Article: Where Is Horse Racing Going?

On Sunday at The Curragh, the Irish Derby carries prize money of 1.25 million Euros.
Yet only six trainers have runners entered - four of them supplied by Aidan O’Brien.
It raises the question.....where is horse racing going?
The Sport Of Kings - and ownership of horses - seemed, in the sixties and early seventies to become a little more accessible to the man in the street.
However, once the Vincent O’Brien/Robert Sangster and Godolphin consortia started competing at bloodstock sales for highly bred offspring, the cost of buying Flat horses started to rocket - and top bloodstock soon became the exclusivity of the very rich.
Furthermore, economics dictated that Classic winners be parcelled off to stud at the end of their three year old campaigns. This trend has persisted - and increased.
This is typified by a race like The Prix De L’Arc De Triomphe. From 1970 to 1990, three year olds and older horses shared the spoils - ten winners each.
One of its winners-the five year old Star Appeal - ran thirty nine times in his career, winning eleven races and yet, since 1991, all winners except five older horses have been three year olds. Many of these have only seen the racecourse on a handful of occasions.
Don’t you feel that’s sad for racing and its public?
It seems to me that, in 2011, we have more horses in training – and race meetings- than we ever did.
Yet overall the mediocrity can be terrible - look at the quality of horses running over the past few weeks, excepting Ascot.
Even at that venue, the Gold Cup and Hardwicke Stakes were shadows of their former selves. Take away the winners and the races looked like handicaps, so poor was the quality in depth!
On this site, we debate many horses, but I wonder when we shall see them next?
Take Workforce. We’re nearly into July and he’s only run once this year.
Should he line up and win The Arc, he’ll be the first four year old to duplicate his three year old success for thirty one years- since Alleged in 1978.
That will be great for Workforce, but won’t it be a sad indictment for racing that so few have tried- and we see so little of top horses nowadays?
Perhaps I’m showing the cynical side of my nature, and I accept that competition can be exciting, whatever the level or grade.
Would members please post their thoughts because that Irish Derby field.......well, there’s something wrong somewhere.

 

I don't think you're cynical at all, it's just pure observation. I have a newspaper cutting from 1979 where Henry Cecil pleads for good sense in racing and especially bloodstock prices but Sangster and his acolytes cornered the market on Northern Dancer (Nass was of course right) blood and the rest was history.

There is too much racing, and too much poor racing that's for certain. At the same time racing is an industry that brings jobs to many. While I think most racing is pitiful without it many will lose those jobs.

I particularly object to the loss of many races and many meetings and the concentration of racing either on festival meetings or just big races. Why is the Newmarket Spring meeting only 2 days. Why is Newbury beginning to look like a Division 2 track, when once it was one of the best. Does Royal Ascot really justify 5 days?

The problem is I don't see how you change things.

 

I tend to focus on the bigger events and ignore the rest to be honest.
If they got rid of every all weather meetings tomorrow I wouldnt be bothered.

The trouble is that the sport is so diluted outside of the major meetings nowadays and is being marketed in the wrong way I think. The emphasis is to come racing for "a day out" Admittedly that is working with attendances holding up well at the big festivals and summer music nights. but it seems for most people a day out at the racing means a day out to get drunk. I took some friends to Sandown last year who had never been racing before and they had no idea of what races they were watching, no clue to who any of the horses were, and no idea of any form etc. Put it this way if the entire card had been 6 races of 2 year old races run over 7 furlongs it wouldnt have made any difference.

There are lots of posters in London at the moment advertising Coral Eclipse day "with Liz Mclarnon" Shouldn't it be advertised as Coral Eclipse day "featuring the Derby and Arc champion Workforce" ?

 

Nice article Tam. No mate, I don't believe that you're being cynical. The problems of which you speak are not just endemic to just Europe, they are issues at the heart of racing in most countries. We have the same thing happening here in Oz when year in year out, we see the Golden Slipper winner whisked off to "other duties" with a eight figure hanging around his neck. There can be no getting away from the allure of the dollar. Once racing purses begin to climb, the more the major racing institutions come into their own. As you stated, the stud scene is paramount, once a horse wins a classic, he's a big chance of whipped off to stud duties in the near future. There is no way around this, it's the way of the world, and not just in racing. The whole debate comes down to one of economic theory.

As for the standard of racing, I'm not so sure that the level is actually falling. The trickle down effect from the major players has to lift the overall standard. If I cast my mind back to the past, most of the fields on any week day program, were pretty dire. Maybe we're just the victims of our negative emotions. we only have to watch the news or any television drama, to see that we seek misery. Why do we want to watch murder, rape, robbery etc for entertainment. I fully realise that we have many problems in racing, but it will survive, even with what seems like short sighted people in charge. Have faith Tam, I have. Take five.

 

Dead right Steveo.

