Racing winning the fight for new fans

Clare Balding13 April 2012

There was a time when racing's big guns would try to avoid each other in the manner of heavyweight boxers, keener to pick off easy opposition before staging an annual showdown.

There was also a time, in the not too distant past, when panic set in that the Croesus-rich big owners would flood Flat racing with their millions and destroy any sense of genuine competition.

Both fears have been quashed this season more emphatically than ever and as Discover Racing searches for new ways to attract the public to races, their research must have uncovered the abiding truth that nothing sells racing like a good horse and a good contest.

An acquaintance who knows as much about racing as anyone who has lived in hibernation in the South Pole for the last 50 years emailed me in a bid to share his excitement over last Saturday's King George.

"That Galileo must be a superstar," he said, "but White Lightning made the race, didn't he?"

The marketing team should not be alarmed that the uninitiated do not know their Fantastic Lights from their White Lightnings. The point is that the race made an impact and that the name of Galileo is reaching beyond the tight confines of the racing goldfish bowl.

The beauty of the King George was the simplicity of the concept.

Here is an unbeaten dual-Derby winner owned by the richest people in Ireland and trained by the wonderkid Aidan O'Brien up against the best horse of the older generation, owned by the richest family in the Middle East and ridden by Frankie Dettori.

It was the classic head-to-head, the clashing of two cultures, two superpowers and two outstanding equine athletes. That the race lived up to his billing is as much a relief as a triumph.

Flat racing, like football, is a game for the big players, the men with the money and the teams with the most ammunition.

When one side avoids the conflict, the point is lost and luckily for us, evolution has provided us with two super-empires who are not afraid to lock horns wherever and whenever they can.

On Saturday at Ascot, as for most of this season, the dark blue of Coolmore got the better of the royal blue of Godolphin. Yesterday at Glorious Goodwood, Sheikh Mohammed had the rare pleasure (this season) of beating them to a Group One win when Noverre took the Sussex Stakes ahead of Black Minnaloushe in third.

John Magnier, the brains and the bank balance behind Coolmore, told Sheikh Mohammed on Saturday that the King George was just one race on one day in the one year.

They both know they are here for the long haul and that there will be plenty of days when the results go the other way.

Like any sport, racing has a curious way of going in cycles, and if Godolphin were the Liverpool of yesteryear, Coolmore are the Manchester United of today.

The wheel will turn again, not necessarily this season but certainly-next and we can look forward-to continued clashes at racecourses around the world.

"If you don't take on the best, where do you go?" asked Sheikh Mohammed after Noverre's success. He could have gone to France for an easier contest but that would barely enter the Sheikh's mind.

He is not a man to look for the certainty and nor is Magnier. Where there is certainty, there is monotony and if there is one thing that turns winners into also-rans, it is sitting in the comfort zone of life.

Consequently, Fantastic Light will once again take on Galileo in the Irish Champion Stakes on 8 September.

After that, Galileo is on course for the ultimate showdown with the best America has to offer, a giant of a horse called Point Given, on their territory and on their dirt surface in the Breeders' Cup Classic on 27 October in New York. The concept gets even simpler: you have a champion, we have a champion, so let's find out which one is the real deal. Never duck a battle, never be afraid of taking on the best, never back off.

They say money can't buy you love and it can't buy you happiness.

It can't buy you bravery either but it helps to know that if you lose, you can afford to come back and try again.

A sport short of publicity

Catrin Nilsmark has been heading that way with her shorter-than-short shorts while those of us with fractionally larger thighs sigh in wonderment that anyone can look so good while wearing so little.

The thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon may persuade the more cautious to cover up but attire apart, the British Women's Open looks like being well worthy of its new "Major" status.

It is a crucial weekend for women's golf with live TV coverage ensuring they have the maximum opportunity to prove their worth and appeal.

The men's game has rarely been so popular and there seems little reason that the women's game could not match it. It is just as skilful and requires an equal amount of talent. All it needs is a little more good publicity.

Nilsmark's hot-pants will work for hot-blooded young males, but more profound minds may require a little more fodder.

Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam and the diminutive Korean Se Ri Pak are the favourites on form, while the Americans Judi Inkster and Dottie Pepper have the sort of aggressive attitude that you either love or hate.

Although Sunningdale is unlikely to suit her power play, I am too tempted by the 40-1 on offer to resist an each-way investment on Laura Davies.

Rather like Darren Clarke, Davies has an approach to golf that suggests she knows that hitting a tiny white ball into a little hole is an utterly trivial existence but for as long as she can get away with calling it a career, she will enjoy it.

Launch of ITV Digital signals the start of a set-top box battle

It is for the benefit of ITV Digital that the rights to the Nationwide League were bought in a multi-million pound package that will ensure near-nightly live football on weeks when the Champions League is also in progress.

The rugby union World Cup was presumably bought as much for its proliferation of matches as its mass appeal.

To get the public to part with money, you have to offer them the one thing

they can't get anywhere else.

Consequently, how long will it be before an all-English Champions League match or a rugby World Cup semi-final featuring one of the home nations is shown only on ITV Digital

In fact, it nearly happened in April when Leeds could have played Arsenal instead of Valencia in the semifinals of the Champions League.

This will be the most crucial 10 months in the short history of digital television.

During the Ryder Cup next month, Sky digital plan to show each of the fourballs and foursomes, so that the viewer can choose (as they did on BBC during Wimbledon) which match they want to watch. Terrestrial exposure will remain the lifeblood of sport for the foreseeable future and ITV have the huge advantage of being able to trail major (or minor) sporting events in front of the maximum audience.

Cross-promotion of ITV Digital during Coronation Street, for example, means that not many households will be unaware of the channel's existence but how many will be willing to shell out on two different set-top boxes?

The big question is: can two digital services survive?

How interesting it is to see that sport, once again, is being used to work out the answer.

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