Racehorse TALK

The poms also have an incredible number of clashes for  the amount of meetings they gave.

  I think the journo's give too much emphasis to these ideas......there has been such a lack of industry nouse in the last 20 years...when someone opens their mouth, in this case Mike Symons all these scribes run around like he's parted the waters.  Adelaide delay their races now to get an extra 1-2 minutes of turnover ...30 mins will cost turnover i've been caught out at these 30min tuesday's in Vic putting on a quaddie  ...i actually need some think time working out a bet, it will harm turnover and that's not even worrying about fitting in the Sky Channel slots.

I think Syria and comparing govt is a tad different but I got ya drift.  I suppose 30 mins between races is not drastic, but I would start to get nervous if we go less than that.

My concern is that the Stewards may start to overlook things like "painted legs" but if I am in on the sting, lets bring forward to 15 mins a race.  

Feels sorry for any trainer with a few runners in the one race, or heaven forbid, back to back races 

...... and then the Casino.........

I wouldnt go to the races anymore if it was 30 minutes or 35 or 40 or whatever. DD is right so make it an event. Get more girls to the races, so guys will come and try pick up, make the races the spot to be. Just like melbourne at carnival time, but it all the time.

Im sure all the regular punters would love that

This is "chicken or egg" stuff.
I was on track at Doomben on Saturday, for the first time since BC went around, and it was like a ghost town.

2 rails bookmakers betting on the locals.
2 rails bookmakers betting on the Southern events.
1 place bookmaker.
All of them betting the same, if not worse, odds than the TAB fixed.

A friend from out west was down for the weekend and being a former trainer he loves a day at the track. We thought we would go upstairs to an air-conditioned bar and have a bevvie or 2. No. Not going to happen. That section is roped off with a security guard patrolling the area.
I understand that it costs to open extra bars and food stands etc, but fair go.

Me thinks we have problems.
BIG problems.

Hi all,

long time reader first time poster. i have read this thread with interest as it is something i have a few opinions on.

Im from adelaide and used to work for a bookie there, impossible to operate as no one attends - they couldnt make a book.
Races on a sat resemble the ghost town you speak of, and the bookies still operating bet joke odds and bet scared - and you can do better betting tab fixed.  Its the same faces week in week out and they are getting older - and the only injection of youth are on the bigger days.

I think the days of drawing crowds from a pure punting perspective are gone - simply due to the fact that there are so many other options. Someone like me who loves going to the track might be the exception - and with the majority going to through the turnstile at a regular basis getting older and older, what will happen in 10 and 15 years time when these people no longer attend....?

Nothing is done to draw a crowd in, no promotions, no ideas, nothing innovative.

I think the powers that be are almost resigned to the fact that a normal sat will be a non-event crowd wise and then try and capatalise on the bigger days, The main problem is that there is no continuity to get these people to go on the bigger days to attend more often, they need to make more bigger days - and this is not even race wise - as there cant be group races every week to put a day around. They have to manufacture events that draw these people in and make it a regular once a month attendance event at the least - rather than just 1 or 2 times per year.

Maybe those in charge have to look at things from a new angle and not from the traditional horse racing person perspective. I think for crowds in 2012 and onwards the actual horse might not be so relevant (unless you have a black caviar roll up and that is the exception rather than the rule). So try and make events, manufacture them, have theme days, have industry days for different groups of people - do something!!!!!!! - promote them well and see how they go - and this can be done on any given sat rather than just waiting for carnival time.

 Yes DD i did catch Symons, maybe Caulfield should try it out. MRC organised a member's syndicated horse trained by  R.Smerdon...great concept and implemented with a lot of ingenuity!    so the guy is clever and has a racing past to his back fillings....but as we know some ideas are not as simple as 20/20 cricket...different landscape ................on the subject of Queensland racing has the recent introduction of flat bookie's tax ?? 10 0r 15 % on gross profit quietened the ring's even more ???....one post said 2 rail's bookie on locals at Doomben that is scarey................

Heath

Re the MRC "innovation" that has been discussed at length previously on this thread.  There's a cost in this, plus there's a need for a benevolent donor of the horse - and it's gotta be a good one, or else there's a big factor that flows from the exercise.  What about the earlier one or ones?  Apart from all that is there any evidence that it will bring one more person to the racetrack?  My info from Melbourne - from people right on the coalface - is that there is not.

As for the Brisbane bookies' ring...  That's how it is.  Most punters these days go to the track having had their bets beforehand.  I outlayed more that I want to imagine for yesterday's card - and it was all done prepost.  Some was with Tattsbet, some with other corporates.

The bookies "tax" is on winnings on the month.  Bookie loses for the month, and pays NIL. It's 10% to my knowledge and is in place for a short time pending outcome of race fields legislation case at the High Court.   In addition to this payment (to RQL) the bookie pays a stand fee to the club and a fraction of a per-cent on turnover.  IMO, the "new" tax has done nothing bad (or good) for the ring.  It's a pity they've been caught up in an action that was primarily aimed at those operating well away from the host race club.  On-course bookies during a racemeeting, should, IMO, pay only to the host club.  But I would say that.

Welcome to the forum rowdybear,

You have certainly came in on quite a contentious issue, and one that will take some fixing, if at all.

For me, the only way to get crowds back would be to turn them into clubs, like RSL clubs etc, but not going to happen with the way legislation is at the moment, cheap liqueur, cheap membership, cheap food all subsidized by the pokies.

You are right, it is less about the horse, and more about the day out, now days, something we either need to learn to live with, or find a way to change it.

Okay what about something along these lines?

Instead of charging for punters to come to the course, or even offering free admission, they pay punters to come.

They pay by means of a voucher, worth say $20.

The club then has its own bookie on course and that voucher can be used with that bookie, who then pays voucher bets with more vouchers. Any vouchers that punters still have at the end of the day can be redeemed for real cash on the way out.

Most punters lose.

So it's unlikely that the club would be up for much real cash.

Given that $20 is a drop in the bucket for punters the likelihood is that they'd be betting real money elsewhere- other bookies and the tote- and paying real money for food etc, early into the meeting.

But they'd have a sense of getting someting for nothing. And don't humans love that?