What would do to improve horse racing in Ire?

deewhy

Looking at the attendances at Fairyhouse and in light of the current economic climate, I cannot believe how little innovation there has been to encourage people to go racing. To get people thinking, here a few thoughts:

Admission Prices: completely crazy should be cut by at least 25% and add in incentives e.g. twin up with another race track and give two admissions for the price of one.

Get the on course bookmakers and tote to subsidise the admission prices - they get it back on the books.

I think Ted Walsh pointed out yesterday that the Tote couldnt put reserves in GN because the tote computers could not take number 31 - self explanatory.

Ground Covers - how much racing did we lose this year due to frost, going etc. Willie Mullins suggested on his diary blog we should look at investing in one that could be shared between courses.

Festivals - Are there too many or just too many days racing at the festivals. I think so especially Galway is far too long with a poor standard of racing.

I am sure there are a load of views out there and you never know someone in the industry might even read this and take notice!

convert

There was a similar thread posted here a while back, which may be of interest: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055685766

smartaform

Industry official take notice..... it would be great if they did.;);)

Your bang on about the lack of innovation AND desire shown by officials to attract people racing. Don't even start me on the UK Racing for change rubbish. :D

As you say the admission prices are ridiculous - typical 'Tiger Crap'...

The Ground covers - shared between tracks is pointless. Each track should be at a certain standard and have the necessary equipment to deal with all the elements (not saying tracks are crap but they need to be prepared, we live in Ireland so they should know what to expect weather wise :rolleyes:). In my opinion It traces back to FUNDING.
HOW in the 20th century the industry isn't running the industry is beyond me. Getting only a few % of betting turnover back into the industry from theiving bookmakers is not good enough. They are leeches sucking the life out of the sport and if they wish to cover Racing (which each race is the property of The Turf Club or HRI - again who is in charge?? - they must pay at least 25% of turnover instead of 2 or 3% or a fixed fee to cover).
If we were to take a leaf out of the TOTE WAY OF LIFE and look at the Prizemoney and Level of attendance in places like - USA, Hong Kong and Australia, we see those industries are thriving, each industry supports tens of thousands of jobs, it attracts more and more people AND the tracks are of the highest calibre. ALL equipped with whatever tool they need to ensure a top racing surface!
Racing in this country needs someone to stand up and lay the law down, there are things which are working to some extent BUT it could be much better.
I saw something like 50 trainers didn't renew their license this year. So that's 50 people unemployed and lets say each had 4 staff - 250 more to the dole office ....

whatnext

1. Price, it is expensive. €28 for entry and a racecard. Why not offer something in return for paying full price, like free entry into another less attended event. Who knows it might attract people back for a second race trip in the year. If nothing else it would make me feel better:D

2. The Bars. two pints and the barman quotes me €24. Is it not reasonable to assume that the bar staff be of a level of intellect to realise that is incorrect? Took nearly 5mins to get that issue resolved.
Can we have some form of queing system at the bars? Spend five mins in the scrum, eventually have order taken, 5 mins later et drink, then trapped at the bar, cant get past the scrum without spilling half the beer:mad:
Also had to point out where drinks were on the shelves as staff said they were sold out on another occasion.

3. Stewarding, Can have stewards with cattle prods to move people who stand on doorways for a smoke and wont let others pass. Same on access areas to the upper part of the stands. Why stand on the stairs for a chat with you mates? Do you crave the attention?

4. Bookmakers, Two bookmakers were quoting prices for non runners in the National, one of whom accepted a bet on Flintoff, (I pointed that out to the punter, who was then told they would have to wait till after the race for a refund. The young lady said that she would never have checked if it was a n/r and only checked if it won:eek: Same bookmaker initially wouldn't pay me for my e/w on Red Basil in the 2nd. Bookie, ripped the ticket up and said it was ran out of the places. I very calmly stated my case, and due to the noise I was making got my money. Never made any accusiations just asked for their version of the result (ie so who came fourth then???). So who do you report this unsporting behaviour too? I know for a fact if it was my GF that went up she would have accepted their word and sauntered back to the bar. In that minute this bookie nearly conned us punters out €80, not a massive amount of money, but in no more than 60 seconds thats nearly €5k per hour..........

