Nevin Truesdai-Jockey Club. Oh dear!

The depressing comments post-Cheltenham by the Jockey Club chairman lays it all bare. He admits the "success" (ie profit" from the Cheltenham festival funds the rest of the year. It's not about offering people a fantastic product or a pleasureable experience,it's about getting as much hospitality crammed in Prestbury Park as possible. It's about selling as much alcohol and food  as possible. The more people with no interest in horse racing we can offer the best experience to , funded by city businesses the better.
He says "we are not complacent", when in reality they have shown themselves to be incompetent and complacent. A four day festival has meant over time the product has become less and less competitive. The reduced crowd figures are nothing to do with cost of living whatsoever. It's that the "championship meeting" has become so diluted and uncompetitive, people are not prepared to pay the ridiculous costs involved for such a poor product and experience. The club  (£130) experience at the festival is woeful. You cannot get in the champagne bar even if you wanted to. There is n where to sit, nowhere to get a decent view of the race if you wish to actually see the horses in the paddock , then place a bet and find somewhere to see the race. Racing is in decline because it has stopped selling it's product, it has sold it's soul to the devil by focussing on hospitality, coach parties, alcohol, music concerts and basically anything not to do with horse racing to get money through the door. Arc are a massive problem catering for too much ow class fodder to appease the bookmakers. Racing needs to close half it's courses,  have a maximum of two meetings a day  with one night meeting in Summer and a night meeting on Friday and Saturday nights in winter. But will the Jockey Club actually listen to anybody. It took the BHA 4 years to find Dan Skelton £6k for lying about ownership in a horse!