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Festival Changes

Would be totally against adding a Saturday to the festival.

The Grand National, biggest race of them all recognised that it couldn’t compete with football and moved the nationals start time back to 5:30

As has been already mentioned with the festival is in March so is muh more limited with the time of the last race being at 5:30, so we aren’t going to have the Gold Cup as the last race of the day. Relying on people to switch over from Geoff and the boys, or tuning in at half time while watching a match is a false hope and would be a failure. Throw in that you have the rugby, which this year will have games at 2:15 and 4:45, you are again hoping that people will switch over inbetween a double header.

You even have the opening day of the F1 falling on that weekend.

How many casual fans a)don’t follow any of those 3 sports? And b)are realistically going to tune in midway through those events?

Throw in the added expense of going (I don’t personnally go to GC day anymore) but accommodation would be even more expensive on a Friday night for those staying over before.

We are seeing a rise in attendance every year, a 19% improvement year on year for the festivals viewing figures.

This isn’t a case of being slow to react, the ball is already rolling and the festival grows more and more every year, the move to a Saturday is an unnecessary risk.


Plenty of other issues to be concerned about, and the debate if anything reinforces the argument that UK racing is too Cheltenham focused
 
Hurricane fly said:
Would be totally against adding a Saturday to the festival.

The Grand National, biggest race of them all recognised that it couldn’t compete with football and moved the nationals start time back to 5:30

As has been already mentioned with the festival is in March so is muh more limited with the time of the last race being at 5:30, so we aren’t going to have the Gold Cup as the last race of the day. Relying on people to switch over from Geoff and the boys, or tuning in at half time while watching a match is a false hope and would be a failure. Throw in that you have the rugby, which this year will have games at 2:15 and 4:45, you are again hoping that people will switch over inbetween a double header.

You even have the opening day of the F1 falling on that weekend.

How many casual fans a)don’t follow any of those 3 sports? And b)are realistically going to tune in midway through those events?

Throw in the added expense of going (I don’t personnally go to GC day anymore) but accommodation would be even more expensive on a Friday night for those staying over before.

We are seeing a rise in attendance every year, a 19% improvement year on year for the festivals viewing figures.

This isn’t a case of being slow to react, the ball is already rolling and the festival grows more and more every year, the move to a Saturday is an unnecessary risk.


Plenty of other issues to be concerned about, and the debate if anything reinforces the argument that UK racing is too Cheltenham focused
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Partly, agree with the last comment, although I think most Sports need a Focal Point, especially racing which is available daily.
There are plenty of people who will only watch big Premier league games etc, and not Salford vs Leeds in the Caraboa cup.
And some still that may only watch the Fa Cup Final or Champions League Final.

You can say the same for most sports
Tennis - Wimbledon.
Golf - Masters & the Open
Cricket - Ashes & World Cup's

etc etc.

So it's not a bad thing.

The rest of your comments seem to forget the obvious. That although you may be correct that not all people will switch over to watch.
At least they'd have the choice to do so, if enticed/inclined.

Most will probably not have the choice if at work on a Friday afternoon, and there's a good reason all the other sports don't have their best events on a Friday afternoon either.

So anyone watching Cheltenham on a Friday will likely be already a fan of the sport, and I think they only get roughly 17% audience share also. Which means that there's plenty of other competition out there for new blood to get hooked on the Sport.

Like Countdown, Homes Abroad, Internet Porn (laptop's allow both for this, I'm assured), Fortnite. and playing outside (if that's a thing anymore).

Absolutely and 100% the Sport's greatest event would get more viewers and therefore potential new fans and supporters if the festival was on at a weekend. Despite the competition.

The proviso being that one of the mainstream channels was showing it live. And that's a doubt with the other events you mentioned.
But not out of the question completely I'd imagine.

I'm not saying there is a desperate need to move the festival.
But if you could or had to start from scratch (from a marketing point of view). And a vote was held as to what time and day of the week the Gold Cup (best National Hunt race of the year) should be shown.
Pretty sure what would win.
 
What's wrong with Salford vs Leeds? :highly_amused:
 
Didn’t we have a spell fairly recently of having the big race of the day going off around 3.45/3.50 so people could watch at half time?
 
