Kelso 26/5/24 - CTRL, ALT, DEL and start again...

So the short lived Sunday evening experiment has been shelved. Interestingly because of a lack of increase in betting turnover- presumably off course. Which led me to, yet again, ponder the lack of interest in any focus on the live aspect of the sport and why this area is being neglected to focus solely on the off course dollar.

Here's an interesting thing. Attendances for a certain racecourse for a certain meeting (on a Friday) for the last few years.

2018 - 2150

2019 - 1539

2021 - 5564

2022 - 6302

2023 - 7432

So, what magic happened in 2021 (no it wasn't a Covid bounce!) and why has it increased when, generally speaking, attendances are decreasing? Well, what happened was that the racecourse put a badge on it that looked a bit liked the one the footy uses, called it "Premier" and the punters came flooding in. "Really?", I hear you cry. No, not really.

What the really clever people at the track did was make it the new date for Ladies Day instead of having Ladies Day on a Saturday which was well attended anyway. Now that's a badge that works. And, as it became more established, it grew and grew- this year was a sell out.

Same track, different meeting. Went from 1554 a few years ago to 3886 this year. Sorcery! Or, if you prefer, "students". Different marketing, same result.

So, we have a couple of relatively poorly attended fixtures outside of the usual bumper Saturdays that have been reworked, rebadged, remarketed and, hey presto, we have a successful meeting from a ho hum one.

Now, I'm not calling for every other meeting to be a Ladies Day but I am calling for coordinated marketing across tracks, fully implemented and supported. All for less than the cost of an ex footballer looking wistful and leaning on a rail. So, what's next? I've mentioned it before but I think every track should have an NHS Day. Maybe on a quiet Wednesday. NHS staff often work shifts so midweek meetings are ideal. Work for NHS? Get in for a fiver. We'll chuck a friend in as well. And make a massive fuss of you. Think of the crowds! Think of the great publicity! And do it every year. Hit every hospital, surgery, dental practice, everything in your area. Go to the unions- they love giveaways and they'll do half the marketing for you! And some of the punters will come back again. And pay full price!! But do it full throttle not half arsed or it doesn't work. And when you've established that you could expand to Emergency Services Day, Schools and University Workers Day. And, of course, On Course Bookmakers Day where you make it a fiver for us and then see what else we can find to moan about.

So on to Kelso Ladies Day and there was a small frisson of excitement coming to the track to discover that there was going to be bookmakers in the centre course in the "Party Tent" which the track had, wisely, decided to open early because of the inclement forecast- you needed a wristband though. So off went the CairnBet, Ross and Black delegation to carry out further investigation. Sure enough, the marquee was open, 6 bar staff were stood in attendance and the band was sound checking. Slightly worryingly there were no actual punters, no gap in the rails to access it and no signage to say it was open. There was a wristband shop and 5 eager young folk picking up their party bands. They plopped down on a picnic bench and I wandered over to ask if they knew they could access the centre course now (having just picked up their bands, surely they did?) and the answer was a resounding "No". "That's only open after racing" a dapper young chap in the obligatory blue suit opined. If they didn't know, nobody was going to, so plans for a CairnBet (and Ross and Black) exodus were cut off more quickly than a Sunday night race meeting trial and we ventured back to the main ring. One brave chap did give it a go- he knew he was taking a punt, he was relying on a downpour that never came and let me know at the end that he did 12 bets all day. He's a cracking bloke and delivered this news with his ever present smile and, I would expect, will get a refund on his badge for his trouble. I certainly hope so. See? It's not a case of just rocking up and pitching in. There's a bit of work involved too. These things don't just happen by accident!

1) Couldn't get enough in on the jolly which hovered somewhere around evens for most of the betting, we were unlikely to avoid Geordies Dream being in the vague vicinity of Newcastle but, fortunately for us, there were slightly more wine drinkers than Geordies so we stood Blueberry Wine for a max (and a bit more) plus 3 of the rags and got a smallish win on the aforementioned Geordie which took a bit of a battering with Blueberry placing.

2) Five Dollar Fine and Go Boy for maxes. We got a decent enough win on 3rd in the list Chapel Green and places were as kind here as they were poor in the first. We were up and running.

3) For fans of alliteration Mack the Man the max along with Cracking Destiny. 2nd favourite Well Educated gave us another win in the modest category and, taking on a couple in the place market, meant the each way stuff went our way again.

4) Remember that bookies have a very short memory when it comes to the ones that win on the nod? Well copy and paste this for future reference. Jolly, Mistral Nell, for the max and we got a mini jackpot on Somebodys Fortune who prevailed despite the favourite hitting something like 1/20 on the run in. Fortune gags in the comments please.

5) Goodtimes Badtimes for the max which meant that we ended up with a small liability on the favourite, Baron Briggs, rather than a max which rather saved our bacon. Places were gently kind and we ended up, like two Italian teams in the 70s, playing a rather boring scoreless draw. Bullet dodged.

6) Unlike John McClane we couldn't dodge this bullet though as Yippee Ki Yay was the subject of every other bet and every bet of any size. We stood it for the max and it never really looked in major trouble. Big step backwards and I couldn't even make the obvious gag for fear of potty mouth ejection.

7) And 3 on the spin as Gale Mahler eased to victory with a half max but Steve took on the extremely popular Jo Jo Binks and Lizzie Luna in the place market to ensure another bumper place result which came close to wiping out the win loss.

What looked like a potentially great day on course morphed into a pleasant, but rather less than exciting win. Que sera.

Finally, it is worrying times on course. I know I'm a stuck record but there seems to be little coordinated effort at boosting the live aspect of the sport. We are already seeing the impact of cost of living and will soon feel the further effects of Premierisation time shifts and 6 race cards in July and August which left many feeling short changed last year and will, inevitably, have an effect again this. Given the breakdown (again) of the levy discussions surely this is a time for racing to support other income streams rather than neglect them in the chase for the off course dollar?

Musselburgh next up for us with, conversely, an effective 8 race card with The Derby! Until then...