Book the 2019 Dublin Racing Festival into your Diary – An Antidote to Dreary Winter Racing

At the beginning of February, my wife and I and a few owners went over to Ireland. Some went direct to Dublin while others went via County Tipperary, where we called in to see a couple of our youngsters who are being brought along superbly by P.J. Colville and his wife Grainne. It was probably a foretaste of what was to come when we were sitting in Mikey Ryan’s Bar and Restaurant (interestingly, owned and renovated by John Magnier, who apparently fancied a nice place in Cashel to have his supper), savouring a pint of Guinness at 7pm, watching the Ireland vs. France rugby game on TV. When Johnny Sexton slotted in his wonderful dropped goal to grab the game back from the French, the place absolutely erupted. Never have I been kissed by so many people in such a short period of time. The dinner wasn’t bad, either.

From then on, the weekend only got better. We went up to Leopardstown for Day 2 of the superb inaugural Dublin Racing Festival. Racing is always bandying around such phrases as “Sensational Saturday”, but this time the whole meeting lived up to it in spades. I don’t know about you, but I have felt that the 2017 / 18 NH season has been something of an anti-climax, with very few stand-out performances and lots of small field races being mopped up by Messrs. Henderson and Nicholls. An indication of that is the number of horses that Buveur D’Air has actually beaten, and his average starting price of about 1/5. There used to be a time when the Saturday NH meetings really did seem to be something to savour, with heroic performances from horses and riders. Somehow we seem to have lost that sparkle, with the whole of the season having shifted to an undue focus on the Cheltenham Festival. Horses aren’t racing against each other with the frequency that they used to, and it increasingly feels as though we’re just waiting for the denouement without really having enjoyed the lead up to it.

The Irish racing authorities seem to have felt the same, with a number of their better races spread over a period of weeks. They decided to consolidate the best races into the two-day Dublin Festival, and the competition and the craic were magnificent, with so many sparkling performances: Faugheen vs. Defi Du Seuil, Min vs. Yorkhill, Samcro vs. Sharjah, Footpad vs. Petit Mouchoir and then a fairytale outcome to the Irish Gold Cup with the “horse who came back from the dead” Edwulf putting in a gallant performance, although admittedly helped by the last fence fall by Killultagh Vic, who seemed to be travelling best of all. The Leopardstown stand erupted and it must have been 50 deep around the winner’s enclosure. It’s a long time since I’ve seen so many hats being thrown up into the air. It almost felt like going back in time to the great win of Dawn Run, which still stands in my memory as the most emotional and heart-felt reception for any NH horse. The whole atmosphere at Leopardstown was captivating – real enthusiasts, there to savour the racing rather than just the alcohol …. although there was a fair bit of that consumed as well.

Lots of English fans travelled over for the meeting. It was surprising though how few English trainers and horses made the journey, which is pretty unenterprising. Indeed the British trainer who gave the meeting the greatest support was Phil Kirby, and he doesn’t have many horses. Even stranger when you consider how many horses Nicholls and Henderson took up to Musselburgh on the same day, and stranger again when you consider the prize-money. Cheltenham Festival Trials Day only managed £204,688 of prize-money whereas Day 2 at Leopardstown was a whopping great €825,000, at an average of €103,000 per race and with prize-money often down to 8th. I’ve already said to all our trainers that if we have any horses suitable for this meeting next year, we’ll definitely make it the season’s target.

One of the themes discussed by the Brits in Ireland was whether we need to strengthen the British season with a similar high-profile mid-season festival. For some time there has been a debate about whether the Kempton King George meeting could be significantly upgraded, although the refrain seems to be that “logistical challenges” (whatever they may be) preclude it. That seems a real pity.

Anyway, a couple of weeks on from Ireland we were lucky enough to have a runner – and emphatic winner – at Newbury during Betfair Super-Saturday with Acey Milan (who may now go for the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham). The sponsorship of Betfair has brought in significant money, which we were lucky enough to participate in; the total on the day was £303,102. This triggered the thought that maybe Newbury and Betfair could work together to stage a Wonderful Weekend as a stepping-stone to Cheltenham. Indeed, as we were supping celebratory Champagne in the Royal Box after Acey’s victory, I floated this to a couple of the directors of Newbury and it definitely seemed to strike a chord.