Going back to lost meetings, look at this week. There used to be the midsummer Newbury meeting. There was a reasonable sized handicap called the Summer Cup. There used to be a race called the Berkshire Stakes which a certain horse called Brigadier Gerard won. There used to be a 2yo race in which Hern would often send out just about his best 2yo colt (sic), and so would Jeremy Tree etc..Then there would be decent maidens in which horses that were just getting the hang of things would feature and then go onto bigger things (Provoke: St Leger). Now you have an evening meeting with a pile of handicaps and you might as well be at Windsor.

 

I think some of you may have your rose tinted glasses on again, at the minute we have a fantastic crop of older horses and whilst we haven't seen Workforce as much as we might like, we only last week saw Canford Cliffs taking on Goldikova and Rewilding lowering the colours of So You Think, two of the best quality races we have seen in a long time. Then you add in the blend of classic year horses, with Frankel being the principle one and we have got some fantastic races in prospect. We have the Sussex Stakes with Frankel possibly taking on Canford Cliffs, we have So You Think taking on Workforce and we have Fame And Glory, Midday, Await The Dawn, Snow Fairy and Rewilding likely to go for the 1m4 open age races with the hope of taking on the classic generation.

We have an issue with too many Group races and we do have problems of connections wanting to swerve certain horses, but at the end of the day we get that in jumps racing and athletics, you don't see the big 100m match up until the World Championships and/or the Olympics. Flat racing is the same, and hence the Arc this season looking to be a superb renewal with Workforce, Rewilding, So You Think, Await The Dawn, Pour Moi, Carlton House, Midday, Snow Fairy all possibles at this stage.

The UK has the problem in that it doesn't hold one of these must attend races, in as much as very few top class horses can viable swerve the lure of the Arc/Breeders Cup Classic but its much easier for connections to swerve the Champion Stakes. The BHA are trying to resolve this, but it doesn't seem to be working.

 

the Champions Day concept and this Qipco series or whatever are a complete joke.

I was at Epsom for the Derby and you would not have known that the Derby was part of the Qipco series at all.
and how can you have Champions Day at Ascot because it will never attract anything like the quality of racing that we saw last week for the Royal meeting.

as I said in my earlier post most of the new people who go racing do not actually follow the sport, it is just an excuse to get drunk.

 

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Oddy the horse Gentleman's Deal did just that, he was covering mares in the same season that he was successful on the artificial surfaces.

Foaling dates are the big problem too, I am sure one of the others will be able to explain as to why the STS scenario isn't right.

 

..

 

If I had a 50 million pound stallion Oddy, he'd never set foot on a track.

 

Oddy, AI would open up a whole can of...

Nige, they are good, full gets more visitors but half is good at his job. Draining on the other hand is pretty useless.

 

OddDog, Brilliant- your humour has cheered me up no end! To be honest, I'm injured at the moment and can't get out play golf- and it's p-ssing me off, so anything that makes me laugh is very,very much appreciated.
On a serious note, thank you for all your informed and sensible replies and Nass, I appreciate your positive attitude.
It all started me off when I saw that Irish Derby field- I need to cheer up and get more positive!

 

I echo Oddy, its been a right pain for the last few months here and I wish you a speedy recovery. Even if it is to go and play golf.

 

I agree with Nassau Board - there is no isue with the quality of the horses right now - it's more to do with too many group races so you're always going to get a couple of Group 1s that do not deliver what some would expect they should do. Whilst I also agree that we do not have the"must do" races like the Arc and breeders cup we do have all manner of excellent festivals and we get the top horses come to them time and time again.

Now not everything in the garden is rosy - far from it - but in terms of the top grade racing I think things are looking good - with the odd blip such as Sunday.

I do have to also agree with something Steveo said though - the amreting of the sport is deeply depressing. In 2009 i got tickets labelled "King George and Queen Elizabeth day featuring Supergrass". Outside of the Derbys and the Arc this used to be Europe's premier 1 mile 4 race and that year was featuring a Breeder's cup winner for crying out loud. And supergrass are rubbish - now if thy'd said the Trumpton Fire Brigade Band i could have understood it..... But yes, the lowest common denominator is now being ruthlessy pursued and I'm sure i am not the only one who is beginning to lose their enthusiasm for attending the big meetings as it promotes drunken boorishness and makes it that little less pleasant.

 

This is because courses are run as businesses and not influence by the government (unlike in France if I recall).

I avoid all of these 'popular' days, the fact that music is being used to sell sport is alien to me, its like selling the superbowl as a U2 gig or selling the FA Cup final as a Katherine Jenkins ft the FA Cup gig.

You can't blame the courses though, these days do attract bigger crowds and revenue will be much bigger from these days than the run of the mill racedays, however I do wish that they would still put the racing as the main draw and not the music/celebrity.

As for Drunks, it is about time that the BHA started looking at this and making courses who run these nights have more security and more stringent policing levels (which would cost a good deal) and act against the courses who are allowing such bad behaviour. I do hate drunks, and its probably the reason that I will leave Glorious Goodwood earlier than normal this year.