For Sale - One Poisoned Chalice

Quite a few people have expressed surprise that John Smith’s have decided not to sponsor the Grand National after next year’s renewal.

My only surprise is that people are surprised at the decision.

John Smith’s will have sponsored the race for ten years and it is a sponsorship which does not come cheaply and they cannot deny their association with the race has, generally, been well worth the investment in terms of publicity.

Times, however, are changing and it is very easy to see why pouring so much money into the race is looking to be an investment which makes poor business sense, indeed it is in great danger of becoming a liability.

I don’t always agree with the BBC’s racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght but in an analysis piece on the BBC Sport website he wrote:-

“With the ex-course boss Julian Thick out after the re-structuring of Aintree's parent company, and the British Horseracing Authority's articulate top vet leaving too, this news just adds to the difficulties facing the home of the Grand National.

"It looks like John Smith's has made what is a surprising decision mainly for commercial reasons, though the public image of the race - in which two horses have died in both of the last two runnings - must have been in the brewer's thinking as well.

"With that in mind, it remains to be seen how easy finding a replacement turns out to be."

Whilst the first paragraph may not be a fundamental reason for the withdrawal it is a consideration. If they have had a good working relationship with Thick a new appointee could well change the dynamics of the relationship between the sponsors and the racecourse. Personal relationships in business should never be underestimated.

The departure of Tim Morris from the BHA is also a bad move for Aintree and the Grand National. Morris has been a credible defender of the race in the face of vociferous and mounting criticism of the Grand National – indeed he is probably the only credible spokesman the BHA has available to field. Yet his services are no longer required.

Now I have been the first to argue that the BHA needs to cutback in the face of diminishing income but I have to say the removal of Morris and before that Paul Scotney does, along with other decisions made this year, seriously call into question the judgement and competency of BHA chief Paul Bittar.

More pertinent in Lysaght’s analysis is the public image of the race. I know this topic has been done to death and I have no intention of rehashing the arguments again here but, like it or not, the Grand National does have a serious perception issue in the eyes of the general public.

Now it is completely and utterly irrelevant if said perception is right or wrong – it is there and, thus far, racing has done little to dispel the perception and with the departure of Morris it looks as though the BHA is giving up on the PR front.

With such a poor perception is it any wonder sponsors are going to look again at committing huge amounts of money to a race which has the potential to alienate so many members of the public? Members of the public who ultimately contribute  to the profitability of the organisation.

It is commercial suicide to be so intrinsically associated with a product which has already alienated many and could well continue to alienate people further.

There was one other factor which Lysaght, understandably, failed to mention.

That is, of course, television coverage of the race moving from the BBC to Channel Four.

Even though the viewing figured on the BBC have plummeted over the past  thirty years, the race still attracted a domestic TV audience of around nine million ….. a tasty prospect for any big name sponsor.

It is highly unlikely the viewing figures when it moves to Channel Four will be even half that number, I predict they may, if they are lucky, attract around 2m viewers. Channel Four’s biggest ever viewing figures are 11.2 million and that was for the Paralympic Opening ceremony which came hot on the heels of the main Olympics (and bear in mind the BBC picked up a record 26.3 million viewers for the Olympic closing ceremony).

Channel Four’s best ever racing audience stands at a relatively paltry 1.4 million.

Also the BBC gave massive advance advertising to the race across its television and radio networks – C4 may well also run trailers but to a far smaller audience. The BBC trailers reminded viewers the race was coming, it bought the race into the public consciousness.

So from a sponsors perspective the move to Channel Four from the BBC is a massive negative.

Aintree and John Smith’s may well reach their aim of a £1m Grand National next year – if they do I suspect it will be a one-off.

I think Aintree will struggle to find a sponsor prepared to commit the same amount of money John Smith’s were, indeed I think they will struggle to find a sponsor who wants to be associated with a potentially damaging product.

My strong suspicion is the new sponsor will come from within the industry and if I was tempted to have a bet (which I’m not) my money would be on the Betfair Grand National in 2014.

Dumbing Down

Is it me or has Racing For Change quietly disappeared?

After the brash fanfares and bold promises, what has it delivered?

Well we had the week of free racing earlier in the year, which by all accounts was an overwhelming success but an initiative that does not seem to have been followed up.

We had the half-hearted attempt at experimenting with decimal odds, an experiment so flawed it was doomed to failure from the start.

They wanted to de-mystify the “archaic” announcements at racecourses – yet the announcements are more or less the same.

The resolution of photo finishes were going to be shown on the big screen, in real time – that hasn’t happened.

As is often the case hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on highly paid consultants yet there is precious little to show for it at the end of the day. Even more annoying is even better initiatives could have been achieved by putting a group of “ordinary” racegoers in a room and having a brainstorming session.

There is, however, one effect of Racing For Change and it is not a good one – the raceday “experience” is being dragged down and it is being done single handedly by one man – one James McQuillan.

“Who is James McQuillan?” I hear you ask – indeed!!!

In case you have forgotten or never even watched the program he was the goofy, stupid one in the 2009 series of The Apprentice.