As a postscript, I can only congratulate Newbury for the huge improvements that have been made at their course. Their spanking-new Owners’ Club is one of the best facilities on any British track and the investment all round the course from car parking to pre-parade has transformed the track. They have just started the second phase of their developments and Newbury must now be the course with the greatest improvement trajectory in our sport. A huge change is taking place, not just in investment and infrastructure, but just as importantly in mind-set. For those with a long memory I wrote a couple of scathing blogs about the course following a PR disaster in December 2013 (the link is to “Nonsense at Newbury”). The Chief Executive was fired shortly afterwards, to be replaced by Julian Thick, who can be commended for all the changes that have been made. Here’s hoping that they can put on a Wonderful Weekend – or maybe even two of them – so that they replicate Leopardstown’s Champions Weekend on the Flat as well as the Dublin Festival.

I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or click here > and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.

A Turning of the Tide on Prize-Money in 2018 – New Year’s Resolutions Being Put Into Practice

Firstly, Happy New Year, and may it be a truly successful one with lots of winners for all our owners. May the horses all be happy, healthy and improvers. One of the horses we are closely involved in running – Buckle Street, with Martin Keighley and the Condicote Clan – definitely fits into that category, putting in a really game performance to win at Catterick over 3m 2f. That was a super Christmas present for all. While up there, a number of us had an excellent discussion over a beer with the BHA’s Chief Executive, Nick Rust, whose horse Paddling was also running. This horse won at Catterick the following week, so well done to Nick and his co-owners. Indeed, he was the first person to come up to me in the winner’s enclosure to congratulate the Clan.

During the discussion with him, he flagged up the imminent announcement that prize-money in Britain is likely to reach a record £160 million in 2018, an increase of £17 million from 2017. This is a really welcome development, particularly as it follows on from an autumn announcement that £8 million of central levy funding is being channelled into grass-roots racing. Readers of the blog will know that I believe raising prize-money is the number one issue in British racing, because without it the risk is that the sport is in a downward spiral, with owners not being attracted or retained, the number of horses in training declining, and through that a lack of competitiveness in the sport that is the lifeblood of gambling.

Although the discussion with Nick over a pint and a very unusual-coloured and flavoured Catterick lamb curry was anything but formal, his statement to the press on this announcement was rather more measured. He said: “It is very important for all those involved in our sport that we are due to see such significant prize-money increases in 2018. Although there has been a gradual recovery in total prize-money in recent years, driven by increased investment from racecourses, the returns to our sport’s owners and participants have not been sufficient, in particular to those who are not competing at the top echelons. The support we received from the government and, indeed, all political parties in establishing the new levy has been crucial and means that we can target support towards those operating at the racing’s grass roots. The increased prize-money on offer in 2018 does not resolve the sport’s prize-money situation outright, but it is a step in the right direction. We hope that this good news will serve as an incentive to racehorse owners who are thinking of putting horses in training, and provide a timely boost to jockeys, trainers and stable staff, who rely in part on prize-money for their livelihoods.”

I can only raise a glass to Nick and the BHA for both the extra money and the sentiments expressed. Having said that, there will probably be a wry smile on his face when he sees the prize-money summary after deductions on the next BHA or Weatherbys statement relating to Paddling’s win at Catterick, which as an independent is definitely not the most generous of courses with its prize-money.

At the same time as this announcement, a couple of racecourses also confirmed the way the tide is now flowing. A few years ago I took issue with Newbury on a number of fronts, and like to think that I was one of the pressure points for change that led to the previous CEO being dismissed. I have a lot more time for the latest CEO, Julian Thick, so was pleased to read that prize-money is set to exceed £5 million in 2018 following an injection of £250,000 by the racecourse. As a result, total prize-money at all the track’s 29 fixtures will amount to at least £50,000, with the feature race at three-quarters of all meetings offering £20,000. Thick commented to the press that: “As an independent racecourse, Newbury is committed to ensuring prize-money levels increase as and when we can afford to make additional investment, and 2018 will see a continuation of that policy with our own direct prize-money spend increasing …. Since 2013 we have increased our executive contribution by over £1 million and 2018 will see us break the £5 million mark for the first time …. This is a reminder of our commitment to reinvest in the sport, and complements well the substantial capital investment we’ve made on fabulous new facilities for horsemen in the past three years.”

Time therefore to raise the glass again to Julian and his team at Newbury. A couple of years ago we ran our horse Shantou Magic in the Challow Hurdle, and I complained strongly to Newbury that the prize-money was less than it had been ten years previously, so it is great to see a reversal in that trend. Also for those who haven’t been there recently, the new Owners’ Club is superb. Great to see this track being improved so radically, and it is now a course that owners really like to go to, even if the preponderance of “luxury executive apartments” is not to everyone’s taste.

