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The Tuesday Take: Let me tell you a story

“The nearly unanimous opinion of everyone involved in the game — its leaders, its players, organizers, sponsors, media executives — is that it’s broken, a structural mess that exhausts its players, cannibalizes its business with dueling events and exists in a constant state of civil war among its alphabet soup of governing bodies.” 

The Racing Post on the introduction of Premier Racing at Cheltenham? No, the opening lines of an article this week by Matthew Futterman in the Athletic on how professional tennis is broken. In a world of more, more, more – we’re not the only sport having an existential crisis on how to thrive in the modern world. 

In the abstract, I’m bullish about the concept of Premier Racing – less racing, strategic allocation of prize money and focused promotion on our biggest events. I’m sure you are too. Sport has undergone a Netflixification. It used to be that sport consumption was limited to what you could drive to, now it’s what your finger will bounce to next on your phone. My word there’s so much – I’ve watched top class racing, football, tennis, rugby, boxing and darts – and that’s just this weekend. In a world where everything is available all of the time, how do Premier Racing capture attention? Just like Netflix – compelling stories. 

I’m not going to spend time judging Premier Racing on one weekend, much as I won’t judge a Netflix show in it’s first minute. However, once you’ve invested that first half an hour you do need the stories to emerge. Focus minds on the characters of the sport, watch their season develop and don’t drown out those stories with the 2.30pm from Redcar. 

Think how engaged people were with Patrick Mullins serving up a finger wag and lecture to his cousin Danny over Christmas. What made that compelling wasn’t the bare facts – it was a facile success by 10 lengths by Gaelic Warrior. However, seeing personalities express themselves, drop in a dash of family rivalry and have the Racing TV presenter there to capture the raw reaction afterwards – it creates the story we crave to talk about. It certainty created more interest then the first day of Premier Racing.

This logic applies to when we’re syndicating horses too. An aspect John and I will talk about before buying a horse is “what would our owners say to their friends down the pub about this horse?” Sometimes it’s as simple as “she’s a sister to a Grade 1 winner” or sometimes it’s a little bit more left field – “she has a cosmetic x-ray that won’t effect racing but would have put others off and that’s why she was real value”. It’s our job to explain that well enough so that you not only understand it but also want to shout about it. They are very different answers but they both having you talking – that’s game, set, match. In the same way, Premier Racing needs to invest in the stories that make our sport so magic not the logos that blend into the background.

A yarn I don’t accept is the blame placed on a “urban, younger generation” for the falling King George attendances. They are not selling the story, and they won’t even provide the transport links so you can begin to read it. Having lived in London for seven years, one of the greatest mysteries of life is why the opportunity presented by Sandown has not been grasped.  It’s got two jumps named after the railway and yet they the seem unable to see that transport connections are vital when attracting one of the world’s most vibrant populations to a racetrack on their doorstep. Think of the stories Sandown could sell that younger generation as part of Premier Racing – a King George Christmas with the tradition rich with tapestry of Kauto Star and  Desert Orchid, the riveting conclusion of the National Hunt season as champions are crowned and an Eclipse which is so often the first clash of the generations.  Yet Londoners can’t even get a convenient train to begin the book. 

The endless back and forth on what we should do to grow racing might feel like a Nadal rally however there’s a simple winner hovering above our heads – great stories. Explain what is happening, equip people to articulate that to their friends and allow the sport naturally flourish. Premier Racing, please let’s start by focusing minds on what really matters with our touted new laser focus – brilliant horses and their connections personalties shinning at some of the best racecourse in the world – we won’t get a second serve.


Big Festive Day Out – This Weekend

Last call for our big festive day out. If you and a friend would like complimentary tickets to Naas racecourse this weekend, just sign up here (we’ll also buy you a pint fear not!)


Jack’s Pick of the Week

Jana Colombe

I’m going to give our loyal Tuesday Take readers a sneak peak this week of a new horse that could be a little bit special.

We’re syndicate our first horse to Gordon Elliot in Jana Colombe, a half-sister to Gerri Colombe. Arguably one of the best bred fillies in training we’re delighted to have secured her to race in our white silks. She would probably have commanded a price tag of €100,000 or more given Gerri’s recent performances but the lucky owners to nab a share in her will be spending just a few hundred, not hundreds of thousands. We will be offering shares in her to two syndicates who have had a bit of bad luck recently but after that we will be operating a waiting list for those that would like to get involved in leasing the best bred filly we have ever had in our colours.

She’s already been through a full education with her being broken by Jonathan Fogarty, given a summer of lush grass at Tinnakill, pre-trained by Stephen Byrne of Knockgraffon and now she’s already been with Gordon Elliot for two months with a debut pencilled in for later this month.

If you’d like to get in first on her syndication, you can sign up here to get the info first.

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