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TOPOFTHEHILL



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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 18:26 pm

You know how it is one minute your looking through a load of stats published by the BHA and then your reading something else with absolutely no connection but you are drawn to compare the two things.

Its no secret that I am fiercely critical of the way racing has been run over the past 20 years or so, and that I consider the sport to be in grave danger of being so marginalised that it will become unsustainable.

Look at any old pictures of racedays anywhere and you will see crowds of people who come to see the horses race, maybe have a little bet, possibly a few drinks and maybe some lunch. Many thousands used to go and I know things have changed and there is a lot more on offer these days but just how much racing has missed out by failing to move with the times and refusing to offer any sort of value can be seen by the abysmal numbers of attendees.

The numbers I am looking at are for 2015 and I can not believe that numbers will have risen significantly since. It is in my opinion quite shocking that only 3 tracks have an average attendance of over 10,000.
As you might expect Ascot has by far the best record with 25,400 average this will include the Royal Meeting and Champions day.

Second may surprise some of you, and it is Chester, with just shy of 19,000, well done them.

Next is Goodwood with 11,650. Newmarket inspite of its summer music nights only attracts an average gate of 9,600. In mitigation they do have 39 fixtures.

Now the real eye opening numbers are for Kempton, 1250, pathetic isn’t it. Wolverhampton 915, Southwell 665.

The other thing I was reading was the account of a particularly grisly murder in the East end of London in Victorian times. I will not bore you with the details but the police arrested a suspect who is supposed to have made a confession. It is believed to have been beaten out of him but that is not relevant to the point I am making and he is widely believed to have been innocent.

Innocent or not, as was the way in those times he was publicly hanged. Local estimates were that over 30,000 people turned out to see the hanging. Now if 10 times the number turned out to see a public execution than go to Windsor races what does that say about the state of the sport today.
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