THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - RACING GETS READY TO PUT ON ITS BIG SHOW

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 4, 2012

So here we are … just two days away from the 152nd running of the $6.175 million Melbourne Cup.

Flemington on the first Tuesday in November is the place to be but racing puts on a huge supporting program right across the country to allow those who can’t get to the Cup itself to at least be able to get out and appreciate the atmosphere of a big day at the races.

Do you know how many horse racing meetings there are on Tuesday in Australia?

Forty-four … that’s sixteen in New South Wales, fourteen in Queensland (including one at the Sunshine Coast), seven in Victoria and a further seven in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT. That’s a lot of race meetings!

It would be very interesting to see how many people actually physically attend racing on Melbourne Cup day. If the racing marketing machine was well-oiled it would assign somebody to contact all forty-four race-clubs … or delegate that on a state by state basis … and get an official attendance figure from each of those race-clubs for Cup day.

They would start with the 100 000 plus who will be in attendance at Flemington and, from there, they would add on the figures from the other forty-three clubs. Once that process had been completed they could then proudly tout that substantial, final figure as a testament to the drawing power of racing when it puts on a show and goes out of its way to cater for its customers.

On the one hand that would justifiably be perceived as a hollow boast because it reflects the exception rather than the rule as, apart from its signature events, racing attendances are not buoyant. In fact they are so far in retreat they have all but disappeared up over the hill and been lost on the other side.

On the other hand, while it is certainly not going to be pleasant going from the crescendo of the Flemington Carnival to the empty mid-week meetings and the generally sparsely populated weekend offerings that follow, that attendance figure would only serve to emphasise the challenge racing is facing.

No, I’m not suggesting there could be a return to the glory days, but I do think the gap between the current harsh daily reality of racing’s plight in terms of attendance and the heights achieved on days like the Melbourne Cup can begin to close if, after all of the hype of the next week, racing authorities go back and learn from that successful model, take the large logistical exercise involved on Cup day, downsize it and see how they can go out of their way to satisfactorily cater for their customer’s needs in a professional manner on a regular basis, not just on big race-days.

Ask any regular racegoer and you will find there can be no argument that a turnaround in mindset by racing management is needed here.

A small start would be a good beginning.

For my part I will thoroughly enjoy Melbourne Cup day. It is always an experience that can be recommended, so I have no hesitation in doing so.

The Sunshine Coast Turf Club will play its part in proceedings when it hosts a five race card on Tuesday and I urge sports-and-social lovers to attend Corbould Park in numbers so that they can share in a very special day on the sporting calendar.

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily which appears every Sunday. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily. They can be found on the relevant publish dates, going back every Sunday, under the blog section of the site.