Shaken & More than a little stirred
We are now a week into Champions Season and while the excitement and speculation amongst punters has undoubtedly lifted a notch or two, I can’t quite work out whether it has captured the public imagination. We certainly won’t see people flocking in numbers back to the tracks as nothing much has changed since last year. But a drastic, albeit gradual, image makeover and the effective use of the champion personality material that is already there and waiting to be harvested could make a material difference and at least we would be starting somewhere.
I conducted my own snap survey of ten ordinary people this past weekend. Along my research path I sort of came out of my shell and found that the average French citizen eats 500 snails per year. Just goes to show what you can learn, however arbitrary, when you speak to people. But that is beside the point. My survey question: Who won the 2011 J&B Met? Fifty percent of the respondents, not by the way your run-of-the-mill tote tarzans, thought it might be Pocket Power, forty percent had no clue but sort of knew it was a ‘horse’ and the remaining ten percent obtusely suggested it was that ‘serious looking big guy from Johannesburg…Mike whatsisname?’
Now I am not claiming that this spread of ten Citizens a la Average are by any stretch of the imagination a balanced barometer of the population but it just goes to show how low horseracing and its champions rank on the pecking order of public passion and interest. I suppose recent impressive Drill Hall Stakes victor Past Master will have to win at least three J&B Mets in a row and a few L’Ormarins Queen’s Plates along the way before this dazzlingly talented son of Jet Master will qualify for the self-serving media coverage and intellectual promotion that horseracing should be lavishing on the flesh and blood that give it a unique character. The handsome bright chestnut with the oil painted face is a unique looker and a perfect centrespread to radiate interest among the unconverted. And what of the two –legged members of the Past Master winning team, as one example? The District Six raised boy-made-good owner Hassen Adams, the quiet Paul Revere, Darryl Hodgson and the boereseun who God created too small to play rugby, Gerrit Schlechter, who at an age when most of us only walk the dog for exercise, is riding with renewed zest and hunger. With their personal stories and diverse backgrounds, we have the ready-made elements and should be scripting our own Invictus – and we don’t need Clint Eastwood as horseracing is infinitely more dramatically photogenically beautiful than thirty testosterone charged ruffians chasing an awkward oval ball on the Ellis Park turf.
The real problem is that horseracing has been resting on its laurels for years and has stagnated.
It has been overtaken by an unprecedented lifestyle revolution in the past two decades. Cape trainer Justin Snaith made a very valid point on James Goodman’s Winning Ways show this past Monday evening when he said that all he wished for was for the game to regain its health and get back on a solid footing again. He expressed the regret that ever since he had been involved – he looks young but he was in the yard in his huggies – he had listened to negativity and a story of a declining and crumbling empire. Well your concern is valid Justin and while the Snaiths have done their own little bit to bring beautiful people and big earning youngsters into the game, their contribution and efforts are local in essence and a mere splash in a murky ocean teeming with bottom feeders and rusty wrecks of yore.
Interviewer James Goodman sensibly suggested in response that the real treasure may well lie in a very different market entirely – the retired financially independent generally bored stiff. These guys have the entertainment options of the local bowls club, travel, theater, monitoring the Sky News weather reports or watching 2003 replays of ‘The Weakest Link’ as options – hardly exciting and they could really get to love a day at the races if treated properly and introduced in a functional manner. The great attraction of this market sector is that they are generally unimpressed with techno-crap or loud live bands, often have a social yearning to mingle and enjoy each other’s company. They also have a suburban flutter on the likes of the lotto, which indicates a gambling flawed character trait, and above all have an appreciation of the finer things in life like good wine and quality food. With some fine-tuning the horseracing structures could satisfy all these wants and offer them everything they need . But then as a basic start we have got to introduce five-star customer service, plush carpeting and of course, fire the caterers yesterday.
So where do we start ? And we do need some radical out-of-the-coffin thinking!
Phumelela surely have a bit of cash to invest in the future –especially if they slow down on their dividend payments for a while. Do they realise for instance that one-third of the budget for the next Bond movie will be generated by brands that will appear on the silver screen. Let’s get James to drop his casino tux for a casual and comfortable jacket-and-tie at Greyville. Branding, success association and image is big game today and it is astonishing to read what established brands spend on maintaining and gaining market share. The 21st century has brought with it a new clamour for subconcious advertising via the movie medium. Consider the 15 million pounds spent collectively by Lexus, Bulgari and American Express for exposure in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 release, Minority Report. So why can’t horseracing get in on the mix? Until the recent economic meltdown, Porsche and Volkswagen were spending an average 140 million pounds per annum to ensure their cars were driven by on-screen heroes. That is big money!
The new James Bond film will commence filming in South Africa later this year and maybe it is high time the sport here shrugged off the ridiculous Racing Stripes label and got people to take it a little more seriously. We all associate James Bond with casino’s, fast cars and beautiful woman – and importantly, winning. So why not with horseracing? The last time 007 was seen on a racecourse was in the 1985 release and Roger Moore’s swansong, A View To A Kill, where Bond and his colleagues visited Ascot Racecourse in the course of investigating a sinister owner – whose horse coincidentally wins the race and is suspected of being doped. Lovely you may say – but subsequent tests show no signs of doping and this was very much a sub-plot. I know it is a long –shot but why not offer the Greyville night-racing facility free of charge to MGM and Sony? We even have a body double who knows his way around readily available for the suave and debonair Daniel Craig. James Goodman has a snug-fitting penguin suit and I am sure he would make the time for it…
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Foster On The Move
Reliable talk on the ground is that former Paul Lafferty Assistant Trainer Byron Foster, currently in the service of the powerful Sabine Plattner operation in Durban, will be taking up a position with the late Peter Miller and Martin Cohen partnership operation in Port Elizabeth. I was unable to get hold of Byron prior to going to print, but with the powerful support of one of South Africa’s biggest owners, he may well have fallen with his proverbial in the butter in a centre that is growing in popularity. Although the pressure to deliver will obviously be huge in a stable that has produced plenty of winners with monotonous regularity, thanks to the genius of the wily Peter Miller. We wish Byron the best of luck.
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Telly Slack
Our favourite television channel covered themselves in glory again at the weekend. The Kenilworth tenth race was not included in the replays. Did I imagine there was a tenth race or did they forget? The thick plottens…
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Charity Turf Challenge
Racing South Africa’s Peter Gibson and Deez Dyanand are to be congratulated on a great job with the marketing and build-up of the Champions Season Charity Turf Challenge. The competition has grown and improved year-on-year and with the inspiration and enthusiasm of the energetic Deez this year, it was in our face from day one. I just hope though that after the great marketing effort, that the administration aspect doesn’t throw a dampner on things – the access to entries is currently blocked and with things having gotten under way on 3 May, those of us that didn’t write our entries down are not exactly enjoying the current excitement. Let’s hope it is open and accessible by this weekend.
