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12 Feb 18
09:01
Joined:
Date Joined:
18 Feb 07
Give me strength, yet another ridiculous concept which simply won't work. No sane person cares about this nonsense:
Big brands could go head to head in radical team competition
Championship Horse Racing: how the branded team silks might look
A new brand of racing unique in concept and with a vision to attract blue-chip sponsorship from across the world could launch in Britain next year.
Championship Horse Racing would centre on a team competition with a scoring system similar to F1, pitting 12 global brands against each other in an eight-week summer series.
Although still in its infancy, plans revealed exclusively to the Racing Post are geared towards a 2019 launch and would include:
12 branded teams similar to Red Bull in F1 or Team Sky in cycling
A £10 million+ investment in British racing
Six £100,000+ handicaps per meeting
Squads of 30 horses and four riders per team
The blueprint suggests a multi-million-pound investment for British racing, with a different 'Group 1 racecourse' staging the series in an early-evening televised slot every Thursday for eight weeks through the summer.
The driving force behind the concept is Jeremy Wray, former chairman of Swindon Town Football Club, who hopes the series can “turbo-boost audience, prize-money and participation growth rates” as recently seen in other sports like the Twenty20 format of cricket and darts.
“The anonymity of racing has always driven me mad,” said Wray, whose brother Ed was a co-founder of Betfair. “I’m confident that by going out there and setting up a competition which is team based and has an exclusivity to it, you’re going to get a very exciting mix of brands.
"I’m not going to claim to know where they’re all going to come from, but I'd like to think there will be a couple of brands you or I haven’t heard of because this is an opportunity for countries who are looking to break into the UK.”
Jeremy Wray: driving force behind Championship Horse Racing
Jeremy Wray: driving force behind Championship Horse Racing
While racing has struggled in the past to attract powerhouse brands to the sport, Wray is confident the concept of owning a team makes this a very different beast to traditional race sponsorship.
“If you think more Indian Premier League than F1 here, it could almost become a brand playground if you go to the right people,” he said. “They get a whole racing team, 30 horses, a stake in a yard, two and a half hours on prime-time television a week, and a constant narrative going on through the series, hopefully turning viewers into fans of a brand.”
Wray explained that each squad of 30 horses may be in the care of a single trainer or multiple trainers, while the team brand they race under will have four dedicated jockeys, who will ride only for their team during the series.
While big-name brands will own the team, the series is not only for the elite, with handicaps rather than Listed or Group races making up each six-race meeting in the series, which should in theory make it accessible to the majority of owners, trainers and horses.
Wray hopes the series will engage with a new audience as well as strike the right chord with existing fans and, while the team/brand element is crucial to its narrative, promoting those at the heart of the action will also play a big part.
He added: “It’s very much focusing on the characters and key participants, so the jockeys and trainers if you like, as opposed to the horse. To keep the F1 analogy going, the horses are the engines but we need to get to know the people better. For the sport and its prestige we've got to build these people up.”
Horses enlisted in the competition will still be eligible to run in any race throughout the racing calendar, although when they appear in the series it will be in team colours rather than their owners’ silks.
Each team will have one runner per race, meaning 12-runner contests throughout, as the organisers try to make the competition as accessible and attractive to viewers as possible.
All 48 races across the eight fixtures of the series will have prize-money of at least £100,000, and when taking into account the team prize-money on offer through a scoring system that stretches down to tenth place in each race, the amount on offer will be far greater than the race value, with owners, trainers, yards and jockeys all benefiting from what would be a fresh investment in the sport via the blue-chip brands at the heart of the concept.
The points system will ultimately determine an overall winning team and jockey.
Wray said: “The 12 brands will be able to select their trainers, who may be individuals or trainers who have coupled to present themselves as a team capable of providing this squad of 30 horses. Hopefully a whole load of trainers will put themselves forward as potentially captaining a team.”
