GOAL THREE
community and racing should be presented as a repository of traditional skills and knowledge of the land and horses, which leads to our success on the international racing stage.
We must not, however, lose sight of the fact that people invest their time and money in sport and leisure to be entertained. We will make it clear that a day at the races is fun and provides an outlet for a population in need of enjoyment and release, experienced as a community. The national capacity for shared enjoyment in the company of like-minded people is undiminished, but “good clean fun” is in, whereas “craic” is out.
Irish racing can genuinely be portrayed as a “world centre of excellence”, a source of national pride and something which can help to repair the national reputation. The wider message of racing to our ultimate stakeholder, the Irish people, is that it is part of what we are and something we are innately gifted at.
3.1.4 RACING COMMUNICATIONS
3.1.4.1 Points of Entry The ‘points of entry’ are those meetings most likely to attract first-time or occasional racegoers, principally the main festivals, dominated by Galway week. They will continue to attract new racegoers and the challenge is to capture names and contact details on the ground at these meetings, engage them in the racing experience and follow up with racing information and promotions, ideally through web and social media content.
3.1.4.2 Festival Development There will be opportunities to develop new festivals and festival-type events and we should not consider the existing festivals to have exhausted the possibilities. Leopardstown’s new Summer Series, for instance, presents the emergence of a new festival-type event. Dublin must be a priority market for development, with eight racecourses within some part of its catchment area - Leopardstown, Curragh, Punchestown, Naas, Fairyhouse, Navan, Bellewstown and Laytown with Dundalk and Kilbeggan on the periphery and other major festivals across the country also reliant on Dubliners to travel to their meetings.
3.1.4.3 National Hunt Racing National Hunt racing has strong claims on the interest and affections of racing fans and we need to get through to potential young, urban fans. The alternative pull of
STRATEGIC MARKETING GROUP REPORT TO HRI BOARD PAGE 21
GAA, Rugby, Soccer and internet gaming gives us a tougher battle than before to have our story heard by this audience. The opportunity here is that an established story-line exists for people to connect with to establish and build an interest. That story is the road to Cheltenham and it must be embraced openly and in a structured way. Cheltenham can give a focus to much of the year’s action but also provides a pointer to the ‘double-header’ climax of the Irish National Hunt Season at Fairyhouse and Punchestown. The Irish Grand National meeting at Fairyhouse is an iconic Irish brand that has huge potential amongst our target audience while Punchestown has grown to become the outstanding success story of the National Hunt Season. The Irish achievements at Cheltenham in recent years have heightened public interest and participation in these meetings as well as attracting British racegoers to Ireland to enjoy racing of a comparable standard.
3.1.4.4 Flat Racing If the key to developing interest in a sport is to get people to understand what the participants are trying to achieve, we acknowledge that the ‘story’ of flat racing has been notably difficult to convey given the short racing careers of its top horses. It does, however, have many points of interest which can be communicated to capture new audiences – the international racing success story on the flat is a source of national pride; its trainers and jockeys are widely recognised and respected; the status of Ireland’s top flat races in very high and above all, there is our leadership in breeding – not just a matter of pride but the engine for a significant part of the rural economy. We must tell these stories to a wider public, particularly a younger audience. Racing’s story is as much about the farm as the parade ring and bookies ring.
If taking a new racegoer by the hand, one would ideally start at the beginning of a two year old career in order to convey the whole picture as time goes on. Starting over five furlongs in March and increasing in distance as they grow stronger in time, we distinguish the sprinters from the potential milers. There is a clear path through the season starting with the maidens at the beginning of the year (a series of interviews with trainers focusing on their early two year olds would be helpful to give newcomers an insight). We should make the path clear with a view to engaging people in following horses through to the Classics as three year olds.
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