Hitting Ben with a Post

The Racing Post is really getting on my goat. Racing folk have to deal with it as it has the monopoly of the genre and can therefore charge what it likes - an extortionate amount.

We have to deal with it though. But the recent 'Brian or Ben' about the radical shake-up racing needs to attract a new audience has sent the Post potty.

The authorities hired a consultant agency (at a cost of £250,000) to look at the sport and see how it can be re-branded. And they concluded that racing at the moment is like Brian - "a bit boring, traditional, thinks he's old fashioned, with friends who are loyal but talk in a language people don't understand, can be arrogant, but when you get to know him can be fascinating."

This sounds pretty true to me. The large majority of everyday racegoers are just this and I would add that they are reluctant to accept newcomers into their sect.

But I suppose, the general make-up of a bookies during the week is pretty much the same, all bar the odd student popping in. This has more to do with the admission prices at racecourses. Especially in these financially harsh times, many just can't afford to go racing often enough and it is only the Brians of this world who can.

Anyway, the agency gave its idea of what racing should be like in five years time, Ben - "approachable and athletic, younger-minded, has travelled more, can talk as easily to a grandmother as a teenager, is inspiring to be with, enjoys a good time, and is entrepreneurial when people work with him."

Accepted, this Ben does sound like the perfect human being and is probably not 100% achievable but racing would be in rude health if it were this persona in the near future.

Back to the Racing Post. What annoyed me was their reaction to the whole findings. They refused to take any of the advice on board and come across as a right Brian.

It was disappointing that we were not given a strategy to implement the re-branding and it is a disappointment to me that I don't think their is anyone in the game who has the balls to grab the sport by the scruff of its neck and sort it all out.

At the moment, racing is just grumbling along and because it isn't making a loud enough noise, the media are dropping it: from the papers and the television.

Granted, the big meetings will always sell, but it's the Redcars and Wincantons on a Saturday that we really need to show to the public as a great day out.

The Post needs to drop its humiliation of Brian and Ben - they were just ways to convey the idea - and it needs to realise that the racing industry will eventually go underground if nothing is done.

Then no-one will by their fucking paper!