Racing gets a summer makeover

Racing is trying to show it isn't just for top-hat types

By BBC News Online's Bob Trevelyan

Have you ever wondered what happened to Spandau Ballet or the Three Degrees?

Or longed for music revivals that would let you relive your finest moments at the school disco?

Eighties kids might have thought they'd seen the last of Tony Hadley

Brace yourself, because they could be coming to a racecourse near you.

It's all part of an attempt to widen the appeal of a sport that has sometimes struggled to show it is not just the preserve of the hardened gambler and the highly wealthy.

And if the remnants of the band that gave us "True" and "Gold", and the threesome best known as Prince Charles' favourite group don't do it for you, what about James Bond Night complete with Oddjob lookalike and Bond girls or the Hollies reprising old favourites such as "He ain't heavy" in the earshot of some of the world's smallest professional sportsmen.

Commercial future

A few racecourses have indulged in such razzmatazz for several years - usually at evening meetings after racing has finished - hoping it will help them attract more women and more 25-45-year olds.

Others have taken to Sunday racing, often with funfairs and other attractions, to offer a more family-orientated day out.

UK racing, 2000

59 racecourses

1,142 meetings

323 days racing

Five million racegoers

Women accounted for 40% of racegoers and 10% of betting shop customers

Racing and breeding supported 60,000 jobs

Another 40,000 employed in the betting industry, which relies on racing for 70% of turnover

Source: BHB

But this month has seen the launch of an unprecedented £10m marketing campaign aimed at raising the profile of all 59 UK racecourses and lifting annual attendances by one million within three years.

"Racing needs to look towards the commercial future... and become more competitive," says Sue Willies of the Discover Racing campaign.

She says Discover Racing's research has revealed a lot of people are interested in going racing but "don't know how to" because of a lack of information.

Over the course of the next year, during which one meeting at each racecourse will be targeted, the campaign hopes to change that.

Best gate

In one of the first such mini-campaigns, Discover Racing took 700 bookings via its website and call centre for a meeting at Salisbury earlier this month.

With 5,700 racegoers in total, attendance was up about 60% on the same meeting last year.

Racing is not deriving the return [from the betting industry] it is entitled to

Alan Delmonte, BHB

"It was the best gate they've had in years," says Ms Willies. "And not only did we increase sales, we increased awareness in the area."

Three days ago, the Discover Racing campaign helped Southwell stage its best-attended meeting for a decade.

(And visitors to the Nottinghamshire track were not let down as famous loser Quixall Crossett ran a record 100th consecutive race without winning to claim a small piece of racing history.)

Underfunded

Overall attendances at UK racecourses stood at about five million in 2000, marginally down on the previous year's figure, which had been the best since the mid-1960s.

Alan Delmonte of the British Horseracing Board (BHB), racing's governing body, says the sport has worked hard in recent years to fight for its place in the leisure market and been rewarded with substantially higher attendances.

Quixall Crossett did not disappoint Southwell's biggest crowd in 10 years

But he says racing remains chronically underfunded, principally because of the levy system under which a fixed (low) percentage of betting turnover is returned to racing.

"Racing is not deriving the return that it is entitled to," he says. It deserves "proper value" for its rights.

As part of reforms, the government last year said it would abolish the levy system, instead allowing racing to open direct commercial negotiations with the betting industry for the use of racing's rights.

But change has been slower than the BHB would like.

"We were disappointed that there was nothing in the Queen's speech setting out the timing for a bill," says Mr Delmonte.

Modest prize money

He says that racing as a whole loses about £200m a year, the vast majority of which is borne by racehorse owners.

This is partly because relatively modest prize money rarely gets anywhere near repaying costs associated with keeping a horse in training.

As for individual racecourses, any profits are "much lower than could be expected in a normal commercial environment".

The Hollies: Taking jockeys' favourite "He ain't heavy" to Epsom races

Despite this, says Mr Delmonte, no UK racecourse has gone bust since the early 1980s and every fixture now staged brings in more money to racing than it costs to put on.

If diversifying into other entertainment is one way of helping achieve this, that's fine by the BHB.

"What we'd like is for people to go for the racing. But it's perfectly sensible [to expect] that people who go for concerts may be interested in coming back again," says Mr Delmonte.

"The proof that it works is that racecourses continue to do it."

If you're interested, Tony Hadley and friends return on 12 August at Ascot.