Finally another glass to be raised to the very progressive Chief Executive of Perth, Hazel Peplinski, who is increasing their prize-money by 35% this year to nearly £1.25 million. That also includes a new appearance money scheme across their 15 fixtures with average prize-money per race increasing to £11,500 from £8,500, with the hope that it will stimulate a rise in field sizes. Personally I am going to do everything I can to support Perth this year and will be suggesting to our trainers that if we have suitable horses, we take them there.

I’m definitely a believer in credit where credit’s due, so it’s most encouraging to be able to start the year on a positive note on the prize-money front. Don’t worry, I’ll still be applying pressure on those tracks that don’t yet seem to have picked up the message that prize-money really matters.

I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or click here > and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.

What Should Racecourses Do to Increase Attendance, Boost Revenue and Encourage Positive Customer Behaviour that Enhances Everyone’s Experience of and Pleasure in Racing?

Today’s blog follows on from a three-part series I did after Newbury’s Hennessy Day denim débacle (regular readers know how much I like alliteration), when they managed to antagonise lots of customers – including my wife. Very much a PR fiasco. Whether or not it led to the sacking of the former joint MD Steve Higgins is not known, but they now have a new and much more experienced CEO in Julian Thick (former MD of Aintree). As I also flagged up in the last blog, Newbury, like most racecourses in the UK, is facing many financial challenges as well as declining attendances.

Indeed, as I put pen to paper (or more accurately, fingers to keyboard), I’ve just read that the Racecourse Association has gloomily reported that over the last ten years, the average raceday attendance has dropped by 1,000. While that doesn’t sound a lot, it certainly does when you put it into the context that on most race days there are 5,000 or fewer attendees, so it is a 20% decline in an increasingly competitive sport and leisure marketplace where customers have a range of opportunities to spend their hard-earned.

Since Hennessy Day, I’ve probably had more discussion with owners around this subject (all triggered by the denim disaster at Newbury) than any other. Obviously there are no magic bullets, and it is a very challenging area, but here is a summary of views.

• Offer an exciting product. Alas, it certainly looks as though there is far too much racing in the UK, with a lot of it complete dross. It may make money for certain courses, and put money into the bookies’ satchels, but at a risk of fundamentally eroding both the integrity of racing (most of the scandals occur in Class 6 races on the all-weather) and its aura of glamour, panache and excitement. What should change over the next ten years?
• Keep and foster your customers. No business can afford to lose customers. It is much harder to acquire new ones than retain the ones you already have. Irritating, antagonising or offending them through poor service, bad racing, ill thought-out initiatives or just simple neglect is inexcusable. Do racecourses have really effective customer retention strategies?
• Know who your customers are. In my consulting career, when I worked for fmcg companies as Diageo and Reckitt Benckiser, I was impressed by the quality of their marketing and the incredibly detailed analysis of what, in the jargon, is called “customer segments”. They weren’t just selling to “drinkers” or “householders”, but to literally hundreds of different types of people, backgrounds, ages and preferences. Huge investment was made in differentiated sales and marketing campaigns aimed at these well-defined segments. Do racecourses have such modern and professional campaigns mapped out? I’d love to see one. Indeed, a few years ago there was a woefully pathetic stereotyping of racegoers into a “Bill and Ben” type of categorisation, “Bill” being the old-fashioned racegoer vs. “Ben” as the trendy adherent of social media – a fatuous and totally inadequate segmentation. 
• Invest in modern marketing. This naturally follows. I’m sure there are some brilliant marketing people in racing, but I haven’t come across many. The few I have met at racecourses have been distinctly ordinary. A few questionnaires and a bit of direct mail doesn’t cut the mustard. How do racecourses select and remunerate their sales and marketing staff? I fear, poorly.
• Invest in frontline staff training. Friendly, well-informed, professional and helpful staff hugely enhance the racecourse experience, while their opposites detract from it. The “best” racecourses in the UK seem to get this right, but alas they are definitely in the minority. I’ll do some more blogs on this subject. All too often the staff are boorish, ignorant and unhelpful. During the Newbury débacle I just about lost patience with staff who hid behind responses such as “It’s the new rule, and there’s nothing I can do about it”. How much investment is made in racecourse staff training? If staff behaviour and training is compared with, say, the leading leisure businesses such as Disney, what conclusions would you draw? I fear the answer would be that far too many of the people employed on racecourses are just not up to the job. 
• Sort out the bars. This is a good example of frontline failure. Amateurish bar staff and completely inadequate routines for serving drinks very quickly is the norm at racecourses. How many times have you heard racegoers complaining while desperately trying to get served between races? Substantial income is lost and customers irritated.
• Sort out the stands and facilities. All too often, racecourses are a strange mish-mash of different stands and facilities that lack any consistent identity, where very different types of customer with different needs collide. If there are different segments, there are clearly different requirements in the various facilities. I have no problems with courses such as Newbury trying (with apologies for the jargon) to “premiumise” their product, but that needs to be done in a way that strongly reinforces both the product and the behaviour that you are trying to engender. At a personal level I love Newbury’s Wine Vault, but then why have second-rate, very loud live music immediately adjacent to it?

