IS RACING THE WORLD'S MOST BORING SPORT?

Neighmaster wrote: "South African horse racing today is recording some notable international achievements, to rival those of our great golfers and our cricket and rugby teams. But who ever gets to hear about them ..."

One small thing we can all do is when there's some big overseas or local success: post about it on Facebook (if you have a fb account). Not a link, which most people won't read (cf Sylvester, above), but in your own words. Get excited and spead the excitement! Your friends and relations will listen to you where they won't listen - if they ever even hear - to an official broadcast or website.

How about it guys? Costs nothing but a few minutes of your time. Moaning feels good but only for a short time; doing something feels good and goes on feeling good. So let's be positive and do something!

Another classic thread txs for contributions and yes Mav we must remain positive every little bit helps

If you add Jimmys and Garricks ages together they would have been at the first race meeting in SA,great to have their inputs...

Dear Barry Irwin - I would be most interested to have you elaborate on your comment "your inability to enjoy racing without a bet says more about you than it does about the sport".

Betting is the fuel that drives the sport and is often the ONLY way in which Mr & Mrs Average can participate. Just loving the sport - as some posters have eloquently described - is actually not enough. The sport needs people to participate. And of the ways in which one can participate ownership and betting are possibly the most directly beneficial to the sport/business.

I historically used betting as a method to enhance my enjoyment of the sport and to either confirm or confound my opinion of a given event and animal. In much the same manner as you,sir, BACK your opinion of thoroughbreds and their abilities by buying them as yearlings or horses in training! I see little difference in our respective activities.

Now that I am no longer going through the ritual of calculation, preparation, speculation etc., I find the spectacle alone quite tedious and boring. Bear in my mind that my exposure is exclusively via Tellytrack which now more resembles a stock market monitoring channel than a 'sports' channel. So possibly , as a semi-disinterested viewer, I am for the first time seeing the sport as an outsider might see it. Not particularly appetising. Click. Next channel please. Lost customer.

Many might react to the above with a : To hell with him. Who needs him? Who'll miss him? But here's the rub : Too many former supporters have preceded me through the exits. And too many will follow me although not because of me. And that should be a concern because ( if I am to believe posters here ) acquiring a new participant is somewhat difficult these days.

In closing : I am in no way offended by your comment. Just curious.

I have found this thread very very interesting and I have watched it reinforce my personal view of racing and its myths.
I see so much been made of the it revolving around the magnificent creature,the horse.As an animal lover,I regard the horse as just that,but overplayed in some aspects of the industry.
Breeders and trainers,including stable staff interact and bond with the horse.For most owners to claim the same is myth.
Here is the "doggie" version of racehorse ownership........take an expert to a kennel to pick a dog.Owner writes the cheque but expert takes it home and utilises staff to groom and train and build a bond with the animal.When ready it goes to dog shows,and when awards are won the "payer" gets his/her photo taken with the dog as the reward for the costs.Very different to the dog lying at your feet around the fire ,going for walks and wagging its tail when greeting you!We also know ,from another thread that the average ownership in the Western Cape entails your horse running less than 15 minutes a year at a loss of over R3000 a run.
Lets face it ,ownership is mainly about ego and status!
Now lets talk about the racegoer/punter........the interaction with the animal is no closer than with the animals in a zoo,or,heaven forbid,in a circus.We also know from this thread that a day at the races will entail at least 6 hours of time for less than 15 minutes of racing.
So what is it that makes me,after 40 years of racing just as excited about todays racing(approx 16 mins over 2 meetings) as I was 40 years ago,if not more.
I think the clue is the effect that puzzles and mind challenges have on people..........look at the effect of sudoku,rubik cube,crosswords (as popular as they were when invented)........................its not about the racing ,its about the working out the puzzle .........the racing is just the answers.
When asked about my love of racing ,I have often compared it to sudoku,and said my racecard is my daily sudoku puzzle,and if or when I successfully crack it, I get an almost immediate financial prize.

It is this aspect that I believe needs to be the focus of the marketing to the gambler,but why I also believe that strong regulation is so necessary..............the results of the puzzle need to coincide with the answers,frequently enough,to make it credible and therefore marketable

RF - I like your post and your argument that it is not so much the horses as the puzzle that is the attraction to racing and I certainly agree that it is a strong element of the appeal as far as the punter is concerned.

However, if the horse is not a particular part of the appeal for you, may I ask why you follow horse racing, rather than the dogs, or any other form of racing?

hibernia Wrote:

---

> If you add Jimmys and Garricks ages together they
> would have been at the first race meeting in
> SA,great to have their inputs...

