Please spare us another jockeys league – punters love racing because they want to have a bet
SOMETIMES I wonder if it's just me. Maybe I'm just a miserable cynic and I need to brighten up.
But surely I'm not the only one who thinks the idea of another jockey's league sounds about as appealing as a sledgehammer to the gonads?
1
Given the amount of time, money and effort that has been spent trying to think of ways to bring new fans into the sport, this is the best we can do?
If you missed the news, 12 of the most famous Flat jockeys in the world have signed up to — and invested their own money in — a 'global jockey league' that they intend to launch next year.
Co-founded by ex-Godolphin supremo John Ferguson and a former betting industry bigwig known as Lachlan Fitt, few details has been offered about how this new competition is supposed to work.
But, by the sounds of it, they are hoping to raise £15million and each jockey will act as 'team principal' for their own 'franchise' across a handful of meetings, essentially giving the world's richest riders a chance to get even richer. Pass the sick bucket.
Frankie Dettori (I thought he was bankrupt?) and Ryan Moore to have put their names and money down, as have some top US, Asian and Australian-based jocks.
They tell us this new league is going to 'revolutionise' the sport but, here comes my cynical side again, I think the only thing the jockeys involved are interested in is revolutionising their bank balance.
We saw it with this season's David Power Jockey's Cup over the jumps. The only people with any real interest — I say 'real' because there are lots of people out there who fake it — are a handful of men and women in the weighing room.
And why wouldn't you when there is £1.5million up for grabs?
It didn't float my boat and it didn't capture the imagination of a wider audience either — which was the whole idea in the first place. And it's no different with this proposed new jockeys league.
It's just another gimmick, but this time one with an incredibly elitist feel. It's a competition by the wealthiest jockeys for the wealthiest jockeys — why would anyone from out- side the self-anointed top 12 riders in the world give two flying hoots?
And they scored a tremendous PR own-goal even before the thing had launched by not including a single female rider in the designated dozen.
If the goal really is to attract new, young fans, surely they should have included a jockey who can be a role model to 51 percent of the world's population?
I don't know what the obsession is with turning racing into a team or league-based sport.
Nobody cares about the Shergar Cup at Ascot but it's a one-day bit of fun (the event has never claimed to be more than that) and it's been going for donkeys years, so people just get on with it.
The Racing League, however, is rammed down our throats and it's been a total failure in getting a new audience interested in the sport, which was one of it's main aims when it launched.
We've been trying to use 'top' jockeys to sell the sport for years in this country and it doesn't work.
Mainly because, bar a handful of obvious exceptions, they aren't exactly the most charismatic bunch.
For some reason, those who come up with all these terrible ideas can't accept that the vast majority watch racing and go racing because they want to have a bet.
I'd guess 90 per cent of people go to the races to escape from the real world for a few hours, to look at the horses and have a punt and a pint.
Racing's ridiculous marketing bods seem to think it's because they want to see William Buick in the flesh.
And until more time and effort is spent trying to tackle one of the real issues facing our sport — namely the impact of affordability checks which are seeing punters desert racing in their droves — then we are going to find ourselves in deep, deep trouble.
So please, spare us another bloody jockey's league.
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