Goldcupfav

Get rid of Des Scahill !!

UrbanSea

More investigations into horses who just suddenly happen to improve so much,such as when cayo levantado won at 2/1 with no form,having been backed from 20. Trainer gets off scott free cos it hadn't run in 91 days,a day earlier and it could have been investigated.

flan59

Cost of entry is too high to what are basically flapper meetings at a lot of tracks, not a decent horse on the entire card. Let all the OAP's in free, scrap the concession bit. Lower the entrance fee and it will be made up by the number of people who will attend the meeting, There are a number of tracks in this country where flat racing should not be held, namely Tramore, why dedicate a full days racing to a track like that at a Festival, trainers are never going to risk good horses at bad tracks.

Nulty

Goldcupfav wrote: »

Get rid of Des Scahill !!

He's pretty poor. You always know where your horse is tho...unless he says its fallen...and it hasn't..... (My bad, apparently that was Tony O'Hehir)

Also the British Champion jumps Jockey has openly said he hates racing in Ireland. If the pros are saying its **** then something drastic needs to be done.

Colonel Sanders

I think the entrance fee should include a race card

Money off vouchers or something like go to 4 meetings and you get the 5th free

The price of food and drink is scandalous

Bookmakers over rounds are a disgrace

Blatant non triers populate every race bar the very top class races. Certain trainers/jockeys seem absolutely untouchable

I've always been of the opinion that unless you're a serious racing fan going racing represents a very poor value day out. And even if you are with ATR you're better often better sitting at home punting on Betfair or with the off course firms (best odds guaranteed, extra each way places, double result etc)

Hot-Rod

I have been racing all over ireland and britain, for a good meeting i never complain about paying admission, but for the lesser meeting racecourses should consider free entry like some race courses in england do. Maybe offer free admission if you go to one of the bigger meetings.Maybe some racecourses could join together and offer packages between their tracks.

Being from the north the one thing that really pisses me off is the price of food and drink in the racecourses. It really puts my mates off who wouldnt be the biggest racing fans from going even if i offer them a free lift. It can become a very expense day. Prices are nearly double compared to Down Royal or over in britain.

On the racing front, I cant understand why there is not more racing at dundalk over the winter especially with the amount of jumps cards been cancel due to weather conditions. Possible all bumper cards or mix of flat/bumper card run on the all weather.

Some of our festivals are a bit long. Galway could do with getting rid of at least one day, very poor quality racing, but i suppose they do get the holiday makers going to the races who dont really understand racing.

Punchestown festival should be 3-4 days max, only graded races, pure quality from start to finish.

Maybe have a Irish Racing Championships for flat racing, something to rival Breeders Cup/Royal Ascot run at the curragh in August. Either over 1 or 2 Days, top quality flat racing attracting horses from all over the world.

brandon_flowers

Definitely shorten the festivals. Galway at 7 should be at least only 6, our own festival in Listowel is a way too long should be 5 days max. Some of the races are woeful standard for what is described as a festival. If they are lower standard races they should be run on single days racing like they have at Clonmel, Tipperary etc.

Entrance fees will have to come down. If I was to go racing for the 7 days in Listowel it would cost me nearly €200 just to get in (I have done it before, usually only go 5 days). Also the cost of food/beer etc is scandalously high. The one thing I hate about on-course betting is that the some bookies take your bet and the little f***** sitting behind the pitch sticks it on the horse on betfair. Thats not bookmaking, they are making enough as it is and they give out then that Betfair dont contribute any money to Irish Racing.

krustydoyle

brandon_flowers wrote: »

Definitely shorten the festivals. Galway at 7 should be at least only 6, our own festival in Listowel is a way too long should be 5 days max. Some of the races are woeful standard for what is described as a festival. If they are lower standard races they should be run on single days racing like they have at Clonmel, Tipperary etc.