Championship Horse Racing: the format
>The series will comprise 12 teams each having a squad of 30 horses which may be in the care of a single trainer or multiple trainers
>They will compete in eight fixtures of six races each staged on Thursday evenings during consecutive weeks (July to September)
>Each of the 48 races will have 12 runners, one from each team
>Points will be awarded in a similar format to F1 with 25 points to the winner down to one point to tenth place
Initial talks with the sport’s stakeholders have been mostly positive according to Wray, with the Jockey Club, who along with Racecourse Media Group have an agreement in principle of ownership structure and partnership terms in the series, working closely with the Championship Horse Racing chief executive and his team – which includes former trainer Charlie Brooks – to develop the idea. An agreement has also been reached in principle with ITV to broadcast the full series.
According to Wray, the BHA is also behind the series, while “positive initial discussions” with such as the National Trainers’ Federation and Professional Jockeys Association have taken place. Two of Newmarket’s most respected and successful trainers have also seen plans and are reportedly backing the idea.
He added: “Nothing is contractually signed yet but racing has been unbelievably supportive. What’s been really encouraging is that everyone is trying to help build this thing.
“It’s at a very early stage but the important things is getting the concept out there and for people to understand and see it’s hopefully a win-win for everybody, as it’s an opportunity for new funding to come into the sport. It’s going to be exciting but the hard work starts here.
Big brands could go head to head in radical team competition
Championship Horse Racing: how the branded team silks might look
A new brand of racing unique in concept and with a vision to attract blue-chip sponsorship from across the world could launch in Britain next year.
Championship Horse Racing would centre on a team competition with a scoring system similar to F1, pitting 12 global brands against each other in an eight-week summer series.
Although still in its infancy, plans revealed exclusively to the Racing Post are geared towards a 2019 launch and would include:
12 branded teams similar to Red Bull in F1 or Team Sky in cycling
A £10 million+ investment in British racing
Six £100,000+ handicaps per meeting
Squads of 30 horses and four riders per team
The blueprint suggests a multi-million-pound investment for British racing, with a different 'Group 1 racecourse' staging the series in an early-evening televised slot every Thursday for eight weeks through the summer.
The driving force behind the concept is Jeremy Wray, former chairman of Swindon Town Football Club, who hopes the series can “turbo-boost audience, prize-money and participation growth rates” as recently seen in other sports like the Twenty20 format of cricket and darts.
“The anonymity of racing has always driven me mad,” said Wray, whose brother Ed was a co-founder of Betfair. “I’m confident that by going out there and setting up a competition which is team based and has an exclusivity to it, you’re going to get a very exciting mix of brands.
"I’m not going to claim to know where they’re all going to come from, but I'd like to think there will be a couple of brands you or I haven’t heard of because this is an opportunity for countries who are looking to break into the UK.”
Jeremy Wray: driving force behind Championship Horse Racing
Jeremy Wray: driving force behind Championship Horse Racing
While racing has struggled in the past to attract powerhouse brands to the sport, Wray is confident the concept of owning a team makes this a very different beast to traditional race sponsorship.
“If you think more Indian Premier League than F1 here, it could almost become a brand playground if you go to the right people,” he said. “They get a whole racing team, 30 horses, a stake in a yard, two and a half hours on prime-time television a week, and a constant narrative going on through the series, hopefully turning viewers into fans of a brand.”
Wray explained that each squad of 30 horses may be in the care of a single trainer or multiple trainers, while the team brand they race under will have four dedicated jockeys, who will ride only for their team during the series.
While big-name brands will own the team, the series is not only for the elite, with handicaps rather than Listed or Group races making up each six-race meeting in the series, which should in theory make it accessible to the majority of owners, trainers and horses.
Wray hopes the series will engage with a new audience as well as strike the right chord with existing fans and, while the team/brand element is crucial to its narrative, promoting those at the heart of the action will also play a big part.
He added: “It’s very much focusing on the characters and key participants, so the jockeys and trainers if you like, as opposed to the horse. To keep the F1 analogy going, the horses are the engines but we need to get to know the people better. For the sport and its prestige we've got to build these people up.”
Horses enlisted in the competition will still be eligible to run in any race throughout the racing calendar, although when they appear in the series it will be in team colours rather than their owners’ silks.
Each team will have one runner per race, meaning 12-runner contests throughout, as the organisers try to make the competition as accessible and attractive to viewers as possible.
All 48 races across the eight fixtures of the series will have prize-money of at least £100,000, and when taking into account the team prize-money on offer through a scoring system that stretches down to tenth place in each race, the amount on offer will be far greater than the race value, with owners, trainers, yards and jockeys all benefiting from what would be a fresh investment in the sport via the blue-chip brands at the heart of the concept.