The National tried it as I remember planning on watching it half time at Villa Park on my phone but naturally forgot.

Quevega, I recognise yournpoint of view and I’m sure it’s one the BHA will look into it as 5% of 10 millions is more than 20% of 2 million etc. But how many other events would see a 19% increase year on year and not feel positive about the future?

Cheltenham week is Cheltenham week and for people I know who don’t follow racing they still know when it’s Cheltenham, and gold cup day, my dear would be instead of the GC kicking off a weekend of sport for many people that it gets lost in it. Lewis Hamilton just had this complaint about the British GP clashing with Wimbledon etc. Sharing the limelight isn’t always the best option
 
Think CoD sums it up well below for me

ComplyOrDie said:
If anything needs to be improved it is the rest of the racing, during the year, not the festival. 4 days, Tuesday-Friday, leave it.
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The Gold Cup is and will always be seen as the pinnacle of the sport for the enthusiasts but for the average viewers which the argument is going after - I feel you could potentially get just as much interest and excitement into some of the other big races through the season for that target audience. The field sizes would be slightly lower but to the average viewer - would there be much of a difference between the King George and the Gold Cup? Or go for the big races that are already held on a Saturday. Take the Ladbroke trophy. With the likes of Santini and Topofthegame likely to line up. They could make a huge deal out of that this year. They should be doing everything they can to increase the audience for racing as far as possible and try and get new interest into the sport but there's enough racing outside of the festival to do this imo.

However - If you are going after owners and after a big shift in breeding then I do think you have to have the focus being the Festival. Maybe i'm wrong speaking with zero experience but a vast amount of owners it appear to favour a (or any) festival win as the pinnacle. No other race comes close through the season. So the additions of the mares novice and future mares chase at the festival, although absolutely not what i'd have done makes sense. You could shift these races to different days, even different festivals but it would never have the same appeal. To encourage breeders and owners to have more mares in training and for longer is a big shift. And they needed a festival race where they can go into the winners enclosure to be up for grabs to be the ultimate draw (unfortunately). Cheltenham now have an entire mares only programme in April. Although impossible to quantify - this along with increasing the mares programme throughout the entire year will have nothing like the impact to what one single festival race will do.

To summarise - From a breeding / ownership angle where you are trying to change the landscape of the sport (i.e more mares in training) then the festival unfortunately probably has to be adapted. For anything else and just trying to increase the interest in the sport, adding races / moving days etc should be ignored and the festival left alone. The rest of the racing calendar has enough opportunities for that
 
Having racing on every Saturday on the main ITV channel would be the easiest way to grow interest in the sport........
 
quevega said:
I think there is every chance that she will run in the mares hurdle at the 2020 festival. Because of a lot of what you have said.
Although I think it's from a wishful thinking kind of bias as no doubt you've backed her for the mares ?
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0% chance he's backed anything single figures based on his pathetic staking over the last couple of years :devilish:
 
Istabraq said:
Exactly this, which is why the decision/announcement was made 18 months out.

Knew we’d agree on something eventually....
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:highly_amused:

We should do annual awards and one could be

Devil's Advocate Award - Only Quevega and I need apply :p
 
quevega said:
Partly, agree with the last comment, although I think most Sports need a Focal Point, especially racing which is available daily.
There are plenty of people who will only watch big Premier league games etc, and not Salford vs Leeds in the Caraboa cup.
And some still that may only watch the Fa Cup Final or Champions League Final.

You can say the same for most sports
Tennis - Wimbledon.
Golf - Masters & the Open
Cricket - Ashes & World Cup's

etc etc.

So it's not a bad thing.

The rest of your comments seem to forget the obvious. That although you may be correct that not all people will switch over to watch.
At least they'd have the choice to do so, if enticed/inclined.

Most will probably not have the choice if at work on a Friday afternoon, and there's a good reason all the other sports don't have their best events on a Friday afternoon either.

So anyone watching Cheltenham on a Friday will likely be already a fan of the sport, and I think they only get roughly 17% audience share also. Which means that there's plenty of other competition out there for new blood to get hooked on the Sport.

Like Countdown, Homes Abroad, Internet Porn (laptop's allow both for this, I'm assured), Fortnite. and playing outside (if that's a thing anymore).

