As the dust settles after another highly enjoyable season of top class racing action, the racing industry enters a relatively calm period before the excitement of the upcoming Highveld Spring meetings and the imminent arrival of the Cape Summer Season hits us.
This weekend sees an exciting time for the Racing Association as they launch the inaugural Achievers Day race meeting at Turffontein this Saturday. I say inaugural, as hopefully this is the start of something big with regards to an injection of youth into the horseracing industry.
As a young person myself, I know that the youth culture has not warmed up to the idea of attending race meetings. Many couldn’t care less about betting or bloodstock and on the few times I have brought this topic up with students, (I am a third year journalism student) they look at me like a creature from the Black lagoon. “Horseracing?? Why the hell are you interested in that?” is a response I have heard before. There is still a stigma attached to the game that the Sport of Kings is for rich doctors, lawyers and high profile business men used to corporate takeovers and board meetings.
I was pleasantly surprised the other day to find a guy that had read an article in the newspaper, probably the Citizen as the rest of the papers have kicked racing to the kerb, on the Vodacom Durban July. He wanted to know about how the betting on horseracing works. He had seen a Facebook status advertising the fact that I had written a profile for another website on the race.
How can the situation be remedied? The Racing Association must be applauded for their efforts in approaching tertiary institutions and young professionals and organising an event like this. While them simply being invited to one race day and a free lunch may not be enough to convert hordes of youngsters to spend heavily at the next sales, if it ignites even the smallest spark of interest and a few faces are seen at the next meeting or sales then it is a job well done.
It is these few converts that can then try to convince fellow youngsters to join them at the races which could start a chain reaction and lead to better attendances like in the glory days of racing. In my 21 years on earth I have never seen Turffontein full like it was in the old photos that line the walls in the racing museum at the TBA complex.
Sponsors should also come to the party in terms of attracting a younger audience to the races. A company like J&B has sponsored the Met and found great success among the Cape jet-set lifestyle of the young and fabulous. Vodacom has had similar success in Durban with a large contingent of young racegoers on July Day. There was also some success last year at the Summer Cup with the introduction of an after party in conjunction with popular lifestyle franchise FTV who arranged for some of S.A’s top DJ’s to entertain the younger crowd.
During a time where everyone is feeling the effect of the “credit crunch”, it is only a matter of time before betting and bloodstock sale revenues decrease as a result of no new investors in the game. Horseracing needs to find a way to compete with the casinos and other entertainment avenues for the attention of a younger “yuppie” generation with money to spend. Racing should promote itself as a lifestyle instead of a sport.
Nick Gordon(Mickeyblue)
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