What you mean!!!:...They would of been coupled on ''Noah's Ark''....

zsuzsanna04 Wrote:

---

> RF - I like your post and your argument that it is
> not so much the horses as the puzzle that is the
> attraction to racing and I certainly agree that it
> is a strong element of the appeal as far as the
> punter is concerned.
>
> However, if the horse is not a particular part of
> the appeal for you, may I ask why you follow horse
> racing, rather than the dogs, or any other form of
> racing?



Zsuz this is exactly the whole point of this thread imo,we or most of us on here are insiders and have the bug/passion..

But to newbies and sports fans,what sparks the fire?

Simple Hibs - R1,500 off a R50.00 bet on the July mostly but hey maybe I am not the fan I thought I was.

I had a similar argument with a mate who said that horse racing is not a sport. He used the starting times of races as an example of how betting is the main aim of this game. He said you would hardly see a football or rugby match start late whilst in racing his perception is that they appeared to wait for bets to come in... (again an outsiders perception).

My response to him was "you are an A$$HOLE!!! How can you not say that the jockeys and horses are not participating in a sport?"

Racing has many different facets to it and it depends which side you are looking at it from. BI is probably not a punter and probably has not had the desire to look at it from the punters point of view but lets face facts, there are more fans brought into racing by punting than by any other medium. Owners and purists in the game are probably 1% of the other fans (punting public).

A true purist or non punting racing fan would watch all the crap from Turkey, Kenya and Italy and be happy with what they see? I dont think so!

Zsuzsanne,as I say,I do love horses but it is not why i bet on them.
I have never considered any other form of "racing" as competition to horseracing,but have compared and experimented with casinos and poker.
Being painfully analytical,I started by discounting roulette or fruit machines, but did study blackjack and taught myself to cardcount.I found it too much effort and time,for too little return,and then the automatic shuffling machines made that edge obsolete anyway.
I gathered all the material and learnt the odds of poker and enjoyed it for a while until I came to the conclusion that,whilst I now had the basic knowledge to play the game,I did not have the personality that allowed me to apply the patience that was required to be a good player(the irony is that I can be very patient with my punting on horses)
So,I am stuck with horseracing,which I love anyway( any other activities would have never replaced racing ,only been ,in addition to!)
Therefore the appeal, and I say should be the selling point,of horseracing,is that it is a puzzle which is reasonably predictable.
I say reasonably because horses,being animals, will always have an element of unpredictability,but what needs to be eliminated,as much as possible,is the additional unpredictable factors introduced by what" man" does or doesn't contribute.
This is the reason I believe that strong regulation is necessary for racings appeal and longevity.

Some of you may find the following interesting....sorry its so long (Sly I will sms you the shorter version..... )...


Thoroughbred racing is, indeed, suffering a precipitous decline in popularity these days. And much has been written about it. The industry knows it is on the ropes, as it were, and has hired marketing firms and consultants to help it understand the trends. But the slide down the slope continues.

For those of you like me, who enjoy the sport...either casually or in a significantly more close way because you are connected to it, I thought I would revisit the topic. For it seems to me there are at least two things going on here...economics and cultural changes. The economics are most easily understood and explained...the cultural changes perhaps not so much. Both are equally interesting. And it says something about us, as a People. It says something about our culture, and the future. It may seem esoteric, but there may be something wider in scope at work here.

This is about Horse Racing...or maybe not.

First...some background.

Horse Racing, as a spectator sport, enjoyed its peak in the year 1964. Since then it has declined...and in the last 6 years or more it has declined precipitously. A marketing firm hired by the Horse Racing interests last year (The Jockey Club) has estimated that if current trends continue, horse racing will lose about 4% of its attendance each year until, by 2020, it is only 64% of what it was just 2 years ago.

Gambling...let's face it, folks...people gamble on sporting events. During the first 6 decades of the 20th century, believe it or not, horse racing enjoyed a near monopoly upon gambling for most of America. Every place had a track, and you could bet (or not) in most all of them. Racing's decline follows two threads...the rise of Las Vegas casinos (and other cities like Atlantic City), and the introduction of state loteries and off track betting facilities.

More than 50% of all horse owners are female (some put it at close to 60%), yet only about 15-20% of horse race attendees are female. There is a gender gap.

There is no shortage of racing events...only a shortage of racing attendees.

The average number of races that a good horse is entered into has declined over the years...a promising horse only races about half as many times today as it did back in 1964. How do you build a following for a sport when you retire your stars at their prime?

These and several other observations, can be found at an excellent article the NYT published a few years back...some of it is inside baseball, but I would encourage you to read not just the article but the readers comments...they are illustrative:

therail.blogs.nytimes.com/ ...

Now to the meat of the matter...and I would like to begin with the most nebulous facet of the equation...How has America changed? And how has that impacted Horse Racing?