The points system will ultimately determine an overall winning team and jockey.
Wray said: “The 12 brands will be able to select their trainers, who may be individuals or trainers who have coupled to present themselves as a team capable of providing this squad of 30 horses. Hopefully a whole load of trainers will put themselves forward as potentially captaining a team.”
Championship Horse Racing: the format
>The series will comprise 12 teams each having a squad of 30 horses which may be in the care of a single trainer or multiple trainers
>They will compete in eight fixtures of six races each staged on Thursday evenings during consecutive weeks (July to September)
>Each of the 48 races will have 12 runners, one from each team
>Points will be awarded in a similar format to F1 with 25 points to the winner down to one point to tenth place
Initial talks with the sport’s stakeholders have been mostly positive according to Wray, with the Jockey Club, who along with Racecourse Media Group have an agreement in principle of ownership structure and partnership terms in the series, working closely with the Championship Horse Racing chief executive and his team – which includes former trainer Charlie Brooks – to develop the idea. An agreement has also been reached in principle with ITV to broadcast the full series.
According to Wray, the BHA is also behind the series, while “positive initial discussions” with such as the National Trainers’ Federation and Professional Jockeys Association have taken place. Two of Newmarket’s most respected and successful trainers have also seen plans and are reportedly backing the idea.
He added: “Nothing is contractually signed yet but racing has been unbelievably supportive. What’s been really encouraging is that everyone is trying to help build this thing.
“It’s at a very early stage but the important things is getting the concept out there and for people to understand and see it’s hopefully a win-win for everybody, as it’s an opportunity for new funding to come into the sport. It’s going to be exciting but the hard work starts here.
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"it could almost become a brand playground if you go to the right people"
Quite possibly an early contender for the most horrific piece of marketing jargon of 2018.
Quite possibly an early contender for the most horrific piece of marketing jargon of 2018.
If the BHA are behind the idea how can it fail........
Will the horses be covered from head to hoof in sponsor stickers and will there grid girls? and maybe a compulsory saddle change halfway through a staying race.
Alot of investment to have a few blokes with their back to the tv playing the slots.
this idea is the biggest load of bollox I've read in a long time
i presume the piece is the straight forward press release blurb . i too initially thought it was an early april fool job as i was half asleep reading it . i have now re read it several times . my opinion has not changed .
Why not just stage the always popular Shergar Cup every other weekend?
Will all the corporate types have their henchmen muscling the on-course players out of their boxes?
Anyone else becoming totally disillusioned with the sport and the way it is run in this country?
Just how useless are the BHA? Instead of dealing with the real issues in the sport they are supporting tripe like this and FOBT's.
Just how useless are the BHA? Instead of dealing with the real issues in the sport they are supporting tripe like this and FOBT's.
'Wray hopes the series will engage with a new audience as well as strike the right chord with existing fans'
-------------
Regular racegoers and us Punters are now, "FANS," - apparently ...
- are we really?
-------------
Regular racegoers and us Punters are now, "FANS," - apparently ...
- are we really?
These fans do exist onlooker, some of them even adorn themselves with scarfs in the Ricci colours.
ribero1 - I, too, thought that immediately.
Was waiting for his name to appear throughout the article.
Was waiting for his name to appear throughout the article.
Well - They won't be having 'Grid Girls' at the Starting Stalls, now.
Paddock 'Parade Girls', maybe.
Paddock 'Parade Girls', maybe.
They'll have a boy and a girl, possibly those ones from love island or whatever it's called.
Leaving aside the fact that the appeal of racing lies solely in the horses, the horses' form and the chance to bet on those horses, the whole plan looks remarkably similar to what Rover finds in his feedbowl each morning.
There's always going to be interest in individual trainers, jockeys, and even breeders, because of their effect on how the horses themselves perform. But focusing on owners! My God. At best they're a source of funding, at worst the ruination of a good horse, and I speak as someone who actually had a horse in training once. Can't the people behind this see how such people must appear to punters with no hope of ever owning one.
