It’s been a busy week in Victorian racing and the latest announcement has seen some of the most significant changes to racing in recent history.
Starting this year, the Cox Plate, Manikato Stakes and any future Group 1 races held at Moonee Valley will be scheduled as the last race of the day. Furthermore, the Caulfield Guineas and Caulfield Cup to be held at Caulfield Racecourse during the Spring Racing Carnival will also be scheduled as the last races of the day.
According to TheAge, the free-to-air television rights owners of all race at Caulfield, the Seven Network, insisted that the Caulfield Guineas and Caulfield Cup should be run at 5:45pm as a lead-in to the 6pm news.
Reaction to the announcements on twitter varied with the majority expressing views against the race time changes with a few different issues raised and viewpoints discussed. Let’s touch on a view of those.
The first is a betting issue related to the Quaddie and Big 6. It is a fair assumption that Group races are traditionally won more often than not by those favoured in the market, therefore, the final leg which is generally hard on such days, becomes one of the easiest. I personally find the thought of finishing the day with a feature race in my Quaddie disappointing. I also feel that having the feature race to finish the day will have a significant impact on turnover in the race. The majority of race attendees want to have a bet on the feature race of the day.. and even the most profitable punter can be drawn in by a feature race that they shouldn’t be touching.. but what if they are looking at a $500 win from a Quaddie already if that runner wins? There is no way they will invest any more on that runner in the race and turnover will decrease.
The second issue is related to race attendance. There is already a significant issue with people turning up late to the races and it is the families who traditionally turn up early to get a prime spot with their kids. As @peteharris33 on twitter pointed out, “I like 2 get there early 2 get a good possy 4 the kids, & not once have the kids been able to stay for the last #screamtime”, spending a full 8-10 race card at the track with kids is just not do-able for most families and to miss the feature race because of scheduling targeted away from families, will be another item pushing people off track.
What are the motives around moving the feature race back to the final race of the day/evening anyway? Is it to increase time on track, increase sales of alcohol or is it to improve the racing? I returned from the Royal Ascot Carnival last week where their feature race was in the middle of the card. Their opening race seemed to always be very strong (which made you turn up early) while the final race was significantly strong on three of the five days. It is VERY rare to find an opening race worth waking up early to attend these days in Victorian racing. I’m not sure there is a right or wrong answer to this scenario, but giving into a television network which barely supports the industry other than prime race days during the spring isn’t in the best interests of racing. A prime example of sport giving in to ridiculous demands is how the AFL handing over team announcement rights which resulted less-timely information and social media managers of clubs having to work late (which they don’t get paid for).
When I put the information out on twitter this afternoon, @DanJarvis1980 made probably the most interesting and relevant point when he tweeted “so if there is a delay at the races for whatever reason will they cut to the news before showing the last? #willhappen”. If the race is to be run at 5:45pm and the network WILL cut to the news at 6:00pm, that doesn’t give must room to move. What happens if there is a serious injury in the previous race? What happens if they are running five minutes late thanks to a runner in the race throwing a shoe on the way down to the stalls? Do they run the race and then go straight to the news without showing the scenes of victory? Do they not televise the Cup being presented to the winners? How is this fair on the sponsor who paid large amounts to sponsor the race?
Hopefully there is still time between now and the Spring Racing Carnival to get some of this sorted out.