That’s it for the moment. I’m very aware that I’ve done no more than scratch the surface. Future blogs will pick up some of these issues in more detail. In the short term, though, I’m looking forward to discussing some of this with Julian Thick and his co-directors at Newbury on what I’m hoping will be a superb day’s racing, Betfair Super Saturday, 8th February. 

I am always interested to hear your views so please do leave a comment. If you can't see the comment box at the bottom of this post then navigate to the post using the right hand navigation or click here > and scroll to the bottom of the page. Look forward to hearing your views. Thanks very much for sharing them.

No More Nonsense at Newbury (or at least for the time being), Part 3 – Understanding the Challenges facing the Racecourse and Putting the Dress Code Fiasco into Context

A large group of us went to Newbury Racecourse on 28th December to cheer on Shantou Magic in the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle. He came 4th, after a very bold and brave attempt to make all. It was a real privilege to be in the winners’ enclosure after a race of this importance – the dream over his long-term future is well and truly alive. He may well race again at the end of the month in a valuable handicap before stepping him back up in grade again. A really exciting day – and fortunately, no silly dress codes to deal with. My wife, Jack, bravely wore exactly the same outfit as on Hennessy day, without incurring the wrath of poorly trained stewards.

During the day I was most impressed that the newly appointed CEO, Julian Thick (former MD of Aintree, Sandown and Kempton Park) went out of his way to track me down and was most generous with his time. We had a long discussion about the dress code, and also the broader strategic development of Newbury. He couldn’t apologise enough for the poor implementation of the dress code, and as compensation is going to provide lunch in the Royal Box on Betfair Gold Cup day, Saturday, 8th February, which is something to look forward to.

In the short term, the dress code has been suspended while Newbury considers what to do next. Defusing this issue and mitigating the PR damage of it was clearly the only sensible option. So what should Newbury do next in terms of customer behaviour and “standards”? Indeed, do you think it should do anything?

I thought an interesting starting point would be to look at the finances of the racecourse. The track is part of Newbury Racecourses plc, a group of companies that own the racecourse and engage in “racing, hospitality and catering retail activities”. Very significantly, in 2012, they entered into a joint venture development agreement with David Wilson Homes for a major redevelopment of the racecourse, together with the construction of 1,500 homes. While there is apparently strong demand for these apartments and houses which are being built along the racecourse, there is much lower demand for actually attending races. In 2012 the track lost £1.2m, although profitability has improved since, with increased media revenues and the securing of longer-term sponsorship deals with the likes of Moet Hennessy, Dubai Duty Free and Bet365. Just like most companies with rising costs and falling revenues, they have completed businesswide reviews to stem the losses and increase the turnover.

Cynics (and there is no shortage of them in our sport) argue that Newbury is now just a real estate asset that happens to have a racecourse at the centre of it. At some stage, do you abandon racing altogether, or let it decline while looking for easy revenue through rock concerts, parties, exhibitions, conferences etc.? Encouragingly (and I’m definitely not in the cynical camp), all the strategic statements within Newbury’s accounts indicate a very robust commitment to quality racing and the Board is chock full of leading owners and racing enthusiasts with considerable business experience. Also they have signed up for the premier tier prize-money agreement with the Horsemen’s Group, which was absolutely the right thing to do.

It seems to me that Newbury is trying to grapple with the broader challenges that face our sport. Attendance is declining, as is individual customer spend. The last thing it wants on the track is drunken, loutish behaviour that will frighten away customers. However the dress code fiasco wasn’t the way to change behaviour. The problem though still exists. With all the rebranding that “The Racecourse, Newbury” is trying to pursue (and whether you believe this is contrived or not is another debate), it only seems sensible that influencing customer behaviour in such a way as to increase and sustain attendance is central to the overall business and financial strategy necessary to ensure that Newbury survives as a top-quality racecourse.

