Sending Up A Desperate Flare

Corporate jargon has it that standing still is really going backwards. That is literally bullshit. However there is a figurative context about the importance of maintaining forward momentum in any enterprise. This will be the fifth year of 'Irish Champions Weekend.' It's tough to argue Irish flat racing's showcase event is going backwards. But if its momentum isn't in reverse it still looks to have stalled.

The whole of point of 'ICW' is attention. When announced in 2013 it was outlined how concentrating the best races of Ireland's autumn schedule into a festival of quality over two days at Leopardstown and the Curragh would attract major audiences, both international and local.

Five years later no doubt there are plenty statistics to justify that claim. However statistics are like bikinis - they show plenty but not everything.

'ICW' has fulfilled its brief in some ways. Leopardstown's QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes card will once again trump Doncaster's St Leger for focus this Saturday. Whether the Curragh can be said to trump Arc Trials day at Longchamp on Sunday is more debatable. But 'ICW' as an entity is established on the international racing calendar.

That is no mean achievement because there are always teething problems with something new. Some are unavoidable. Others though are avoidable and in this case have had generated regrettable self-inflicted counter-thrust in terms of the event's forward progress.

The decision to hold Day Two at the Curragh during reconstruction work has been a self-indulgent mistake, sending out a regrettable signal in terms of a major element of' ICW' which was to try and sell both the event, and the sport in general, beyond its usual confines.

There are four Group One races at the Curragh on Sunday. The creation of Champions Weekend and the promotion of the Flying Five to top-flight status are not unlinked. Yet this singular programme of Group One excellence will take place in front of a restricted attendance.

Despite the spread of Group Ones it has been obvious for some time that staging the Curragh second jars the weekend narrative. The counter argument is that the logistics of Leopardstown clashing with Longchamp make it a delicate political balancing act. But for an international racing clientele the Irish Champion Stakes really should be able to top a Trials fixture in Paris.

The real sense of stalled momentum is more domestic. If 'ICW' has ploughed new ground by increasing racing's profile among the wider public here then it has been very discreet doing it. This is the very best the sport has to offer. It's designed to enthuse fans and entice the uncommitted. In reality its impact on the latter has been negligible at best.

Those who argue attendances aren't an accurate barometer have a point. But it's often a self-serving one. When Leopardstown's biggest 'ICW' crowd of 14,550 was reported in 2016 it was hailed a huge success. Last year's attendance dropped to 13,689 and was dismissed as a consequence of a number of factors. That risks the accusation of wanting it every which way.

The reality is it was second lowest of the four 'ICW' crowds to date at Leopardstown. The Curragh hardly figures in terms of attendances since there was a 7,000 limit last year. And even then there were only 5,370 on-site. That's just over 19,000 in total. In 2016 there were 23,805. That isn't stalled in neutral. That's sliding back.

Doing the obvious and staging the whole of 'Irish Champions Weekend' at Leopardstown during the Curragh build might have been - to use more corporate slang - 'challenging.' But it might have been a little bit novel rather than throwing 'make do' scaffolding around an event designed to be the shop-window of an entire industry.

Maybe 2019 will see a fresh boost when the new Curragh is opened. Then there are significant infrastructure changes planned for Leopardstown.

But once novelty wears off racing still faces the crucial challenge of grabbing the attention of a mostly incurious wider public that is becoming more and more removed from the sport's roots. And it borders on the obdurate to argue 'ICW' has managed to alter that in any significant way over the last half-decade.

If you doubt that then examine Leopardstown's decision to copy an Ascot 'Champions Day' initiative and target a younger audience by offering free admission to anyone with a valid third level student card this Saturday.

It's not contrary to view it both as an admirable attempt by a track to reach out to a new generation of potential racegoers and also sending up a rather desperate flare.

It's hard to imagine any other major sport so desperate for attention that they would give similar free entry to their headline attractions. Would rugby do it for internationals? Would the GAA adopt such a concession at Croke Park for the All-Irelands? Of course not. They don't have to. Demand is too great to indulge in such supply.

Of course Leopardstown's student offer is part of a sponsorship deal so technically these aren't freebies; except of course when they are. But the real dispiriting part is that this free entry for third level students has been in place for 'ICW' since the very start in 2014. Remember Year One when there was a concerted effort to mobilise industry professionals and boost the crowd.

In that first year of 'ICW' the Leopardstown crowd was reported at 13,190. In 2015 it was 13,780. That was with the full heft of novelty, industry support, and a massive promotional effort behind it. Yet Dublin's only racecourse still didn't come close to being filled. And that was with free entry for students!

I know it's September and not everyone's in college. I also know most students are too consumed in themselves to contemplate anything but their own wonderfulness. And probably only a small minority of university students even contemplate the Sport of Kings anyway.

But there are 225,000 of them in Ireland. By definition a lot of them are based in Dublin. The country's largest university, UCD, is just down the road from Leopardstown. It hosts 37,000 students. Trinity, DCU and DIT have about 20,000 each.

It's been a while since I was in college but I would have presumed things hadn't changed so much that a considerable number of broke students couldn't be tempted by a freebie to the tune of €35 at the gate. Except, it seems, when it comes to going to the finest competition Irish racing has to offer. Standing still might be going backwards but sometimes it can feel like a result in itself.

As for the upcoming 'Champions Weekend' there will be plenty fingers being kept crossed that both Roaring Lion and Alpha Centauri go through the coming week in tip-top form and show up at Leopardstown. Every sporting event needs its stars. It's just racing's lot that the biggest stars of all are also the most vulnerable.

But this pair are the two best of their generation in Europe. In 2018 it just doesn't get better than Roaring Lion and Alpha Centauri. The pity is there still doesn't seem to be a proportional demand out there to see them in the flesh.

Instead, if crowds are your thing, then Listowel is your spot this week.

Five years ago there was a lot of resentment in the Kingdom about the potential impact 'ICW' might have on the 'Harvest Festival.' Predictions of suffocation were even made. With crowds of up 30,000 again likely this week this rustic old beast looks to be puffing along just fine. The nagging question remains though as to how many of them care a whit about what's actually going on out on the track.