POV: Declarations, Declarations, Declarations (Anthony Dunkley)

In our latest POV column, Racing TV’s Anthony Dunkley on why feature races need a radical change in declaration times…

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We’re in a critical time in terms of selling horse racing to the casual observer.

Some organisations, such as Cheltenham and Ascot, should be applauded for their recent attempts to make commuters know that a fantastic day of sport is within their reach. Their ads on the tube and trains made even a sometimes cynical fan like myself actually smile upon seeing these. If any from those tracks are reading, keep up the good work.

Sadly, despite these pushes from marketing execs, the Cheltenham and Epsom attendance figures bear testament to the fact it’s still not working. The wider public aren’t buying what we’re selling and have their hands in their pockets for some time.

The sad fact is that horse racing isn’t in the wider conscience anymore. No longer do people have a basic level of knowledge of the sport like they used to back in the day (so I’m told). This was already badly on the wane when I first took an interest just after the turn of the millennium, and even now, things are unrecognisable to how they used to be.

While it’s unlikely it’ll get back to those heady heights, there is one thing that racing can do to try and get people talking. I applaud Epsom for changing the Derby declarations to 72 hours before flagfall, but I’d go even further – I would make it a full week for all G1 races and the same for Festival races.

There will be immediate opposition to this, I’m sure…trainers would see it as a real pain in the neck as conditions could change in the interim. Certain high-profile jockeys would have to choose on particularly busy weekends between engagements at the top level in different countries (e.g. the Sunday of Irish Champions Weekend at the Curragh and the Arc Trials at Longchamp in early September) – but there could be so much more upside to this.

Imagine a huge poster at Waterloo Station of Galopin Des Champs at the start of Cheltenham week. Imagine a billboard with Field Of Gold the Wednesday before he runs in the Sussex. People can only get excited about sport when they know who is taking part.

The rest of the racing worldwide landscape seems to have this down to a tee. You don’t just know all 20 of the runners for the Kentucky Derby a week before – you even know what their draw will be! Horse racing in the USA has its issues, like we do…but these days, they’ve learned to survive in a landscape of NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and the rest – and knowing who’s running so far out from the event has definitely played a part.

I promise you that my head isn’t in the sand. Even with those measures in place in the UK and the relevant advertising, I’m not naïve enough to think that it will suddenly dominate conversation at the office or down the pub.

But at a time when we’re in serious need of attracting new eyes to the sport, we could be doing a lot better at making sure that the shop window has as much razzmatazz as possible. That means finding a way of creating a palpable buzz within the sport which has the potential to transfer to a bigger, more casual audience.

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