There's always going to be interest in individual trainers, jockeys, and even breeders, because of their effect on how the horses themselves perform. But focusing on owners! My God. At best they're a source of funding, at worst the ruination of a good horse, and I speak as someone who actually had a horse in training once. Can't the people behind this see how such people must appear to punters with no hope of ever owning one.
works OK in Ireland. They have team O'Leary versus Team McManus or team Gordon versus team Willie in many races
HRI has released half-yearly figures which show rises in active owners, prize money and sales, but attendances and on-course betting have fallen
https://www.theirishfield.ie/ownership-numbers-up-but-attendance-figures-fal...
https://www.theirishfield.ie/ownership-numbers-up-but-attendance-figures-fal...
It does NOT - "work OK in Ireland" - The Fear - it p!sses everybody off ...
- although I do appreciate you ironic sense of humour
- although I do appreciate you ironic sense of humour
TheFear does make a good point though. If you want to market the sport as an owner-based competition, such a structure is already there. And moreover, it's the real thing. The Sheikhs versus Coolmore versus the Qataris versus the Saudis, with Her plucky Majesty battling valiantly for Blighty. It's even got that all-important scope for supporting "teams" based on nationality.
And these are real teams, backed up by real money, trying to outdo each other for all sorts of reasons - national prestige, making money, tradition, even genuine love of racing in rare cases.
If you feel that's the way to market the sport, then by all means big those teams up, and emphasize their different outlooks, backgrounds, etc.
It's the same story that's bedevilled marketing of British horse racing for 20-odd years: ignoring the marvellous, traditional product you've grown for three centuries in favour of ripping all that up and trying to hammer a badly-fitting, artificial 'narrative' onto it instead.
And these are real teams, backed up by real money, trying to outdo each other for all sorts of reasons - national prestige, making money, tradition, even genuine love of racing in rare cases.
If you feel that's the way to market the sport, then by all means big those teams up, and emphasize their different outlooks, backgrounds, etc.
It's the same story that's bedevilled marketing of British horse racing for 20-odd years: ignoring the marvellous, traditional product you've grown for three centuries in favour of ripping all that up and trying to hammer a badly-fitting, artificial 'narrative' onto it instead.
I notice there is nothing in the above article which actually says that any of the corporations have actually expressed an interest in ploughing cash into this venture. And there is the stumbling block. It won't happen.
Yes I'd be amazed if it happens. Nobody with half a brain is going to support this nonsense (unless they have a financial interest). Must admit it looked like an early April Fool for me too.
Unless Wazza has already secured the rights to Team DC of course.
it would appear that in screaming's 12.17 post the job has been done properly , for nothing and making much more sense than the p.r. tripe issued by mr wray and his team .
A similarly hare-brained concept, very clearly a distant cousin to this one, was mooted this time last year. Two separate companies were vying to stage spectacular horse races in the streets of some of the world's great capitals along The Mall, The Champs Elysees etc. "As early as 2017" they promised.
Must have missed it then. Who won?
Must have missed it then. Who won?
it is meant to be a new game for the super rich to play
screamings 12.17 post sums it up.
We (Britain & Ireland) have the best racing in the world. The tradition, history and the differing tracks are just a few of the strong points to mention. The sport is about the horses with the jockeys and trainers secondary followed by who owns them. This is marketing rubbish pure and simple and to use their language they're "devaluing the brand". Got to give the Irish some credit as don't think they'd ever do anything like this and as Kevin Blake said the other day about the Dublin Racing Festival he doesn't care if it attracts new people or not.
I don't want to here any carping about prize money if this sort of dross is rolled out. Nobody gives a f**k about teams etc. We want good quality racing pure and simple not a contrived format.
We (Britain & Ireland) have the best racing in the world. The tradition, history and the differing tracks are just a few of the strong points to mention. The sport is about the horses with the jockeys and trainers secondary followed by who owns them. This is marketing rubbish pure and simple and to use their language they're "devaluing the brand". Got to give the Irish some credit as don't think they'd ever do anything like this and as Kevin Blake said the other day about the Dublin Racing Festival he doesn't care if it attracts new people or not.
I don't want to here any carping about prize money if this sort of dross is rolled out. Nobody gives a f**k about teams etc. We want good quality racing pure and simple not a contrived format.
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