As people ponder an equivalent of the Dublin Racing Festival in Britain, our columnist argues a revamp of the Christmas programme is the way forward.
This wasn’t one of the more high-profile Saturdays of the racing year but it’s always nice to be at Goodwood in the glorious sunshine.
And Lavender's Blue and Benbatl served up a thrilling finish to the feature tote Celebration Mile, the former getting there in the final strides to win it for the Amanda Perrett team.
It’s been an eventful three days at the track where music was the focus on Friday night, the racing took centre stage on Saturday, and then I’m delighted to see it’s a Family Sunday fixture with fairground rides and all sorts of entertainment at the perfect time of year when parents are desperate to do things with kids at the end of the school holidays.
We must keep reminding these families that under 18s go free at our racecourses.
It’s been a busy week on the news front. How best to sell our sport has been one topic of debate and another has been the suggestion of creating a British equivalent of the Dublin Racing Festival.
There are a number of reasons why I don’t think that’s a runner. Nicky Henderson, for example, told the Racing Post: ‘We don't go to Dublin because we do not want a mega dust-up five weeks before Cheltenham. It's how to lose your race, not win them. If we had one on our doorstep, you'd still be mindful that what they don't need is a desperately hard race five weeks before.’
Then there’s the simple fact that there aren’t enough good jumpers in Britain to be having another major meeting so close to Cheltenham. It’s a time of the year when we should be having fewer graded races, not more, and trying to create more head-to-heads between the big stars.
Any new venture would also need the support of terrestrial television and that couldn’t be guaranteed on ITV at a time of the year when I fear it could get lost among the Six Nations rugby schedule.
So what is the answer?
My preference would be for a British Winter Festival staged over Christmas but crucially working with Leopardstown and the Irish authorities as partners. We could create something that compliments each other on both sides of the Irish Sea, shown to the biggest possible audience.
Ask anyone loosely connected with the sport right now and they’ll tell you there’s one jumping festival – at Cheltenham in March. I’ve said many times those four days at Prestbury Park provide a wonderful crescendo to the season but there is scope to ensure it’s not the sole focus of the campaign.
Therefore, it’s time to create another seasonal highlight at Christmas, but racing needs to work together – for the bigger picture – as three changes need to be made.
1. Ascot must be prepared to condense their two-day pre-Christmas meeting to one – and move the other fixture to December 27th. I know the current slot is important for them as it’s very popular with corporate clients.
2. Kempton reduce their two-day meeting to racing on Boxing Day only.
3. The Coral Welsh Grand National moves from its current slot to a Saturday in January.
So, a potential Christmas Festival Boxing Day card would feature the Desert Orchid Chase, Christmas Hurdle, Kauto Star Novices’ Chase and King George.
The latter would be run at 2.45 to ensure all of our big races are done before the 3pm Boxing Day kick-offs so we’ve got the eyes of the sporting world. We, on ITV, could then show the big Grade Ones in Ireland where at that time of year they have the crucial advantage of half an hour or so of more daylight.
Then on the 27th we move to Ascot where the feature race would be the Long Walk Hurdle. It could be the ultimate family raceday, something that track does better than anywhere else. They could create a huge winter wonderland, shopping villages, attractions to engage families, sports fans and hopefully sports journalists.
On air we’d again show the action from Ireland too, showcasing the best of the jumping game.
As I’ve said before, the narrative of the jumps season gets very difficult for us on ITV, particularly through January, and moving the Welsh National to one of those Saturday slots could really help. For the first time we could give the race the full treatment, something we haven’t been able to do so far.
We could present from Chepstow and be able to show off an event Wales is justifiably so proud of, to a huge audience in the way we did at York last week.
The key thing in all of this is racing working together and getting the branding right. I might be speaking out of turn as I haven’t spoken to my bosses yet, but the dream for me would be to call it the ITV Christmas Festival. Those are three powerful words, ITV, Christmas and Festival, and we could then look for a headline sponsor for the showpiece.
It’s the sort of event that would be so easy to promote. We could push it during England World Cup qualifiers, day-time television programmes and Saturday night entertainment shows.
It would give the jumps season an additional focus and benefit both Britain and Ireland. I’m sure Leopardstown would love to show off their feature races to an audience of over one million people in the UK. All the tracks involved would need to be on board, working as partners with one brand to build something new.
As we know, when the racing family do get their heads together it can be very powerful.
So there you are – there’s my idea of how to revamp the domestic jumps season. Let’s make Christmas a time to celebrate and enjoy the very best of our sport.