One of the commenters to the NYT article mentioned something that I've not seen mentioned in other articles on this subject: The divorce rate. He commented that one of the reasons young people aren't making a connection to horse racing is that they, by and large, don't have fathers to introduce them to the sport. I find that incredibly interesting, and possibly a real issue. My father introduced me to horse racing. If he hadn't, I wouldn't have discovered it. There just might be a "there" there.

Others suggest that there is a lingering stereotype with respect to the track...older, somewhat unshaven denizens with a two day beard growth, who smoke. Yes....there is that demographic....and perhaps it is offsetting to some. I always found the crowd to be much more expansive than that, but perception is reality.

In fact, many observers have said that the it isn't so much that young people have abandoned Horse Racing...it has always been a spectator sport that trended towards older men...it is more that the current crop of Yuppies, or Boomers, to use a less loaded term, have abandoned it. Why?

That is the $64K question. I think it has more to do with culture than economics or online gambling...though those have their role in the story.

Welcome to Disneyland, The Happiest Place on Earth

I haven't read all of the social science on my own generation...there's just too much of it. But one thing I know...we have deified our children. It started with "Baby on Board" signs that people would place on their cars, and continued up through "MY Child is an Honor Roll Student" bumper stickers. As a childless adult, I'll hope you will forgive me when I say..."So the fuck what?"

I know your child is the center of your universe...and good for you. He/she is not the center of mine. And frankly...I'd rather know if you have a three gallon gerry can of gasoline in your trunk. I might follow you with a greater distance.

But seriously...this is, I believe, where it all began...The track used to be an escape from the family, albeit one of a couple of hours...Now...there is no escape...and to even desire one immediately casts you into suspicion. What about the kids???

Some suggest that Horse Track owners can claw themselves back to the Black by making their facilities more "family friendly." Yes...that's the ticket...let's Disneyfy the place. What's lacking is video games for the sullen, uninterested kids who were carted to the track against their wishes, or perhaps bouncing rooms for the toddlers.

Because...it is inconceivable that there be a place that parents could go to by themselves. (even though those places existed not 40 years ago).

There has, undeniably, been a cultural change. We live in a "Bowling Alone" era. People have moved to the suburbs, and they are uninclined to drive into the city to visit the track as they once were. Yet, at the same time...they will drive to Las Vegas (or fly) at the drop of a hat. The desire to gamble has not diminished...only the demands for perks. Boomers, who once derided their parents for being such unflinching consumerists and slavish "keeping up with the Jones's" robots, have doubled down and shown their parents to be the pikers that they were...Boomers are the most consumerist generation to ever walk upon the face of the earth.

They won't go to the track because it isn't culturally cool...It has nothing to do with the thrill of the race, the beauty of the horses, the excitement of the event...it is the stereotype that they grew up with. Old guys who smoke and drink, and gamble money they can't afford to gamble. It is low class. How the Horse Racing industry is to confront that perception is beyond me...but confront it it must.

And I don't believe that constructing a bunch of video game terminals for sullen kids, or slot machines for bored parties, is the answer.

The Sport itself is the answer. It's about the horses.

The Kentucky Derby has always been a huge draw, and continues to be. Americans are still incredibly interested in the Triple Crown. TV ratings and betting stats show this to be true. Here's the rub: The Kentucky Derby is for 3 year old horse. Afeter you win that race, your horse is still in the prime of its racing career. Most owners, however, retire their horses shortly thereafter...and turn them to stud. Racing stakes have declined over the years, while stud fees have risen. It's economics. Why continue to race a great horse, for meager purses, when you can retire that horse and breed it for the same amount or more without any risk of injury?

Look at it in the context of any other sport. Win the Wimbledon, and retire. Garner the Heissman Trophy in college and decline to enter the NFL draft... That is what Horse Racing has come to. There are so many 4 and 5 year old horses out there that have shown their greatness, and could lift the sport up by continuing their career...but noooo.....they might get hurt, and they are worth more in the stud farm. So, cultural changes aside, the horse owners are to blame here as well.

I don't know, folks...I leave it up to you. I only know that a horse race is a special thing to witness...and I have had the good fortune to witness more than a few that were great. I've seen Secretariat, Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Allysheba, Spectacular Bid...and many others. I've seen Shoemaker, Cauthen, Turcotte, Pincay, McCarren...
I've seen greatness...and sublime beauty at the track.

Have I seen drunken old farts with a cigarette in their mouths? Yes I have. Have I seen rich guys there too? Yes I have. I've seen every kind of people there. Some watch from the boxes, some from the infield. Some scan the grounds after each race, looking down at the cast off bet tickets, hoping to find a discarded winner. Some are dining and drinking in style. It is Democracy...with a field of horses to bet upon. Or simply watch.

I hope it has a future. And I hope it's future isn't Disneyworld, or the Sands.

CM, maybe just draw a picture for SLY....<