Absolutely and 100% the Sport's greatest event would get more viewers and therefore potential new fans and supporters if the festival was on at a weekend. Despite the competition.

The proviso being that one of the mainstream channels was showing it live. And that's a doubt with the other events you mentioned.
But not out of the question completely I'd imagine.

I'm not saying there is a desperate need to move the festival.
But if you could or had to start from scratch (from a marketing point of view). And a vote was held as to what time and day of the week the Gold Cup (best National Hunt race of the year) should be shown.
Pretty sure what would win.
Click to expand...

What is the real gain though is people are only switching over during a Saturday to watch that one specific race?


If it's Friday, hardly any casuals will tune in.... agreed.

On a Saturday, IF (and a big IF), IF, they tune in, it's only for that 1 race... and really they only care about having a bet and winning on the race.... they'd have no idea that Santini, Topofthegame and Delta Work bring in an incredible novice chase battle from last year, or Presenting Percy aims to bounce back from beating a beaten fav last time, or the King George winner is rocking up.... .it's just a betting race... if they win, (or the fav wins), they'll be happy and tune in for that 1 race next year.... if they lose, maybe they have another go.


Pandering to the betting public that are into football is NOT the way to go.

As a convert from Football to Horse Racing, that didn't come because it was on Channel 4.... it was a Breeders Cup 'night' with a couple of my degenerate gambling mates... and I happened to stumble across Zenyatta, Frankel and then the Kauto Star/Denman battles...... now that's almost a perfect storm...

Accept where they are.... Tuesday to Friday is OUR TIME.
 
Kevloaf said:
0% chance he's backed anything single figures based on his pathetic staking over the last couple of years :devilish:
Click to expand...

:highly_amused: I prefer to label it a very measured and calculated approach myself
On the other hand, I'll leave this quote up…never gets old reading it... ;) :highly_amused:

iainmcf said:
Kev, would you call yourself a mug punter or do you simply try to cover as many horses in a race with the idea of making a small profit.I dont see how you would get a buzz out of watching the Supreme or the Champion Hurdle after backing near 20 horses in each of those races but then again each to their own.
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Q - there is obviously a degree of wishful thinking there having backed her as all bets do. But that consists across 2 multiples (a double with Benie and a double with Paisley Park) and if they didn’t play out it wouldn’t be a huge blow or at least no more of a blow than most others placed at this stage.

For me there’s enough reasons there that indicate the outcome of the Mares is likely in my opinion. But I can also see your reasoning why it may not happen. Add in the Mullins factor to add another question mark.
Like you say, game of opinions. And it's all about backing those up
 
jono said:
:highly_amused: I prefer to label it a very measured and calculated approach myself
On the other hand, I'll leave this quote up…never gets old reading it... ;) :highly_amused:



Q - there is obviously a degree of wishful thinking there having backed her as all bets do. But that consists across 2 multiples (a double with Benie and a double with Paisley Park) and if they didn’t play out it wouldn’t be a huge blow or at least no more of a blow than most others placed at this stage.

For me there’s enough reasons there that indicate the outcome of the Mares is likely in my opinion. But I can also see your reasoning why it may not happen. Add in the Mullins factor to add another question mark.
Like you say, game of opinions. And it's all about backing those up
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Exactly Jono
You got to go with what you think.
Even if it seems illogical/unattractive to someone else. Although I value all opinions as there’s always something you’ve/I’ve missed that would influence me.
Unless a bet’s preposterous.
It’s always got a chance of landing.

Paisley park to win the 2019 stayers
Espoir dallen to win the champion hurdle

This time last year, only an idiot would have stated a strong case for them.
 
:highly_amused: touche!
 
And 11 chases with 8 hurdle races, huge imbalance there, though I suspect much of the piece was tongue in cheek...
 
quevega said:
https://www.attheraces.com/blogs/kevin-blake

Think Kevin's been reading fat jockey.
Stops short of weekend festivals though.
That would have blown minds.
Feature race last on the card ? Archie will be pissed.:highly_amused:
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I replied to him about the idea of a 5 race card as horrific. To which KB suggests I open my mind. I’m someone who hates 6 race cards (as seen on this thread) but 5 is just ridiculous imo.
 
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