Whenever I hear the bleat - 'We need to get young people to the races' I always wonder whether that is not just 'corporatespeak' for 'We are running dangerously short of cannon fodder. Go find more mugs for us to work over'.
If the game were that great they would be breaking down the gates to get in.
Anyone with even a p-a-s-s-I-n-g potential interest in the sport will immediately encounter the following negatives :
1.) It's a really complicated game to learn from scratch. It has its own language and jargon and offers little help to the learn-it-myself individual.
2.) It is still surrounded by a strong whiff of being a corrupt or, at least, an unsavoury activity. It does PLENTY to re-inforce this perception.
3.) It is VERY EXPENSIVE.
4.) A major deterrent to the untapped youth market is that it jealously attempts to protect its monopoly and behaves accordingly. It treats technological advances such as Betfair ( which is a natural fit for the youth ) as 'the enemy'. It really does support a 'horse and carriage' mentality when we have all moved on to cars!
5.) Issues such as information privileges, betting coups etc., are 'condemned' with a 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' approach. This merely re-inforces the perception in '2' above.
6.) To the idle observer the 'enforcer' (NHA) is amazingly passive and ineffectual.
7.) It squanders its big marketing days ( July, Met, summer Cup etc.,) by pandering to the once-a-year set and fashion industry. By contrast - when last did you see a thoroughbred paraded down the catwalk at a fashion show???
8.) At these selfsame events it meekly hands over the marketing to airheads who, out of sheer ignorance, actually diminish the event with their insultingly vapid presentations.
Its an endless list..........
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