Perth 11/6/23 - Creating Value

I love golf. I play at a really nice club. We have two 18 hole courses and a 9 hole. We used to get loads of American visitors but they just stopped coming. Nobody understood why.

6 or 7 years ago we got a new golf manager who had been working in, I think, Dubai or similar. He came in and the first thing he did was ask why one course had lower green fees than the other. "Because it's the 2nd course" the committee said. "Only if you price it as the 2nd course" was his reply.

So the first thing he did was put the visitor green fee up on the "2nd" course to match the first course. Then he put the green fees for both courses up- quite substantially. The committee told him we wouldn't get any visitors. We got more. And the Americans came back. Why? Because he created a perceived value. American golf tours won't pay too LITTLE for a course as they perceive it won't be any good. Moray did the same with exactly the same results.

So why am I banging on about this? Before my Twitter feed goes berserk I am NOT suggesting racing increases their entry prices, quite the opposite in many cases but what I am suggesting is that racing is allowing it's perceived value to be eroded and that can only be a bad thing. Consider;

- "We need to move the time of the Grand National for tv" - "Done"

- "The premier flat race of the season clashes with the Cup Final- we need to move it 90 MINUTES before the start of the cup final" - "Done". Even with the collapse in attendance- that's ok- just blame something else

- "We need a bigger betting window" - "Done- just shift the supposed minor meetings to times where the crowds will be decimated"

- "There's a friendly football match we want to show so we need you to start the Northumberland Plate meeting at 12:20 even though it'll seriously hit crowds" - "Done"

- "Air brush out Rachael's whip in case it offends people who are never going to go racing anyway" - "Done"

Anything else? What's next?

So what I'm saying is that, by the actions of racing, they are devaluing it. They are saying "we're not as important as friendly footy matches etc". And if you cheapen the brand you de-value the experience. We need to enhance the value of racing not cheapen it- though I reiterate that does not mean increasing the entrance fees- the golf example is just the way golf enhances its value as, in golf, green fee = quality in many people's mind. Racing is different- let's stand up and say "but we're special too" huh, instead bending over and inviting a kick.

Enough pontificating. How was our value at Perth?

1) Solid start for us as the short priced favourite, An Mhi, won what was effectively a match with 2nd favourite Fiveonefive. 4 bogeys further down the market for us, none of whom featured. Usual CairnBet hotpot book. Slightly more surprisingly was the unlaid forecast for an extra few quid.

2) Stood the top 3 in the market plus the very well bet Russian Virtue and Willy Nilly on the name. No virtue for us as Russian cost us a half max and justified the support.

3) Choose your liability as, again, we stood the top two in the market plus The Ferry Master. The least worst, Walking The Walk, won but profits were now wiped out and we were back to square one.

4) Bizarre. Cedar Hill opened vying for favouritism and drifted to be the outsider of five. We were happy to have laid it and laid it and laid it. Happy Dex at the head of the market the other loser and 3 big winners right in the middle. Brilliant book. Cedar Hill defied the drift, the massive in running price and our 3 jackpots travelling all over it at various times to win and give us another loss, this time a max. You can't eat value.

5) And again. Top 2 in the market laid- we will be getting a "normal" reputation. 2nd in, Ballykeel snagging our jackpot Definite Plan and we were digging a bigger hole.

6) Favourite plus 2 of the 3 co 2nd favourites in the market stood for the max this time and huge winners all over the place. Sea Prince gave us hope but Mrs Paisley won impressively and, whilst it was the co 2nd favourite that wasn't a loser for us it was barely a winner either. Tiny dent but we needed a big last race.

7) Usual hotpot book again with jolly Faux Fir a small winner, 2nd favourite Breizh River a massive winner and the 2 outsiders losers for the max. Cracking Rhapsody won as the favourite toiled. You had to laugh or you'd cry. Carnage in the ring as cash was haemorrhaged across the board. Many books will have backed it back into a profit and fair play to them if they did but hardly any book would have had it a winner "naturally". We do what we do and take it on the chin when we have a losing rag.

Overall it was hard to win for any method I think. The "stand what you take" method gets hit by the winning favourites in the middle and the rag in the last but gets a win in the first. The "standardised book" gets hit by the winning favourites in the middle plus the odds on shot in the first but gets a result in the last. We move on.

Hexham on Saturday- blog on Sunday. Until then...