I first came across him at a racecourse when he was a “guest” at a Kempton family day … harmless fun and he was the first to admit when interviewed that he knew nothing about horse racing. A seemingly insignificant interview and a harmless bit of banter which may be of passing interest to those with an interest in “celebrity”.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I next visited Kempton Park to find him actually fronting the CCTV presentation, a task that was normally done, quite ably by Anthony Kemp.

Now this presentation includes previewing the races amongst other things and to his credit Mr Kemp often came up with some decent priced winners. The presentation from Mr McQuillan was somewhat different – it was more banal chat and his idea of tipping is summed up thus:-

“I haven’t a clue about the form in this race but I see xxxxxxx is in lovely pink colours, so that is our tip.”

Roll on to August bank Holiday Monday at Huntingdon, always a bumper crowd and it was charity day with funds being raised for Racing Welfare, a good cause and absolutely no problems with charity fund raising at a family race meeting.

They also arranged for some very spurious “world record” attempts – as I said very spurious but harmless fun in an attempt to raise much needed funds for a good racing charity.

However Huntingdon had also bought in the aforementioned James McQuillan to be the racecourse presenter for the afternoon.

It was the most cringe worthy, embarrassing effort it has ever been my misfortune to hear at a racecourse.

There was an attempt to get as many jump jockeys in a mini car.

OK some of the more obscure jump jockeys are difficult to identify by seasoned racegoers, yet McQuillan could not even identify the more well known ones. Even after asking Dougie Costello who he was he still managed to get his name wrong.

That was the least of his mistakes.

He clearly loves the sound of his own voice as he hardly shut up all afternoon. If he wasn’t making inane comments, he was trying to chat up some of the female racegoers but his performance really plumbed the depths when he compared the John McCririck lookalike competition. I am not even give his comments the oxygen of publicity – suffice to say had I not been working I would probably have walked out and gone home, never to return.

If this is what Racing For Change mean by enhancing the raceday experience then I will hang up my binoculars now.

Derek Thompson gets a lot of stick for his raceday presentations but on Monday even his harshest critics were wanting him to take over the microphone. For all his faults Tommo does, at least, know something about racing.

Continuing on the theme of dumbing down.

I try to attend most of the big racing festivals but one I deliberately avoid is the York August festival. Yes it is great racing but I have to admit York is a course I hate with a vengeance.

Actually I should perhaps qualify that – I actually like the course, very much. It is the racegoers I really dislike – York is definitely a drinkers track and, sadly, far too many racegoers attend, not for the racing, but to pour as much alcohol down their throats as possible. Consequently by the end of the afternoon there is always an unpleasant edge to proceedings.

As I said though the racing itself is top quality and is certainly the highlight of the flat season in the north.

That week I was attending a couple of evening meetings so I was invariably travelling when the feature races were being run.

Radio Five, whose racing coverage can be sketchy at times, were at least covering the two feature races each afternoon and with the excellent John Hunt calling I, at least, knew I could expect a good description of the races.

One of the big races on the Tuesday was the Juddmonte International, arguably one of the feature races of the week. So as I made my way to Worcester I tuned into Five Live to hear commentary.

One of the runners in the contest was Dick Turpin and, inevitably, the BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght made reference before the race to the demise of the highwayman after whom the horse was named. For those who do not know Turpin, the highwayman, was hanged on the Knavesmire in 1739, somewhere near the current two furlong marker.

No problem there.

The race started and John Hunt was getting into the swing of his commentary and I was forming a decent visual image of shape of the race when, all of a sudden, Lysaght interrupts the commentary.

The interruption was not to discuss some incident of the race but to interject with some meaningless comment about the original Dick Turpin.

What was the point of interrupting the commentary to make a totally irrelevant comment.

Was he trying to show how clever he thinks he is? Or does he just like the sound of his own voice?

He interrupted the entire flow of the commentary and ruined the coverage of the race.

If you enjoy anagrams have a play with Cornelius Lysaght and see what comes up.

Finally on the subject of driving to the races a gripe about motorway services.

We are lucky in the press that we do get fed at the races. What is on offer does vary from a plate of sandwiches to full blown meals, depending on the course. Whatever is offered is appreciated and accepted gratefully.

Obviously when only sandwiches are on offer we need to grab something hot to eat sometime during the day, in my case if I am not home by a decent time I will find somewhere to stop for a bite on the way home.

Yesterday I was at Ripon, where the press room fare was sandwiches, although I did grab a rather tasty portion of chips with curry sauce from the on course fish and chip shop.

I did, however, want something to eat and decided to stop somewhere on the 170 mile drive home.

Usually I will go home a slightly longer way and stop off at an excellent American diner on the A1 near Grantham. However yesterday I was tired and just wanted to get home.

Anyway the motorways were clear so I decided to plug on best I can before stopping.

I eventually stopped at a motorway service station at 8:45, I was hungry and wanted a “comfort” break also.

Having made the comfort stop I then went to get a hot meal, only to be told “we stop serving hot food at 8:30.”

What on earth is up with this country …. are we not expected to eat hot meals when travelling after 8:30 in the evening?

No wonder this country is a mess.

