AFTER the excitement of York last week, it seems like a week when racing was a bit tired with itself.

Here, the limited race course attendances and appeals for change have undoubtedly created a bit of fatigue.

And in the void, much has been written all week on what racing needs to do to extend its appeal.

The much heralded Racing League teams event in Britain has one more week left but, while the negative comments seem to outweigh the positives, there is no point in sugar coating what people feel. In most cases it’s those with a genuine desire to keep racing in the headlines that are expressing disappointment, in the way the experiment has developed.

The team names and sponsors mean little. Fee care who wins. There is little of the main element needed to engage fans, a bit of conflict and desire to beat the opposition.

What have we learned going forward? Were there any positives? Things that could be changed or expanded on?

I caught the first night intro again this week where the two presenters promised: “The start of something a little bit different. “A new concept in racing”.

Something that “promises to push the boundaries, explore new concepts but most of all entertain.”

It’s fallen well short in a few areas and the scheduling was not the best clashing with Goodwood and Galway and then York in the afternoons.

Lingfield’s fixture on Thursday evening only had 60 runners in competition. And despite the enhanced prize money for participants, is it simply taking horses from other fixtures?

There are only 54 runners at the headquarters, the main flat racing training centre in Newmarket, for a seven-race card today with no each-way betting, crucial for new recruits, on three of the races. It’s not the way to increase the appeal or seek additional media coverage.

Headlines

For all that racing (both here and in Britain) had the stage to ourselves during much of the Covid lockdown, headline stories are few.

A quick poll here of what was the ‘big news’ since Rachael Blackmore’s Cheltenham and subsequent Grand National win came up with Jim Bolger’s two classic wins as the main good news story of the last months, with Galway muted and some negative publicity to overcome.

The Premier League, the Olympics, the All-Irelands all just engage more. A comment from Tom Morton@tmorton93 kind of hit the nail on the head for the Racing League.

“They have to find a way to get punters to associate with a team. Most sports have teams from towns/cities/counties and people support a team that they have an association to. Nobody has an attachment to these branded teams unless they have connections to a trainer/horse/jockey.”

And along those lines, you could actually see it working better here than in the UK.

The team concept is one that could be worked on. Certainly in Ireland the pride of county goes a long way to engage people, particularly over a summer when the GAA is so prominent in our lives, even those from ‘poorer’ performing counties.

‘I loves me county’ pride could be pulled into racing with a competition with a trainer representing most counties. Racing and GAA have close links.

It could be something to watch and learn from and come up with a better offering than Britain have so far.