It’s been a good while since I have put finger to keyboard for this paper – as Karel the editor always says , only write if you have something worth saying, polite way of saying stop writing useless ramblings! However after being lucky enough to get one of the only few seats left on BA on Friday I got in to Cape Town in time to get to Kenilworth on Saturday. I would not have wanted to be anywhere else in the world, writes Rose Leheup.
The l’Ormarins Queens Plate day has now got to go down on anybody’s racing calendar as the place to be, for me it is the highlight of the Cape Summer season. Yes the J&B is another wonderful meeting but l’Ormarins have raised the Queens Plate to an additional level of sophistication and glamour. I am sure the event is an extremely expensive public relations exercise for them, but it is marketing that is paying off, even my hairdresser who knows nothing about racing had heard about the event and could remember the name of the wine company that sponsors it. Jonathan Snaith and the team (forgive me for not knowing the whole team) has turned the race day into an event that combines what we all want out of attending a race meeting. He has realized that people want entertainment.
The purists will argue that the horse racing should be enough, saying do you really wants the crowds if they are not really bothered about the racing. I have read that argument in this paper but this is nonsense. Of course you want the crowds, does it matter that they don’t really know what is going on. I went to Henley regatta for at least five years before I realized I was attending boat races! I still enjoyed my day and loved the atmosphere of the picnics in the car park! We need to attract the crowds and Jono and Gaynor Rupert have worked tirelessly at attracting such a beautiful fun crowd. It really doesn’t matter if they never go to another race meeting, they still had fun. You have to make racing fun to attend. With the advent of racing on the TV anyone can watch and gamble from the comfort of their own armchair but the key to getting them to the course is to make sure they have a good time.
So please those in the marketing team at Kenilworth turn around, and sit up, and notice.
The majority of the time the place is grey, dreary and boring. Who would want to go and sit in those empty stands and eat dreadful food in
an atmosphere that resembles a graveyard. I have written this so many times and all I hear is that there is no money. There is always money to be found, it just takes a lot of hard work to go out and get it. More effort needs to be put in and maybe fresh blood. I expect I will lose a friend or two again from suggesting this but you have to make a huge positive change or you will lose those that you have. I know we cannot expect the magical atmosphere of Saturdays event every race meeting but there is actually no reason why you cannot try and achieve it for the high profile Group one meetings. It will take a lot of work and sponsorship but you have to start thinking out of the box. Go out into the City and get top companies to start getting involved, treat them like royalty and they will take an interest. It’s not easy but you have to sell your product. Saturday was the day that every Director, Steward and marketing person should have had a table of Directors of Industry and their wives and treated them to a day to remember. It would have paid off because nobody could have failed to have been impressed and those new to the game might just have thought they would want a bit of that action and excitement.
If you don’t believe what a good marketing team can do then get to Newmarket in England. Newmarket is cold, dreary, grey and wet for at least Half of their race days but the marketing team, headed by a tireless and fearless woman, have turned the place into the fashionable place to be on a summers evening. The racecourse itself is used for everything you can think of from pop concerts to car boot sales and it attracts bumper crowds.
Windsor racecourse also attract a fashionable London crowd that have very little racing knowledge but they go because the racecourse put on a party, good music, lots of different food outlets and a dancing in the street atmosphere. I know we have considerably more people in a small space in the UK but I am told that you used to have the crowds at Kenilworth so there is no reason why you can’t get them back. Think outside the box, pick brains and take notice of what can be achieved.
The racing has been covered elsewhere in this paper, but I have contribute in a few lines as well because to me the whole day captured what I love about the game. It is unique in that the main participant in our sport is a flighty, unpredictable, fragile, animal and because we are dealing with the horse we all have to accept that we cannot know what is going to happen. In order to win with a horse absolutely everything has to go right and no money in the world can ensure this happens. Take the winner, picked by Sue Snaith – the dark horse of Snaith racing but an incredibly knowledgable horse woman – bought by a successful businessman who has made his own luck and fortune, Hassen Adams, trained by the golden team of the Snaiths who combine youth, enthusiasm and wisdom, ridden by the greatest judge of pace since Pat Eddery retired, Striker Strydom, all of whom had huge parts that all had to work together. But without Gimmethegreenlight and the horse’s passion they had nothing. Without that horse wanting to be ahead and get ahead of the rest they had nothing to work with. This is why men and women all over the world own racehorses, it is the biggest challenge and the greatest thrill when all of that work and passion pays off and they finish over the line ahead of the also rans.
I once interviewed John Magnier of Coolmore fame. After winning the Derby he said he never ever got over of that thrill of winning and absolutely nothing in his incredibly successful career and life compared to that thrill. I was fortunate enough to spend a few minutes with Hassen Adams after his success on Saturday and he said the same. His achievements have also been set against his life of having to fight and battle against political and beaurocratic systems but he has not laid down and made excuses, he has taken the challenge, done what he felt was right and had the courage to stand up and put his head above the parapet. Gold Circle and the marketing team have to do the same. Get out there, make some change, roll some heads, racing needs it.
