who buy the Racing Post, watch Channel 4 every Saturday, press 415 or 432 on their remote controls on a regular basis and make an effort to go racing. They are the customers racing already has, yet all too often the sport is guilty of annoying and alienating these people in an effort to bring in a different, younger crowd. In my opinion that is a massive mistake.
Tons of money and time seem to go into attracting new people to racecourses, the vast majority of whom have no interest in the sport and never will have. That would be fine if it were not for the fact that by trying to please the new racegoers those responsible upset the existing ones, a prime example being the moving of quality fixtures from midweek slots to Saturdays.
The most important people to a trainer are owners. The trainer has to look after owners as well as he or she possibly can. They have to come first, just as any business will always consider the needs and interests of faithful, existing customers before potential new ones, especially if the needs and interests of those existing customers differ from the perceived needs and interests of the potential new ones.
The Sandown crowd on Thursday was different to the crowd the track will get for its upcoming summer music nights. The Brigadier Gerard racegoers went because they are enthusiastic, loyal lovers of racing who were attracted by the finest evening meeting of the year and a relatively rare chance to enjoy some top-notch midweek action.
To get the next generation of racegoers we all hear about, racecourses think they should put all their goodies in a Saturday basket. From what I've seen, what that often leads to is racecourses simply being full of stag and hen parties.
One of the biggest complaints of racing's core fan base is the bias towards Saturdays in the staging of the top meetings. People who love racing love to see good racing, but on a Saturday, when sometimes faced with three or four high-quality meetings, those people can still only get to one track. However, there are sometimes so many good meetings on a Saturday they actually end up going nowhere and instead simply watch everything on television. What you are then left with are uncommitted racegoers with minimal interest in what happens.
We have saturated the sport with rubbish racing, especially midweek. Real racing fans don't want to go to see it because, with the exception of those who have runners, it doesn't really mean anything to anyone. You certainly wouldn't find me watching Kempton on a Wednesday night if I wasn't riding there. Tracks like Chelmsford have actually said some of what they put on isn't intended to attract people through the turnstiles. I'm sure there are quite a few tracks who don't even really want racegoers because it's cheaper if they don't turn up.
PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
TOO many people who are in racing and love racing are now getting fed up with the game. The sad truth is the biggest cause of that is racing itself. I can't help but think racing is one of those sports you either like or you don't like - and it has survived for centuries on that basis. Those people who do like it are the ones who will make an effort to attend in midweek, perhaps in the evening after work.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned - I'm one of those who keeps banging the ‘Derby should be on a Wednesday' drum. However, even if we can't free our greatest race from competing with what are already congested sporting weekends, we can surely beef up a few midweek days.
There are far too many weeks in the year when jockeys, and I'm sure racing fans as well, end up wishing their time away trying to get to Saturday. Yet then, come the weekend, a jockey like myself is faced with having to pick between two, three or four meetings, which creates enormous problems for trainers, never more so than on the ridiculous July Cup Saturday. All too often during the week all we get is run-of-the-mill rubbish.
The whole fixture list is full of too much bad racing. It devalues everything. The more oil there is on the market the less expensive it becomes. To increase the value of oil there needs to be less of it for sale.
The same is true of racing. Less really can be more if what you get rid of is the stuff that leaves real racing fans cold.
Part of the problem is racecourses having too much power, so maybe something could be done to make staging racing on a Saturday more expensive for the tracks? In Hong Kong and India people chomp at the bit for midweek meetings, often staged after they have finished work. That's what needs to happen here.
What we certainly don't need is to lose another major fixture like Brigadier Gerard night from its midweek home. If Sandown move it, the group most annoyed will be the ones who already love racing, the ones racing's rulers should have at the front of their minds all the time.
There is something very wrong if trying to attract new people costs you the ones you've already got. The powers that be need to be thinking about that - and the bigger picture - as opposed to immediate profit.
