My daughter is having twins on Wednesday, one of each to add to the stable, and names have already been approved. But there has been a late push to change the girl to a Matilda, Tilly of course for short. She has no-say in it, the protest will ultimately be dismissed, but had loads of merit.
Little doubt Matilda will rocket up the charts in the naming stakes in the wake of this World Cup whirlwind - no matter where they end up.
Think that where the bottom line matters – and no, not just the scoresheet, but those eyeballs, more than four millions tuned in Saturday night, or some seven million plus “across the screens of Seven” and not sure if those on that plane (excepting the bloke watching “Lord Of The Rings”) were included in that.
(Just a reminder that racing’s Melbourne Cup eyeballs have been plummeting and bottom out at a tick over one million last November so much so that it is now quite amazingly Tabcorp handling the sub-licence of the next free-to-air broadcast rights and dealing with Seven and Nine having pitched their bids. You can drop in international rights and streaming etc after that).
It wasn’t much more than a decade ago that the closest the Matilda’s got to talking streaming, was the pitch they played next to on suburban grounds with small crowds, moderate interest, and a little ambition.
Now Sam Kerr is not known as just the niece of Melbourne Cup winning jockey J J Miller, but an international superstar of the sport and a household name from Sydney to Chelsea. She didn’t need to give that jersey (thankfully the real gold one too, not that old whatever you call it colour they’ve been wearing, to a startled and forever engaged young fan to endear her as real to everyone).
And of course many a soccer, sorry football aficionado, is now well aware of the stellar stopping work of Mackenzie (you only need first names) and that Cortnee is forever misspelt this way.
Their fine work overshadowed but did not diminish the achievements of the Diamonds, our national netball team, winning the World Cup for a 12th time, albeit in the middle of the Matilda’s media lovefest and in Cape Town a world away in the middle of an Australia night.
Our Women’s cricket team, they used to be the Southern Stars (not sure they have updated) are current World Cup holders (well seven times) plus the Ashes.
Try swimming (name like Titmus, Campbell, McKeon, McKeown), Tennis (Barty, yes I know retired), canoeing (Fox), field athletics (Barber), surfing (Gilmore) in singular sports to name a few.
I mention this because as racing, especially in Victoria, searches for ideas, some say tacky gimmicks, to entice a new younger demographic customer and consumer, well perhaps even a signed up responsible gambler (brow beaten by reverse advertising) to pay its bills, is it missing the absolute obvious?
No need going back to a Pam O’Neill, or even Gai Waterhouse, forever the eternal promotor now mother figure through achievement and passion, or a Michelle Payne telling us “to get stuffed” after a Cup and then making a movie and other career out of stardom.
I’m talking about today and tomorrow and the only sport in the world where women compete on the same stage for the same money as their male rivals. And do they compete.
We welcome back the current star, Jamie Kah, in Sydney on Saturday after an injury enforced break that has couple with some other damage control, yes much of her own making, over her hard earned climb to an esteemed seat in the saddle.
She’s not racing’s Sam Kerr yet, but then racing is well off a podium spot with a national team when it can’t present a national forum for inclusion. Yet she is the closest it has.
But look internationally. The ladies team of Holly Doyle, Saffie Osborne and Hayley Turner won the Shergar Cup against rider’s groups from around at Ascot last weekend, include here Joao Moreira, Frankie Dettori, Tom Marquand and Olivier Peslier.
There is a world jockey’s series in Japan later this month, Moreira will be there, as will local pop star Yutaka Take, Christophe Lemaire, Umberto Rispoli, and Australia’s Rachel King, one of just 14 invited to race fan mad Sapporo fans.
Victorian racing indeed acknowledged Carleen Hefel as its leading (older-age) apprentice) and Celine (the machine) Gaudray as its absolute rising star at an award’s night on Saturday.
And you may have seen the little Celine’s at Eagle Farm on Saturday in the pony race, and well done Ebony Edwards and especially Garland for taking the sash, and perhaps the inspiration to something further in the sport ahead.
The female factor is something not lost on RV’s double down CEO Andrew Jones, despite parrying rebound assaults from, well, most sections of the industry.
He was quoted in a radio interview with Gareth Hall on SEN as: “it doesn’t worry me at all,” as to the feedback from racing participant groups.
“I don’t do this for self-preservation I do this because my job, career and profession is doing strategy in sport and working out how to grow sports and I think our team has a very clear idea of how to grow racing and we just have to get that message across.
“I’ve learnt very quickly in racing that there’s almost no topic that everyone has the same point of view on unless it involves Racing Victoria paying for something.”
High profile Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners Association (TROA) boss Jonathon Munz said the RV ideas were “ill-conceived gimmick proposals that will alienate existing racing customers and participants and not encourage any new ones.”
You know the ideas, mic’d up jockeys just carrying not using their whips, a team’s concept, over just four meetings at The Valley, under the banners of star trainers and jockeys for the itchy-feely stuff.
What you didn’t read was the now buried idea of the horses wearing those almost Black Caviar like body suits as colours in the “AJ” relentless ideas for new fans to find “their” horses.
But when it comes to women, Jones, coming through netball, knows the deal.
“We’re all going to die ... but not today.” was the title of an email hewrote to Netball NSW staff when Netball Australia made its then challenged financial position public.
“Because netball is not going to die today. To the contrary, it has substantial opportunity in front of it – if it does some basics well.
“First, get the fan-facing product right. Second, grow its audience. Third, drive the commercial returns that result. Fourth, get a wider variety of people to play,” he wrote in that email.
There were ideas and “gimmicks” for engagement “Super shots” etc as he dredged on other knowledge he had from other sports
“As cricket and AFL have ably demonstrated, sports expand their audience when both sexes play. Netball can increase its audience by at least 50 per cent over time by getting boys and men more engaged in the sport.”
That’s netball, Racing already has its women engaged and playing, so how is it promoting as such and on that level playing field, unique only to racing.
It is a similar example when Jones mentions his involvement with Big Bash Cricket’s evolution.
“I was at consulting company McKinsey at the time and we’d been asked by then Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland to see what we could come up with.
Cricket’s viewership, attendance and participation were flat, and had been for years. In particular, the game was struggling to attract younger fans, notably young women.”
“We ran a typical strategy process: do some analysis, interview some stakeholders, pump out some packs.”
He followed with: “You need to give customers what they want, different customers want different things, so you need a range of formats to serve their needs, fans will progress from one format to another over time.”
It was confirmed today that Racing Victoria had eschewed its planned contiroversial race series via my Racenet column: https://www.racenet.com.au/news/controversial-victorian-race-series-plan-on-the-chopping-block-20230815
So there has Never been a better time to embrace the opportunities of the best racing has to offer in embracing women and equal chance and equal return either in the saddle or saddling them.
Comments