This Isn't Hardcore

There have been six Curragh meetings run this year and the focus during each of them has often been on how the decision not to close down during the track's €70 million reconstruction is a slap in the face to the racing public. And it's a valid argument if not entirely straightforward. For instance it's interesting to consider just how valid much of the speculation about the impact on racing's hardcore fans actually is. Because just how many such hardcore fans exist? Are there even a thousand in the country?

By hardcore I don't mean feet on the ground. This isn't about those working at the races. Or stewards, members or us media parasistes. Or those with a leg in a horse and their pals with a complimentary ticket because they know that person with that leg. It's not someone who got an AIR card in 1996 and still gets in for nothing. Or blaggers slipping in behind a horsebox.

I'm talking fans that those in other sports would recognise. People paying through the gates and going racing because they simply want to watch the horses, have a bet and enjoy a decent day out. And do it regularly, say once a fortnight, like going to a home football match. Stalwarts who go to the trouble of actually going to the races. How many are there? Would there be a couple of hundred in each province?

Of course it's not like 20 years ago when going racing was mostly the only way of watching it. Such figures were never an accurate reflection of the interest in the game even then and it's certainly not now. But with so much indignant comment regarding the impact of the Curragh decision on racing's customer base, it's interesting to consider how much of the general public is actually being affected.

This space has already commented on the low turnout for Guineas weekend - 2,500 on the Saturday and 2,800 on the Sunday - even though such figures weren't unusual for the fixtures. If you take it that up to 1,500 worked at the Curragh on 2,000 Guineas day, and at least 500 were there as owners or members, that left only a fraction of the attendance actually paying at the gate.

They were the ones entitled to bitch and probably also the ones able to recall how the Curragh has always been a dispiriting dump in the rain.

The focus now will be the on the run up to the Derby and the daft judgement call that will see flat racing's showpiece event run on a building site with a restricted capacity just to suit a golden circle when the obvious thing to do in the circumstances was switch to Leopardstown.

That, along with not switching the second leg of 'Champions Weekend' is the real slap to the public face and proof of just how low down the list of priorities the racing public is here.

There are lots of reasons for that, most of them linked to how the punting public is essentially irrelevant in Irish racing's financial model. Otherwise though it's hard not to conclude that quite a lot of the dudgeon expressed on the public's behalf is over the top since the depressing fact is it's actually only a tiny slice of the supposedly blackguarded public we can feel indignant for.

It was once pointed out to this quarter that discussing ethics in the horse game is as futile as debating badminton with a banana. What it comes down to is the colour of your money. And when it comes to horses money is usually colour blind. Mind you that same sage also used to point out the importance of who you choose to be seen with.

Such things came to mind in relation to the current diplomatic crisis in the gulf with a coalition of states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, cutting all diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terror groups and destabilising the region.

Now the sight of some of these states clambering onto the high moral ground can provoke substantial queasiness considering their own shaky human right records. And the sight of the Oval Office Snake Oil merchant backing them up invariably makes one wonder. Nevertheless it seems Qatar is effectively being treated as something of a rogue state.

Racing's priority in such a context is tiny. But within its own tiny environs this is a big enough deal to leave substantial sections of the industry anxious. The Irish horse game hasn't as much tied up in the Al Thani family as Britain but still has plenty enough of a stake in keeping the Qatari money hose open.

The consequence is a delicate optical balancing act with determined efforts to focus on the public/private status differences between the Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club, the Al Shaqab operation and Qatar Racing. That such distinctions involving the ruling dynasty of a tiny emirate might be technically correct will be enough for those anxious to leave commercial and political links as they are.

And it's probably naive to expect otherwise. After all the appalling treatment of migrant workers building Qatar towards their ludicrous 2022 World Cup hasn't provoked any sort of substantive reaction bar collective nose-holding around the globe. So it's hard to expect a neighbourhood squabble will result in anything different. Which leaves racing to continue counting the cash in its own little bubble.

Talking of which, apparently there's keen anticipation at Horse Racing Ireland of when the announcement might be made that they're not technically being subsidised by the state anymore but are instead sustainable through dividend from betting tax across all platforms.

In PR terms It's likely to be sold as an industry nirvana with all the usual smiling PR bells and whistles. And as with most PR it will be a smoke and mirrors exercise. Because at root nothing will have changed. Yes betting tax will fill the Horse & Greyhound Fund coffers but it won't be because of Irish racing which still generates just a fraction of turnover. And that constitutues a subsidy in anyone's language.

In fact if you want to wipe off some HRI smiles just propose the idea of an algorithm capable of identifying how much betting each sport generates with central funding allocations linked to such turnover. I did recently and thought resuscitation would be necessary.