Racing Thoughts: Sport needs to hit the bullseye to become a hot ticket

General / Graham Cunningham / 16 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Suddenly the marketing team behind darts are the biggest geniuses in sport, but is there anything racing can take from the beer 'n' shouting formula? Graham Cunningham ponders the spiky question facing racing.

There are certain moments on the radio which make you shake your head in disbelief and one such came on Five Live this week when a night at the darts was described as "the hottest ticket in sport" without a trace of irony.

The comments came after snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan argued that his sport needs a Simon Cowell-style makeover to prevent it withering through lack of interest.

Darts has plainly thrived for the showbiz treatment but, as O'Sullivan's old rival Stephen Hendry countered, some sports just don't lend themselves to beery romps in which half the crowd seem keener on gurning at the cameras than watching the action.

But if darts can become so popular there is surely still hope for racing. Crowds for the big Festivals will almost certainly hold up fairly well despite the credit crunch, but that isn't to say an outside expert couldn't come up with ideas to improve the theatre of a day at the races considerably.

Personally, I draw the line at Cowell, who figures just below Radio One DJ Chris Moyles on the list of people I would dearly love to strangle, but who do you think would do the job best?

Cameron Macintosh plainly knows how to put on a show after drawing record advance bookings for his West End revival of Oliver. Maybe he could offer advice, but racing plainly needs new ideas to make itself a hot ticket again.

Perhaps halving the price of beer and giving every racegoer one of those daft signs to hold up at the cameras would help.


Money can't buy me love.....but can it bring Kaka to Manchester?

I have a soft spot for Godolphin. I like the way they take a worldwide view about Flat racing. I admire the way they seldom shirk a challenge when they have a good horse and I hope they will revive after being put in the shade by their arch rivals Coolmore in recent seasons.

I also like Manchester City. They have been my team ever since I was a kid and I hope they will revive after being put in the shade by their arch rivals Manchester United in recent seasons.

And now my football team - who used to charge me under a quid to get into a packed Kippax St stand to see Bell, Lee and Summerbee at Maine Road back in the 1970's - are bidding over £100m in a bizarre attempt to snare the Brazilian superstar Kaka.

Am I intrigued by the possibilities for the Sky Blues? You bet I am. But why do I keep thinking of another team of astonishingly wealthy but ultimately frustrating boys in blue every time I think of City nowadays?