Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
TTR’s problems-and-solutions series has so far heard from a trainer, breeder, punter, and welfare advocate. The next response comes from Vin Cox who sits on the Board of the Victorian Racing Club and whose resume includes positions such as Managing Director of Godolphin Australia and Magic Millions, as well as General Manager at Yulong.
What do you think is racing’s biggest problem?
“I probably come at this from a slightly different angle, because I don’t think the starting point should be that everything is wrong.
There is a lot to like about Australian racing. It is a well-funded industry, it has enormous reach, and it sits in the general psyche of Australians in a way very few sports or industries do. The Melbourne Cup still has massive leverage; more than half the adult population engages with it in some way, and “the race that stops the nation” remains a wonderful phrase for the whole industry to get in behind.
Vin Cox | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
The problem is that I don’t think we always turn that attention into a deeper connection with racing.
We have people who come to the races for a major day. We have people who know the Melbourne Cup. We have people who follow the sport casually, or come through syndication, micro-shares, country race meetings, pony racing, National Thoroughbred Week, or through a friend who owns a horse. There are a lot of entry points.
But we have to be better at joining those entry points up, and showing people what the industry actually is.
Racing has probably been guilty of keeping itself a secret. There are people who have a view of the industry based on what they have seen online, or what they have heard from someone else, and a lot of it is simply not right. I had lunch recently with an old school friend whose wife doesn’t like racing because she believes all horses get shot when they finish racing. That is what we are dealing with.
We need to get control of the narrative around that. We have to tell our own story, rather than have it told for us.
So the problem is not that racing has nothing to work with. It has plenty to work with. It has passion, young people, strong country roots, volunteers, syndication, micro-shares, great horse stories and huge national cut-through. But we have to connect those things better, and we have to be much more open about what the industry does, especially around the horse.
Once people get the racing bug, it does not leave them. The job is to give more people a proper chance to catch it.”
What is the solution?
“The solution is to create clearer pathways into the sport, and then keep people connected once they have shown an interest. It’s about being open about everything we do.
That starts with the major days. The Melbourne Cup gives racing extraordinary leverage, but the industry has to use that attention properly.
It should be a day where every jurisdiction can tell the story of racing: the employment, the regional impact, the breeding industry, the country clubs, the horses, the young people coming through, and the scale of what racing contributes.
The stories are where the opportunity lies and it's not entirely about punting. If we start with the premise of the horse and the personalities, that’s the real story.
It’s on us as an industry to promote our sport laterally and vertically.
It cannot just be about getting people to the races for one raceday. The question is what happens next.
How do we get that person to come back? How do we introduce them to the sport, not just the party? How do we move someone from attending a raceday to becoming a member, an owner, a micro-share participant, a volunteer, or just someone who understands racing better than they did before?
A lot of it is about the behind the curtains experience. It’s not enough to talk openly, we need to demonstrate openly and invite people inside.
Gai Waterhouse meeting locals at Tulloch Lodge during National Thoroughbred Week | Image courtesy of Gai Waterhouse
Perhaps if you are at The Everest, the club can say, ‘look if you want to know more, we are doing a saddling up demonstration at 3pm.’ Perhaps we have a beginners Punter’s Club in a room where people can walk in and ask questions about what it all means. Maybe we have Meet and Greets for jockeys and trainers. If we start here, at the races, we can expand into more behind the scenes experiences.
Jamie Melham and Rachel King are brilliant. They come out of the stands and meet people between races.
There wouldn’t be a busier person in racing than Gai Waterhouse, but she gives up her time for anybody who taps her on the shoulder. There's your benchmark, and it's the industry obligation to aspire to that.
Events like National Thoroughbred Week, pony racing, stable visits, stud visits, Living Legends and aftercare programs are so important. They let people see the industry properly. They show people the horse, the people who care for them, and the pathways beyond the racetrack.
Living Legends at Flemington to celebrate the Horse’s Birthday with racing fans | Image courtesy of Living Legends
At Flemington, we have Living Legends horses at every meeting. People come over, pat them, talk to the handlers and start asking questions. That matters because the perception space is huge. Even if someone is not deeply interested in racing, they need to know the house is in order and that the industry does the right thing by its horses.
We also need to embrace the young people already in the industry. Compared with Europe or North America, Australian racing gives young trainers, agents, breeders, administrators and jockeys a chance to succeed very early if they are good enough. That is a major strength, and we should be much louder about it.
Country racing is part of the same answer. The volunteers, the once-a-year meetings, the local cups, the clubs that mean something to their towns - they are not separate from the future of racing. They are part of the base. If you invest in the grassroots, you give people more reasons to feel racing belongs to them.
Scone Cup Day crowd | Image courtesy of Scone Race Club
When it comes to measuring success from events such as a Meet And Greet or National Thoroughbred Week, do we look at wagering turnover or attendance as a benchmark? Should it be the responsibility of the PRAs to measure growth?
Fundamentally, the PRAs come at it from a punting perspective, because that’s where they derive most of their income. The point of a federal body is to take a temperature check of the industry, which Racing Australia does in part through the Fact Book. We could probably use that better, with proper transparency around attendance, participation, ownership, employment and public engagement.
There is also a bigger role for Racing Australia to play. The industry should have a national 20-year plan that sets out what we want Australian racing to look like, and what has to happen to get there.
How many people do we want attending races, owning horses, breeding horses, working in the industry or engaging with it? What should the country network look like? How do we protect the horse, grow the audience and keep racing relevant to the next generation? At the moment, too much of that is left to individual jurisdictions and annual budgets.
We need to plan for the industry we want to have in 20 years, rather than simply hope it develops in the right direction.
The industry has the assets. It has the passion, the stories, the pathways. The next step is making them easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to stay involved in.
None of this costs anything. It’s an attitude in how we present ourselves. As Steve Waugh says ‘attitude is contagious, make sure ours is worth catching’.