Entrance fees will have to come down. If I was to go racing for the 7 days in Listowel it would cost me nearly €200 just to get in (I have done it before, usually only go 5 days). Also the cost of food/beer etc is scandalously high. The one thing I hate about on-course betting is that the some bookies take your bet and the little f***** sitting behind the pitch sticks it on the horse on betfair. Thats not bookmaking, they are making enough as it is and they give out then that Betfair dont contribute any money to Irish Racing.

I noticed that at the guineas meeting last year... couldn't believe it.. and theres a good few bookmakers doing it all the time..

Aidric

Nulty wrote: »

Also the British Champion jumps Jockey has openly said he hates racing in Ireland. If the pros are saying its **** then something drastic needs to be done.

Never saw that myself. On the record like?

convert

He made some comment about the lack of healthy food for the jockeys being provided in the weighrooms compared with what's in England. I don't remember him mentioning anything else, but then it may have been in a different interview.

Nulty

Aidric wrote: »

Never saw that myself. On the record like?

convert wrote: »

He made some comment about the lack of healthy food for the jockeys being provided in the weighrooms compared with what's in England. I don't remember him mentioning anything else, but then it may have been in a different interview.

Yeah, he complained about the jockeys rooms at Irish tracks and how they weren't treated like professionals or something. He said he didn't like racing in Ireland because of the facilities.

Sorry, I can't think where to find a link or anything. Its going to have to remain hearsay officially

He probably didn't say "I hate" but something to that effect.

Cantoris

I think this starts with funding. The industry needs to be self funding and not going to the government for a handout. We paid 5% and 10% tax not too long ago and unless you want a tote monopoly (which is why french racing has extremely good prizemoney), then punters/bookmakers whoever needs to pay for their racing.

Once you get to the track, I agree that entry prices are too high, particularly for a family. Festivals should be cut back and better racing put on fewer days. For example, the Sunday to Tuesday of Fairyhouse could easily have been put into Sunday and Monday and got bigger crowds both those days. Most there on Tuesday were freebies with Ladbrokes.

However, it is not a case of giving it away for free. I believe Fairyhouse gave out 2,000 free entry tickets to locals for one of their smaller meetings and only got a handful to go. On investigation, they found that a lot of the locals are foreign, with no interest in racing. so it needs to be targetted. I have never seen anyone from Leopardstown in St Stephens Green promoting the Summer evening meetings. Why not get some students out in horse and jockey outfits and really promote it. Put on buses from town direct to the course. None of this Luas and transfer......give them a bus straight to the track and back afterwards. you have to make it easy for people.

At the races, charge a sensible amount in. I don't mind paying €20 in for quality racing but if I had a family, I wouldn't bring them racing if it cost €40 for the two of us to get in with the kids. Easier to go to the park or the zoo. So make it €25 for a family.

Once in the gate, give people the option of a racecard or a formsheet. The latter is in France and is just an A3 page with some basic info on it, the runners and an overall analysis. Newbies don't understand form and just want to know which one to back. It could also include a side bar which explains in simple terms the distances, how to put on a bet. It's amazing how many people I know who have been racing a good few times that still don't understand what an each way bet is. They are completely confused so just go win.

Then put on some entertainment for the kids. I like the front runner initiative Leopardstown run but also get in something for the mothers to look at if they 're not into the racing. It's not just kids that need to be entertained. Then there's food. Good quality, reasonably priced food. Punchestown are beginning to get it right with Dobbins. Nice fish and chips. Not the greasy rubbish you get in Leopardstown. Pity we get plastic plates just coz it's easier for them to chuck in the bin than clean. Leopardstown are beginning to get there wit a table for the day and lunch at €5 for the kids and €10 or a little more for the adults. My brother brings his family out for lunch every second sunday and if he's gonna do that, he can do it at th racecourse.

Finally, the tote needs to be reformed. They should make the jackpot and placepot 10c unit increments. It means there's a decent chance of a rollover if it's not fully won but means I'm more likely to put my fiver into the jackpot. Similarly with bets like tricasts where you can have big multiples if you have four or five horses in. I'm more likely to put six in all combo tricasts if the unit stake is 20c.

There is plenty which is right but no course is doing everything right and they need to pull together.

PS OP who had a problem with the bookie, just walk into the betting ring office and complain.