this sport needs to stop beating itself up AND help itself with a bit of positivity.

​There is a cost-of-living crisis in Great Britain, as there is in most countries around the world. Coincidence; almost certainly not. Explanation for which is for another place, another time. The consensus amongst analysts and those with expertise in global finance predict recession in world economies to become far worse before they stabilise and begin the slow road to normalisation. So, attendances on racecourse could decline even further before the green shoots of recovery show themselves.
My advice to racecourse executives is to accept the situation, show some initiative to entice larger crowds, if not greater revenue, and to plan for a future that might be entitled ‘when less is more’.
The sport cannot expect even the most ardent horse racing devotee to pay premier prices to attend what I would term ‘workaday’ race-meetings, those which take place on Mondays or evening meetings on the all-weather on a cold Friday night (or any cold night). A man or woman with a mortgage, a family of young children and a myriad of household bills to pay, simply cannot afford to fill the car with fuel (or charge it with electricity) for a day at the races.
The rich and mega-rich quite possibly still do not blink an eye at the cost of petrol or the quarterly heating bills for their homes. But for the majority of racing enthusiasts, it is, I suspect, the number 1 factor in why they have not attended race-meetings, even at racecourses local to where they live, during the past twelve-months. If the analysts are correct, the numbers will dip even further during 2023.
Yes, I know the Racing Post on January 5th quoted a Bank of England forecast that ‘price inflation’ will reduce sharply in the middle of this year but from what I’ve heard from sources with their finger on the pulse of world economies, I would be reluctant to believe green shoots of recovery will follow quickly once the bluebells have left the hedgerows and woodlands.
What is required at the present is not doom and gloom and hand-ringing but initiative, flexibility on the part of racing’s leadership and a proactive plan to help guide the sport through troubled times ahead.
If necessary, the program book must be amended to take into account falling attendance at race-meetings. Southwell and Wolverhampton, for instance, should not race on the same day, even if one meeting is in the afternoon and the other in the evening. In fact, apart from the height of summer, I would propose curtailing floodlit racing altogether for the immediate time-frame to reduce the cost of using floodlights and the necessity of harrowing the all-weather surface to stop it freezing during the depths of winter.
A face-fan living equidistant between two racecourses within easy reach should not be given the choice of which to attend. Hereford, Stratford or Worcester, to give one example, should never race on the same day as each other or Cheltenham. Race-meetings should be organised so no two racecourses within fifty or perhaps slightly further apart should race on the same day. Racecourses should be given every chance to achieve the maximum possible attendance.
And I say again, racecourse should entice local people to their racecourses with reduced ticket pricing, including, if only once a year, free entry for those living in local postcode areas. Also, if under-sixteens can have free entry, why can’t the same offer be made to the over sixty-fives living in a fifty-mile radius of any racecourse.
And local racecourses should reflect the local trades, local festivals and local traditions; with racecourses being synonymous with a local market, horse-racing themed events, including raffles with prizes linked to the sport – membership of the racecourse, visits to local training yards, meet and greet sessions with jockeys, etc. And for those people attending a racecourse for the first time a guided tour, with advice on the do’s and do nots of racecourse protocol. Make racecourses more friendly and inviting to newcomers and less like a visit to a dark and strange land.
Oh, and a free bus or coach service from the town or city. It all costs money, yes, though greater attendances should pay the extra expense involved. Racecourses will soon become housing estates if more bums on seats cannot be achieved. Use it or lose it as the add once stated.
And less racing. To not think that less race-meetings would achieve more for the sport than a continual swelling of the race-program is to believe in fairies, to believe more chocolate you eat and more beer you drink the slimmer your waistline will become.
If there were less meetings, jockeys, the constituent part of the human element of the sport that the public, especially the young, can relate to, would be more freely available to promote the sport. Even in his final year as a jockey, Frankie Dettori might have the spare time to meet and greet the public through the media but the schedule for jockeys, especially flat jockey through the summer months, is too non-stop to expect the likes of Holly Doyle and Tom Marquand to find the time to do the same. Perhaps the day before all the major race-meetings should be left blank so that jockeys riding in the Derby or Grand National might have the opportunity to be interviewed by media outlets in order make the public more aware that a world sporting event is upcoming.
Back in the 1950’s 60’s and 70’s, the time period when Queen Elisabeth’s fascination and love of the sport gave us for free the best marketing available, the time of Arkle and the bloom of sponsorship, there was no all-weather racing, no Sunday racing, and far fewer evening meetings. Under the leadership of the B.H.A., and the Jockey Club before it, to an extent, the product has been allowed to be stretched beyond its capacity to endure. Now is the time to rein-in, to be inventive, to package the sport so that it is at its fittest to survive the turbulent times undoubtedly ahead.
It is now, more than any time in the past, when the sport of horse racing needs its own Sir Winston Churchill (himself an owner of good horses through the fifties, sixties and seventies) to rally the troops and to lead with the wisdom of someone who knows all that is needed to be known about the matter at hand.
If only!