HAVE you seen Horse Racing Ireland’s latest advertising campaign for the sport? It’s called Racing Runs In Us and it’s about …. oh here, I’ll just show it to you.

Now, some people who know about marketing have knocked the ad. There’s no 'call to action', they say. There should be a ‘who, what, where, when and why’.

But I think I get it.

The top brass at Horse Racing Ireland [HRI] know how important it is to keep racing on the right side of public sentiment. Yes, racing faces competition from other sports and other forms of entertainment. But the real threat is that the public could slowly turn against racing or lose its connection to the sport. It’s the whole social licence thing.

Down the line we could have a government or a Minister for Agriculture that doesn’t have much time for the sport. Let’s say there’s a big scandal involving horse welfare, or a big racecourse in financial trouble. Our new Minister/Government seizes the opportunity to suggest that maybe we need to review funding for horse racing, and then they wait to see the public’s reaction. What if hurting racing turned out to be a vote-winner?

I think HRI is aware that such a scenario is possible, and so an advertising campaign that seeks to reinforce the connection between the general public and racing is a good idea. We need people to think of racing in the same way they think about GAA. Encourage them to support their local racecourse in the same way they support their parish/county team. I know that’s a stretch but I think that’s the idea.

That was in my mind last week as I walked around the Dublin Horse Show at the RDS. Here you have a five-day celebration of the horse right in the centre of Dublin, with over 110,000 people in attendance. A huge percentage of those present are not horse owners; they just go because it’s fun, it’s sociable, it’s glamorous, and I’m guessing they at least admire the horses competing.

As I moved through the 350 stand holders in the Exhibition Hall, I thought to myself “Racing should be here.” Yes, there were loads of people from the thoroughbred industry among the spectators and participants but there was nobody actually promoting racing and it was a missed opportunity.

I’m not forgetting that on one day of the show there is a very popular Racehorse to Riding Horse Class, sponsored by Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, a HRI subsidiary.

Racing has strong links to equestrian sport and could easily leverage that to piggyback on the goodwill generated at the Horse Show.

I believe Rachael Blackmore learned to ride in a riding centre and came into racing via the pony club route. Like her, lots of young equestrians switch to racing in order to make a career in the horse world, be it as horse traders, producers or breeders.

The thoroughbred industry should come up with a way to promote these links at the Dublin Horse Show, which is by far and away the biggest event of its kind in Ireland.

I mentioned this to a colleague on Monday morning and was told that at least two prominent figures in the thoroughbred bloodstock world had independently formed the same opinion and already there are moves being made to give racing a bigger profile at the Horse Show next year.

Riding Centres

The Irish Field staged a ‘Business Breakfast’ during the Horse Show and this year’s topic was the drop in the number of riding centres around the country due to rising insurance premiums, commercial rates and a skills/labour shortage.

You can read about it HERE.

The room was full of equestrian sport stakeholders but there was a general view among those present that Horse Racing Ireland should also have been involved.

If riding centres close down it damages racing too. Riding centres don’t just produce a one-in-a-million like Rachael Blackmore. They produce loads of future racing industry participants and employees. All riders have to start somewhere.

HRI already does good work around the country bringing primary school children to their local racecourse. They know how to play the long game. They are doing it again with their latest advertising campaign, and they can take another step by bringing racing into the Dublin Horse Show and by using their influence to help riding centres survive.

I'd be delighted to get your thoughts on it.

Mark

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