IT is now three years since an instructive Asian Racing Conference heard some views, which were both fascinating and concerning, from the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.

At the time, one of the most important and respected racing administrators in the world, noted to the assembled delegates that the horse racing brand is dominated by gambling and that such a perception needs to change.

In addition he expressed the view that the racing brand was in need of overhaul and that the sport needed to broaden its customer base.

Such views from someone of such stature whose own racing jurisdiction is the envy of the rest of the world struck a chord and gave pause for thought as to where racing is headed in the coming years.

What path will racing follow over the next couple of decades? How does the sport appeal to the audiences of today and where is the potential to engage with new customers and increase its audience share into the future?

As part of the Engelbrecht-Bresges address it was noted that racing now lies outside the 20 most popular sports in the world having once been ranked much higher, this in itself is quite concerning.

We are now three years on from that thought-provoking address and nothing has changed. The racing brand is utterly dominated by gambling and one only had to look as far as the publication of the 2019 British fixture list and the accompanying press release which referred to the agreement to “schedule floodlit cards in an attempt to provide a more continuous and consistent betting product”.

Change

If ever there was a line to show just where racing might be going wrong and why there is a need to change the perception that this sport is dominated by gambling, this was it. That rather depressing soundbite from 2019 has been referenced here before and the purpose is not to berate racing administrators across the water.

Instead it serves to highlight a couple of things. Firstly, the brand is very clearly dominated by gambling to the extent that efforts were being made to actually increase the volume of product that people could bet on.

Secondly, no sport is going to win over new followers or increase audience share by increasing levels of mediocrity which is exactly what bloated fixture lists will do.

In a sport where the pace of change can be excruciatingly slow at times, there was never going to be an instantaneous response in the aftermath of the comments from Engelbrecht-Bresges. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to have been much of a response at all which is disappointing as the comments made three years ago carry perhaps an even greater resonance now than they did back then.

It should concern the sport of horse racing as to how it will position itself with audiences over the coming decades and the fact is that what has enthralled previous generations may not work at all as well with future ones.

Owners’ expectations

This is not dissimilar to the expectations of owners. In previous decades owners both big and small had a somewhat different approach to what they would obtain from their involvement in the sport. As times have changed so too have the make-up of owners and their attitudes and expectations.

Now a newer generation is much more acutely attuned to the possibilities of some sort of return on investment. Indeed racing for a comparative pittance, albeit on some of most celebrated stages that the sport has to offer, is no longer sufficient.

There was a time when the two things that were absolutely synonymous with Formula 1 racing were cigarette and alcohol advertising both on the cars and strategically placed signage on the race tracks themselves. Even a casual perusal of either the cars or the races in Formula 1 these days will show that this is no longer the case.

Thus times change and sports need to change with the times and the horse racing brand being dominated by gambling may not strike the same chord with audiences that it did in years gone by.

Passive

People like Rachael Blackmore are of incalculable value as they offer a totally different perspective on racing to a wider audience. However, does the sport passively stand by and wait for a Rachael Blackmore to announce herself to the world by virtue of a stunning string of accomplishments which in turn allows racing to engage with an audience well beyond its traditional confines.

It’s not enough to wait for a Rachael Blackmore to come along and do the extraordinary and give the sport a huge lift. Horse racing as a whole needs to start considering what the future holds and how it will interact with audiences over the coming years because if it continues to stand still it will get left behind and badly so.

The time to innovate is at hand.