South African horseracing’s all talk and no action approach to marketing itself and general lack of delivery and unity was highlighted again this past weekend with the passing under the radar of two of our leading apprentice jockeys’ participation in the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championships in Abu Dhabi.
Last week national log leading apprentice Ryan Munger and his colleague Donovan Dillon travelled with Gauteng Academy master Gary Waterston to the Apprentice World Championships.and returned to South Africa on Monday evening.
Only Munger landed up riding in the end and while he finished unplaced he qualified the experience gained as priceless and something that he really enjoyed.
The fact that not a shred of pre-publicity, hype or excitement was generated by anybody from the sponsors, the SA Jockey Academy to the Racing It’s A Rush campaign is a sad indictment of the fact that there are far too many people moving their lips and drawing salaries rather than actually getting off their rear-ends in this industry.
Outstanding young rider Ryan Munger
Seriously, what excuse can there be for not using this uncomplicated once-in-a-lifetime honour for these two young men as a platform to highlight the excitement of horseracing and the thrills and immense opportunities of becoming a jockey, as just two examples?
This was simply an epic marketing fail – another one. Keep counting.
There are just no excuses either. The annual event was not a last minute rush job, sort of ‘you’ve got an hour to get to the airport’ exercise.
The puzzling aspect, and a poser we would like to invite some response on is that it is no secret that the quality of admissions and applicants to our own once esteemed institution and producer of many great jockeys has dropped in the past few years.
“We are attracting problematic kids with few other options and are not grabbing the attention of the broader scope of youngsters to the SA Jockey Academy. In other words, those who would see the option as a genuine career chance (not a desperate out) and as an alternative to a choice of another professional career maybe,” said an industry insider recently.
Ironically, the international poser of tackling the wider issue of selling the jockey lifestyle to young people was being discussed in the very same forum that an excited Munger and Dillon found themselves in.
Dawn Goodfellow of the Northern Racing College
Selling a career as a jockey remained an interesting challenge, Northern Racing College chief executive Dawn Goodfellow told an international audience in Abu Dhabi during a conference session on education and training of jockeys at the Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nayhan Arab racing festival.
She was there to support British-based apprentice Emma Sayer in Sunday’s festival Arab raceday aimed at developing aspiring Flat jockeys. Sayer was there as one of two females from 13 other nations to compete in the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championships.
Goodfellow’s view was supported by Remi Bellocq, executive director at Kentucky’s Bluegrass Community & Technical College.
Bellocq said: “When someone watches the Kentucky Derby and wants to become a jockey they go on social media and type in, ‘How do I become a jockey?’ We need to be the first name that pops up. That’s a key point for all of us.”
Goodfellow was also blown away by the reaction to Channel 4’s documentary Jockey School the night before the Grand National in April.
“It was one of our biggest boosts to recruitment,” she said. “The response from young people crashed our website and that of the British Racing School, and we had more requests for application packs than we send out in a whole year. Getting on mainstream TV is the need, but also the challenge.”
We need to raise our game in South Africa.
Donovan Dillon – more important than wining and dining overseas glamour boys
Youngsters like Ryan Munger and Donovan Dillon are our future.
Not James Doyle. Not Andreas Helfenbein. Not Selim Kaya.
But note the subte difference on the effort and cash spend between the International Jockeys Challenge and Munger and Dillon’s expedition.
Racing, It’s A Rush says we are putting on a new unified front.
Where? Nonsense.
We are selling the game.
Where? Nonsense.
We all need to simply stop talking a big game.
And if there is no capacity or will to even do some basic PR and get excited about an event like this, how are we ever really going to attract this whole new imaginary techno savvy market of younger racegoers and racing enthusiasts who crave spin, thrills, excitement and value?
Let’s get real – because this new generation won’t settle for smoke and mirrors.
