While it may not be the heady occasion to rival the exciting
nights of the St Leger, the Kirby Memorial or the Golden Muzzle, an all graded
card at Limerick on Thursday August 16th will nonetheless be a landmark meeting
on the Dock Road as the first SIS fixture at the venue while greyhound racing
in Ireland adapts to a changing economic environment within the sports/leisure
industry.
A very wise person once said to me that you know you've made
it in the working world when you've figured out how to earn money while your
asleep! Apart from the fictional Lotto wins of my dreams, that level of success
has eluded me but applying the same principle to our sport, I would liken that
goal to finding a way to make it financially worthwhile staging a greyhound
racing meeting, regardless of attendance.
I grew up as one of those typical, sports mad, nine to five
workers who liked to have a bet with my hard earned. I knew all the betting
shop frequenters in the town and could rattle off every stable jockey to every
horse trainer, big and small, while enjoying a mildly mis-spent youth amidst
too many hours in the betting shops.
I enjoyed a bet but thankfully could enjoy it, as I had a
healthy respect for punting coming from a rearing within greyhound racing. Back
on point, I had no connection to horse racing but probably knew more about more
horse trainers than I did about the trainers in the sport I was reared in. And
why was that?....It was simply because horse racing was sold to me and done so
in betting shops and pubs (through racing on TV) with the exact target market
that funded the horse racing and many other sports industries.
The sad fact here is that my sport was not being sold to
this extensive target market. I have long lamented the fact that I could see
any number of sports, most thoroughly boring in comparison to ours, even made
up virtual sports run by a computer programme, all earning money for better
marketers than us.
We operated for decades in our own bubble, away from the
mainstream audience, markets and potential sponsorships that a betting shop
presence could have offered. Take the betting shop out of horse racing thirty
years ago and where would it be now? We have come to this party way too late!
Numbers are not my thing and I'm not the right man to examine
IGB accounts on your behalf but I will be asking the financial consequence of
this SIS venture at Limerick in the months ahead and if, as I suspect, that the
upcoming Thursdays prove more financially beneficial than the Fridays have
been, I will applaud a correct move, as I see at least. Because, surely a
betting shop presence with a target market predisposed to the exact type of
product you are selling must be a gift in marketing terms, and, it's marketing
that you are actually getting paid for through the pictures instead of paying
for!
I don't know what numbers are paid to the horse tracks of
Ireland for the racing pictures but I am informed that in some cases, Irish
tracks are in profit for their day of racing before even opening their doors to
the public. I doubt that the figures we command for pictures have us in that
type of scenario yet but should that not be a target for us? Whether it's
selling the pictures or entering a foreign tote market, or, now that we are
selling pictures, increased advertising revenue, could we possibly have the
costs of staging a meeting met before we ever open the gates?
I'm not saying forget about the turnstiles, it goes without
saying that we can never stop trying to increase footfall at the stadiums but
if we did get to the idealistic situation described, we would be in a much
better place to offer incentives or create initiatives to attract a greater
physical presence at meetings.
CATCH-UP
We are playing catch-up in the wider world of sports revenue
but finally may be chasing the right hares up the correct avenues. There has
been plenty justification for pessimism in recent times but I do see the SIS
meetings as an opportunity to be built on while being wary not to follow the UK
route of allowing betting firms to own our tracks.
I know it's not today or yesterday but being so close with
Limerick and commencing on Thursday, it has this SIS deal foremost in thoughts
this week. Maybe it's a pipe dream but the level of self-sufficiency described
should be something to strive for. It is after all getting more difficult to
get people through the door of any entertainment venue, just ask a publican!
And, if you told me twenty years ago that any Senior Munster Championship
Hurling match would be played in front of just 10,000 people, I would have
laughed. But that's the changing face of modern entertainment and we have to
start selling further, wider and more fervently.
Now let's try make the bookies pay a little more for the
pictures at Limerick this Thursday! And, if you are asleep while the races are
on, it doesn't count as earning money while your asleep if you have to be awake
to earn the stake money in the first place!
RACE 1 TRAP 1 - A very mixed bunch of graded sprinters and
none too consistent, while all capable of winning such a contest. A tough start
to SIS meetings but BALLINISKA AMY has won on the last two occasions that she
wore red and with respect to all connections, it would be quite appropriate
should track stalwart Tommy Quaid begin a big weekend of sport for the Treaty
county by returning the first SIS winner at Limerick.
RACE 2 TRAP 1 - So many graded events can be dictated by the
draw and again, the rails runner may be the one to side with here. Two solid
efforts in A4 before his bump last time read well in this context given that he
has an ease in grade and BALLINULTY ILOVEU is two from two when in Trap 1. No
cert....but the most significant pointers are in his favour, especially as the
strong runner may get a pleasing tow to the back-straight from the early paced
maiden on his immediate right.
RACE 4 TRAP 5 Another trappy affair which may be as simple
as trusting the latest lines of form for JACKALS JET (NB), along with being the
least exposed runner in the field, actually clocked an S3 time in his solid
second a week ago and only a brace of his rivals have done that prior. With
more scope to progress, a repeat of that latest run may suffice but any
progress from it would make him very difficult to contain with surprises
unlikely from his rivals.
RACE 10 TRAP 5 Five of these actually clashed a week ago and
they all met some sort of a bump, bar tonight's rails runner who led them home while
filling second and even outside of that clash, all would be difficult to
adamantly separate. There is a strong case to be made for the odd one out
however and BLACK EYE (NAP) made a rock solid return to Limerick at 350 last
time. He is the only one of these to have reached A0 and has won at the top
level. As close to Nap material as can be found on the card I'd suggest.
