Racing Association plans to enhance raceday

Racing Association plans to enhance raceday experience
Jack Milner: It is the role of the Racing Association (RA) to enhance the racing experience for owners and in doing so, the public at large.

OCTOBER 4, 2017
With that in mind RA chief executive Larry Wainstein has detailed some of the things they are working on to improve the sport and attract new faces to the racecourse.

“We are here to protect the ethos of racing,” said Wainstein. “We have around 1,300 members and not all owners are members of the RA. But we do represent 70% of the horses who run in the country.”

Improving stakes for owners is one of the key areas but while they are going up around 10% per annum, costs are rising at around 25%. “Unfortunately that is out of our control. But what we can do is make the raceday experience special for our members. We have the Elevation Room at Turffontein and similar facilities in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

“We would like to see more people come back to the racecourses, what we have done this year is resurrect the ‘Raceday Experience Committee’ with Phumelela.”

One of the concepts is to communicate to owners as soon as their runners accept for a particular meeting. “Most trainers do tell the owners but in this way we can let them know immediately and ask them whether they would like to book a table at the course and for how many.

“Let’s be proactive rather than reactive,” explained Wainstein.

The next step is to attract a younger audience. “You get the youngsters who come with their parents and they sit in the Elevation Room looking bored.

“From 1 November we will be reopening a refurbished the Bold Cherry Room with the aim of providing younger racegoers with their own facilities. It’s a joint move with Racing.It’s A Rush, where we will have the soccer and rugby on if there are events. We will serve things like craft beers and there will be music. We will encourage them to bring their mates along and hopefully that will start to attract a new generation to the sport,” said Wainstein.

Because of the structures of the RA, they are unable to bring new, young members on to the board but Wainstein has a plan set up. “You have to be a member for five years to get on to the main board but we are going to set up a shadow marketing committee which will encompass a representative group of youngsters,” he said.

What is needed in racing is for new people to be given a chance to head up different organisations within racing as its clear those that have been in power for years are not up to the job as you will find in many corporate companies the ceo doesnt stay on forever and ever as there is only so much one can offer and this certainly applies to the this industry ..Those people within the industry know exactly who they are AND IF THEY ACTUALLY HAVE THE LONG TERM FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY AT HEART THEY WILL STEP DOWN AND GIVE OTHERS A CHANCE TO SUCCEED WHERE THEY HAVE FAILED....there is more chance of huddersfield winning the champions league five years in a row

pirates wrote: What is needed in racing is for new people to be given a chance to head up different organisations within racing as its clear those that have been in power for years are not up to the job as you will find in many corporate companies the ceo doesnt stay on forever and ever as there is only so much one can offer and this certainly applies to the this industry ..Those people within the industry know exactly who they are AND IF THEY ACTUALLY HAVE THE LONG TERM FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY AT HEART THEY WILL STEP DOWN AND GIVE OTHERS A CHANCE TO SUCCEED WHERE THEY HAVE FAILED....there is more chance of huddersfield winning the champions league five years in a row

Yup, it’s an old mans game

But the old men need the young blood, fast!

“Let’s be proactive rather than reactive,” explained Wainstein.

Oh after all this time and money we are going to be proactive. Well done how many meetings and conferences did that take to hit home.

It's a start - once again proof will be in the pudding the next time we attend a race meeting