Steve Moran

Steve’s Struck A Chord On The TV Rights

The bottom line is that it would require permission from TABcorp to allow Racing.Com to show the Sydney races which would presumably only happen if Racing Victoria, via Racing.Com, allows Sky Thoroughbred Central to show the vision from Victoria.

This surely makes sense – especially on the major raceday Saturdays.

In the interim we can, at least, see the majority of the races from Sydney and Melbourne on free-to-air at Channel 7 through the autumn carnival – even if this coverage seems to attract minimal promotion from the industry and has a general lack of awareness.

Seven producer Andrew Hore-Lacy notes that for the first time, the entire autumn carnival is on 7.

“Seven will, this year, telecast every Group One race for the year with the exception of the two run at the Moonee Valley Friday night meetings,” Hore-Lacy said.

Seven’s contribution is significant and ought to command our support lest it be lost. “With the possible exception of ITV (in the UK), nowhere in the world does the number one free-to-air network support racing like Seven does,” Hore-Lacy said.

Of course, when Seven are not involved there remains a void on Saturday’s when the vast majority of fans would love to see a dedicated coverage of Sydney and Melbourne (which generates the most turnover) interspersed with the feature race action from the other states when appropriate ie. through the Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide carnivals.

While the majority of turnover is generated via Sky 1 (the wall to wall racing coverage) with the figure as high as 85 per cent in New South Wales, there is surely a need to showcase the major racing to broaden the audience and presumably spike some increase in turnover from the racing fan who doesn’t necessarily want to bet on every race, everywhere. Just the good stuff.

Peter V’Landy’s, chief executive of Racing NSW, did respond positively when I spoke to him after Saturday’s story.

“We raised the matter of swapping vision some time ago with Racing Victoria but have not heard anything since. I am more than happy to raise it again. We will always be open to discussion on the matter. We can certainly progress swapping internet rights to ensure race replay vision is available.

“And we’re definitely open to examining the digital rights but, at the end of the day, this requires permission from TABcorp,” V’Landy’s said.

The source of turnover aside, I cannot understand why industry administrators would not want see the best racing showcased on one channel and who’s to say such a coverage would not generate it’s own increase in turnover.

If we must continue with two dedicated racing channels, Racing.Com and Sky Thoroughbred Central, then why not make them legitimate competitors by allowing them to both show Sydney and Melbourne. May the best coverage win!

I await further responses from Racing.Com and TABcorp who have been contacted. It is a question of will. Is TABcorp content to rely on the revenue generated by wall-to-wall coverage? Does Victoria want to go it alone with it’s Racing.Com coverage?

Either would be folly in my view. Racing needs a shop window to showcase the best of what we have which, aside from the aforementioned carnivals, is predominantly the action from Melbourne and Sydney.

Collingwood and the Broncos may the most AFL and NRL support but we are not going to put up with them dictating that that we watch their reserves teams or juniors in prime time. Showcased coverage of racing may well prove to be the contemporary shopfront – engendering an interest in the sport. The equivalent, good heavens, of actually going to the race as was the case when I was a kid.

 

THE EVEREST
V’Landy’s remains bullish about the inaugural $7,200,000 The Everest, to be run in October, despite criticism that it’s elitist.

A berth in the race will cost investors $600,000 per year on a three-year contract, and buyers can then chase a horse to fill their spot for them – with deals entirely negotiable between the share holders and owners.

“First-up the net cost will be no more than $425,000 given that we’ll pay $175,000 just for running last and I totally reject that it’s elitist. After all, a batter could well have a runner in the race without outlaying a cent, having done a deal with someone holding a slot.

“I’m sure this race will develop it’s own brand and mystique and there’ll be a ‘million’ stories for the media leading into it,” V’Landy’s said.

V’landy’s said that The Everest was likely to have four emergencies; that there were plans afoot to have a consolation race and that organisers were happy not to go down the Pegasus path of offering a clip of other revenues, generated on the day, to investors.

“Nobody knew what that figure would be. We have guaranteed $2,800,000 on top of the subscriptions which is what we believe will be generated in extra revenues. But we’re doing that our risk,” he said.

V’Landy’s said that the winning percentages paid to trainers and jockeys would be the same as for other races – which will please Terravista’s trainer Joe Pride.

“I wondered about that,” said Pride who may well have the recent Group One Lightning Stakes winner Terravista (Captain Rio) aimed at the race.

“You’d love to find your way to that race. Why not? It’s massive money. It’s another reason why we would probably resist travelling with Terravista. If any overseas race was tempting it would be Hong Kong in December but we took Red Oog (Brief Truce) there some years ago (2006) and he wasn’t the same again.

“And Chautauqua looked to suffer some ill-effect from going there. It’s not ruled out but there’s so much for him here including The Everest and we would love to line him up again in next year’s Lightning,” Pride said.

Pride is hopeful that the next 12 months will be the the most productive for his seven-year-old who’s raced just 25 times. “His feet have always been the problem but this time in he seems to be as good as we’ve ever had him,” he said.

Terravista is expected to next run in Saturday week’s Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and also has the $2,500,000 T J Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on 1 April on the horizon.

Pride has no fewer than seven nominations for the T J Smith Stakes and they include recent acquisition Almighty Girl (Beneteau). “She trialled well at Warwick Farm last week and I really like her,’ he said. Almighty Girl is nominated for the Camarena Quality (1000m) at Canberra on Sunday.

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