Gone Fishing

Actual racing doesn't come much better than the Guineas festival weekend at the Curragh. Three Group 1's including two classics and a handful of other valuable races show off flat racing at its very best. In elite sporting terms if this doesn't float your boat then it's time to go fishing. So how dispiriting is it that HQ's controversial reduced 6,000 capacity didn't come even half way to being threatened on either day. Spin it any way you like but that's lamentable.

It's even more so considering the 6,000 limit is for everyone on site. An estimated near 1,000 people worked in a professional capacity - stable staff, jockeys, catering personnel. Then you have owners, sponsors and assorted others before we even start to talk about good old Joe Public going just to watch, have a drink or place a bet.

It's easy for regular racegoers to take this for granted but overall figures of 2,500 on-site on Saturday and 2,800 on Sunday are stark. Together they don't come near the restricted daily capacity limit.

The idea of a disappointed audience left frustrated outside the gates by this restricted capacity was never really on. But with all the focus on public facilities the real question is still why so much of the general public continue to vote with their feet and not actually bother to go at all. Because anyway you look at it this is still a spectacular display of indifference to the best this sport can serve up.

Racing's officials love totting up total average attendances for a year and comparing them to other sports. But ordinary GAA club games can get these sorts of figures in terms of people actually paying in. Even third-rate League of Ireland football get them. This is elite racing and it seemed the majority who were there had a stake in being there.

It is true in a global digital betting environment that attendances aren't a true indicator of public interest. But neither are they irrelevant. If they were then tracks wouldn't plug them when it suits. This is Ireland - Home of the Horse - and just over 5,000 were at two of the best quality cards of the year.

Yes the weather was lousy on Saturday. And yes charging full-whack for temporary facilities is pushing it, even if they might be an improvement on what was there: goodwill is always worth something. And yes there's always the old chestnut about people prepared to stand in mucky point to point fields rather than cross the road for a classic.

But there was the whole Best Dressed Lady bit, a big push on social media, never mind old-fashioned curiosity at what the place might look like. And, by the way, there was great racing too. But amidst all the logistical hullabaloo and complaints about facilities, the bottom line is that interest from the general public on the ground was still scant.

That has to generate some fundamental soul-searching about racing's essential pulling power. It's pretty much a given that the quality of actual racing is irrelevant to crowd figures. But no matter what allowances are made, there are basic questions about a sport's sustainable long-term future when audiences can't be bothered turning up to this extent for showpiece events.

It especially applies with the Curragh's €70 million redevelopment. There's a general attitude of 'Build It And They Will Come,' the argument being it was hard to attract people when the facilities were so poor.

So in 2019 there will be a 6,000 capacity stand and a wider course facility for 30,000. And maybe people will come when the Curragh is all new and shiny again. But it will be some achievement if they do off the customer base that currently exists.

As for complaints about the facilities failing to cope with wet weather on Saturday, including comments by the former government Minister Ivan Yates about it being a disgrace to Irish racing, all one can ask is - who knew it could rain on the Curragh?

Certainly the disregard for Joe Public in all the debate about whether racing should continue through construction has been obvious. There's nothing new in pointing out the incongruity of continuing to race on a building site. But the Curragh has always been bleak when it rains. There are more valid avenues for outrage than whether or not people should be expected to huddle under new canvas or old concrete.

One more fundamental question perhaps is why so many people don't seem to care either way, and what can be done to change that.

Regular racegoers over the last two decades have probably also got blasé about Aidan O'Brien's remorseless rewriting of the racing record book. Churchill and Winter took him to 70 European classics between Ireland, Britain and France. Whatever way you look at it, and whatever view you take on the relationship between training talent and the raw material at someone's disposal, that's a staggering achievement.

And he's still only 46 which means it's only a matter of time before even classic pedants acknowledge the 70 mark. Because technically three Irish Legers and one French Leger aren't really classics at all. By definition classics are for three year olds. But it doesn't do to get too hung up on such details. If both races were still just three year old affairs it's fair to assume by now both the Irish Leger and the Prix Royal Oak would be Group 3 races.

O'Brien again made the point over the weekend that very rarely do Galileo's lack for stamina. He also repeated how he believes ten furlongs is no trouble to Churchill. So there's no point pretending this Saturday's Derby will not lose something through the absence of what Christophe Soumillon has described as Europe's outstanding three year old.

But O'Brien could still have six shots at emulating Vincent O'Brien six Derby wins and vibes appear to indicate Cliffs Of Moher could be the real deal in a renewal which has so far failed to grab the public imagination.

And finally it appears trainers are going to have to pay more rates through a bureaucratic change in the definition of their businesses. Sure enough some grim predictions are being made on the back of this. But in any other business such charges are passed on to the customer which in this case is the owner.

Training is often portrayed as a vocation. And it is - if you can afford it to be. If it's to be a sustainable business then business rules must apply. And if you can't attract owners willing to play ball with that then maybe it's a signal to start finding another business.