Blog 15/2/22 - Bringing the sport in to disrepute

The importance of reputation or brand positivity cannot be underestimated by the international horse racing community.  From the smallest betting shop punter, through to the governing bodies of the sport, it is essential we conduct ourselves in a positive manner in order for the sport to remain a popular part of our culture.

The sport and its viewers need to be aware that the attitudes of younger generations are changing. What was once seen as acceptable, part of the game, tradition or “bad behaviour” is now in many cases seen as unacceptable.

As the years go by people become less likely to work closely with an animal in their profession and have lost the ability to distinguish between a working animal and a pet, which may, or may not be a good thing.  I would argue that it is good as welfare standards have improved dramatically throughout industry and private ownership. 

There is a greater understanding of the sentience and needs of creatures and that they must be looked after properly. As the generations have progressed more and more people have grown up with this outlook. Any industry that deals with animals now has to guard reputation as much as profit in order to survive.

It shouldn’t be about doing one thing in public and another in private.

In today’s world of conspiracy theories, fake news, crazy forums and viral tweets it is easy to see how a member of the public might worry or obsess about the state of an industry that they realistically know little about apart from negative stream of information that inspires them to, if nothing else, care deeply about the welfare of the participants. 

Because people really do want to see positivity where there was once the negative they will challenge the assertions of rule abiding folk who claim that in general, all is well.  A “that is what I would say if I was covering up doing that” attitude can prevail.

Years ago when I was taught marketing I was told word of mouth was important, more so than any other type of advertising as it provided a personal recommendation to the consumer whether it be positive or negative.  In the days before social media we were quaintly told that a happy person would tell one person about his experience and an unhappy one twenty.  Imagine how that has been amplified through the social media that we have today.

Cheating and animal welfare are the main concerns of the non-racing public regarding horse racing.

The problem of cheating has been endemic throughout the sport since the first ancient human nobbled a race.  We will never know whether the individual or group concerned capitalised on human greed, terrified a rider in to losing, poisoned an opponent’s horse, gave their own mount a potion to make him go faster or ran a ringer.

These things should not still be happening now. In most cases I am pleased to say they are not and occur only rarely.

The reputation of horse racing is cleaner now than it has ever been.  The public used to hear about negative issues on a regular basis.  Because they happened often they became part of the reputation of the sport and were amplified through newspapers, films, TV and books (I’m looking at you Dick Francis).  The image of the sport is still recovering from the problems of the past. 

It is more important than ever not to let standards slip.  As these incidents become less commonplace they are picked up by the public in an ever more sensationalist way.

The administration of unauthorised medication and substances both to jockeys and horses is controlled in an adequate fashion with welfare at the forefront of everybody’s thoughts. People try very hard to maintain standards and get extremely annoyed by the reputational damage to the sport when somebody is breaking the rules. 

A few years ago the mighty Godolphin (who were in no way complicit) had a trainer in Britain who took it upon himself to administer anabolic steroids to the horses in his charge. This was a terrible blow to the image of the racing industry.  The massive doping case recently in the US was also very bad. 

People from outside the sport do not understand the differences in regulations between countries when it comes to what can and can’t be administered and many wrongly think it is the same everywhere.  This leads to confusion about welfare standards when talking on social media.  Social media likes to think the horses are medicated up to their eyeballs.

Somebody from Britain may not realise that many substances that are ok to use in America or internationally are banned in Britain.  Because of this they will assume it is the same in their country.  And why wouldn’t they?  Maybe I am ignorant or perhaps too idealistic but most sports have an overall governing body who internationally regulates such things or national bodies that meet and standardise.

People aren’t reading about the good because mainly the bad is sensationalised by the press as it generates more clicks/sales. A person with no interest in the sport may not care Adayar won the Derby from a bad draw but will care deeply that any horse has been mistreated.

We only have to look at America to see some of the animal welfare changes that are coming in with regard to banning the race whip in some states to understand how much the public cares about horse welfare.

Quite simply we need to publically impose a sizeable ban on anybody seen to mistreat a horse and to make it clear that such actions will bring the sport in to disrepute.  Governing bodies need to be seen to take serious action. Pictures of a trainer having so little respect for a dead horse that he sits on it and makes a v sign and videos of trainers beating horses with sticks are gold to people who wish to cause damage to the sport.

If a race horse trainer is caught giving a horse something he shouldn’t it needs to be shown that the sport takes this seriously and a statement about the continuing pursuit of rule breakers needs to be released by the governing body concerned. It needs to make a strong show of this being utterly unacceptable.

In my opinion we need to treat rule breakers in a public manner once proven guilty.  Governing bodies needs to publicise the details of any investigation to show transparency and method and highlight the punishment that has distributed.  Ironically more short term publicity would be likely to inspire a long term reduction in the behaviors trying to be curtailed as trainers rely highly on their reputation.

We have to make more of publicising the sport in a positive fashion. Racing is one of the most visually impressive and exciting sports in the world. 

Many of the trainers are doing well on social media but they need to pick up there game in many cases.  It really is a no brainer for them.  Increased social media interaction equals greater awareness, equals more horses in training. Each trainer is an ambassador to the sport and can help drive home the message that the horses are extremely well trained and cared for.  I often see great videos and pictures of the horses on twitter. The amount of money and knowhow going into the public relations operations of the governing bodies and racecourses in all countries needs to be boosted in order to have a chance in the fightback against global misinformation.

We have to remember the horse racing enthusiasts of the future are connected to a fast moving stream of information that refines itself based upon past choices until it gets polarised in a particular way. By getting more positive stories out there we can really help to keep things at least neutral in the public conscience.

As I have started writing this I have realised reputation is a huge subject and is likely to be somewhat controversial with people who think all is well.

I imagine I will be writing more on this topic in the future.