Improvements or changes in Irish racing

maximo31

Just wondering what folks on here would like to see more / less of on their day out at an Irish horse race meeting?
Anything you would like to see brought in to racing?Maybe something from another sport that might work at a race course.......
Anything that needs rid of?
I would be a fairly regular race goer,i enjoy the day but i see that crowds seem low especially at the smaller meetings.

Shemale

Get rid of "I dressed myself" competitions and more bar staff, the two main reasons I rarely go racing these days

The Tetrarch

TOTE
One of my suggestions is to cut Tote margins to those used by the betting exchanges, or follow the Hong Kong model with exotic bets that generate massive prizepools.
Hong Kong and Australia have strong Tote systems. We do not.
Those Tote systems generate big money for horseracing, and charity.
Our island population is 6.5 million, Hong Kong 7.5 million, Australia 24 million.

ENTRY FEES
Entry fees should be around 5 euro.

TELEVISION
The Irish horse industry (when they are looking for money they call it an industry) should have its own television channell.
We have sports horses show-jumping and three-day eventing, national hunt steeplechasing and hurdling, horse breeding (sport, jumping, flat), traditional horse markets, stud farms of two types (stallion farms and broodmare and fola farms), Breeze-ups, two or three major horse sales complexes (Goffs; Tattersalls; Goresbridge) with sales throughout the year.

TRACKS
An all-weather track close to Dublin and the motorway system would be nice, possibly in Co Kildare.
Dublin has one racecourse and that does not have a sprint distance.
Have you ever heard of a racecourse without sprint races?
Sell the land. Start again in the Dublin area, and do it properly.
We probably have too many racecourses.

RACING ADMINISTRATION
Tell racing officials paid by our tax Euros to stick to their job descriptions, and stop wandering into making suggestions on tax increases, tax spending, and addiction services.
Problem gambling is not caused by horseracing.

RACE PROGRAMME
We have high prizemoney Group races with average numbers of runners, but we have a shortage, in my opinion, of races for horses of lesser ability.
Every race meeting takes three and a half hours.
If you add travelling time to and from the races it can easily take 5 1/2 hours.
Put on 10 races instead of 7, giving lesser horses an outing.
You can easily plan the race programme to put on the more important races consecutively later in the card.

TRAVEL
Most of our racecourses are not close to population centres (Leopardstown the exception).
Unless you have a car, transport is difficult.
I have been to Hong Kong a couple of times but not to the races. Almost everywhere in HK is accessible by underground / fast train.
I see Sha Tin, Hong Kong, has ten races tomorrow, starting at 13:00 and ending at 17:45.
They have a racecourse train station (race days only).
Flemington, Melbourne, Australia, has a racecourse train station.
Perhaps the closest we have to that is the Luas goes close to Leopardstown, 1.1 kms away.

CONFUSION
If you read my post #14 above you will see the functions of the HRI listed when they were set up by the HORSE AND GREYHOUND RACING ACT, 2001
From what I can see the function of HRI is purely adminsitrative.
But if you look at the HRI website they have as their Mission Statement
'To Develop and Promote Ireland as a World Centre of Excellence for Horse Racing and Breeding'

How did they morph from being administrators and record keepers to that mission statement?
Can anyone point out when/where they got the extra powers to develop and promote racing and breeding?

BumperD

End the experiment of drawing in crowds at any cost. These student days and novelty events at evening meetings are attracting new people who have zero interest in the sport, and are more interested in getting absolutely obliterated on alcohol or drugs or both. They are messy and driving people away, this has become very noticeable at some meetings, especially Galways summer meeting. My last 3 visits there , twice had drunk idiots fall into me and was offered cocaine in August by some 20 something in the reserved area . I was stone cold sober. This year every twenty something was dressed and behaved like conor McGregor .

It’s only a matter of time before the fights seen at UK tracks using the same experiment comes to Ireland

Irish tracks abandoned catering for families/ children long ago in favour of money - again Ballybrit a prime example with dismantling the infield area over the last 20 years , they need to get back to grass roots . But they won’t

Sultan of Bling

Noticed this at champions day at leopardstown this year. Young lads off their faces before the first race had even started including one lad puking his ring up in the main viewing area. I only read after students got in for free. I would imagine this would put a lot of people of going.

maximo31

Shemale wrote: »

Get rid of "I dressed myself" competitions and more bar staff, the two main reasons I rarely go racing these days

Yeah , not a fan of them myself to be honest. It's really cringe when they do those fashion slots on the TV. Time that could be spent discussing an upcoming race or even a feature on a trainer / jockey / course.
These people have zero interest in racing and some of the prizes can be unreal.
Anything that could be done / competition to redirect the prize towards actual racegoers??

maximo31

Yeah The Tetrarch , i like the idea of the big pool prizes. Think it might catch the public's imagination if there was some big prize funds that could be won. Might attract a few more people to the track too.
€15 seems too much to midweek racing if you ask me. Over the last 2 years at my local track they had a meeting where it was free admission and still the crowds were small , so hard to win in that situation....
If 'Two Mile Vegas' ever took off they could have a fine all-weather track too.....
I suppose having races for horses of lesser ability might give a chance to the smaller owners / syndicates to get some of the action. Make a change from the 'big' boys taking all the limelight!
I do agree that courses should make it easier for the punter to get to the track. I was at Gowran recently and they run a free shuttle bus from the city to the races and back. Very handy.
LOL at the mission statement! They are just fancy words.....

maximo31

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maximo31

BumperD wrote: »

End the experiment of drawing in crowds at any cost. These student days and novelty events at evening meetings are attracting new people who have zero interest in the sport, and are more interested in getting absolutely obliterated on alcohol or drugs or both. They are messy and driving people away, this has become very noticeable at some meetings, especially Galways summer meeting. My last 3 visits there , twice had drunk idiots fall into me and was offered cocaine in August by some 20 something in the reserved area . I was stone cold sober. This year every twenty something was dressed and behaved like conor McGregor .

It’s only a matter of time before the fights seen at UK tracks using the same experiment comes to Ireland

Irish tracks abandoned catering for families/ children long ago in favour of money - again Ballybrit a prime example with dismantling the infield area over the last 20 years , they need to get back to grass roots . But they won’t

Yeah i would have to agree with you Bumper. They seem to be chasing after the wrong crowds. People who have no interest in racing and most likely never will. Actually stopped going to Galway myself a few years back. It was just too messy and crowded on the big days. But i suppose its a sign of my age too!:o
Saying that though i suppose race courses do need to get people in the gate. They seem to have tried lots of ideas to do this. How do they go about getting the proper race goer back to the course?
I see in my local town lads would sit in the bookies all day long when there is a meeting 10 minute walk up the road.
You think making it more family orientated might be a way forward?