BBC Contempt For Racing

Once again the BBC has clearly illustrated the contempt in which it holds racing.

In the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year, racing was given a derisory 45 seconds, plus a surreal item on Sea The Stars by that well known racing personality Professor Robert Winston – I cannot recall the last time I saw him on a race course!!

Yet BBC Radio’s erstwhile racing correspondent, Cornelius Lysaght, says in a Twitter posting “Racing industry loves to knock this prog but decent coverage length.”

Decent length?

A 45 second summary in a two hour program – decent?

Plus a meaningless item about, arguably the greatest horse of this generation, fronted by a fertility expert with no active involvement in racing. Why couldn’t Jim McGrath have presented an item about the horse?

Even gymnastics and cycling had a greater air time in the program.

Can you imagine the outcry if Football was dismissed in such an offhand manner? There would be questions in The House.

Then there was the award itself … Ryan Giggs, in defence of his victory Lysaght says, “here is a 36 year old decent guy still playing that you cant fail to admire.”

What about AP McCoy? He has been around almost as long as Giggs, has made a greater contribution to his sport than Giggs has ever made to his, yet he never, ever makes the shortlist.

Racing on BBC Television will be almost non-existent next year as they “cherry pick” the big races, Grand National, Derby, Royal Ascot and a couple of other meetings. Remember the days when Grandstand always had racing almost every week, sometimes two meetings in an afternoon.

It isn’t much better on BBC Radio Football, sorry Radio Five Live.

If there is a goal somewhere in some obscure game in the Blue Square Conference that will invariably take precedence over a live race commentary.

Even when there is live commentary it risks becoming a pantomime farce, literally.

BBC Radio has one of the best commentators in the business in the shape of John Hunt, yet even he ends up playing the stooge in a pantomime farce, a criminal waste of his talent.

Cast your mind back to the Friday of Royal Ascot 2009.

Instead of dedicated coverage of the Royal Meeting, coverage was interspersed with the Simon Mayo show (a broadcaster who makes no secret of his dislike of racing). On this particular afternoon he was performing a double act, in front of an audience, with some character called Mark Kermode, or listening to what he spouts he should perhaps be called Mark Commode.

Two races, the Albany and Coronation Stakes were to be broadcast during this sequence.

What happened, with both races, was that Cornelius Lysaght came up with 3 fancied horses and allocated them to the left hand, middle and right hand sections of the audience back in the studio.

They were instructed to cheer every time that horse was mentioned. During the race John Hunt would pause every time he mentioned one of these horses and they'd cut to the studio audience cheering.

Granted it was an extreme example and has, fortunately, never been repeated.

However the coverage was crass, embarrassing and should never have been broadcast in the first place.

What were Lysaght and Hunt thinking of agreeing to take part in such a farce?

Surely they are not that desperate to get the racing broadcast that they would stoop to any level?

If I were the racing correspondent, I would have refused point blank to play along with the charade and if it meant the races not being broadcast then so be it. I would, however, have made damned sure the public knew why the races had not been broadcast.

Even ignoring this extreme example there are still plenty of unnecessary interruptions in commentaries, especially in national hunt races, to serve as a distraction.

People generally listen to racing commentaries on the radio because they are unable to watch the race live or on television. They need the commentator to paint the picture of what is happening, developing the scene.

What they don’t want is to hear the views of Luke Harvey or anybody else, as the horses cross the Melling Roadback onto the main course at Aintree, they want to hear John Hunt describing the action.

Racing is not like football or golf, where commentators can be whimsical or engage in chit-chat. The action is relatively short and sharp and nothing should detract from the action on the track.

Since the late Peter Bromley retired the diminution of racing coverage on BBC Radio has been palpable.

No more classified racing results, no more results in sports bulletins. No more morning or evening racing bulletins.

One of the “justifications” for dropping the racing results was the information is available on Teletext or the internet. Not if you are driving and want to hear the results it isn’t!! Anyway the same argument could be applied to any sports results or sports news. Why not drop the classified football results, after all they are available on text and online?

I remember, a couple of years ago, when Alan Lee in The Times broke the story that BBC Radio were to drop the morning racing bulletins, it was contemptuously and arrogantly denied by John Myers in that mornings racing bulletin. Yet everything Lee predicted has come about.

It is conspicuous that neither Clare Balding nor Cornelius Lysaght have publicly come out to criticise the BBC’s approach to racing. Perhaps they are more interested in protecting their careers than the sport they follow, only they can answer that.

Do they really think what the BBC is doing in relation to the sport is acceptable?

If so then I would respectfully suggest they should make way for others who will fight, and fight publicly, for racing to have the air time it deserves.

If they do not agree then they should have the moral courage to fight their corner and fight it publicly, they would have a great deal of support from both inside and outside the sport.

It is an absolute disgrace that the BBC is being allowed to marginalise racing, a sport which has attracted almost 5.5 million live spectators in the first 11 months of 2009.

Had these changes been proposed under Peter Bromley's watch, the foundations of Broadcasting House would be shaking as a result of his explosive reaction. In these PC days it seems the acceptable thing is to roll over and accept the cuts.

Peter Bromley must be turning in his grave.