So what should Newbury (and for that matter, other racecourses) do next? All views welcome. I promised to put forward some views in this blog, but after the discussion with Julian Thick I felt it important to put the whole debate into a broader context first.

Nonsense at Newbury, Part 2 – While The New Management Relents on the Dress Code, They Now Need to Take Stock of Broader Initiatives to Improve Racegoer Behaviour

Firstly, Happy New Year to all our owners, regular readers and anyone else who finds the time to read our blog. As always the resolutions remain the same – eat and drink less, exercise more, blah, blah, blah. The key one though is to go racing as often as possible and enjoy everything that’s fantastic about our sport.

In the last blog of 2013, I discussed the nonsense of Newbury’s dress code and the PR disaster that it turned out to be at the Hennessy meeting. My wife and I were personally involved in this, with a highly embarrassing incident to do with a brand new and ultra-modern blue cotton coat with leather flashings that was deemed to be flouting the rule against denim, despite Newbury having declared in their advance marketing publicity that “Racegoers are invited to prove that Britain knows best when it comes to Autumnal fashion, with fabulous hats and coats”. Nonsensically that came to be translated as “Newbury’s stewards know best when it comes to applying inflexible and arbitrary rules on dress”.

The following week I had a lengthy discussion with the then joint managing director Stephen Higgins, who did everything possible to deal with our criticism and actually impressed with his commitment to “rebuild trust with the racecourse”. I am going to have a face-to-face meeting with the Newbury management fairly soon, and they have also invited my wife and me to lunch in the Royal Box – that should definitely see a couple of the New Year resolutions kicked into touch.

Encouragingly, on Tuesday, 17th December (a couple of days after I posted the last blog), the new Chief Executive, Julian Thick, announced that the controversial dress code, designed to encourage racegoers to “embrace a stylish but relaxed approach”, was being reviewed. The rules that caused the controversy on Hennessy day decreed that in the Premier Enclosure “smart trousers (no denim) are the order of the day for gentlemen, with a jacket preferred”, while women were required to wear “dresses or skirts of modest length, or smart trousers”. Jeans were banned. They now intend temporarily to relax the strictly enforced criteria and “smart jeans” will be tolerated while the overall policy is reviewed. As I said in the last blog, it is barely credible that a mature woman wearing a new blue trilby (bought at Haydock Park), a similarly new, ultra-modern blue cotton and leather coat (bought at Cheltenham Racecourse) and equally brand-new black trousers, could be deemed by the Newbury style police to be in breach of the rules. My wife was most definitely not alone in all of this, and the adverse publicity in both national and trade press must have seriously damaged the new branding that “The Racecourse, Newbury” appears to be trying to develop.

Let’s look at some of the broader implications. Everyone wants to ensure that more people come racing, and that they thoroughly enjoy the experience, so that our sport can build increasingly self-sustaining revenues while broadening the overall customer base, particularly so that it appeals to the next generation of racegoers. Alas, there have been a number of unpleasant incidents involving drunken oafs fighting on racecourses over the last year or two, and a particularly unpleasant episode occurred at Newbury between two competing groups of football supporters. Therefore initiatives designed to improve, modify or change behaviour in some defined way are all to the good. But this is obviously extremely challenging, whereas framing and applying inflexibly a dress code is relatively easy to enforce, even if it does nothing at all to change the offensive behaviour. As one of the TV commentators stated, “a drunken oaf in a shiny black suit is still an oaf”.

Very few, if any, racecourses in the winter apply such rules as Newbury was trying to introduce. Clearly a number of Flat meetings, notably Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood, apply very strict dress codes in designated enclosures. According to Steve Higgins, Newbury had taken soundings from racegoers before introducing the rules and there appeared to be enthusiasm for “raising standards”. I suspect the question should have been framed much more tightly, such as: “Do you feel that it is more important for Newbury to reduce the incidence of unpleasant and intrusive drunken behaviour, or that we should impose a dress code and ban denim?” While this may be an artificial forced choice, I think we all know what people’s preferences would be. It is reducing boorish, drunken behaviour on racetracks that really matters, rather than antagonising denim-wearers, many of whom have spent a considerable amount of money on designer clothes.

Equally, there is nothing wrong with trying to encourage people to wear smarter clothes, but the challenge for Newbury is how best to do that if, indeed, it is deemed to be a critical branding and customer relationship initiative.

So what should Newbury, and other racecourses, do next – if anything? Do let me hear your views and I’ll continue with this theme in the next blog.